Optimal for a fridge, be careful when mounting on a case
I found these fans to be efficient and quiet on an NH-D15 Chromax Black fan for cooling an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor, so I decided to install three of them on the front of a Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL case in place of the two pre-mounted Dynamic X2 GP-14 (efficient but not PWM).
Thermally, this new configuration lived up to my expectations, helping to keep CPU and GPU temperatures around 40°C at low load and 60°C in game.
Noise-wise, the NF-A15 HS-PWMs are quickly forgotten below 800 RPM. They become audible after that, but the volume is acceptable. Out of curiosity, I inserted small hard drive dampers between the chassis and the frame at the screwing points. I thought I detected an improvement, but in the absence of measurements, it might just be an impression.
This being said, be careful with the dimensions!
As stated in the description, these fans are in the 140mm category (see 150mm for width) but with 120mm fixings. The 120mm fastener gaps on my chassis are much shorter than the 140mm and their spacing is not calculated for this fan diameter.
So there was a mismatch that manifested itself when mounting the third fan, I couldn't install it directly under the second one as the 120mm fixings location didn't match. The solution was to turn it about 45° to the left to have at least two diagonal attachment points on the 140mm rails. A little acrobatics fortunately hidden by the front panel. So beware of the spacing!
In the end, I find the NF-A15 HS-PWM optimal for a fan tray and very efficient for a case, but only if you have the right spacing for the mounting. In case of doubt, the NF-A14 PWM seem to be a safer choice for this use.
