Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
1–10 of 311 posts
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#2If you need that kind of precision, yes.
But I don't think they really need that.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#3I like the brown ones. Everything is black, it's dumb, and I'm happy to have any contrast.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#4If you need that kind of precision, yes. But I don't think they really need that.
They want them to be really silent. There's more details here: https://www.noctua.at/en/expertise/tech/nf-a12x25-technical-...
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#5If you need that kind of precision, yes. But I don't think they really need that.
It's par for the course in the premium PC parts industry. It's overkill in a way that does not impact performance at all because gamers will pay for that.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#6I like the brown ones. Everything is black, it's dumb, and I'm happy to have any contrast.
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Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#7If you need that kind of precision, yes. But I don't think they really need that.
If you're okay with some of your fans being noisy and/or inefficient, I'm sure you can work with flimsy tolerances.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#8If you need that kind of precision, yes. But I don't think they really need that.
They want them to be really silent. There's more details here: https://www.noctua.at/en/expertise/tech/nf-a12x25-technical-...
Last I checked they weren't really any quieter than their competitors at the same airflow and pressure (which is a little subjective because your curve will never match perfectly). They do have a really low number on their specs because they have a really low max RPM, but that's not really relevant when you can just lower the speed of other fans.
They're still really good fans, but a lot of this is just marketing.
At max power the Noctua NF-A12x25 has 56 CFM and 2.3 mmAq for 31dBA [1]. At 70% the Artic A12 Pro is 56 CFM, 4.3 mmAq, and 31dBA [2]. At 60% the Asus ProArt PF120 is 61 CFM, 2.6 mmAq, and 30 dBA [3].
Note that the ProArt is a bit thicker (25 vs 30 mm) and all these dBA numbers are almost certainly unobstructed airflow. The Noctua is certainly good, but it's literally over 5× the price of the Artic.
[1]: https://www.cybenetics.com/evaluations/fans/4/
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#9If you need that kind of precision, yes. But I don't think they really need that.
It's luxury watch engineering for gamers. You do not need it, but it's kind of charming when anyone competently takes a niche to its extreme, imho.
That said, on my last PC build I ended up buying Pure Wings 3, which are quite competitively silent at similar airflow and much cheaper.
And white. Because I do like silly pretty PCs, as long as they don't have RGB on.
Re: Why does it take so long to release black fan versions?
#10If you need that kind of precision, yes. But I don't think they really need that.
This level of quality is why they have my business. We had a CI setup with rpi boards that needed fans (uart clock tied to cpu clock so heat meant slowing down and the uart dropped characters). I got tired of seeing random test failures on some board and driving up to the office to replace the fan that had failed. And they were loud and annoying. I ended up frustrated and expensing hundreds of dollars of noctua fans. Dead quiet, did a better job, and not even one ever failed on me.