If nothing else, make sure you at least watch the technical section at 11:21! Awesome detail in there and Jakob really goes into the specifics on why this new, unique hook-shaped design is what Noctua chose. Watch our Noctua NH-D15 Gen2 coverage here: ua-cam.com/video/Cng_J4sBaNs/v-deo.html
The part about pushing air outward from the slower moving area was interesting. Though I would also have liked to hear some more details on their toffee to chocolate ratios.
@@GamersNexus the PC building/hardware space owes a lot to the work you guys do. I have been enjoying these last few Computex videos a whole lot. Really like your weekly news vids and the case reviews. Thank you for the great content. Also love Noctua.
holy. the quality of this interview is insane. perfect balance between explaining stuff and excepting a certain knowledge from the viewer. Very detailed without being boring, super and interesting.
The fact Jakob could speed talk that long about in a non-native language with perfect consistency and technical accuracy about such arcane facets of the topic is fantastic, best piece of Computex coverage easily!
@@GamersNexus Who would have thought how incredibly complex creating a fan could be... This is why I love these videos. Giving us context we otherwise just wouldn't get. Keep it up guys, great work.
This guy's enthusiasm about their fans in an interview past the closing time after a day in the booth is glorious. You sir, convinced me to buy your stuff
for real! I wonder if this was some AI feature included in the video editing software, like the Adobe Premiere stuff, or a stand alone dedicated AI software
I... don't agree.. Sorry. Also engineers could understand which company culture they are looking for from the things that Jakob explained and told about the design process of this 140mm fan. Maybe Noctua way is not "the right way" (neverthless i like that a lot) but it's a testify of how some companies (not enough) wants to work. Also: shout out to tell about errors and problems. Maybe Noctua won't deliver the "best fan in the world", but they can surely tell why they are not providing a refined designe every 2 years. They look for significant performance improvement through every iteration. They look for significant and long term reliability. They look for consistent long term performance. In my opinion this is commendable and something to look for.
Im always a little surprised a company like Noctua can exist and survive. The research cost must be crazy high.. I hope they have a profitable future because the care amd integrity Noctua have for their products is phenomenal
The answer to how, might be that the research team is sized for the timeline they expect. If you had an infinite money machine, all those fan iterations from the video could have been done in a year. But, that's not the reality of PC hardware. A fan company like Noctua moves hardware, and has a great reputation, but they may only be able to support a handful of R&D staff. Excellent staff, but a limited team size.
Quality starts by doing the right thing, not necessarily the popular thing. Unfortunately this is a model that seemingly few businesses have where marketing pressure and consumer demand doesn't expedite a product release. It also gives a better understanding of why their products cost a premium price.
IMO, the thing that allows them to take this long for a size iteration is bc they have wonderful sales due to having engineered other high-class, evergreen products (their other fans).
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@@klfjoat and by being very consumer-friendly in terms of replacements, RMA, new brackets etc.
If you make the best, there is always a market of people who will want to buy your product. The key at that point is ensuring your pricing can be afforded by enough people in that market, and that your marketing and engineering can prove to that market that your product is indeed the best.
@@PyromancerRift I'd argue that a circle is the perfect shape, and that a square is made by adding corners to it. Therefore, you can't cut what isn't there in the 1st place 🤓
I remember Linus talking about the screwdriver on how he had a conversation with someone from Noctua and he said “well you make the best fans you must have the best engineers”, and they replied “well we have good engineers, but we give them enough time to make the best”
That’s the whole idea. Like making a quality fan is easy those delta fans in PC works perfectly fine. But making a good fan is all about balancing noise, flow and pressure, and then figure out how to mass produce that.
