We know cooling is key when it comes to optimizing your HomeLab, and Noctua fans have been a popular choice among our users. Right now, we offer the classic brown Noctua fans, but we’ve heard some interest in the Black Chromax edition as well.
So, we want to hear from you — Would you prefer to see the Noctua Black Chromax fans as an option in our store, or would you rather the original brown option? Or both?
This is like me debating what color to paint my house when the roof needs fixed. IE, the fundamental problem that almost no-one wants fans running at 100% 24x365 and shouldn’t need to pay an additional $230 for that. What I’d like to see is the “standard fans” for the bare chassis through fully built to be the 4-pin equivalent of the current 3-pin CoolerGuys fans, set up to be connected to the motherboard through two y-splitters, not the power distribution board. This should incur no price change. And/or offer a “no fans” version for a reduced cost.
You can still leave the PDB to be reconnected to for the one user that complains they aren’t getting the full datacenter experience in their living room.
I agree with DigitalGarden on that there should be an option to be able to PWM the stock delivered fans instead of buying Noctua fans to be able to do that. On the colour of the fans I could only say that more options would be better. Taste is in the eye of the beholder.
The NF A12X25 PWM or NF-F12 industrialPPC-2000 PWM have decent acoustics and work great as I have used both. I have not run the Black Chromax as either I wanted more static pressure due to radiator or the NF A12X15 PWM was on an airflow build.
I also use their splitter cables instead of the fan hub, and just set a fan step up/down delay, although that may not be there on some server boards.