Noctua Was the Only Hardware Company at Computex Totally Ignoring RGB

Practically every hardware company flaunted peripherals with RGB lighting at Computex, but not Noctua, which evidently “doesn't give a single damn about colorful lights.”.

my kind of company, will be sure to buy their products from here on ...

I just installed a Fractal Design Celsius S36 all-in-one water cooler.
It works great and it's black and it's got white fan blades and it's black
and it's silent even under heavy CPU gaming loads and it's black.
I guess you've already figured ... it has no LED lighting

Why does everything have to have ugly neon random assortments of light colors?

ouuuu, loooook .... sparklies

drugs also increase our perception of color intensity so, maybe that's a factor too
 
Last edited:
Love Noctua even though I don't own a single fan by it yet. I hope most of these companies drop the madness that RGB is. Either that all we all need to be on drugs. :D The last fan I bought was a 120 x 38 4500 RPM which was years ago and I still have it spinning.
Loud as one can imagine. I don't even remember why I bought it and it must have been under $10. Every other one either came with a Heatsink, liquid cooler or case. I recently raided my basement for fans out of older cases I no longer use.
I just don't see myself paying $30 for a pc fan. Convince me why I should get one.
 
do you expect me to show you whether it impacts cost?? >_>

You don't need too. High end motherboards were $250 five years ago as they are $250 now for RGB. You're arguing a moot point just to support your unnecessary hate towards something that has no affect on you.
 
You old fogies realize they can keep their well engineered fan, and just slap on some RGB LEDs that won’t depreciate the performance. RGB doesn’t force a choice between performance and looks. It just welcomes options to the consumer.

Noctua is stubborn and stupid for not trending with the general consumer desires. Heck, they were stupid for keeping that undesirable cosmetic brown/tan color choice all these years. I suspect every enthusiast can recall a few threads where someone would recommend a noctua fan because of its top tier performance and the advice recipient would say eww that’s ugly, my case has a window and buy a competitor’s fan instead.
 
Oh, I don't doubt there are some crappy models of Nidec fans out there as well... Pretty much every big player also sells crap products in bulk, but saying that industrial fans are crap as to noise/efficiency simply because they are of industrial origin simply isn't true. There are models/brands of industrial fans that are really very, very good. Hell, even today, I'd still go with GT1850's as they are built like tanks, very quiet and perform fantastic, especially on a rad. But they also aren't cheap and run about the same price as a Noctua's.
Well as I've seen, the cheapest industrial fans are about the same price as the average pc fans. And the rest is just outrageously expensive. Maybe it's just here, but I'm yet to see a good quality industrial fan. The most disappointing were the pabst ones, I forked out a lot of doe for them, only to get very poor performance/noise ratio, and about 12 months of life from their ball bearings.

Sure I haven't tried them for years now, so maybe industrial fan mfgs have upped their game in the past few years.
 
You old fogies realize they can keep their well engineered fan, and just slap on some RGB LEDs that won’t depreciate the performance. RGB doesn’t force a choice between performance and looks. It just welcomes options to the consumer.

Noctua is stubborn and stupid for not trending with the general consumer desires. Heck, they were stupid for keeping that undesirable cosmetic brown/tan color choice all these years. I suspect every enthusiast can recall a few threads where someone would recommend a noctua fan because of its top tier performance and the advice recipient would say eww that’s ugly, my case has a window and buy a competitor’s fan instead.

The let the LED-kiddies pay for their LED's...but stop making all others pay for "looks"....I don't to see my PC...I want to perform.
My PC is packed away, only 2 LED's active on it...a power LED and a I/O LED....I don't need "rainbows" to game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Meeho
like this
Stop putting the useless crap on that only kids use.
Why should I pay for "rainbows"...when all I want is performance?

Useless to you doesn't = usless to all. Sorry you don't care about how your PC looks, not everyone does. You honestly sound like you have way more maturity issues than these "kiddies" you keep going on about that like a little pizazz in their computers.

Also, you don't have to pay for jack shit if you don't want too. You either pay the same as you would otherwise or you can pay for a product that doesn't have them. You people act like RGB has raised the prices of ANYTHING. It hasn't.

Quit complaining about something that's literally not an issue. It looks stupid.
 
You old fogies realize they can keep their well engineered fan, and just slap on some RGB LEDs that won’t depreciate the performance.

No, they don't know that. They also think RGB LED's triple the cost of the same thing without them as well.

