noctua – SFF.Network

Scythe KazeFlex low-profile fan review.

We would like to thank Scythe for providing us with a review sample of their KazeFlex 120mm Slim fans. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Scythe, the heavy hitting underdog of the HSF world, has once again hit us with another surprise entry into the SFF market with their low profile 120mm fan linup. At just 17mm thick, it will be interesting to see how they compare to the competition. Packaging The packaging is compact and straightforward. All the specifications you could ever want to see on a fan are listed in great detail on the back. …

Cooling Reviews

The Scythe Big Shuriken 3. Big performance at a small price.

We would like to thank Scythe for providing us with a review sample of their Big Shuriken 3 heatsink. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Scythe, the heavy hitting underdog of the HSF world, has once again hit us with another surprise entry into the SFF market with their Big Shuriken 3. At just 70mm tall, it will be interesting to see how this cooler compares to the competition. Packaging The packaging looks exactly like we have come to expect from Scythe. There is not much else that can be said besides it doing a adequate job …

Cooling Reviews

Noctua NH-U12A heatsink review. Will it SFF?

We would like to thank Noctua for providing us with a review sample of their NH-U12A heatsink. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Fresh off the heels of our NT-H2 Thermal Paste shootout, we have a compelling new heatsink from Noctua, the NH-U12A. This model is more compact than some of Noctua’s larger offerings but offers unparalleled performance for its size due the quality of fans being used. It’s still a little on the larger side and may not fit in most of our cases but for those that have the room, you may not find a …

Cooling Reviews

Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste shootout. Does SFF benefit?

We would like to thank Noctua for providing us with a review sample of their entire thermal interface material suite. Without their generosity, this shootout would not be possible. Noctua’s latest NT-02 thermal paste has been available in retail channels for a few months now but after playing around with it, I’ve been reluctant to post this review. Not because Noctua’s proposed gains are in any way false, but because it doesn’t appear that the small form factor community can measurably benefit from its usage. Before I proceed and come off as biased to any of our readers, I just …

News

Noctua presents NH-U12A premium class 120mm CPU cooler

Comment: We had a quick look at Noctua’s new coolers at Computex 2018 – including a prototype for this very cooler. With 140mm cooler performance in a 120mm cooler form factor, this was exciting news for us in the SFF world! Using a denser fin stack, as well as the new generation Sterrox fans, the cooler offers some hefty cooling. We can’t wait to see reviews for this cooler to see if the numbers stack up! Discuss in the forum here. The press release: Press Release: When a new post is marked a such, the content is copied verbatim from …

News

Noctua at Computex 2018

Noctua, purveyors of fine cooling wares, had their booth, resplendent in copper and cream, at Computex 2018. We popped in for a visit, and did not regret the time spent there, discussing cooling with Jakob, Noctua’s marketing whiz. On show, the usual components, however, spiced up with some major changes, some of which stunned even us, seasoned industry veterans. Let’s see what was on display! Firstly, an oddity. What started as a personal project of a Noctua engineer, has become a probable product – a desk fan based on a NF-A12x25 fan, but with the addition of an “Airflow Amplification …

Cooling

Noctua’s Sterrox – The Next Generation

Evolution in the fan space is slow. We’ve reached the era of incremental improvements, whilst the core design of fans stay the same. None of the crazy early days experimentation is found nowadays, sounding a death knell to the likes of tip magnetic drive, and even the pure Sandia designed CPU cooler. Instead, small improvements are made (notwithstanding RGB, because that’s an entirely different story), in pursuit of a better cooling device. Material tech is the route chosen by Noctua for improving their fans in this instance, eschewing the fan frame changes shown by DeepCool, CryoRig et al. Better materials …

Cooling Reviews

Noctua’s Chromax – Custom Without RGB LEDs

With today’s prevalence of RGB LED lighting, more and more blinkenlights and side panel windows, it’s obvious that customisation of one’s system is an important factor for many modern PC users. Whilst this is all fine and dandy, not everyone wants a PC that can be seen from space when lit up. Alongside this, sleeved cabling has become the norm for any well-built system, and as a way for system owners to have that extra “touch” to personalise their PC. Enter Noctua’s updated Chromax Range – with more options to customise your system. We reviewed the first batch of Chromax …

News

Noctua’s Sterrox Fans Have Arrived!

Press Release: When a new post is marked a such, the content is copied verbatim from the company’s release, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Small Form Factor Network or Minutiae LLC. Vienna, May 2nd 2018 – Noctua today presented its much-anticipated next-generation 120x25mm A-series fan and the complementary NA-SFMA1 adaptors that allow it to be used on 140mm based watercoolers. The new NF-A12x25 is the first fan made of Noctua’s novel Sterrox® LCP material and integrates the company’s latest innovations in aerodynamic engineering in order to achieve an unprecedented level of quiet cooling performance. While the NF-A12x25 …

Cooling Reviews

Quick Look: Noctua ‘s NH-L12S and NH-L9a-AM4, Ryzen and Noctua Collide

Sometimes, it is iterative improvement that really makes the difference – no flash in the pan concepts, just solid, tested performance. It is with this that Noctua recently released two ‘new’ coolers – the NH-L9a-AM4 and the NH-L12s. These monikers may seem somewhat familiar, which is no surprise, as these are the aforementioned iterative improvements over the previous generation. AMD’s Ryzen platform has caused a significant sea change in the world of personal computers, with many manufacturers releasing adapter kits for their existing products. Noctua has gone one better and released a trifecta of AM4 specific coolers (albeit variants of …

News

Noctua Introduces Chromax Line Fans, Cables and Heatsink covers

PRESS RELEASE: A press release, when marked as such, is posted direct from the manufacturer and is unedited. Thus, they may not reflect the view of SmallFormFactor.net or its authors. Noctua introduces chromax line fans, cables and heatsink covers Vienna, October 16th 2017 – Noctua today introduced the long-awaited chromax editions of its most renowned 120mm and 140mm fan models as well as chromax line cables and heatsink covers for its award-winning NH-U12S and NH-D15 series CPU coolers. All the new chromax line products allow users to colour-customise their Noctua cooling systems in order to match popular build colour schemes. …

Cooling

Noctua’s Slim 120mm Fan. At Last!

This is the one we’ve been waiting for for some time – a slim 120mm fan from Noctua. Noctua first previewed this fan at Computex a few years back – 2015 in fact. With the scarcity of quality slim fans being very well pronounced, it was time for another player to enter the market. Enter Noctua. The existing products in this market space have always been flawed in some way – usually either in acoustics or reliability. The well known example here is the Scythe Slim Silence products’ propensity to burn up the motor over time – usually evidenced by …