Let's be honest, both some of the best heatsinks and fans are Noctua’s, especially when you are looking for low noise output. The problem is they have been very stuck on their brown and tan color scheme. The benefit is that when you see them you know exactly what it is and you know it is a quality product. They ignored the clear and glowing transparent fan fad that came and went but with cases and other hardware sticking with black they resisted changing to it. A few years ago they did bring out their Industrial PPC fans that were black but they were much more expensive and even though they are great fans a lot of people have looked other directions when swapping out their fans. Well a while back Noctua expanded their Chromax lineup with a new line of fans, new cables, and covers for most of their heatsinks that help give people color options for trim and finally fans and coolers that won’t stand out like a sore thumb while still giving people Noctua quality. I’ve had them in the office for a while and as I work on catching up I just recently got a chance to play with them when a build I put together just wasn’t going with the Noctua cooler that I put in it.

Product Name: Noctua Chromax

Review Samples Provided by: Noctua

Written by: Wes Compton

Pictures by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

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Cables

So with the original Chromax lineup from Noctua they just had rubber mounting pads and the pull through rubber mounts available in a few colors. But this time around they really went crazy with the Chromax theme and they even brought out new Chromaxed versions of the cables they introduced last year. This included their NA-SEC1 ran extensions and NA-SYC1 fan splitters. I took a look at the original versions of these last year when they first came out. Now though they have a touch of color added in.

So they both come in black, green, red, yellow, white, and blue. This matches the rest of the Noctua Chromax lineup over the years. Still no orange, but I will keep up the good fight there. These do cover most of the standard colors. The extension cables are 30 centimeters or just under 12 inches long. Thre is about an inch of heat shrink tubing on each end as well. Beyond that, they do have a Noctua label sticker in the middle that is a little distracting and that can be hard to take off. The sleeving itself has an almost waxy feel to it but with that I know it will pull through and fit anywhere you need it.

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The Y splitters are also for four pin PWM fans but these are much shorter than the extension cables at just over 5 inches overall including the connections. The colored portion of the sleeving though is only about an inch and a half long. The long heat shrink tubing is especially noticeable here. In fact with both, because of the heat shrink tubing, I suspect a lot of builds you won’t even seen the Chromax colors when you have the cable coming out through a cable management hole and then being plugged in. A little tighter on the tubing could show off the colors more. Beyond that, these are just basic 1 to 2 splitters. You will have to fight to take the Noctua sticker off on these as well but they will do the job. I’ve been using the original all black splitter and cable on builds around the office. In the box you get three cables, this helps justify the overall cost a little because picking up a set of these on Amazon right now is going to run you about $9.90 with shipping. There is a markup for the Noctua name, but I think these will become important when you are trying to match all of your Chromax colors all together.

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Chromax Fans

Of everything announced, I don’t think anything has the same anticipation as the Chromax fan lineup. As I mentioned before Noctua did introduce their Industrial PPC fans a few years ago now and they are black. But honestly those were overkill for what most PC users need and they were expensive. So with the new fans, I was really hoping they would help fill in that gap. So Noctua sent us one of each fan and all of them match current fans in the lineup so the fans themselves aren’t new, just the black color and the inclusion of a full array of Chromax accessories with each fan. So here are the model names for the new fans.

NF-A15 HS-PWM Chromax Black Swap

NF-A14 PWM Chromax Black Swap

NF-F12 PWM Chromax Black Swap

NF-S12A PWM Chromax Black Swap

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Honestly, when I opened up the fans I was just expecting the same setup as normal so Noctua including all of the Chromax colored rubber pads with each fan was a nice addition. In the past you had to buy the fan and then your specific color, this lets you decide on a color later on.

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The other big change with each of the fans is the replaceable cords. You get a sleeved black cable with the fan, but this is where the Chromax fan extension cables come into play. There is just a short nub of a cord built on to the fan and then you can plug whatever color you need into it.

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Of course, you get all of the same colors as other Chromax products. There are vibration pads in red, blue, green, yellow, black, and white. The downside however and this is a big one, in my opinion, is you only get four of each color. This seems like a huge oversight to me, with four you can only put them on one side of the fan. So you can put them in between the fan and your heatsink or case to cut down vibrations or on the outside for looks.