@@victorhugofranciscon7899 Yeah, though in some areas there's merit to the other related saying "perfect is the enemy of good". If you're only working for perfection, you'll spend a LOT of time without anything, and it'd be more useful to do something that's merely good until you can get perfect finished up. In fans this is not an issue, there are _plenty_ of companies making good fans (and bad fans), so Noctua can take their time on perfect. =)
As an example of how much they care. We had a set of fans turn pink. They sent over a replacement set of course BUT had us ship back the bad ones directly to their R&D in Austria. Also there was a white LED strip near them. Since this was a possibly the cause, they wanted that as well. Noctua paid for a new strip (during a time when they were rare) and had us ship the one with the fans over to them. Couple of years later there was a slight shift in the peach'y tan color. No idea if its related but I really appreciate when companies want to know why something had the issue so they can improve it.
Sounds like a pigment reaction issue they hadn't tested for. I don't think you were the sole reason, but it's likely they had several instances of this and that led to the revision.
Capitalism makes it a huge challenge to prevail with excellence. Although in theory the masses are to blame, but they are also the ones abetting capitalism. So as always, any system can only be as good as the people who make it up.
@@Dowlphin that and shareholders holding companies hostage if they decide to become publicly traded. Linus has talked about it a few times but to summarise, you get a butt-load of money from it to fund without decades of gold grinding, however shareholders typically want more money quarter by quarter and if they don't get their way they have the power to FIRE THE OWNER(S) OF THE COMPANY AND FORCE THEIR WAY. it's stupid really, because if the shareholders truely believe only their way will work or make the most money then they're free to sell their stocks and buy into a competitor who will try, but instead they would rather mutiny and sink the ship if/when their plans fail. this is the main reason LTT/LMG remain a private company, as they would rather grind and not have to worry about some jaded cynical billionaire calling the shots over people who ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND the industry and consumers. luckilly, Noctua is Private too, so unless they change and decide to go Public, they are in full control, not some cash goblins. (imo no doubt there are (albeit rare) shadow shareholders who do this purposefully as a form of corporate espionage, or even just for their own twisted kicks, however this is speculation on my part)
Sometimes the cheap stuff is the better value. It could be argued that there are severely diminishing returns with ultra high end. I am glad that Noctua is there as an alternative choice.
They are years behind their own road map… How does that make you company of the year? They have been dethroned in terms of fan performance for a long time now. If the new fans don‘t deliver, they can just gtfo.
@@_-Montana-_ Yeah man i‘m such a noctua hater with 4x NF-A12s and 2 A14s in my build. I‘m such a hater that i‘m waiting for over two years for their damn upgraded 140mm fan that probably will be delayed for the 1525262th time.
@@cl4ssic Everyone can just say oh I own this Noctua product I am not a hater. In any case the reason they kept delaying it is because they don't want to cut corners and want to make sure their fans provide the best possible performance and last the longest possible time. Fans from my water cooling build that had fans pull hot air through the radiator still work 10 years down the line and still work consistently which other company can boast that? The fans are still in use cooling my personal NAS running 24/7 still and work about as well as they did when they were new. Also never realized this but that's why my Corsair fans would make horrible noise after 2-3 years doing a pull configuration on AIOs is because of thermal creep. But I guess fortunately for impatient people like you there are tons of companies out there that will cut those corners and will sacrifice quality to release a product earlier good for you isn't it.
I have so much respect for Noctua. They sent me an adapter upgrade kit for my old Noctua CPU cooler so that I could keep using my old Noctua cooler when I switched from AM3 to AM4, for no charge, and this was already after the 6 year warranty had expired. And, yet, I don't really think of my cooler as being old, because it still works and sounds the same as I remember when it was new. (It's an NH-L12)
My D-14 served me through AM3 LGA 1150 and now AM4 withy free adapter upgrade from Noctua afer I contacted support ;) Now my brother and several friends have Noctua :]
Same. I have an ancient cooler and was happy to buy the mounting kit. However, I wasn’t sure which one I needed so I sent them a question to make sure I’d order the correct one. They came back offering to send it to me for free.
Same here.. When i moved from AM3+ to AM4 i contacted Noctua about AM4 mounting kit for my NH-D15 cooler, and they send one for free... Great company...
@@winebartender6653 do they do it completely for free (not even charging shipping costs worldwide) forever even if you bought the cooler 15 years ago? Most don’t. Noctua does.
