The Promised King Returns - Noctua NF-A12x25 Chromax is here, but is it too late?

[TVwazhere]

Summary

After many delays and pushbacks, the NF-a12x25 Chromax fan is released, as well as the black NH-U12A and heatsink covers for the U12A.

 

Quotes

Quote

“We are aware of how eagerly our customers have been waiting for these products and we would have loved to get them out earlier, but first we had to spend some extra time in order to make sure that we can exactly match the performance of the brown fans, and then things were further delayed by various supply chain issues due to the global pandemic”, explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). “With products that have been fine-tuned to the most minute details, seemingly simple things like creating a different colour version can end being surprisingly tricky, but now with all of that out of the way, we’re excited to finally be able to offer these long-awaited products to our customers.”

 

My thoughts

It took Noctua about two years to release these fans to the delight of many die hard fans, but is it too little too late? Artic, Thermaltake and Phanteks have all released competitors that perform similar, as good or in some cases slightly better than the brown NF-A12x25, while all being black (or at least dark grey), but for those who were ready to support a fan with the longest warranty, the wait is over. ASUS, can we get these on that Asus RTX3070 instead???

 

I havent found an online web page too purchase yet, but MSRP of these fans are $33 USD/EUR, so not a huge price hike from the brown, but not exactly competitive with the competition. 

 

Sources

https://noctua.at/en/noctua-presents-chromax-line-nf-a12x25-fan-nh-u12a-cooler-and-heatsink-covers

https://wccftech.com/noctua-launches-chromax-nh-u12a-cpu-cooler-nf-a12x25-fans-come-in-black-colors-with-brand-new-heatsink-covers/

[SorryBella]

3 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

but is it too little too late

Too MANY too late, honestly.

[Arika]

how can the release of a cooler be "too late"?

 

I also have no idea what sets this apart from the existing NH-U12s chromax, is it literally just 2 additional heatpipes on the A?

[Moonzy]

i have a question

 

why did it take so long just to change a color? how can changing the color change the performance of a fan? does choice of material affect fan performance THAT much? we're talking a color swap, i don't think a huge change is required to achieve that

 

noctua is just baiting us until other companies released alternative.

[jaslion]

For fans I do see them having lost a lot of market share there. But even if they released it soon they would have as their competitors have options that can be magnitudes cheaper whilst still delivery good performance and being silent. It for sure would have helped if they released it sooner tho.

 

However I've not noticed much of a slow down in Noctua coolers I install in systems. Mostly a dropoff in bequiet and cooler master coolers really as most people here jump for the Sycthe fuma 2 or the Sycthe Kotetsu 1 or 2 since that one is the price of a hyper 212 but offers better thermals and is quieter.

 

Fan wise I basically only get your standard generic rgb fans, the corsair/cooler master ones and a lot of arctic fans in decent quantities. Here and there a scythe one to add to a cooler and bequiet does pop up from time to time but I can basically count the Noctua fans on my both hands this year and 4 of em were for a friend that had a very specific use case.

[d0mini]

17 minutes ago, Arika S said:

how can the release of a cooler be "too late"?

 

I also have no idea what sets this apart from the existing NH-U12s chromax, is it literally just 2 additional heatpipes on the A?

"Too late" relates to the NF-A12s. They are "too late" because the Phanteks T30 fans released a little while ago with marginally superior performance to the beige NF-A12s and a slightly lower price. So long as the 30mm thickness wasn't an issue, people (such as myself) waiting for black NF-A12s gave up waiting and bought the Phanteks fans instead.

Noctua has a very strong brand so I'm sure they'll sell just fine anyway. Plus they are 25mm thick as opposed to the T30s 30mm thickness, so for those holding out for the best all-black 25mm thick fans, this has not come too late.

[TVwazhere]

25 minutes ago, Arika S said:

I also have no idea what sets this apart from the existing NH-U12s chromax, is it literally just 2 additional heatpipes on the A?

U12A also comes with the new NF-A12x25 fans, the U12S comes with just the normal NF-F12. 

 

15 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

noctua is just baiting us until other companies released alternative.

Many alts have already bene released. 

 

Value = Artic (P12's)

Looks = Thermaltake (Tough fan)

Performance = Phanteks (T25/T30) [someone correct me if these part series are incorrect]

[Velcade]

Possibly...

