This Noctua-Inspired 3D Printer Build Is Gorgeous

Noctua’s color scheme is so good that keeping it restrained to the company's typical lineup of some of the market's best CPU coolers would be a crime. That beige and brown combo manages to look sleek and modern, yet almost wood-paneled and retro, at the same time. It should be no surprise then, that fans (heh) of the company have taken to applying it to other tech. Take Twitter user Austin Vojta, a University of Texas at Austin alumni who’s taken so much to the Austrian heatsink-maker’s '70s style colors that he’s building a whole 3D printer to match.

Tagging Noctua, Vojta told the company that he was making a whole 3D printer using Noctua fans for cooling and exhaust and using its color scheme as inspiration for the rest of the parts. He also included photos of a whole slew of pieces all decked out in the company’s signature beige and brown as evidence, and the uniform coloring almost makes them seem like a Lego kit. Laid out like this, they just seem like they belong together -- even more than usual. What a great way to make a build less intimidating.

Noctua’s Twitter account seems to agree, as they responded with congrats and thanks, and the tweets have since gotten a good deal of attention from tech enthusiasts.

"I love Noctua's products and have used them for a variety of things, from their intended use in my desktop PC to cases for Raspberry Pi projects, a makeshift desk fan, et cetera," Vojta told Tom's Hardware. "Their brown fans get a lot of hate online, but I knew that would make my build look unique and stand out from the sea of black and gray printers."

We couldn't agree more. As for how Vojta got the parts in Noctua's colors, he told us that the parts were printed with a process called fused filament fabrication.

"I used spools of brown and beige plastic, which get extruded through a hotend in layers to build up each part slowly. No painting or dyes required," Vojta said.

He also explained to us that this was done with another 3D printer that he already owns, the Prusa i3 MK3S, so this definitely isn't a project for those just starting out.

Which brings us to Vojta's history of making custom 3D printers. "This is the 4th printer I've built, but the 1st that I'm doing from scratch," he told us. "My first printer was built in 2017 and the hobby has turned into an obsession for me! It can seem like an overwhelming process at first, as you have to source every individual component from places like Amazon and eBay and AliExpress."

Still, despite the intimidation of sourcing, he reassured potential newcomers that "there is a massive community of people who are passionate about building similar printers and very willing to help out!"

Pointing to one such community, Vojta explained to us that the models for his Noctua build's 3D printed parts come from the open source Voron Design project, which has made sourcing much easier for him.

As for his next project, Vojta said we can expect more with the "Noctua theme," including a second brown and beige printer.

He added that while this Noctua-themed build is a "big 12 x 12 x 12 inch build volume machine," he's hoping to tackle Voron Design's new 5 x 5 x 5 inch build volume Voron0 miniature printer next. 

"It's pretty cute, but the Noctua theme should give it just the right pinch of classy," the maker said.

As for his current project, we’re excited to see the final product once it's ready.

Editor's note: This article was originally published April 27, 2020 and was updated on April 28 to include comment from Vojta.