The circlejerk around here is strong with RGB. RGB = kiddie kids that kid around with kid colors in their kid child like cases because grown ass adults don't care about looks and just need performance...performance which, remember, is reduced because of color kiddie LED's.
 
Yup, LED's look stupid...

So that's why they've been popular in PC cases for decades. Gotcha...man I'm glad your minority opinion is fact! What would we do without you Factum? Ironic user name as well? Nah! You're always right! Silly me!
 
I miss the DFI LanParty boards and the black lit paint they used on the slots, etc. Not a fan of LED's...to bright for me (maybe its just an age thing now)...but the black light stuff was where it was at for me a long time ago. Custom cased all my PSU cables, etc with black light sleeves, etc.
 
So that's why they've been popular in PC cases for decades. Gotcha...man I'm glad your minority opinion is fact! What would we do without you Factum? Ironic user name as well? Nah! You're always right! Silly me!

Nah, they are popular because the kids make them popular. They will turn into adults one day and the pendulum will swing the other way.

I am an engineer so I will always pick function over form. Most people are not engineers, but adults finally get that computers are a tool, not a statement. That is not to say there are not some cool computer builds around. There are, but those that really achieve cool, do it without the saturation of RGB lighting.

When I see a computer all glitzed out with RGB lighting, all I can think of are the kids driving their Hondas with the trashcan tail pipe. The car makes a lot more noise but that is it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Meeho
like this
I still have my old Danger Den water cooling system and it rocked at the time because I enjoyed fiddling with gadgets. I dropped a Zalman cooler in my wifes unit because it was cheap and quiet and it worked better than my water cooling experiments. My tower used to be the center of attention now its as far under the desk as possible for a foot stool and it's always full of dog hair. Cooling options under $75 work great for the non super hard core overclocking gurus. Noctua should have a logo that says "Are you down with the Brown"
 
So that's why they've been popular in PC cases for decades. Gotcha...man I'm glad your minority opinion is fact! What would we do without you Factum? Ironic user name as well? Nah! You're always right! Silly me!

For decades?
When I moved from the Amiga to PC...there were no LED's
(The Amiga was not LED infected too.)
I think you memory is failing you....for DECADES the PC was not infected with LED's...no some kid want LED's...and it is infecting everything...but Noctua it seems.
So I will keep giving them my money.

"decades"....go one…..lol
 
I've heard this over and over, and yes, it's only 3 anecdotal data points, but my 2x Antec Kuhler 920 and 1x Kuhler 620 have been running pretty much 24/7/365 for the past few years without issues.

And some people have cheap desktop drives that last for years, that does not mean there is no place for enterprise drives, they just might not be for you. Believe it or not, your specific use case, is not the only use case.

The TRUE (air cooler) I have is good as new going on what....12+ years now and who knows how many builds? For a server I don't want to touch, or a Pfsense box I don't want to worry about but shoving in a corner and just working, I am going to use an aircooler. And again, many aircoolers can be much more quiet than a AIO, you can go even higher in AIO or total custom WCing and be even quieter, but things get much more expensive. Many of the early AIOs were pretty bad at this ratio, they kept up with or beat single tower coolers, but were twice as loud, they have made leaps and bounds in this area however, at least some brands.

Keep in mind that at the time your coolers came out, they were actually more expensive than the NH-D14, and only beat the NH-D14 by 1-2C (depending on the review), but was over 2.5 times as loud at the same level of cooling performance.
 
I'm genuinely confused, why would anybody spend $100 on a giant air cooler instead of an AIO water cooling setup?
I have a big air cooler (Scythe Ninja 4) but it was only ~$45 ($40 now) and is very close to coolers that cost twice as much. I went big air due to wanting the quietest possible system. Most of the time, my CPU fan isn't even moving and my CPU is actually being passively cooled with the case fans doing all of the work.
[sarcasm]
Not too bight are we, no pun intended. EVERYONE knows that the pretty illumination effect that the RGB fans produce is only a by-product of the LED's designed goal! Allow me to drop some science on you...
As you may or may not know, light is made up of photons, and each color corresponds to a different frequency (wavelength). LEDs are a very very low power way to generate light.
Now if you've seen what a high-powered laser can do, then you know that pumping out enough focused photons can have a physical effect on objects. For example, a laser igniting a match, or a solar-sail as a method of propulsion for a spacecraft.

