Fractal Define R5 Standard Fractal GP-14 140mm case fans??

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SO the case comes with 2x of these fractal dynamic gp-14 140mm fans. I'm getting a third fan to make sure the case has positive pressure so I'll have 2x 140mm intake fans in the front and 1x 140mm exhaust in the top rear. Are fractals gp-14 fans good enough quality as far as noise and air production? Basically deciding if I'm just buying 1 additional gp-14 fan or is there a certain 140mm fan that is either quieter at the same amount of air circulated or moves more air for the same noise output and I'll get 3 of those and replace all the gp-14?

Noctua's seem to always be highly praised. Would their newest A15 140mm fan be that much better than the fractal gp14? What is the best 140mm case fan if money's no object?

CPU cooler will be a Noctua nh-u14s as there will be no overclocking will run at stock 4ghz and try to undervolt it a bit for the lowest possible temps at stock settings. So the single tower u14s should be plenty for that situation and it's not as crazy heavy as the dual towers dual fans models. So there is some desire to match all the fans in the system and end up having 3x noctua a15's on the case and 1x a15 on the cpu cooler. Are the gp-14's up to par with noctua or some 1 else?

[quest_for_silence]

What is the best 140mm case fan if money's no object?

There isn't any (any 140mm fan has its drawbacks): the Fractal Design GP-14 are appropriate, so just listen to them, and if you please them, then stick with them.

there is some desire to match all the fans in the system and end up having 3x noctua a15's on the case and 1x a15 on the cpu cooler. Are the gp-14's up to par with noctua or some 1 else?

Often aesthetical desires don't match well functional requirements (set aside matching style and colours is also an expensive quest): YMMV.

The Noctua NF-A15 has a better build quality than the Fractal stock fans and it can be dialed down by PWM to a very lower pace, but tonally they are not preferable to the GP-14: besides it's 150mm wide, so I'm not sure it may work on the case mountings without issue (but you might just check that out with your one); OTOH the Fractal GP-14 is not well suited to work on an heatsink, they are also a tad slower (1000rpm vs 1500rpm, so they might be even less effective on the most heavy loads), and moreover it isn't a PWM fan, so that not all the motherboards may drive it by the CPU fan header.

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Regarding the tonality of the a15, I'm fairly certain I'll be able to run the fans at a pretty low rpm and still have adequate cooling as the system will have no ocing and the cpu will be stock but undervolted as much as possible (get the 91 watt tdp down to about 83 watt tdp) and the gpu will be the super efficient 120 watt tdp gtx 1060 for 1080p gaming running at stock no OC with whatever custom design has the coolest quietest running card, if it can be undervolted to get that 120 watt tdp down even further I will be doing that. No HDD, no cd drive just 512GB samsung 950 pci-e 3.0 x4 m2 ssd and a 2TB Samsung 850 evo ssd. All drive cages removed for unobstructed path of air for the fans. For PSU the silverstone 600 watt 80+ titanium. Keeping the case heat to a minimum also will be using lowest available voltage 1.2V DDR4 ram. Pretty much with that setup even at maximum load the system should not exceed 250 watts of power draw with the average draw more like around 200 watts and with a 600 watt PSU I can SLI the 1060 if i wanted to someday. Basically the interior of the case will have as little heat as possible in it to begin with which I am assuming will allow me to run my case fans at a pretty low enough speed that they will be inaudible. So does the tone of the a15's matter if I run them at say 600-700 rpm so they are spinning slow enough that their tone doesn't come into effect yet. Correct me if I'm wrong but with such efficient components and total system draw of about 200 watts on average I should be able to run the case fans as slow as I need to to not hear them at all and still get totally adequate chip temps. Hell may even try to undervolt the gpu as well the nvidia gpu's have such a large amount of overclocking room there is probably room to lower its voltage if running at stock. Would be nice to undervolt it enough to get it to run at a 100 watt tdp. It's also crazy that this entire system on average will use less watts than just the 5ghz amd excavator cpu chip ALONE with its 220 watt tdp.

All this background info just to get an idea of why and how i want to run fans at very low speeds.

So basically want to know how slow must the a15 get to make its undesirable tones inaudible?
What is the fewest RPM's the gp-14 can run at without completely turning off? How about the noctua a15?

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So does the tone of the a15's matter if I run them at say 600-700 rpm so they are spinning slow enough that their tone doesn't come into effect yet. Correct me if I'm wrong but with such efficient components and total system draw of about 200 watts on average I should be able to run the case fans as slow as I need to to not hear them at all and still get totally adequate chip temps.

With reference to a similar power footprint system, the R5 stock fans at 580rpm were enough to run it at full load with a mere 14dBA overall SPL.
Probably you may do the same with the NF-A15s, providing they fits as case fans, albeit I see no need to plan that just on paper: just try your R5/U14s rig, then swap the fan you should like the least, if any.

So basically want to know how slow must the a15 get to make its undesirable tones inaudible?

It strongly depends of personal expectations and PC placement, but I guess there's a noticeable chance you may success.

What is the fewest RPM's the gp-14 can run at without completely turning off? How about the noctua a15?

viewtopic.php?p=594703#p594703

[vishcompany]

What is the fewest RPM's the gp-14 can run at without completely turning off? How about the noctua a15?

Inside my R5 the GP-14 fans run at ~300RPM idling, the A15 (mounted on an NH-U14S) runs at 230RPM.

I would suggest that you try the GP-14, if you don't like them, you still can replace them.

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It seems fractal has an upgraded line with a better FDB bearing. How are these compared to the GP-14. All Fractal really says about them is the bearing is higher quality and has a much larger lifetime.

[Derpington]

Sorry for bringing up an old post. I have this case and those fans (2x Fractal GP14 in the front, 1x Noiseblocker on exhaust) and their performance is a bit disappointing. Noise-wise they're fine, but they fail to create positive pressure inside the case, and I get dust build up on the top of my PSU. I assume low static pressure is the problem because if I open the front door just an inch, they work much better.

My high tech experiment Door closed:



Door open just a little bit:

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Which are your actual fan speeds? BTW, static pressure has almost nothing to do with a positive pressure setup.