My experience with Noctua products has been so positive that I really don't even cross-shop the top performing fans anymore. I just pick from the Noctua lineup for whatever application i need. This level of detail is how all companies should operate.
I only buy noctua fans for my personal builds. They are so awesome I’d rather save up for the fans. If they keep up with their company priorities in making the best fan possible I’ll always buy from them.
I cannot overstate the monumental engineering task that is simulating a fan with CFD, as well as visco-plasticity for creep and fatigue. I do FEA for my job, mostly linear dynamic and some thermal (conduction only), and some explicit with simple non-linear materials. The work that Noctua puts into their simulations must be top notch for sure. Kudos to Steve for the interesting insight and Noctua for the great fans!
I love when Steve busts out his Mandarin Chinese hidden super power. I bet the guards were like "Oh snap! This guy needs 10 more minutes and were gonna give him 10 more minutes because he asked us nicely in our native language."
@@themacjunkie He doesn't flaunt it or look for ways to put it in videos, but he's known Mandarin for a while now and it has been shown in some of his factory tour videos as far as I can recall.
It says a lot when the company rep (who writes all their emails I just realised) stays after the show has ended to talk about their products. That's a level of mutual respect you cannot buy.
Security didn't expect at all you speaking mandarin to them, hell even I didn't expect that lol. The coverage of computex has been amazing this year, especially the ones you guys did with other content creators. Shout out to the editors working their fingers off to release these videos so quickly.
This is the stuff I live for. It's so cool as an aerospace engineer who studied rotors to see all the effort and care put into the design, fabrication, testing, and validation of Noctua's products. I've got a Noctua fan in my case that's a transplant from years ago, and the plan is still to continue replacing any fan that dies with a Noctua one.
The voice isolation part of post production was working overtime here. The tech has come so far its genuinely easy to overlook the hall noise sneaking in when either of your speak.
@@POVwithRC - Your ears / brain are actually quite good as isolating sounds based on direction. Which doesn't really work after you record it, of course. So being there isn't _quite_ as bad as hearing a recording of it.
@@RFC-3514 I'm rife with hypersensitivity. I live in airpods pro 2 all day with ANC maxed out. A show floor would in fact drive me up a goddamn wall.
10 years of warrenty. Even for EU standards that's an insane amount. You need big balls to pull that off on so many technical and financial disciplines!
Actually 10 years warranty should be the standard for ALL basic tech products. And for things like cars, washing machines, fridges etc. it should be 20. Anything that fails earlier is crap by design. Would be great if laws would be changed in THAT direction for environmental reasons, instead of just banning old tech and forcing people to buy new (e.g. ICE vs. EV cars)...
@@franklehmann3785 If we simply consider environmental reasons then some sort of limited warranty might be better. Say 3 years of full warranty and rest are limited where company will attempt an repair but is not required to make full replacement. As if you get full replacement it's not really doing anything for the environment. The old one just gets trashed anyway. It's only a question of money at that point. But repairs would be better. Of course no one truly cares about environment but only about the money.
@@franklehmann3785 exactly everyone oh the environment I care about so much!!.. while they mass produce crap instead of quality because of worship of money.
@@franklehmann3785 It's a very double edged sword. Such long warranty simply doesn't work for all markets and business models. So ethically I 100% agree with you, but I know from experience that it means that it's not doable to run certain types of business and/or products with that. 10 years is really difficult to maintain even for repairs. Some parts are not even available anymore at all.
What an amazing interview. In regard to the common quote “they don’t make things like they used to”, Noctua is unrivaled in regards to a company promoting quality over replaceability. So many manufacturers engineer their products to fail within a shorter lifespan, whereas Noctua is committed to their products outliving anything else on the market without sacrificing performance. You absolutely get what you pay for with Noctua, and their quality and engineering have earned them their well-deserved reputation that is unparalleled throughout the industry. I am so excited to see what future innovation Noctua can bring to the industry. edit: I’m currently running a NH-D15S cooler, and my next “blacked out” system will run full Noctua cromax black fans!
