News Noctua's White Fans Disappear From Roadmap

[Admin]

Noctua's white fans have been taken off the menu, and its next gen 140mm fans and NH-D15 CPU cooler kicked down the road.

Noctua's White Fans Disappear From Roadmap : Read more

 

[pointa2b]

I'm looking forward to their next gen 140mm fans along with the release of Half Life 3.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

What I don't get is this: How hard is it to take the existing fan design and change the plastic from brown to white? Shouldn't that be a trivial change? I guess the hard part is determining how many of the new white fans you'll need to meet demand, but even that shouldn't be too bad. Just do a smaller batch, and if they immediately sell out, then you know to make lots more.

 

[bit_user]

It didn't even occur to me that they would have a published roadmap, but I guess it could give system builders some advanced notice of upcoming parts introductions.

I'm glad to see this, because I was about to buy a NH-C14S cooler, but slightly wary that they might introduce something better, as it hasn't been updated in a long time. Not seeing new down-draft coolers on their roadmap gives me more confidence to buy it now.

 

[Giroro]

It's easy to add dye to brown plastic to turn it black. Apparently, it's really hard to remove brown dye from plastic to make it white.

That, or Noctua is more interested in being a "brand" than making the fans that people want.

 

[10tacle]

I have two NH-D series coolers, the NH-D14 for my i5 4690K build originally from 2014, and the NH-D15 (chromax.black) for my most recent 2021 i7 11700K build. From my seat, I don't see where they can make much room for significant improvements to the current NH-D15.

Over the 14, the 15 has improved fan design as well as heatsink fin improvements which includes more clearance room for memory. Also the mount base is smooth with the 15 whereas the 14 was machined, so different thermal pastes need to be considered for optimum performance. Finally, review sites out there if I remember without looking them up show about a 3C improvement in cooling with the 15. I don't know how they meet and exceed that improvement with a newer version.

 

[hotaru251]

How hard is it to take the existing fan design and change the plastic from brown to white?

look at the market of "white" stuff in the market for your answer.

White is vastly different between producers.

White has ALWAYS been an issue to get right.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I still want to see a official Noctua DeskTop DeskFan with that Flow Accelerator shroud that they promised so long ago.

 

[RichardtST]

At this point I think they're that "Apple" of fans. So many other vendors have caught up or passed them in both performance and cost, and yet, the fan club remains... Of course they want to be a "brand" or "status symbol" as this is where the big bucks are. People love to pay extra for status symbols.

 

[pointa2b]

At this point I think they're that "Apple" of fans. So many other vendors have caught up or passed them in both performance and cost, and yet, the fan club remains... Of course they want to be a "brand" or "status symbol" as this is where the big bucks are. People love to pay extra for status symbols.

Which brands would you consider on par with them, performance-wise?

 

[10tacle]

At this point I think they're that "Apple" of fans. So many other vendors have caught up or passed them in both performance and cost, and yet, the fan club remains... Of course they want to be a "brand" or "status symbol" as this is where the big bucks are. People love to pay extra for status symbols.

That is of course only your opinion. As posted about earlier, I have two of them, one in an older build, and one in a newer build. I had other options for the 2021 build like the DeepCool AS500 Plus for $80 USD and it actually beats the NH-D15 by 1C. However, I was familiar and happy with my NH-D14 after years of overclocking performance use, and just wanted to trust who I was already familiar with for about $25 more. I didn't want to take new gambles on a $3K plus build experimenting with new and long term unproven hardware around cooling solutions.

 

[10tacle]

Which brands would you consider on par with them, performance-wise?

Here's a pretty good benchmark comparison from a Scythe FUMA2 review, and you can see where the air coolers sit compared to the competition. For reference, the top air cooler in the chart are the DeepCools with the NH-D15 next (and the Skythe behind it). The coolers above them are all liquid:

Scythe FUMA2 Rev.B CPU Cooler review

Scythes new Fuma 2 Rev.B cooler now features two 120 mm PWM fans that can produce up to 67 CFM for increased cooling capacity. The cooler is now also compatible with Intel's LGA1700 socket, ideal for... Processor overclocking with Higher Voltage

www.guru3d.com

 

[bit_user]

Here's a pretty good benchmark comparison from a Scythe FUMA2 review, and you can see where the air coolers sit compared to the competition. For reference, the top air cooler in the chart are the DeepCools with the NH-D15 next (and the Skythe behind it). The coolers above them are all liquid:

Scythe FUMA2 Rev.B CPU Cooler review

Scythes new Fuma 2 Rev.B cooler now features two 120 mm PWM fans that can produce up to 67 CFM for increased cooling capacity. The cooler is now also compatible with Intel's LGA1700 socket, ideal for... Processor overclocking with Higher Voltage

www.guru3d.com

I really like to see reviews which also test all coolers with the same fan(s), though. Otherwise, someone can compensate for an inferior cooler with a noiser, higher-flow fan. Obviously, if a cooler is designed to use a 140 mm fan, you don't test it with a 120 mm, but the 140 mm you use should be from the same family as the one you use for testing 120 mm and 90 mm coolers.

