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by VorpalWay 46 days ago
I love Noctua fans and I don't care about their colour. For all I cared they could be pink as long as they are best in class on noise and reliability.

They are going inside the computer where they aren't visible. The point of a computer to me is to be powerful while being as discrete about it as it can be (i.e. quiet and no blinking rgb lights). I don't have a glass side panel, I run an older Fractal case with aluminum sides with sound dampening instead.

I never understood "form over function", but each to their own.
2 comments
wolvoleo 46 days ago
> They are going inside the computer where they aren't visible.

Speak for yourself :) My computer is pretty open, the fans are visible through the front and through the side panel.

I don't run RGB either though but I do like to style it.

And of course the "form over function" is part of that market niche that really pays a lot for something like a fan. Noctua aren't that special, as others have mentioned there are much cheaper brands with the same performance including sound level. You do pay a lot for just the branding.

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VorpalWay 46 days ago
Every other brans of fans I have used (which to be fair is far from all of them) have only lasted 3 maybe 4 years before they started making more noise than when new. They weren't completely broken, but any increase in noise is unacceptable to me. I live in an old quiet house, there is no noise from forced ventilation but because it doesn't have that. There is no city noise. On a still day in the winter with no wind or birdsong it can be extremely quiet.

I have some Noctua fans still going strong after a decade. Are there other brands that can also do that? Probably, I have some BeQuiet fans now too in a tower CPU cooler (couldn't get hold of a Noctua cooler during the pandemic), it will be interesting to see what happens in another 6 years or so with them.

And no, I don't change my computer every 3 years or so any more, so longevity does matter to me.

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saltmate 46 days ago
Any examples for these cheaper brands with same performance?
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wolvoleo 45 days ago
BeQuiet for example. Also others have mentioned Arctic which is even cheaper but I have no experience with them. BeQuiet I do, I have 7 of their fans.
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dyauspitr 46 days ago
Hunh now that you bring it up, I would care if they were pink. I wouldn’t have them in my build if they were.
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