Noctua's New A-Series Fans: A Closer Look

New A-Series fans

Editor's Note: While Computex took place last week and all of the news announcements are behind us, we're still sorting through hundreds of in-person meetings and demonstrations, picking out just a few more of the most interesting items we saw up close.

Noctua was one of the few manufacturers that really stood out to us during Computex 2014. We already know that Noctua simply makes good things, but what made the company really stand out was that almost everything it showcased was new, and the items that weren't new were either flagship products or something recently announced.

First off, Noctua presented its new fans. These fans include an A-series 92 mm fan, an A-series 80 mm fan, and most importantly, an A-series 200 mm fan. The 200 mm fan is particularly impressive, as it is the company's first 200 mm fan. Many buyers have been asking for a 200 mm Noctua fan since more and more enclosures support these. The company also presented a slim 120 mm fan, which has also been in high demand.

Slim 120 mm fan

Noctua also presented its new fans with a flock coating. The idea behind treating either the frame or the blades of a fan with a flock coating is not only to provide a more silent fan, but also to ensure that any noise created is more pleasant. This concept offers two problems: cost and dust. Such treatments aren't particularly cheap, and a flock coating will attract a lot of dust, thus requiring more maintenance. This concept is still very much in the experimental phase, and it might not ever come to market.

Flock coated 120 mm fans

The new A-series fans are scheduled for release in Q4 2014, with the slim fan scheduled to hit shelves sometime throughout the second half of 2015.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

  • soccerplayer88
    For crying out loud Noctua, put together some colored fans. You build quality, but man are your fans ugly.
    Reply
  • chugot9218
    Somewhat agreed, it's just a CPU fan for me though so no biggie, I actually like how it looks in relation to my other stuff. I heard they are easy enough to paint as well. Maybe a classic color scheme and a modern? Can't be too much to ask for.
    Reply
  • FFH
    I can stand the brown, but the beige like color is ugly. I'm sure these are good fans since they're Noctua.
    Reply
  • John Lukitsh
    Notctua has just announced their Pro and Redux line of fans. The pros are black, and the redux are gray. They're listed on their website, I think they should be available soon.
    Reply
  • Igotpwn3d
    Notctua has just announced their Pro and Redux line of fans. The pros are black, and the redux are gray. They're listed on their website, I think they should be available soon.

    Wow, even their website is ugly. Is it supposed to be ironic? Like "everything we do looks terrible, but ironically performs very well."
    Reply
  • wiinippongamer
    Noctua's products are classy, if you want transformer looking LED ridden fans because of your insatiable ADD, look elsewhere.
    Reply
  • el_bastardo74
    Noctua's products are classy, if you want transformer looking LED ridden fans because of your insatiable ADD, look elsewhere.

    If someone finds a fan (which does not coordinate with the color scheme of most people's rigs) to be fugly, then they have ADD and are in search of LED ridden fans? Excellent logic and reasoning.
    Reply
  • soldier9599
    Fortunately for me I don't spend all day staring at my case like it's a work of art. Who cares what it looks like? A nice monitor is all I need as far as aesthetics go.

    I am excited by this 200mm fan. They announced it a long time ago and I just assumed they gave up on the idea.
    Reply
  • ksham
    I have to agree, Noctua fans are an abomination aesthetically. Like ... how hard can it be to add some colors? Noctua needs to hire some graphic artists because apparently their employees have no taste in color schemes.

    I can understand if those are Noctua's company colors, but in terms of marketing, it doesn't really work.
    Reply
  • vmem
    well, at this point Noctua's fugly colors have become iconic... if a friend comes to your place, points at your PC and go "yo that's some ugly A$$ fans, why you buy those?", you can immediately point out his ignorance about PC building :P
    Reply