I have 2 of cheapest Noctua fans running outside, one cooling a solar inverter and another cooling a car charger enclosure..harsh environments and still working fine. A testimony to the quality of these fans.
I had Thermaltake Fans fail on me after many years (bearing got louder first and then the fanspeed oszillated).. which where rather cheap, so that still was a good lifetime for the price. Currently I have be-quiet and Fractal Design fans running more or less daily for 5+ years now - and not a sign of wear. There are some really good brands in the business, which usually cost a little more - but you get best quality in return. Noctua imho is the spearhead here... Be-Quiet in Germany propably is their closest competitor - to what I know (and I don't have any special insights!) be-quiet also invests a lot in engineering, quality and testing - but not to the level of detail as Noctua. BQ is partly offloading engineering to their suppliers and then is selecting the best options they come up with resp. refine the prototypes. Using a cyclist comparison (not cars this time) - Noctua is Specialized and be-quiet is Canyon 😉
Yea I think most companies are afraid of giving away their hard earned secrets. Noctua by comparison doesn’t care because they know every other fan manufacturer is going to copy them anyway, and Noctua knows how difficult it is to make a fan to their specifications. Plus Noctua’s brand mostly relies on their warranty. Evga was the same way. Someone making a similarly performing product for cheaper isn’t really a concern to them because they know that most of their customers choose them because quality is guaranteed, and are supported by super long warranties.
It's refreshing and wholesome to see a company that loves doing what they do and lets their work speak for them (shout-out to Fractal Design, too). Keep up the great work, Noctua and GN. Proud to be a consumer of both :)
I love the emphasis Jakob puts on quality and longevity. You can't see build quality on a new product, it's a very unsexy thing to the most companies, it's great to see Noctua's commitment to it.
When people say spending the big bucks for some fans is beyond crazy, I'd fall back to this video, and be further assured in my purchase decision Kudos Steve and team, you guys keep raising the bar with each one of your vids you put out
This is a very important highlight in reporting journalism worldwide. You can call it "niche" market, you can call it whatever you want, but it's unique content in the world for a specific topic that no one else does, so it's important and important to give credit and importance. Thanks for Noctua to wanting to be on the top engineering, and thanks for Gamer Nexus for doing so important work.
My respect for Noctua is immense, they aim for the best of the best and it really shows. As a proud owner of NH-D15 chromax I know that they got me if anything goes wrong. Can't wait to see the new stuff on sale.
This makes me feel a lot better about spending a couple hundred dollars to replace all of my case fans with Noctuas. Made my build quiet, beautiful, and ugly all at the same time.
Mine is beautiful with it, not only because it's not all visuals for me but also because I have a windowless case anyway. I replaced the pair of fans on my Enermax AIO cooler three or four times because they started rattling and then I had enough of all the RMA hassle and replaced them with Noctuas. The only noise they ever make is the wind flow sound and they run so low on vibration that rubber spacing seems unnecessary, and even if they were slightly necessary at max RPM, then the air noise would drown out any vibration noise anyway. EVGA-level brand loyalty for Noctua. Even more so since they stay away from the lighting silliness.
Honestly, I would love a case in their maroon colour or the champagne/vanilla. Steve made a video recently showing a PC case design team and one of their cases would be a close fit....
This is incredible. To see the level of care and time and thought they put into their product is exceptional. Next time I need fans I’m getting Noctuas
I absolutely love nothing more than hearing engineers talk about their jobs when they are as passionate about their job as this person. Thanks for doing this Interview GN. As always love this sort of content you provide..
Seriously, the depth and sheer level of details and research GN puts in these videos is unbelievable. Those analysis-videos, the industry-coverage etc. I honestly don't understand how you aren't featured regularly in every major hardware outlet.
Noctua, please take your time to do everything right! It's why you are the benchmark for a consumer brand, let alone the fact that the NH-D15 has been the benchmark air cooler for longer than I can remember, and I got in during early Haswell.