So now with that in mind, one also has to understand that different wavelengths of light are more powerful than others, but on top of that if you introduce a wave, like in a lake, you can now propel an object that was otherwise stationary. As such, with RGB LEDs cycling through their colors from Red to Violet, you are amplifying the wave already present in the wavelength of light because some of those colors are weaker than the others which cause 'dips' in the waveform. Now our light energy is less a wave in a lake and more like the wave of a 'bore tide'.

What happens is that these photons which have now been amplified through cycling colors, are now impacting the blades of the fan, imparting increased spin! While it is said that photons have no resting-mass, their immense velocity (remember, they are traveling at the 'speed of light', or 186,411 miles per second [300,000 km/s]) means they still have a weak kinetic force.

Furthermore, since the blades are already rotating, and the light is shining at an angle, the majority of photons would, you would think, be hitting at an angle as well which is not efficient for transferring their kinetic force... BUT that's where the other property of photons comes in: electromagnetic radiation! How? Well, if you weren't aware of how a fan, or electric motor works, it's through electromagnets and permanent magnets. As electricity is applied to coils of wires in the fan hub it creates a magnetic field, which in turn, the permanent magnets in the hub (in a ring) are drawn to and cause the fan to spin (it's also why the fan shutters at low voltage, and comes to a juttering halt when you spin it by hand). This magnetic field draws in the photons which imparts a curve, in the same fashion as the fan is made to rotate. SO what that does is makes the photos impact the fan blades more directly because they are all spinning in the same direction!

As you can now *cough* 'see', there is a practical reason for these lights, and we just get to enjoy the beautiful light show they put off in the end.
Unfortunately, though, this entire post is complete and utter satire, and so while a lot of what I said is based on real science, it in no way has any real world application in this situation.
And with that, I provide my closing sarcasm BBCode: [/sarcasm]
:pompous:

(Supercharger_Z06, if I upset you with my leading insult, I apologize! lol Hopefully after understanding it's all in jest, you can forgive me... ^_^)
Did you know that the force of photons adds about 100 lbs to the city of Chicago during the day as compared at night?
I know that your post was full of sarcasm but..

PpV0evc.png
 
LED's don't bother me, for those who don't like them can always turn them off as others have said. (I did my thing with cathodes back in the day....im good...LOL)

It's when they seem to take priority over spending time developing a case with better airflow that bothers me the most.

What good are your fans (LED or not) if they are choked from getting proper airflow?
And whats with these morons who use LED fans and glass front panels to make their product look "cool" to sell more units... yet they are apparently too stupid to notice that their UN-centered labels on those fans make them look like they're wobbling!?

I honestly don't see why these things even have to be pointed out to these companies!.......So you're telling me that not a single person in your company notices this stuff?...Only when someone points it out on the show floor or review? WTF? :confused:

Heck, we're now hearing reports that case makers have discovered if they move a vertical mounted GPU further away from the side panel it gets more air! WOW! Like common sense didn't tell them that in the first damn place!?!? :confused:

note: I love my Noctu NH-D14 ugly fans an all!
 
Last edited:
Good, I don't want my computer to look like some disco. Noctua fans are top notch, currently running quite a few in different rigs.
 
Noctua is an Austrian, not German, company. The gov has some kind of lab that they use to do modeling

Having RGB in a product will increase the cost, if a company would offer an RGB-less product identical to one with RGB, it will be cheaper to produce. They don't, though, that is our gripe. If we want certain features (usb 3.1, m.2 slots, etc) in say, a mid-level product from a given manufacturer, they only sell the RGB-added models, which, surprise, adds to the product cost for no value-add for me.

I use Noctua almost exclusively, my NZXT case has the top stamping that only fits the NZXT 200 mm fans because they have the ring-only shroud with tabs for the screws, I tried Noctua 200's and they won't fit (at least not without some Dremel surgery) . Had this NZXT for about 5 years, have gone through one set of the 200mm NZXT fans (to be very fair, NZXT sent me 2 new 200mm fans when I contacted them), the 140mm Noctua's are still quietly going about their business.
 
if a company would offer an RGB-less product identical to one with RGB, it will be cheaper to produce. They don't, though, that is our gripe.

Give me an example of a product that no longer comes in non-RGB that costs more than it's previous iteration that doesn't have RGB all while maintaining all the same features.

I mean, you can buy RGB mechanical keyboards for $30, RGB mice for $10, RGB fans for the same price as non-RGB fans, motherboards with RGB are no more expensive that their older iterations AND most likely have more and newer features.

