More Chromax Heatsinks from Noctua. But no NF-A12x25 Chromax's yet.

[TVwazhere]

Summary

Been keeping an eye out for Noctua news, and today they released a "New" NH-D15S and "New" NH-U9S. ("New" because the chromax fans has existed for months, so it's just painted heatsinks packaged with existing black fans) 

 

Quotes

Quote

The new NH-D15S chromax.black and NH-U9S chromax.black are identical to the regular models except for the colour: Featuring black coated heatsinks, black fans with black anti-vibration-pads, black fan clips and black mounting parts, they are literally black from head to toe. Thanks to thoroughgoing optimisations of the coating material and process, the chromax.black models provide the same, renowned quiet cooling performance as their regular, non-coated counterparts.

Quote

The NH-D15S is an asymmetrical single fan version of the award-winning NH-D15. Thanks to its asymmetrical design, the NH-D15S clears the top PCIe slot on most µATX and ATX motherboards. At the same time, the single fan setup and recessed lower fins guarantee 100% RAM compatibility with memory modules of up to 65mm height. Users who have sufficient room can also upgrade the cooler with either a 120mm or round 140mm fan on the front fin stack for further improved performance in dual fan mode.

NH-D15S chromax.black: EUR 89.90 / USD 89.90

Quote

The NH-U9S is a compact premium cooler in classic 9cm size. Its asymmetrical design with 5 heatpipes provides strong quiet cooling performance and tanks to its 95x95mm footprint, the NH-U9S clears the RAM and PCIe slots on all current mainboards, including µATX and ITX. Combined with its 125mm height, this makes the NH-U9S a highly versatile solution with outstanding case, RAM and PCIe compatibility.

NH-U9S chromax.black: EUR 64.90 / USD 64.90

They also released updated chromax antivibration pads to now include the color....... brown.

 

My thoughts

With no word yet on what fans ^{*badum tiss*} of Noctua have actually been waiting for, Noctua has yet again shown that they can take a long time to just paint existing heatsinks (whether that's because of the current global situation or their touted extreme emphasis on making sure it's perfect before releasing a product is unknown) but this marks now nearly 75% of their heatsink lineup converted to chromax. Personally I think it's a bit ridiculous that it takes this long, but there could be reasons I'm not aware of that would cause it to take so long (prepping new marketing material, filing for patents/name, obtaining new packing materials, building inventory, etc)

 

I understand Noctua take extreme measures to make sure their products or quality but they make it sound like "thoroughgoing optimizations of the coating material and process" was an arduous undertaking no manufacture has ever done before. Meanwhile their fans are getting a lot of alternative cheap competition from manufactures making similarly performing products in black that cost far less. If Noctua doesn't get on the ball soon, their market for a top-tier performance black fan is going to dry up. 

 

Sources

https://noctua.at/en/noctua-expands-chromax-black-line-of-cpu-coolers

[Mateyyy]

They look to be right on track with these:

(though no Redux coolers yet)

 

Let's hope this'll continue with the NH-U12A and NF-A12x25  

[Stahlmann]

They need to offer something again with their fans. Idk what but there are plenty fans that offer similar performance / noise but at half or even less the price. Take the Arctic P12 series for example. If i'd have to buy 6 or more fans for a watercooling setup now, i'd not even consider spending triple (or more) the money on fans just because they're noctua fans. The only reason i have 6 NF-F12s in my own build is because i have been slowly collecting them across different PC-Builds. I also think it's ridiculous how long it takes them to get the chromax versions out.

[Guest]

Noctua: We make the best stuff.... for ourselves. And eventually for you... we swear in Q4 of next year.

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

They need to offer something again with their fans. Idk what but there are plenty fans that offer similar performance / noise but at half or even less the price. Take the Arctic P12 series for example. If i'd have to buy 6 or more fans for a watercooling setup now, i'd not even consider spending triple (or more) the money on fans just because they're noctua fans. The only reason i have 6 NF-F12s in my own build is because i have been slowly collecting them across different PC-Builds. I also think it's ridiculous how long it takes them to get the chromax versions out.

Even their coolers are getting matched by a lot cheaper ones nowadays that are also in the same noiseclass. They can only ride the we are a premium brand thing for so long before they really start losing costumers. That and their refusal to just update their stuff all at once. It's not even that special it's a colourchange. Ya know the stuff many other manufacturers do on a whim.