It's fair to test them with the included fan, for those who run them that way, but I often replace the fan that comes with a CPU cooler. So, the performance of the cooler with its original fan isn't very interesting to me, and I feel it's not truly exposing the relative quality of the coolers, themselves.

 

[tmwrnj]

What I don't get is this: How hard is it to take the existing fan design and change the plastic from brown to white? Shouldn't that be a trivial change?

Noctua don't use a standard plastic for their fan rotors. They use a proprietary liquid crystal polymer, which is stiffer and more dimensionally stable than polycarbonate or PBT. This allows for tighter clearances between the rotor tips and the fan shroud and reduces vibration of the rotor blades, both of which are important for reducing noise. The disadvantage is that they can't just buy material off the shelf.

More broadly, injection molding is a much more complicated process than you might imagine. If you're trying to maintain tight tolerances and you have precise requirements for mechanical properties and aesthetic appearance, there are a huge number of variables that need to be carefully controlled. The addition of a pigment can change the material properties of the finished product, affect flow of plastic through the mold and change the rate of shrinkage and the subsequent internal stress. If you really care about quality, there's no such thing as a trivial change.

 

[passivecool]

How hard is it to take the existing fan design and change the plastic from brown to white? Shouldn't that be a trivial change?

Not when you have to invent a new plastic first.

Sterrox® liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) /

Designed in Austria, Noctua's premium cooling components are renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality.

noctua.at

This is also why the black products was in development for years. They possibly had to redesign the microstructures to maintain the acoustic performance. The reputation they enjoy is based on their perfectionism. The price is as well.

 

[passivecool]

tmwrnj beat me to it.

If you really care about quality, there's no such thing as a trivial change.

excellent observation.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Noctua don't use a standard plastic for their fan rotors. They use a proprietary liquid crystal polymer, which is stiffer and more dimensionally stable than polycarbonate or PBT. This allows for tighter clearances between the rotor tips and the fan shroud and reduces vibration of the rotor blades, both of which are important for reducing noise. The disadvantage is that they can't just buy material off the shelf.

More broadly, injection molding is a much more complicated process than you might imagine. If you're trying to maintain tight tolerances and you have precise requirements for mechanical properties and aesthetic appearance, there are a huge number of variables that need to be carefully controlled. The addition of a pigment can change the material properties of the finished product, affect flow of plastic through the mold and change the rate of shrinkage and the subsequent internal stress. If you really care about quality, there's no such thing as a trivial change.

Still seems crazy. I mean, I'm not materials scientist, hence the question marks on my post. But white plastic versus brown... isn't the brown the one that has pigment, and the white would lack the pigment? I get that there's a lot involved with this, but it reeks of things like Razer spending $500,000 to get just the right shade of neon green for its USB ports. There's attention to detail, and then there's obsessing over minor things than 99% of people will never notice. 🤷

I think Noctua fans are good, but I also don't think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. I've had Noctua coolers in the past where the low noise also ended up resulting in higher temperatures. Even the Asus Noctua cards... they're actually not really much quieter (if at all) than the Asus Strix models, and the Strix cards are clocked higher and aren't as bulky.

 

[10tacle]

Still seems crazy. I mean, I'm not materials scientist, hence the question marks on my post. But white plastic versus brown... isn't the brown the one that has pigment

Years ago I was researching how to spot a counterfeit Samsung MicroSD card when shopping for one for my smart phone and tablet. I specifically remember the easiest way visually to spot the counterfeit is look at the plastic from the edge. If it is black, then it is counterfeit. If it is white, then it is a legit Samsung card. The reason for the black for counterfeiters is that white plastic is more expensive to manufacture. Black plastics are just dyed with cheap carbon.

If I remember correctly, plastic in original manufacture form (not recycled dozens of times) is translucent with a shade of white opaque. To make a solid white plastic, titanium dioxide is used which is more expensive than other pigment infusion processes and components.

 

[greenreaper]

At this point I think they're that "Apple" of fans. So many other vendors have caught up or passed them in both performance and cost, and yet, the fan club remains...

In some areas, yes. I probably wouldn't pick them for a new desktop build without a good deal. Picked a Dark Rock Pro 4 for my brother.

They were still the best I could find for a low-profile AM5 cooler - and their fan duct helped to dissipate another ~10W. Plus they were glad to provide modification bolts to fit a 25mm fan with the duct instead for free, as well as an AM5 adapter for a second-hand NH-C14 from 2015. Some will pay a little extra for that kind of support.

Actually you pay less to get the branded versions, because they don't get to show off their own colours with the black ones. (There are different colour vibration dampers in the package, which might appeal to some, though don't fully justify the price to me.)