We can now appreciate the cost of Noctua fans! The project development and management that goes into these products justifies this alone and the result is insane quality! I have better respect for this company. Thanks, Steve.
@@chaon93 Helps a ton! Especially in situations where we need to ask permission to stay after we started like this. He had been motioning for us to leave.
He's been working hard on that I think. I feel like he's improved a lot.
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Absolutely stunning to see such engineering enthusiasm and professionalism. It's sad that some Companies will just rip off the design. Thanks to the GN Crew for making such quality content possible!
All my original Noctua fans are still running, and they cool so damn good, love this brand, and if they stick to what they say, I will be a customer for a long time to come.
This is such a fascinating view into a very specific application of aerodynamics, engineering, material science, and manufacturing. I'm blown away with the attention to detail that Noctua's products clearly get during the research and development workflow, and that they're open to talk about it like this. It's a fresh breath of air in the world were most marketing consists of just fancy keywords, RGB lighting, and performance numbers that don't really make sense without proper context. Especially in these turbulent times, I wish Noctua's new products get good wind beneath their wings.
Well done GN for the interview. And thank you to Noctua for giving a solid interview. As a longtime buyer of Noctua heatsinks and fans, it is reassuring to see this level of commitment.
This was extremely informative and educational. Thanks GN for their professional persistence in bringing us this very enlightening interview with Jakob Dellinger at Noctua. It was refreshing to listen to Jakob as he was clear, concise and didn't overly rely on jargon as some people tend to do. Looking forward to seeing what Noctua resolute persistence and strive for perfection brings to the market next year.
It always amazes and excites me how every corner of the Tech world we have all these areas where things look so simple to an outsider (just a fan here, thermal/performance testing in GNs typical coverage, almost every software stack that makes modern computing work, etc).. but dig a bit below the surface with an expert and there's layers upon layers of complexity where experts spend their lives buried in the details, usually invisible and vastly underappreciated, so everything will 'just work' for the rest of us. To just go a tiny bit further down the rabbit hole, I would love to hear why that second design ran into manufacturability challenges. It seems so similar to the other options there and elsewhere in the market.. what was the detail(s) that made it so different? Many thanks to Steve and his crew for pulling back the curtain and giving us a glimpse of how the magic happens & how the sausage is made. It's an absolute kid-in-a-candy-store thing for some of us and it's so, so rare to get that opportunity particularly in this industry. Hats off to you and Noctua for the education and insight.
Very impressive. I am a retired software engineer. But could have never imagined what goes into the design of something as simple looking as a fan. Also, Steve I appreciate all your science and engineering as opposed to builder folklore. Finally, your Mandarin was an unexpected surprise. Despite the constant MSM plans for another war as if it just the Super Bowl, let’s hope your Mandarin is never needed under stress again. Writing from, Taiwan, China in the Mountains overlooking where you just were.
As an Austrian Noctuas success in the market makes me feel proud of them, because they are not many computer companies in Austria and none if them are as famous as Noctua. I loved their fans before but now I've grown to a real fanboy😂 And I love your Computex coverage, it was the best and on the same level as der 8auer.
Great interview Steve! You just have to respect Noctua's unwilingness to compromise on quality in today's disposable consumer product market. I love that they are singularly focused on cooling performance, instead of jumping on the RGB hype train that seems to be focus of virtually every other fan manufacturer. A cooling performance improvement of nearly 3°C over the NF-A14 fans is simply astounding, especially given that those still rank as some of the best performing fans available more than 10 years after they were originally released.
Steve, you are an amazing person, with a goodwill, the amount of work you make for us is outstanding. Best wishes for you, thanks for everything you're doing!
Constructive criticism regarding the noise reduction being used, the way it is processed you get a very hard noise gate. If you re-add some ambient noise in the background it will be easier to listen to and would not cause as much fatigue to the viewer/listener as the volume won't be rapidly changing. Otherwise great content as usual!
Noctua are my favourite company in the PC building biz. Why yes, I do want to buy your fans that have been obsessively crafted over many years!! They're the best ones!
