Painting your Air Cooler?

[JacobKS]

I'm planning to buy a Noctua NHD15 and I'm planning to paint both the air cooler and the 2 fans. Does spray painting your CPU cooler is a good idea? or no it will just reduce its performance.

[Guest]

Spray painting the cpu cooler would work if you buy the right paint:

 

I wouldn't paint the fans, because that could seriously affect their performance.

 

Noctua fans aren't ugly anyway. Why does everyone hate them so much?

[ArmswieldTheHero]

1 minute ago, JacobKS said:

I'm planning to buy a Noctua NHD15 and I'm planning to paint both the air cooler and the 2 fans. Does spray painting your CPU cooler is a good idea? or no it will just reduce its performance.

If you're careful and cover all the important parts, and use a really thin spray paint desiged for delicate electronics, it should work fine, but possibly consider only painting the fans. I'm not sure how painting the actual cooler itself will work (probably badly because it will insulate the metal.)

[EinsteinWTF]

yes...use the right spray ...otherwise it willl insulate the metal & u know...everything won't be the same.

[m0k]

just paint the top of the heatsink, highly doubt you'll see the rest of the heatsink when its installed

[JacobKS]

4 minutes ago, spidsepttk said:

Spray painting the cpu cooler would work if you buy the right paint:

 

I wouldn't paint the fans, because that could seriously affect their performance.

 

Noctua fans aren't ugly anyway. Why does everyone hate them so much?

coz their brown it's too difficult to match their color to other components.

[MightyMic]

1 minute ago, JacobKS said:

coz their brown it's too difficult to match their color to other components.

I agree with you when you're talking about the NF-F12, but if you get industrial fans you can get:

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NA-SAVP1-Chromax-Anti-Vibration-Mount/dp/B018SOU6MG/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1469718593&sr=8-7&keywords=noctua+chromax

[Ichi]

1 minute ago, JacobKS said:

coz their brown it's too difficult to match their color to other components.

That is how people can tell you're using quality Noctua fans 

People won't ask what fan you're using coz the color says for itself.

[Guest]

Just now, JacobKS said:

coz their brown it's too difficult to match their color to other components.

My motherboard has gold parts, and it goes well with that. You can not paint the dark brown rubber vibration remover parts on them.

 

Painting a fan is very unwise, will require you to take it apart, and drastically reduces the remaining life and usable rpm of the fan.

[JacobKS]

12 minutes ago, spidsepttk said:

Spray painting the cpu cooler would work if you buy the right paint:

 

I wouldn't paint the fans, because that could seriously affect their performance.

 

Noctua fans aren't ugly anyway. Why does everyone hate them so much?

 

9 minutes ago, EinsteinWTF said:

yes...use the right spray ...otherwise it willl insulate the metal & u know...everything won't be the same.

What kind of paint?

[Guest]

Just now, JacobKS said:

What kind of paint?

Use the paint they used in the video that i linked.

[EinsteinWTF]

8 minutes ago, JacobKS said:

 

What kind of paint?

The surface area of the fins on the heatsinc wouldn't properly disapate heat. The paint would act as a insulator and keep the heat in.

If it is aluminum, you can google "anodization processes" and find a local shop who can do it for 10-20 bucks. That would keep most of the heat dissipation properties left in the heat sinc

[ArmswieldTheHero]

48 minutes ago, spidsepttk said:

I wouldn't paint the fans, because that could seriously affect their performance.

How? its just fans, they move air by rotating the blade I dont see how painting them would affect them as long as you use paint with the same texture as the surface. (IE, smooth, or matte)

[Guest]

Just now, ArmswieldTheHero said:

How? its just fans, they move air by rotating the blade I dont see how painting them would affect them as long as you use paint with the same texture as the surface. (IE, smooth, or matte)

Noctua fans are very advanced and well balanced, so adding extra weight in the way of paint could damage them. 

[ArmswieldTheHero]

Just now, spidsepttk said:

Noctua fans are very advanced and well balanced, so adding extra weight in the way of paint could damage them. 

No. The motors are very unlikely to be damaged by another gram of weight.

[Guest]

Just now, ArmswieldTheHero said:

No. The motors are very unlikely to be damaged by another gram of weight.

Noctua actually spend a long time researching the best possible pc fan. A gram of weight could throw these off. Watch this video:

 

[ArmswieldTheHero]

4 minutes ago, spidsepttk said:

Noctua actually spend a long time researching the best possible pc fan. A gram of weight could throw these off. Watch this video:

 

Absolutely not, this video only showcases its currently perfect balance, but in truth the motor in it must be high quality and as a result should be BETTER for painting than most fans.

[Guest]

Just now, ArmswieldTheHero said:

Absolutely not, this video only showcases its currently perfect balance, but in truth the motor in it must be high quality and as a result should be BETTER for painting than most fans.

It's not about the motor's performance, it's about the blades.

[ArmswieldTheHero]

Just now, spidsepttk said:

It's not about the motor's performance, it's about the blades.

The blades will be almost exactly the same shape and size.

[Guest]

Just now, ArmswieldTheHero said:

The blades will be almost exactly the same shape and size.

almost exactly. For noctua, 0.1mm makes a big difference.

[ArmswieldTheHero]

1 minute ago, spidsepttk said:

almost exactly. For noctua, 0.1mm makes a big difference.

No it wont, you'll get the exact same temps maybe 1c difference if you do a bad job painting it.

 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, ArmswieldTheHero said:

No it wont, you'll get the exact same temps maybe 1c difference if you do a bad job painting it.

When you turn on a fan, the blades flatten out slightly. This made Noctua's fans hit the outer rim, so they had to do 3 years of testing to get it perfect for their new fans. Making the fans any different from perfect would damage their performance, and I would not paint a fan. Plus, you have to take it apart which can be annoying.

[WoodenMarker]

52 minutes ago, ArmswieldTheHero said:

Absolutely not, this video only showcases its currently perfect balance, but in truth the motor in it must be high quality and as a result should be BETTER for painting than most fans.

It's still not a good idea to paint fans if not necessary. It may not be as bad as painting other fans but that doesn't make it a good thing. 

Painting the top fins of a heatsink doesn't affect performance in any noticeable way. Painting all of the fins may lower performance a bit or more depending on the coating. 

Painting fans would probably make the fan louder due to increased weight and changing the balance across the fan. If there's an issue with the color of the fan, get different fans in the first place. Noctuas aren't the only option.

[ArmswieldTheHero]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

It's still not a good idea to paint fans if not necessary. It may not be as bad as painting other fans but that doesn't make it a good thing. 

Painting the top fins of a heatsink doesn't affect performance in any noticeable way. Painting all of the fins may lower performance a bit or more depending on the coating. 

Painting fans would probably make the fan louder due to increased weight and changing the balance across the fan. If there's an issue with the color of the fan, get different fans in the first place. Noctuas aren't the only option.

I disagree, the weight of paint is so light that it wont even matter at all. If painted properly it will be an even spread of wieght over the entire thing so balance isn't a concern either.

[ArmswieldTheHero]

2 hours ago, spidsepttk said:

When you turn on a fan, the blades flatten out slightly. This made Noctua's fans hit the outer rim, so they had to do 3 years of testing to get it perfect for their new fans. Making the fans any different from perfect would damage their performance, and I would not paint a fan. Plus, you have to take it apart which can be annoying.

Yea so Noctua fixed the problem, painting it wont change anything, it will add less than a gram to the weight which should be so light that it wont add any additional noise or anything to it. and it also wouldnt raise your temps either.