Noctua Redoes Award-winning Fans in Black

btarunr · Jun 7, 2013

Impressed with Noctua fans, but not a fan of its scheme color-scheme? No worries, Noctua has taken up what it calls "Project Redux," in which it's re-launching award-winning fans from its lineup, in pure matte black and 'no-frills' packaging. These are actually the exact same units as the more expensive ones, but do not ship with the extensive set of features, making them anywhere between 5~20% cheaper. We found variants of popular Noctua fans, such as the 140 mm NF-A14, S12A, A6, A4, etc. Take your pick.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

Jetster · Jun 7, 2013

Finally

BigMack70 · Jun 7, 2013

Well this is game over for all other fan manufacturers. Nobody is even close to them in terms of high quality case/cooler/radiator fans and the only thing that had people buying other high end fans was that a lot of people didn't want poop colored fans in their case.

I could see myself swapping the fans on my NH-D14 and my rear NF-A14 FLX fan for black ones.

MxPhenom 216 · Jun 7, 2013

BigMack70 said:
Well this is game over for all other fan manufacturers. Nobody is even close to them in terms of high quality case/cooler/radiator fans.

Maybe in case fans, there are plenty of fans for radiators are coolers that can take Noctua fans to school.

BigMack70 · Jun 7, 2013

MxPhenom 216 said:
Maybe in case fans, there are plenty of fans for radiators are coolers that can take Noctua fans to school.

Really? I haven't seen any that beat them without being significantly louder/higher RPM. Which fans are you thinking of? (honest question - not a Noctua fanboy)

HTC · Jun 7, 2013

btarunr said:
Impressed with Noctua fans, but not a fan of its scheme color-scheme? No worries, Noctua has taken up what it calls "Project Redux," in which it's re-launching award-winning fans from its lineup, in pure matte black or ivory-white, and 'no-frills' packaging. Lack of coloring makes the fans cheaper, and we expect these new fans to be anywhere between 5~20% cheaper. We found variants of popular Noctua fans, such as the 140 mm NF-A14, S12A, A6, A4, etc. Take your pick.

[url]http://www.techpowerup.com/img/13-06-06/95a_thm.jpg[/URL]

That's the icing on the cake, IMO!

MxPhenom 216 · Jun 7, 2013

BigMack70 said:
Really? I haven't seen any that beat them without being significantly louder/higher RPM. Which fans are you thinking of? (honest question - not a Noctua fanboy)

hmmm. Lets see

Corsair SP120 (Run fan controller at same RPM as the Noctua and itll be just as quiet but have more static pressure)

San Ace H1011 120x38

Panaflo 120x38

There are some others but im drawing a blank.

There are fans out there that are just as quiet even at higher RPM, that will provide better static pressure for radiators and heat sinks. I have a feeling you have no tried to many fans. I have tested so many fans, its stupid, and ive stopped at the Corsair ones.

I do like Noctua fan construction, but performance has me scratching my head.

BigMack70 · Jun 7, 2013

I've tried a LOT of fans, just never gone full H20 so I have no experience with radiators.

My SP120s are significantly louder than my NF-A14 FLX fans but that could just be an issue of a 120mm fan having a more noticeable tone than a 140mm fan.

MxPhenom 216 · Jun 7, 2013

BigMack70 said:
I've tried a LOT of fans, just never gone full H20 so I have no experience with radiators.

My SP120s are significantly louder than my NF-A14 FLX fans but that could just be an issue of a 120mm fan having a more noticeable tone than a 140mm fan.

Run the SP120s on a fan controller. I cant heat anything out of them below 1500rpm, and even then they have more static pressure, or run the 7v resistor.

BigMack70 · Jun 7, 2013

Way ahead of you - it's all on a fan controller

I have to turn the SP120s down a lot more than the A14s to achieve silence

AsRock · Jun 7, 2013

The Panaflo 120x38 should have a warning to fingers.. it might be silent when needed but dam those things. Sadly i lost mine some time ago when a fin hit some thing hard ( my fault ) and it took 3 fins off although it was spinning around 2600 rpm.

Nice fans those pana's if you have the space for 38mm better than 25mm any day.

BigMack70 said:
Way ahead of you - it's all on a fan controller

I have to turn the SP120s down a lot more than the A14s to achieve silence

But they have the air flow when you need more..

LightningJR · Jun 7, 2013

BigMack70 said:
Really? I haven't seen any that beat them without being significantly louder/higher RPM. Which fans are you thinking of? (honest question - not a Noctua fanboy)

Scythe Gentle Typhoons. I have a couple and they're unreal. not cheap though.