I appreciate their strive for quality, I'm still running my NH-D14 since 2010 and although it's gotten a little noisier since then, it's still going strong! :)
*Steven and Jakob: Thank you ever so much for this marvelous discussion/interview. Noctua appears to be the only enterprise in the PC cooling space or even the small fan space (looking at you, EBM-Pabst) whose rigorous, uncompromising processes and quality-focus rivals that of any aerospace entity designing and producing MIL quality components and systems. Noctua behaves as though every fan produced will determine whether the warfighter lives or dies. Noctua's rigor deserves every engineering accolade they may receive. On a side note, Jakob accurately describes some of the challenges Dowty Aerospace faced when designing the C-130J's curved, composite propellers. Again, thank you and Cheers!*
There is a reason why I've always considered Noctua fans to be the benchmark standard for PC fans, and this only further reinforces my reasoning behind that. Thanks Steve & Jakob (& Noctua) for this! Oh, and thank you security for letting them finish this interview (I know it likely was inconvenient). I look forward to using the new fans (when they are ready of course). 🙂
Steve, I know you are hardcore about your hardware coverage but please keep your sense of humour....Really appreciated how you dealt with all the chaos around you. Makes me happy to have a deeper interest in PC hardware. Keep bringing us this kind of coverage and content! Long live high performance air cooling!
My wife said that she couldn't believe I "made her" sit through this entire video on fans... She was playing on her Switch at the time. She is also now accepting of the fact that when I do a new build, it will be with beige and brown fans 😂 I appreciate you Steve and everyone that made this video possible ❤
@@captainanorach better have been in a sexy, seductive voice 😂 And then use that voice everytime to tell her you're going to watch GN's only fans content .
Kudos to Noctua for never settling for 'good enough' I replaced my 140mm aio fans with noctua a14s a while back and the performance in both temp and sound levels improved massively, the commitment to providing a premium product is rare in the industry and should serve as an example to everyone
Been buildings PCs in DIY and a business fashion for quite some time _(two decades ^-^)_ now - but videos like these are still *_fascinating_* to me! I love how you went above and beyond to deliver this piece - both parties involved, really nice - appreciate it!
Noctua is probably the only company I don't mind throwing money at, they seem to really care that we get both the best design, performance, and value due to longevity. I hope they stay as adamant forever.
This is what we as customers respect the most. Companies like noctua who persistently put much effort into improving the experience and the product. Hats off guys
This is really interesting and great content, Noctua's philosophy and attitude is so fantastic in a world where so many companies are dictated by marketing and cost.
Respect for the amount of engineering that went into these products. And also respect for not settling by lowering targets to be able to launch the product.
@Steve and Jakob Thank you so much for going through these lengths doing an extra mile to provide us with this insightful information about fan designs and challenges!
Still running NF-P12 and NF-S12 fans bought 2008, still rocking their cpu coolers with upgraded mounting kits. Only had 1 Noctua fan bearing go bad after 5 years, a 40mm fan. Replacement was a breeze, directly shipped from Noctua.
@@GamersNexus Actually true. Goes to show how much serious noctua are about their product quality and customer and focused on them rather than many other companies trying to reduce cost and cutting corners! Hopefully if some of the other fan company people watch this, they get motivated and do the same. And huge props to you for staying in your ground determined to get the interview, even after the closing hour, lights off, ending music, and guard telling you to go!!
Great interview. 8+ years development for a fan is just insane (in a good way). Imagine if all companys shared the same ethos. What a world it would be!
I was on the verge of upgrading my 120 noctuas in the front of my case to 140s now that this new one can support it. Now i am very impatiently awaiting the release of their new fan instead.
This is what goes into making a fan when you have a reputation to uphold, when you like what you do and strive for the best possible outcome. Great interview!
