Noctua teases NF-A12x25 fan - almost 4 years development
You guys know it, for Noctua, cooling isn't an just an art, is a science. Over the years I have spoken many times with the company, and the level of detail and research they put in their cooling solutions is incredible. For years now we've talked about a new fan series, and after 4 years, they now are teasing it, ready to be released.
The guys behind Noctua are always modest, never aggressive with marketing, never did a viral. So if Noctua teases something this way, we take it seriously as we just know it'll be good. Initially, we've spoken and mentioned this series at our Computex coverage. The fan series in question is the NF-A12x25, slim and silent. From the looks of things, it will offer incredible silent cooling performance. The will be a fan series ideal for CPU coolers and radiators requiring high static pressure. To achieve a higher static pressure, Noctua went totally innovative in the design. For example, the distance between the frame and the fan blades is a staggering 0.5 millimeter, this normally is 1.5 and sometimes even up to 3 millimeter.
Check out how close that blade is to the housing frame!
Smaller tolerances need a rigid frame or else the fan blades could hit the outer frame. For this, a special material is used. I remember that when it was a prototype, they mentioned they wanted to use a liquid crystal polymer based fan, a raw material that is used in Kevlar, that would be Sterrox LCP. They have had these in development for a long time already.
Basically, it will stiffen the fan blades so that they can achieve smaller tolerances in the fan housing. This helps in airflow but also noise levels. At the time of writing is not yet known when the fans are actually available, but Noctua indicates within a few weeks, we're excited to find out.
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Optimal airflow at a given decibel, and motor design are things they could have spent a bit of time on... materials used in building it also, not only for the products life span but for profit, how much does it cost to build, but this is just a guess on my part.
I can't help but think a lot of people think of fans in PC's as not very important, but when you think about it, they are one of the most important parts inside a PC.
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Can Noctua tease any colours that aren't from a 90 year old man's Oldsmobile? Seriously if I'm going to pay $100 pre-tax for a slab of metal with a piece of plastic on it, that piece of plastic better be pretty... and have blackjack... and hookers.
And I know they released colour kits, they were lame and overpriced. The default option and 99.99% of the stock shouldn't be "man older than your grandfather's favourite car colours". They remind me of Blackberry, stubborn and outdated to the bitter end.
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A lot of people care. Their PCs are like a piece of art on display. Even my ugly PC brightens up my room and IMO is somewhat like a piece of artwork.
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Their main business is PC hardware but they also develop high quality fans for industrial applications as you can see here: https://noctua.at/en/industrial-applications
So maybe all this effort is necessary/profitable for them in the long run.
Regarding the color scheme, personally i don´t mind the fans being brown but i thought that they announced more color options for their fans, i´m wrong?
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It's their business. What are they supposed to be doing? In PC tech you need to be bringing something new to the market every now and then or you risk losing market. Even if it's not really anything truly novel but just new designs, names, and such.