Inlet Spacers and Gaskets

As somewhat of an extension of the foam fan duct kits that Noctua came out with. They have also introduced a few spacers and gaskets. Like the duct kits, these are all designed to help get the perfect fit depending on your setup. For the inlet spacers, Noctua has four different models. They have the  NA-IS1-12 Sx2, the NA-IS1-12 chromax.black Sx2, the NA-IS1-14 Sx2, and the NA-IS1-14 chromax.black Sx2. In short, they have a 120 mm size and a 140 mm size with each having a standard Noctua brown model and a chromax model in black. For their packaging, the chromax models have that same blacked-out box with an angular design and brown on the outside edges. The back of the boxes have a picture of the spacers and a list of what comes in the box. The standard Noctua spacers also have black boxes, but that is normal for Noctua accessories. But these don’t have any other design on the box and the only picture is a line drawing on the sticker that wraps around to the back.

Now while the chromax and standard versions have a different box design on the outside, inside when you open things up the layout is very similar. There is an insert in the middle that covers up all of the accessories. The chromax versions have a black cover and the others have a Noctua brown. These also have the model name and description in the middle along with the Noctua logo and a QR code that you can scan for the manual if you need it. Around that, the spacer itself sits.

For accessories, they all have the same setup as well. Three small baggies each have four black screws inside. Each of the screws are longer than your standard because they have added the extra thickness of the spacer to the length. One of the screws is your standard fan screw only longer. Then you have two sets of radiator screws. One set is M3 and the other is UNC or a standard course thread. This covers any of the possible screw types you might need and also means you don’t have to worry about trying to figure out what screw and screw length you need. You then also get eight of the NA-AV3 anti-vibration mounts. For those the standard spacers get brown anti-vibration mounts whereas the chromax models get black to match.

Then from there, you have the spacers themselves. Each pack comes with two spacers and they look a lot like if you just cut the outside edge of a Noctua fan off. All four models have preinstalled rubber vibration pads which aren’t swappable like most of the Noctua fans, they are the thinner stick-on design that Noctua’s thinner 15mm fans use. The standard spacers have dark brown to go with the tan spacer and the chromax models have black pads on the black spacer. From the looks of it, you would be able to swap these out with the chromax NF-A12x15, at least for the 120mm spacer. The back of the spacer is unique however, it has two pegs in each corner which pop into the holes used for your normal vibration pads on the non-15 mm models. This lets the spacer lock into place. Each space is 5mm in total and Noctua has a few specific uses in mind for them. When you are running fans on radiators but flipped to pull air through not push air down through the radiator the spacers offset the fan to help prevent turbulence. The same goes for the same situation with cases and grills which can cause the same issues. Noctua put together some great examples comparing the noise and performance improvements you can see when using a spacer with round holes, hexagonal holes, and slit-style holes as well as radiators. Both are a situation that you might not suspect that performance or noise could be affected. 

Noctua also has new anti-vibration gaskets which like the spacers are available in 120 mm and 140 mm sizes as well as standard and chromax for colors. I only have the 140 mm models which are the NA-SAVG2 and the NA-SAVG2 chromax.black so that is what we are checking out today. Each pack gets you three gaskets with the standard being the standard Noctua dark brown and the chromax model being black. The gaskets are made of the same silicone rubber material as Noctua’s normal anti-vibration pads. In fact, the overall design is exactly the same as the anti-vibration pads only rather than getting four pads you have one gasket that goes to all four corners with one piece. The idea is to create a full seal to cut down airflow losses when mounting a fan to a radiator. Like the spacers or the anti-vibration pads, the gaskets attach with the dual pins in the corners that match up with the fans which still leave the center screw hole open.