[electropical]

29 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

i have a question

 

why did it take so long just to change a color?

That Liquid Crystal Polymer they're using is very hard to dye black, that's why.
 

[suicidalfranco]

meh, i'll stick with the og ones. have other things to worry about then the color of a fan

[Dogzilla07]

2 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

ASUS, can we get these on that Asus RTX3070 instead???

Amen, onwards with the new era in GPU cooling!

 

Heck der8auer showed you can put in any 120mm fan u want into the 3070 Noctua instead of stock, you only need a single extender for the furthest fan  The shroud is still brown though , so not really worth it.

[Dogzilla07]

@Velcade

[Stahlmann]

2 hours ago, Arika S said:

how can the release of a cooler be "too late"?

 

I also have no idea what sets this apart from the existing NH-U12s chromax, is it literally just 2 additional heatpipes on the A?

The heatsink is bigger than the U and it uses two the better A12x25 fans instead of the one NF-F12.

 

2 hours ago, Moonzy said:

i have a question

 

why did it take so long just to change a color? how can changing the color change the performance of a fan? does choice of material affect fan performance THAT much? we're talking a color swap, i don't think a huge change is required to achieve that

 

noctua is just baiting us until other companies released alternative.

Apparently they had trouble getting the right material and the right color while also keeping the same reliability and quality. If you consider by what standards they engineer their products, a 0.1% drop in performance or reliability is enough for them to push the release back.

 

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

For fans I do see them having lost a lot of market share there. But even if they released it soon they would have as their competitors have options that can be magnitudes cheaper whilst still delivery good performance and being silent. It for sure would have helped if they released it sooner tho.

Like you say, there were always options that were marginally worse while being significantly cheaper. A sooner release woudn't have made much of a difference imo.

 

Quote

However I've not noticed much of a slow down in Noctua coolers I install in systems. Mostly a dropoff in bequiet and cooler master coolers really as most people here jump for the Sycthe fuma 2 or the Sycthe Kotetsu 1 or 2 since that one is the price of a hyper 212 but offers better thermals and is quieter.

Noctua still has unmatched quality and service. The A12x25 is still the gold standard when it comes to PC fans. The phanteks fan's better performance is mostly because it's thicker. I don't have any problem with it being thicker. But in some cases the added thickness will result in worse compatibility.

 

I have tried many different fans, and the NF-F12 and NF-A12x25 were the only ones i tried that had consistent quality and met my noise/performance standards. For my own PC i always bought 6 fans at once. Be it the Arctic, Corsair, EK, Cooler Master or anyone else: I always had at least 1 of 6 fans that had some sort of rattling or grinding bearing, resulting in an overall louder system.

 

But in the 20 or so fans i bought from Noctua over the last few years i never had one with any kind of defect and i have yet to hear what a Noctua bearing sounds like.

 

In short: The NF-A12x25 completely conviced me. There has to be something that is a lot better before i ever consider another fan again. Now that there are black variants, there is no reason for me to consider another fan anytime soon. Of course they are pricy, but anyone that wants performance while also being completely silent there is no way around them.

[Stahlmann]

20 minutes ago, Dogzilla07 said:

@Velcade

This chart is contradicting itself. "Normalized by noise", yet they all run at normalized RPM, which does not mean that they are equally as loud.

[RejZoR]

The material of fan blades still looks like it was made from recycled disposable plastic boxes. But at least it's not baby diarrhea and skin themed so that's something. Would certainly consider these way more than their ugly brown ones.

[Stahlmann]

6 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

The material of fan blades still looks like it was made from recycled disposable plastic boxes. But at least it's not baby diarrhea and skin themed so that's something. Would certainly consider these way more than their ugly brown ones.

Considering all the alternatives with similar desing use the same "recycled-plastic-material" this is all we're gonna get. Conventional plastic just isn't strong enough to hold up in the long run. There are no tolerances because they want the gap between the fan blades and frame to be as small as possible.

[Doobeedoo]

Would be cool to see their entire range and lineup of fans with extra depth, possibly a case with their black fans. That would be awesome.

[ravenshrike]

33 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

This chart is contradicting itself. "Normalized by noise", yet they all run at normalized RPM, which does not mean that they are equally as loud.

It's TPU, they can't tell their ass from their elbow.