[TVwazhere]

19 minutes ago, Mateyyy said:

They look to be right on track with these:

-snip-

(though no Redux coolers yet)

 

Let's hope this'll continue with the NH-U12A and NF-A12x25  

Interesting. I had not seen the updated road map yet, though I recall from previous roadmaps Q1 2021 was the planned launch so at least that hasn't been pushed back yet. 

 

Meanwhile that next gen 140mm fan will also be a big selling point, as they've been working on that for 3-4 years at least publicly. 

[thechinchinsong]

I'm curious to know how much of Noctua's business is centered on desktop computer fans since I've only really known them for their good CPU coolers and fans. Is consumer DiY their main market or is industrial/commercial cooling considered their primary source of revenue?

[WereCat]

1 hour ago, Stahlmann said:

They need to offer something again with their fans. Idk what but there are plenty fans that offer similar performance / noise but at half or even less the price. Take the Arctic P12 series for example. If i'd have to buy 6 or more fans for a watercooling setup now, i'd not even consider spending triple (or more) the money on fans just because they're noctua fans. The only reason i have 6 NF-F12s in my own build is because i have been slowly collecting them across different PC-Builds. I also think it's ridiculous how long it takes them to get the chromax versions out.

I paid not even 6€ for each of the Arctic P12 PWM fans. I got 6 of them + Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 which was the same price as NH-U12A yet it ouperfroms it by a lot while being more silent... yes, the case compatibility is definitely more difficult to come by with 360mm radiator but for the price, whatever.

The Arctic fans are about the same as the ones on NH-U12A in both performance and noise, maybe the bearings will not last as long but I couldn't care less for the price.

 

 

[Stahlmann]

17 minutes ago, WereCat said:

The Arctic fans are about the same as the ones on NH-U12A in both performance and noise, maybe the bearings will not last as long but I couldn't care less for the price.

The P12 series has 10 years of warranty. So i think they're plenty confident that these fans will last a long time. And even if one breaks. You can buy 4 of them for the price of 1 chromax NF-F12.

[GDRRiley]

44 minutes ago, thechinchinsong said:

I'm curious to know how much of Noctua's business is centered on desktop computer fans since I've only really known them for their good CPU coolers and fans. Is consumer DiY their main market or is industrial/commercial cooling considered their primary source of revenue?

I'd put my money on the industrial side

[Doobeedoo]

Nice they're blacking out everything. 

[For Science!]

3 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

 

For me the biggest mystery is that I bet that these sterrox polymers are not by default tan and poop color, so significant investment must have been put in on making them tan and poop colored. Why didn't they in parallel develop the black variants.....IIRC they are actually white polymers by default so they should also just release the uncolored varient haha

[soldier_ph]

Noctua FTW !

[TVwazhere]

11 minutes ago, For Science! said:

IIRC they are actually white polymers by default so they should also just release the uncolored varient haha

And Yet white fans aernt slated till Q2 2021

[For Science!]

4 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

And Yet white fans aernt slated till Q2 2021

New theory: tan and poop improves performance.

[TVwazhere]

2 minutes ago, For Science! said:

New theory: tan and poop improves performance.

"When in doubt, spin s*** faster!"

[Blademaster91]

39 minutes ago, For Science! said:

For me the biggest mystery is that I bet that these sterrox polymers are not by default tan and poop color, so significant investment must have been put in on making them tan and poop colored. Why didn't they in parallel develop the black variants.....IIRC they are actually white polymers by default so they should also just release the uncolored varient haha

Isn't the brown and tan scheme kind of Noctua's brand? I mean their fans are really recognizable when I see those brown fan blades.

I don't mind the brown and tan, then again every fan in my case is Noctua, I care more about performance than RGB lol.

[VeganJoy]

1 hour ago, Blademaster91 said:

Isn't the brown and tan scheme kind of Noctua's brand? I mean their fans are really recognizable when I see those brown fan blades.

I don't mind the brown and tan, then again every fan in my case is Noctua, I care more about performance than RGB lol.

the shit colors are a marketing thing, before they were well known they had to have a gimmick and shit colors + performance was their gimmick. probably 90% of people agree that the original colorway is pretty wack but its instantly recognizable, and theyre associated with pretty outstanding quality. it'll be interesting to see how relevant they remain in the next few years though, other manufacturers are getting very close in performance for much cheaper. although for air coolers their mounting system is unmatched, i love the insane modularity and upgradability for that

[NumLock21]

I'm more interested in that desk fan, must be one of them with USB attached to it. Got a Arctic one, has a slight breeze, but there is no safety guard around it, which is dangerous.