I like the brown ones. Everything is black, it's dumb, and I'm happy to have any contrast.
Black is some weird masculine thing where it all has to be “tactical”
Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
101–110 of 311 posts
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it's more marketing than anything IMO.
Wondering if it's just the marketing that Noctua did, and the actual mold and process engineering left to some fab in China?
With Noctua I highly doubt that is the case given their track record for quality overall and all other information available around their design and engineering process. As far as I know based on all the information I have seen all the design and engineering is done in Austria. They also have a track record of only releasing things once they are satisfied something performs within their standards. Something that would be next to impossible when solely relying on external fabs and process engineering.
They also utilize different manufactures afaik (historically Taiwan, but also China these days) meaning they need to have pretty solid in house knowledge and expertise to make sure different factories produces similar results. When they first started utilizing Chinese factories people noticed visual differences and were worried about that. But Noctua at the time claimed that they made sure that performance was still the same. A claim that was put to the test by various review outlets at the time (I want to say gamer nexus did a big piece about it?) and confirmed to be true.
Having said that, if you do utilize external factories you automatically are making use of their process engineering to some degree as well. But, and this is difficult for many people to understand, that isn't a binary thing either. You can entirely rely on the factory to basically do everything for you and just send feedback on iterations but you can also work closely with them and actually get involved in the process itself.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#103If you need that kind of precision, yes. But I don't think they really need that.
It's like the gold plated headphone jacks they used to sell to audiophiles.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Preference. Some people like their PCs to look like a rainbow alien LED spaceship, others would go for vanta black if they could get it
Stuart Semple changed his name to Anish Kapoor, because only Anish Kapoor has the rights to use Vantablack for artistic purposes. I think there might also be export restrictions, but I'm not sure.
I love the petty little fight over the blackest black and pinkest pink or whatever that whole drama is. It's hilarious.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#105This is content marketing executed perfectly :) Reading it, I learned something new and interesting and they had an opportunity to show off one of their differentiators against the competition (low leakage flow due to tighter tolerances) and then at the end they casually mention the new product that has just opened for pre-orders.
I'd love more white, personally. I also don't understand the obsession with black. For me, black objects are very difficult to observe in detail, and that irks me.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#106I like the brown ones. Everything is black, it's dumb, and I'm happy to have any contrast.
Yeah, everything being black on modern motherboards might look cool with RGB lighting, but makes it harder to work on. I like the older green PCBs with white PCI slots. I also lament the demise of color coded connectors at the back. I knew to plug my speakers into the green 3.5mm jack. Now everything is black, so I need to look at the manual again to see which of the 5 connectors is the right one.
> everything being black on modern motherboards might look cool with RGB lighting
I always figured white would look better for RGB-lit computers. I don't know why white is so rare.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#107My layman question is why plastic cant be painted? Case temperatures are not that high and there are no plastic parts rubbbing.
This is answered in the first paragraph of the article. Painting requires re-calculating the weight, strength and aerodynamics. Paint does not weigh zero, it changes the flexibility of the plastic, and the texture which changes flow.
But the article didn't give any ballpark numbers, so the interesting bit is missing, and we still know basically nothing.
It can very well be like the snake oil which makes you feel better maybe for the three seconds after you bought it. Or those gold plated audio jacks which are 0.0001% improvement in quality.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#108I think I have 20 or so Noctua fans from 80 to 200 mm from 1-8 years old, haven't had a bearing or motor failure yet. Cross fingers.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, everything being black on modern motherboards might look cool with RGB lighting, but makes it harder to work on. I like the older green PCBs with white PCI slots. I also lament the demise of color coded connectors at the back. I knew to plug my speakers into the green 3.5mm jack. Now everything is black, so I need to look at the manual again to see which of the 5 connectors is the right one.
> everything being black on modern motherboards might look cool with RGB lighting I always figured white would look better for RGB-lit computers. I don't know why white is so rare.
So they can upsell you a white version for €30-€300 more. (Looking at you Sapphire.)
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#110I don't buy it. It's just a plastic PC fan with some bearings which does not cost that much
The devil is in the details. Noise, static pressure efficiency, reliability, bearing quality, motor quality. Yes, there's a huge brand premium too. For critical uses, using a crap fan is an absolutely stupid decision especially where damage or malfunction is likely.
In zie olden PC days™, there weren't many options for quality fans except maybe whatever random fans Delta made that generally weren't optimized for low noise or low power consumption. Ancient, no name sleeve bearing fans would almost always go out within 1-2 years at 24/7 100% duty cycle.