You people just saying what you say doesn't make it TRUE. THAT'S MY GRIPE. Quit shitting on others and having a CHOICE just because you all weirdly have some issue with fucking LED's.
 
So happy they decided to switch to black. RGB or not, enthusiasts care about what the inside of their PC looks like. That ugly ass brown and browner scheme certainly stood out, but in a bad way. I can guarantee they'll see an uptick on revenue now that they've made the switch. Their reputation precedes them, so they're not going to be just another black fan.
 
How ignorant. Really.

How superficial. Really.

See, I can play that game too. Really serves to move the discussion forward. Yep.

Give me an example of a product that no longer comes in non-RGB that costs more than it's previous iteration that doesn't have RGB all while maintaining all the same features.

I mean, you can buy RGB mechanical keyboards for $30, RGB mice for $10, RGB fans for the same price as non-RGB fans, motherboards with RGB are no more expensive that their older iterations AND most likely have more and newer features.

You people just saying what you say doesn't make it TRUE. THAT'S MY GRIPE. Quit shitting on others and having a CHOICE just because you all weirdly have some issue with fucking LED's.

He did not say a thing about the sales price. You are pretty clueless if you think adding LED's to a fan does not increase the costs of manufacturing.

Speaking of kids.......
 
How superficial. Really.

See, I can play that game too. Really serves to move the discussion forward. Yep.

What the fuck is superficial about me saying "ignore it or turn it off if you don't like it and quit being a hater and talking shit about others that like it"? Don't want RGB? Buy stuff that doesn't have it. Can't find what you want without RGB? Turn the RGB off. DONE. BOOM. Moving on...

He did not say a thing about the sales price. You are pretty clueless if you think adding LED's to a fan does not increase the costs of manufacturing.

Speaking of kids.......

"Having RGB in a product will increase the cost"

"adds to the product cost for no value-add for me."

This is what he says...what comment did you read? Also, as to the cost of MANUFACTURING who rightly GIVES A SHIT when it doesn't affect to cost to YOU AND I.

Yeah, kids. The "BS" in your user name fits you thusly.
 
Give me an example of a product that no longer comes in non-RGB that costs more than it's previous iteration that doesn't have RGB all while maintaining all the same features.

I mean, you can buy RGB mechanical keyboards for $30, RGB mice for $10, RGB fans for the same price as non-RGB fans, motherboards with RGB are no more expensive that their older iterations AND most likely have more and newer features.

You people just saying what you say doesn't make it TRUE. THAT'S MY GRIPE. Quit shitting on others and having a CHOICE just because you all weirdly have some issue with fucking LED's.

Noctua has actually stated that the clear plastic etc used in CC and LED fans is something they would never use because of higher pitched vibrations that come from it. They also have had issues with newer fan designs because even the current plastic types were not strong enough and blade tip to housing clearances were so tight in their designs, that other plastics would stretch and contact the housing, small gaps in this area are a large factor in fan performance particularity on rads and HS's. The changes are small, but are there, just because you don't notice them doesn't mean other people don't care about it, Noctua is one of the few if not ONLY mfg not doing RGB, so why are you so butthurt about "choice" when your "choice" is what the market is flooded with?

You are screaming about people who don't like LEDs because you like LEDs. A number of people here have said they don't care about other people with LEDs and some are even nice....They just don't want them in their rig and would rather the money go into a pure performance product than one that might have some sacrifice. To top it all off, if you want a RGB build, there are TONS of kits to add it even if nothing in your build has LEDs. I have seen some nice well lit builds on display....but I don't want that in my build, and I don't want something flashing/bright light next to me while I am gaming or watching something. We non-RGB people have ONE brand on our side, so fuck off that some of us might want to give them some praise for supporting and sticking to their customer base.

/Rant
 
Well as I've seen, the cheapest industrial fans are about the same price as the average pc fans. And the rest is just outrageously expensive. Maybe it's just here, but I'm yet to see a good quality industrial fan. The most disappointing were the pabst ones, I forked out a lot of doe for them, only to get very poor performance/noise ratio, and about 12 months of life from their ball bearings.

Sure I haven't tried them for years now, so maybe industrial fan mfgs have upped their game in the past few years.