Delta6326 · Jun 7, 2013

Nice! I got Cougars and they are quite, but they don't perform like Noctua's and with them being cheaper really is icing on the pie... I mean cake... :rockout:

Though those fans in the back look horrible!

bim27142 · Jun 7, 2013

Finally indeed!

I was just wishing something like this (Noctua changing its fan colors or at least just leave it to plain black) will happen one day. :toast:

But yeah, SP120's are definitely louder than NF-P12's (roughly running @ 1,500 RPM). I bought a dual pack of SP120's to replace the stock fans of my U12P-SE2's and I couldn't notice any significant temp improvements (prolly 1 or 2 C). The noise difference though is very much noticeable.

I ended up selling my U12P-SE2 and went H2O. The temps are still more or less the same though but I just like to offload almost a kilo of load on my motherboard this time that's why I went H2O...

radrok · Jun 7, 2013

LightningJR said:
Scythe Gentle Typhoons. I have a couple and they're unreal. not cheap though.

I had the 1850 rpm versions and they were loud as hell for my tastes, they even clicked when undervolted... blah

Switched to all Noctua and never looked back.

Glad to see Noctua is offering black versions as I do not consider any manufacturer that is not Noctua for fans

LightningJR · Jun 7, 2013

radrok said:
I had the 1850 rpm versions and they were loud as hell for my tastes, they even clicked when undervolted... blah

Switched to all Noctua and never looked back.

Glad to see Noctua is offering black versions as I do not consider any manufacturer that is not Noctua for fans

Strange. I have the exact same ones. I have one that's loud, I find that it depends where you mount them. I have 2 on an Antec H2O 620 and they are SUPER quiet, all I hear is wind with them. I have one mounted on my case and it's thin metal and it vibrates and makes a noise that's annoying. When incorporated correctly I think they cannot be beat. I have not had any clicking at all, I usually run them at 50%. It's strange you get that.

Maybe they work best when mounted to solid structures, idk. but my antec 620 hasn't been so quiet. I am happy with them. Probably not good case fans, but great heatsink/rad fans.

LAN_deRf_HA · Jun 7, 2013

BigMack70 said:
Really? I haven't seen any that beat them without being significantly louder/higher RPM. Which fans are you thinking of? (honest question - not a Noctua fanboy)

Look around. Don't just settle into fans, especially expensive ones. There's been loads of fan round ups from different sites and Noctua usually ends up in the middle, and complete losers on price/performance.

Example http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/120mm-fan-roundup-4_24.html#sect0

jalex3 · Jun 7, 2013

Now we never have to hear colour complaints again.... Until the world hates black.

ogharaei · Jun 7, 2013

Well done!

LDNL · Jun 7, 2013

Had to dig up this email for giggle...

16.8.2010

Dear *****,

at the moment we have no plans to produce a special edition with a black (or dark) theme, due to various reasons.
While we are aware that not everyone likes our distinctive color-scheme, it's our trademark we are known for and that let our products stand out of the crowd of (generic) black fans.

Kind regards,
Andreas Karner
Noctua support team

PLAfiller · Jun 7, 2013

I still like their original colour scheme. I've never wanted them to go black or white or red. I'd rather see them release a slim 12mm fan, for builds like NorthFalcon's Tiki. Since the main battle is for space with MiniITX, I'd prefer to see a competition to Scythe SlipStream.

AsRock · Jun 7, 2013

LAN_deRf_HA said:
Look around. Don't just settle into fans, especially expensive ones. There's been loads of fan round ups from different sites and Noctua usually ends up in the middle, and complete losers on price/performance.

Example http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/120mm-fan-roundup-4_24.html#sect0

I think it all changes when it comes to the human ear. As some sounds annoy some more than others and you have those who don't hear some sounds as well as others.

And even with these fans i still would buy Cougar over them part due by being about to get 2 for the price or one or close to. And the only thing i hear from mine is the air movement and if they hit 1600 RPM it be due to gaming so would not hear them anyways not as if there is much to hear.

Frick · Jun 7, 2013

LAN_deRf_HA said:
Look around. Don't just settle into fans, especially expensive ones. There's been loads of fan round ups from different sites and Noctua usually ends up in the middle, and complete losers on price/performance.

Example http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/120mm-fan-roundup-4_24.html#sect0

Which is why they got a Recommended Buy title.

"In the middle" is not fair. They are among the top bunch, but they might not be the best (right now anyway). People say they have good support though and are lasting, that counts for a lot and is sort of difficult to review.

They are generally too expensive though. If they would drop the price a wee bit they would go from merely being great to excellent.

buggalugs · Jun 7, 2013

About time....and they will sell more coolers now.

HammerON · Jun 7, 2013

Although I was never bothered by their color scheme, I would have to admit that these look way better :toast:

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Noctua Redoes Award-winning Fans in Black

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Jetster

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