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With some these fans having similar Industrial models also in black the price is important. But remember with the industrial models you do have to go out and buy a set of Chromax vibration pads as well in the color you want so that will add to the cost. I was curious how these compare to regular Noctua fans though so I put together the pricing. The pricing on the 120mm fans is really good, especially considering the other pads are included. The NF-A15 HS-PWM is a little high but this is also a fan that normally is picked up with your heatsink. Most people won't be picking this one up to also do all of their case fans. You do still have to pay Noctua prices, so outfitting your whole setup with these is going to hurt the pocketbook a little, but there is a reason I run Noctuas in almost all of our builds. They have a solid construction, are quiet, and perform well.

NF-A15 HS-PWM Chromax Black Swap $26.90

NF-A15 HS-PWM $21.50

NF-A14 PWM Chromax Black Swap $24.90

NF-A14 PWM $21.95

NF-F12 PWM Chromax Black Swap $22.90

NF-F12 PWM $19.95

NF-S12A PWM Chromax Black Swap $22.90

Noctua NF-S12A PWM $19.95

 


Chromax Heatsink Covers

Noctua also included six of their new Chromax heatsink covers as well. The way they break down is they have three designs in two different sizes. The two sizes are important to help them cover most of their most popular heatsinks. Three of them fit the NH-D15, NH-D15S- and NH-D15 SE-AM4, all variations on their huge D15. Then the others work with the NH-U12S, NH-U12S TR4-SP3, and the NH-U12S SE-AM4. Those are all variations of the U12, lucky for us we use the U12 on all of our test benches because they have good cooling while fitting in almost any case. So the D15 models as you see below come in a larger box and each actually comes with two covers. That is because the D15 is a monster and has two towers to cover up.

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Along with the covers, each box also comes with an easy to read instruction sheet, mounting clips, and a grey plastic magnetic mount for each cover. The NA-HC3 also comes with six dual-sided color inserts, two of each color.

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Here are what the three different models look like individually. The HC3 is the one on the left and in the second photo. It comes with the color inserts because it has an arrow-like design cut into it and you can use the inserts to color match it with your Chromax fans and cables. The HC4 has both white and black variations, this is huge because not only has black been popular but white themes have taken off as well over the years. To the point where you can even find white AIO kits, Video cards, and even motherboards.

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So the smaller U12 models only need a single cover so the boxes fit that. They have the same color and design options as the larger models but because of the different sizes, they do have different model numbers. The HC1 is the arrow design and then the HC2 is the simple design and is also available in white or black. They all come with the same grey plastic magnetic mounting system and the HC1 still comes with a swappable insert. There isn’t any reason to go into the same details again so check out the photos.

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Once I took a look at all that Noctua had to offer I did want to put some of the new Chromax stuff to use. Specifically, the day before I had built in the H400i in a black on black version and the all blacked out build was looking really out of place with the Noctua fan and silver heatsink in the middle. What a perfect chance to play around, we already had the U12 installed so all I had to do was grab the NF-F12 PWM Chromax Black Swap fan and all three of the U12 based covers.

So installing the Chromax covers, in typical Noctua fashion, was extremely simple. You don’t need to remove your heatsink, you just take the magnetic mount and clip it on to the top of the heatsink using the second fin down.

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From there the covers just slide on and stay in place from the magnets. There are rubber pads built into the inside of the cover to make sure there isn’t any vibration or noise later but they run smooth down the heatsink as well. I doubt many people will have more than one cover, but it was a blast just swapping between them trying to decide what look I wanted to go with. I knew I didn’t need any bright colors for this specific build but I didn’t know if I wanted black or to do a white accent. The white really stands out but looks good. In the end, I went with the basic black but in most other builds I would have gone with something more flashy.

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Now when I installed our fan, this is when I actually figured out that the Chromax fans come with just four rubber pads of each color. I debated on using them on the inside for noise or outside for looks. Even just using black I thought they looked good. In the end, I put them on the outside but this is a real issue with these fans. The mount touches the outside and the heatsink the inside, both sides need that rubber pad for vibration not to mention it is all going to look weird when you only have a bright colored pad on one side of the fan.

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As for pricing of these kits, they are about in line with Noctua fans actually. Not bad considering they are all metal in construction. The U12 models all can be found for $19.90 on Amazon and the D15 covers with two covers are $29.90. I was happy to see that they didn’t just double the price for the D15’s. The HC3 wasn’t available at the time of writing but I imagine it is also going to run that same price.

Noctua NA-HC1 chromax.black.swap heatsink cover $19.90

Noctua NA-HC2 chromax.white heatsink cover $19.90

Noctua NA-HC2 chromax.black heatsink cover $19.90

Noctua NA-HC3 chromax.black.swap heatsink covers $N/A

Noctua NA-HC4 chromax.black heatsink covers $29.90

Noctua NA-HC4 chromax.white heatsink covers $29.90

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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