I dont fan boy for any companies. I think fanboying over a company is a terrible idea... However Noctua always has my money. I do wish they made more niche fans like a 5015 radial blower and more stuff for 3d printers but at the same time I'd rather have quality over quantity of a product line. Also their cpu coolers are incredible and I hope to see them get into those airjet things that was at computex that Frore is making. Also I love the beige and brown and will be buying another LTT screwdriver once the noctua ones get released.
Boo. Buy a precision screwdriver kit instead, and spend the leftover money on Noctua fans. You’ll get much better electronics screwdrivers, Noctua gets more than a pittance, and you get some great fans.
Noctua 5015s would be nice but i don't see you they can make one that will live for more than a year on modern printers. Dual/single ball bearing or sleeve they will all still die quite quickly with 50k accel when mounted upright. If you want quiet cooling go for a remote mount setup with a larger blower, like a ws7040 or a fan stolen from a roborock vacuum cleaner.
If nothing else, make sure you at least watch the technical section at 11:21! Awesome detail in there and Jakob really goes into the specifics on why this new, unique hook-shaped design is what Noctua chose.
Watch our Noctua NH-D15 Gen2 coverage here: ua-cam.com/video/Cng_J4sBaNs/v-deo.html
Thanks Steve
"Forbidden Noctua interview" - my body is ready 🦉
Did you see Louis Rossman's Gigabyte GPU video?
The part about pushing air outward from the slower moving area was interesting. Though I would also have liked to hear some more details on their toffee to chocolate ratios.
Hey Steve, how many languages do you speak?
The best description I can give of the journalistic motive of Steve and the GN crew is "professional persistence".
hahaha, that's a nice way of putting "stubborn patience."
@@GamersNexus the PC building/hardware space owes a lot to the work you guys do. I have been enjoying these last few Computex videos a whole lot.
Really like your weekly news vids and the case reviews. Thank you for the great content.
Also love Noctua.
Big PP
Steve the kinda guy to keep rolling even when Civil Protection after him
Aptly, I think that accurately describes Noctua's Engineering motives too
holy. the quality of this interview is insane. perfect balance between explaining stuff and excepting a certain knowledge from the viewer. Very detailed without being boring, super and interesting.
Thank you! Jakob's knowledge was excellent here!
@@GamersNexus
The music kept you guys stimulated lol
It could go more in debth imo, so a not time limited interview
100%, this is another masterpiece.
The fact Jakob could speed talk that long about in a non-native language with perfect consistency and technical accuracy about such arcane facets of the topic is fantastic, best piece of Computex coverage easily!
GN definitely had the best Computex coverage this year around.
Thank you! That was what we were shooting for!
@@GamersNexus Who would have thought how incredibly complex creating a fan could be... This is why I love these videos. Giving us context we otherwise just wouldn't get. Keep it up guys, great work.
Agreed, it was far ahead of what the other channels had. I really want to congratulate the GN team
The Noctua of PC related journalism (:
@@GamersNexus
They were getting ready to shoot at you lol
This guy's enthusiasm about their fans in an interview past the closing time after a day in the booth is glorious. You sir, convinced me to buy your stuff
You won’t regret it.
Jakob is absolutely incredible. Even received a ring from the President as honor for his academic achievements.
At this point the only fans I consider are either Be Quiet or Noctua.
Love their products.
This
I think this is the first video i have seen where ai noise removal is used in not a gimmic way. and it works almost perfect considering the noise!
It was impressive for the music reduction!
I for one welcome our new AI overlords and humbly ask to be allowed to go on living, maybe in a conservationist breeding program.
for real! I wonder if this was some AI feature included in the video editing software, like the Adobe Premiere stuff, or a stand alone dedicated AI software
@@GamersNexus What software did you use to remove the background noise?
@@abavariannormiepleb9470 We have bad news. It is considered that you would be better off guarding the breeding program. Surgery will be necessary.
Only hardware enthusiasts will understand when you try to explain it's completely normal to watch a 25 min video about brown computer fans.
Exactly my point.
Exactly 😄
Nerds for life, I felt the video was so short...
I... don't agree.. Sorry.
