Noctua shares a fan grill design that drops noise levels — 3D print your own 120mm fan grill like the one on the Seasonic x Noctua 1,600W power supply
This grill could make you PC quieter by 2dB(A) per fan.
Noctua developed a custom 120mm fan grill for the Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition built for silence, and now anyone can get it for free. The company posted on its X (formerly Twitter) account that it’s sharing the high-efficiency fan grill on Printables, allowing anyone with a 3D printer or laser cutter to make one of their own.
According to Noctua, the fan grill “ensures smooth pressure gradients as the fan blades pass the radial struts,” which results in higher airflow and a noise reduction of about 2dB(A) versus the stock power supply grill found on the Seasonic power supply.
The high-efficiency Noctua 120mm fan grill, as the company calls it on the 3D model database, is licensed under Creative Commons 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). That means you can remix it and share it anywhere you like if you attribute its original creator, do it for non-commercial purposes, and your creation should have the same license as the original (i.e., CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
This isn’t the first thing that Noctua and Seasonic have for free in recent weeks. The two collaborated on a keychain merch giveaway that’s up for grabs for users who commented on the Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition post on the Chinese video-sharing site BiliBili. These events seem to celebrate the successful launch of the PSU, an improvement of Seasonic’s flagship power supply. This ultra-quiet version retains the exact excellent specifications and performance but reduces the noise generated by replacing its cooling fan with Noctua’s 120mm NF-A12x25 fan and this unique fan grill.
Seasonic and Noctua might also have no problems releasing this fan grill for free, especially with the price that this high-performance PSU demands. The vanilla Seasonic Prime TX-1600 has a retail price of $539.99 on Amazon, while you have to pay a $30 premium to get the Noctua Edition. Nevertheless, you’re getting a good power supply for the price, with the TX-1600 being one of our recommended options in our best PSUs of 2024 list. So, if you need that much power and have grown tired of the cacophony of multiple noisy fans, this ultra-quiet PSU might just be exactly what you need for a quieter workspace.
Noctua has also shared several other 3D designs you can download, like the NV-AA1-12 Airflow Amplifier, which will turn your 120mm Noctua fan into the $100 NV-FS1 desk fa (without the stand), the NA-FD1 Fan Duct, designed to improve the performance of Noctua fans with SFF cases that has a significant gap, and the NA-FMA1 120mm/140mm Adaptor for Noctua 120mm fans. Aside from its excellent fan designs (and controversial color choices), this tendency to share some of its designs for free is one of the reasons why Noctua is loved by its fans love Noctua.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
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USAFRet Reply
Sorry, but they look nothing alike.80251 said:This looks a lot like Silverstone's integral AP182 fan grill.
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80251 LOL, silverstone was using similar designs nearly a decade ago. I wonder if silverstone patented it? I'd imagine a patent attorney would have an actionable case if noctua is selling this tech for profit.Reply -
Notton Honeywell turbo fans also use a similar design.Reply
But the key difference is Silverstone and Honeywell have this grill on the output side, and they're both designed to focus airflow into a narrow cone. (I think it does this by causing low pressure in the center that pulls together the flow, but that's an aside)
Where as Noctua's grill goes on the intake and is competing with the gold standard that is the metal wire grill. (stamped grills look cool, but they all suck for performance/noise, and you're paying more for a cheaper method of construction.)
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Loadedaxe Reply
You do see the same thing we do right?80251 said:This looks a lot like Silverstone's integral AP182 fan grill.
I'm messing with ya! :)
It has been around a long time, a lot of designs have come and gone over the years.
Its a design that has been proven to reduce noise if implemented right, Like Notton said, they did it on the exhaust side, Seasonic/Noctua is doing it through the intake side. -
dwd999 So is Noctua saying that I wasted a lot of money on the NA-IS1-14 and NA-IS1-12 inlet side spacers and that they might replace them with a combined inlet side spacer and fan grill at some time in the future? They really need to make up their mind on this.Reply -
jlake3 Reply
I don't see any reference to a combined inlet spacer and fan grill in the article, or how it would render your spacers a waste? It's just a high-performance fan grill you can pair with your spacers, if you want.dwd999 said:So is Noctua saying that I wasted a lot of money on the NA-IS1-14 and NA-IS1-12 inlet side spacers and that they might replace them with a combined inlet side spacer and fan grill at some time in the future? They really need to make up their mind on this.