FINALLY!!! Black Noctua fan versions that are not industrial series!

[Darkbreeze]

All I can say is, it's about time. This should have happened YEARS ago. Now we can make fan and cooler recommendations that actually WORK with color scheme configurations, instead of having to include god awful brown fans with otherwise appealing color scheme builds.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://noctua.at/en/nf-f12-pwm-chromax-black-swap.html

 

[Eximo]

For your American cousins: http://noctua.at/en/nf-f12-pwm-chromax-black-swap.html

 

[WildCard999]

About time they did this.

 

[mtucci]

and apparently they came with a set of anti-vibration pads in different colors, and also optional sleeved cables, a set with 4 x 4pin extension cables for USD 9.90.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I just discovered that the NF-A15 PWM Chromax fans themselves are actually a performance upgrade over the original baby squirt brown models.

The NF-A15 fans are spec'd at 1200 RPM and 67.9 CFM with 1.51 mm H₂O static pressure. The new Chromax versions are 1500 RPM, and 82.5 CFM with 2.08 mm H₂O static pressure making them spec'd the same as the higher performing NF-A14 fans. Noise levels are on par with the NF-A14 fans now though which is actually a slight increase from the standard NF-A15 PWM fans.

Having used an NF-A14 PWM fan on my NH-U14S heatsink for some time now I can tell you that they have excellent performance characteristics and are still extremely quiet even at full steam so this tradeoff doesn't bother me a bit. With a single NF-A14 PWM on my NH-U14S I easily stay below 68°C at all stages of Prime95 v26.6 with my 6700k even though it's clocked at 4.6Ghz.

The NF-A14 PWM Chromax fans are spec'd exactly the same as the original NF-A14 fans however as are the NF-A12 PWM fans.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Also thought I'd add that all these new fans come WITH sets of corner pads in multiple colors, so you can match the accents to whatever your color scheme is and no extra cost involved to obtain them. They've also got multiple colors of sleeved fan extension cables available, in case you don't want to hassle with actually sleeving your fan cables.

That's not perhaps a "new" product to the market, as several companies offer these, however the ones offered by Noctua tend to be higher quality than the majority of pre-sleeved fan cable extensions you'll find out there. Noctua really doesn't half way much of anything.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, after looking more closely, and I should have already known this but I've been away from things for about a year on a job that didn't really allow for internet access so I kind of got out of touch with the tech side of things for a while there, and forgot a good deal that I used to be in touch with on a daily basis, I realized that it does NOT have any performance advantages over the standard NF-A15 PWM. The 1200RPM spec given for the NF-A15 PWM is in consideration of using the low noise adapter. Without it, that fan too had the same specs as the NF-A14 PWM, so really the only difference is color.

For me, that's still enough to make it worthwhile though, because I've taken many NF-A14's and 15's, and colored them black using rattle can vinyl dye, and while they look good and still perform very well, you know there has to at least be SOME minimal performance differences due to the additional weight and drag on the fan blades from the surface layer of vinyl dye which is really just a specialized paint and we know paint diminishes fan performance to some degree in all cases.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Guess I was wrong again. That's strange that the non-HSF models are a lower rpm than the HSF versions. I stand corrected. I was under the impression that the 1200rpm spec given on it's spec sheet was assuming use of the L.N.A. It's not, at least not on the non-HSF models. It is however on the new model and the HSF model. So these DO have a 1500rpm speed without the L.N.A and higher CFM and static pressure than the other standard A-series fans.

Low-Noise Adaptor
The NF-A15 PWM is supplied with a (L.N.A.) that reduces the maximum fan speed from 1200 to 900rpm. The L.N.A. can be used either to run the fan at a fixed speed of 900rpm or to cap the maximum speed when using automatic PWM control.