Nah, most industrial fans are still utter crap. I agree with you on that. Build quality is low, material used are suspect (cheap bearings), quality control just makes sure they can turn and push air, but noise and performance wise, they could care less. They can typically be found in lower end mass produced consumer electronics. But there are definitely some brands/models of industrial fans where some serious engineering took place and corners were not cut, turning out some true gems. While there are some like the Sanyo Denki SAN Ace that are reliable, can push crazy amounts of air and outperform everything out there... but unfortunately are loud as fuck. The real exception is the Nidec Servo GT's. I feel they are even built more solidly than even Noctua's. Unfortunately, they are a bit harder to find these days and a bit pricey @ $23. (I remember buying them for $14.99 years ago.) They can still be found on Amazon and Performance-PCs also sells them, but not a lot of other places.
 
Noctua is one of the few if not ONLY mfg not doing RGB, so why are you so butthurt about "choice" when your "choice" is what the market is flooded with?

I'm not speaking about Noctua specifically...I'm talking about the people shitting on RGB just because RGB. I don't care what Noctua does, there's other fan choices out there.

"You are screaming about people who don't like LEDs because you like LEDs.

I'm not screaming at anyone because they don't like LED's...they're acting like assholes towards those that do. Acting like enjoying LED's makes you some fucking idiot child or something. It's a goddamn circlejerk of "people who like RGB are lesser thans!"

I'm sorry you've taken what I've said out of context and it upset you.
 
Give me an example of a product that no longer comes in non-RGB that costs more than it's previous iteration that doesn't have RGB all while maintaining all the same features.

I mean, you can buy RGB mechanical keyboards for $30, RGB mice for $10, RGB fans for the same price as non-RGB fans, motherboards with RGB are no more expensive that their older iterations AND most likely have more and newer features.

You people just saying what you say doesn't make it TRUE. THAT'S MY GRIPE. Quit shitting on others and having a CHOICE just because you all weirdly have some issue with fucking LED's.
What the fuck is superficial about me saying "ignore it or turn it off if you don't like it and quit being a hater and talking shit about others that like it"? Don't want RGB? Buy stuff that doesn't have it. Can't find what you want without RGB? Turn the RGB off. DONE. BOOM. Moving on...



"Having RGB in a product will increase the cost"

"adds to the product cost for no value-add for me."

This is what he says...what comment did you read? Also, as to the cost of MANUFACTURING who rightly GIVES A SHIT when it doesn't affect to cost to YOU AND I.

Yeah, kids. The "BS" in your user name fits you thusly.


Well, you missed the first point completely. Not surprising. Your singular foacused anger around the negative views of RGB lighting will not allow you to have a decent discussion. I was referencing your superficial understanding of what I had said. Hint: I never said a word about age.


"adds to the product cost" and it is does. Whether or not it is passed along it up to the retailer.


Really? Poking fun at my initials. Yes, that is truly the sign of an adult.

I have to giggle a bit at this. Getting all worked up over others opinions of RGB lighting. It is an odd thing to get worked up about.
 
Well, you missed the first point completely. Not surprising.

What am I missing that I haven't already covered?

Your singular focused anger around the negative views of RGB lighting will not allow you to have a decent discussion.

No, I'm pointing out OTHERS FOCUSED ANGER around RGB. Again, don't like it...don't buy it or use it. Putting others down that do does NOT allow "decent discussion".

Hint: I never said a word about age.

You haven't. Good job. Others are.

"adds to the product cost" and it is does. Whether or not it is passed along it up to the retailer.

OK so why should any of us care? If it's not costing us more than what in the fuck is goddamn problem?!

Really? Poking fun at my initials. Yes, that is truly the sign of an adult.

Yes, because what you're saying sounds like bullshit. You're either talking about something I'm not or just hating on RGB for bullshit reasons (like manufacturing costs...ARE YOU A MANUFACTURER?!).

I have to giggle a bit at this. Getting all worked up over others opinions of RGB lighting. It is an odd thing to get worked up about.

Giggle? You must be laughing hysterically at the ones literally insulting people that do like RGB then...or is it because since you agree with them it makes you biased and somehow I'm the only one with the issue? You're responding to me getting all worked up yourself it seems.
 
Last edited:
And some people have cheap desktop drives that last for years, that does not mean there is no place for enterprise drives, they just might not be for you. Believe it or not, your specific use case, is not the only use case.
Holy f*ck, sensitive much?

I just said that I didn't observe the seemingly widespread pump failures / leaks of AIOs.
Didn't say a f*cking thing about how AIOs were better, or that big air coolers were pointless, or that my use case is the be all and end all.
 
Back
Top