[Dogzilla07]

@Stahlmann That's actually next level comparison, did u read how the results were obtained ? It's absolutely valid it's just 1 step further higher quality, one layer higher abstracted than just regular noise-normalized within the constraints of the same pristine methodology. Someone else also misunderstood the same thing, and I think there's also an explanation in either the comments or the huge reddit post about the t30-120 fan.

 

Nobody is gonna run fans at 2000 RPM. and when u have fans of different top speeds, why not classify them like this ?

 

@ravenshrike

 

You're talking about the best reviewer of fans in the world. is now, has been for years. It's basically CoolingTechique>VSG>GamersNexus>(a few non-english speaking sites and Igor's Lab a bit further down in 3rd place>everyone else further down). But if we're gonna be honest there's just GamersNexus and VSG (techpowerup). Nobody has a methodology as good, or puts as many dozens of hours into reviewing as them, NOBODY!.

 

His Thermalbench was and is the golden standard (If i remember correctly, his alma mater is Fluid Dynamics for pete's sake). Don't let jealousy cloud your judgement.

 

@ravenshrikeWhat's next you're gonna tell me, you dis on Aris PSU reviews as well, cause he also reviews for TPU ?

[ravenshrike]

24 minutes ago, Dogzilla07 said:

 

@ravenshrike

 

You're talking about the best reviewer of fans in the world. is now, has been for years.

Who apparently don't know their ass from their elbow. The graph is a bar graph normalized for RPM displaying amount of air moved per decibel produced. At no point is it noise normalized.

[Dogzilla07]

7 minutes ago, ravenshrike said:

Who apparently don't know their ass from their elbow. The graph is a bar graph normalized for RPM displaying amount of air moved per decibel produced. At no point is it noise normalized.

Forget what words i used to describe it, don't argue semantics read his review if u haven't, read how he does his methodology. The fans are not RPM normalized. they are RPM capped so it's a level playing field, and then noise-normalized within that constraint. (That's what i gathered from his explanation and the discussion on 2-4th page of the comments.

 

Again forget about what words I use, you use, you understand I use, we'd just end arguing semantics for 5 posts or something, ...

[GDRRiley]

still no 140mm options
been really happy with my old (2015) 120mm LTT noctua fans and the pair of r industrial140mm. and redux 120mm.

if they get a 140mm out I'd be temped to move to all A12-25/A14-25 in black.

[Dogzilla07]

Hm, i went and re-read everything cause I was doubting my memory for a moment there, and how clearly i was explaining it xD, so here goes:

 

 He did 3 sets of RPM-normalized data. Then separately 3 sets of Noise-normalised, then he divided them (with some modification to the math). It's not perfect, there's a not graph combining the 9 sets of data (and we the readers have to visualize the data in our heads) but if u go the comments and go to post #65 u can see him discussing the exact issue with another person.

 

And that person actually parsed his results into Noise-normalized graph which is more akin to what we see with other reviewers:

 

 

It's a bit of an unorthodox way about it, different way to parse the data than usual, and I have to admit, that opposite to as I remember, it's not as precise as how GamersNexus does it. GamersNexus noise-normalized is higher-quality/precision that this. It's still good enough though. For anyone interested another Giant/role-model of the "high quality Fluid-Dynamic discussion on the internet" doyll (who's been talking about fluid dynamics and fans and cases for a decade on overclock forum (and is an engineer who worked in the industry in the past (pc or something else, fluid-dynamics related) if i remember correctly).

 

He did a discussion with a 3rd person in further comments there about some interesting ways that data could be parsed, that might be even cooler.

[TVwazhere]

3 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

still no 140mm options
been really happy with my old (2015) 120mm LTT noctua fans and the pair of r industrial140mm. and redux 120mm.

if they get a 140mm out I'd be temped to move to all A12-25/A14-25 in black.

140mm are still slated for a Q1 2022 reveal, however it should be noted that this roadmap has not been updated sine June 2021; so it's possible there will be delays. Given that they're starting to hit their targets though, it's looking more likely that they will actually produce a 140mm variant. 

Source (reference for latest updates)

[GDRRiley]

3 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

140mm are still slated for a Q1 2022 reveal, however it should be noted that this roadmap has not been updated sine June 2021; so it's possible there will be delays. Given that they're starting to hit their targets though, it's looking more likely that they will actually produce a 140mm variant

white and 140mm interesting.  hopefully noctua never retires the brown