Also engineers could understand which company culture they are looking for from the things that Jakob explained and told about the design process of this 140mm fan.
Maybe Noctua way is not "the right way" (neverthless i like that a lot) but it's a testify of how some companies (not enough) wants to work.
Also: shout out to tell about errors and problems. Maybe Noctua won't deliver the "best fan in the world", but they can surely tell why they are not providing a refined designe every 2 years.
They look for significant performance improvement through every iteration.
They look for significant and long term reliability.
They look for consistent long term performance.
In my opinion this is commendable and something to look for.
I'm sitting here in my Noctua shirt watching it
Im always a little surprised a company like Noctua can exist and survive. The research cost must be crazy high.. I hope they have a profitable future because the care amd integrity Noctua have for their products is phenomenal
The answer to how, might be that the research team is sized for the timeline they expect. If you had an infinite money machine, all those fan iterations from the video could have been done in a year. But, that's not the reality of PC hardware. A fan company like Noctua moves hardware, and has a great reputation, but they may only be able to support a handful of R&D staff. Excellent staff, but a limited team size.
Quality starts by doing the right thing, not necessarily the popular thing. Unfortunately this is a model that seemingly few businesses have where marketing pressure and consumer demand doesn't expedite a product release. It also gives a better understanding of why their products cost a premium price.
IMO, the thing that allows them to take this long for a size iteration is bc they have wonderful sales due to having engineered other high-class, evergreen products (their other fans).
@@klfjoat and by being very consumer-friendly in terms of replacements, RMA, new brackets etc.
If you make the best, there is always a market of people who will want to buy your product. The key at that point is ensuring your pricing can be afforded by enough people in that market, and that your marketing and engineering can prove to that market that your product is indeed the best.
Thanks Noctua for not cutting corners. Thanks Steve and GN for making the effort to bring us this interview.
Fans are circular. They don't have corners 🙃
It's round, they literally cut corners hahaha
@@PyromancerRift I'd argue that a circle is the perfect shape, and that a square is made by adding corners to it. Therefore, you can't cut what isn't there in the 1st place 🤓
You guys are like the Noctua of interviews.
I'm a Noctua fan boy (pun in 10 ded). I put NFA-14 IPPC-3000s on my Arctic LF-II 420.
I remember Linus talking about the screwdriver on how he had a conversation with someone from Noctua and he said “well you make the best fans you must have the best engineers”, and they replied “well we have good engineers, but we give them enough time to make the best”
That’s the whole idea. Like making a quality fan is easy those delta fans in PC works perfectly fine. But making a good fan is all about balancing noise, flow and pressure, and then figure out how to mass produce that.
Lots of shoddy work reflecting in products will be not because of employee incompetence but because of resources and decision constraints on them.
It's like an old saying I always heard down here in Brazil: hurry is the enemy of perfection in a literal translation.
@@victorhugofranciscon7899 Yeah, though in some areas there's merit to the other related saying "perfect is the enemy of good". If you're only working for perfection, you'll spend a LOT of time without anything, and it'd be more useful to do something that's merely good until you can get perfect finished up.
In fans this is not an issue, there are _plenty_ of companies making good fans (and bad fans), so Noctua can take their time on perfect. =)
I remember when Linus had a poo coloured screwdriver and charged zombies even more for it...
As an example of how much they care. We had a set of fans turn pink. They sent over a replacement set of course BUT had us ship back the bad ones directly to their R&D in Austria. Also there was a white LED strip near them. Since this was a possibly the cause, they wanted that as well. Noctua paid for a new strip (during a time when they were rare) and had us ship the one with the fans over to them.
Couple of years later there was a slight shift in the peach'y tan color. No idea if its related but I really appreciate when companies want to know why something had the issue so they can improve it.
Sounds like a pigment reaction issue they hadn't tested for.
I don't think you were the sole reason, but it's likely they had several instances of this and that led to the revision.
@@USSMariner that would be my guess but they should did look interesting in a light pink.
Was it the frame color that changed?
@@atticusrussell1225 correct
You could have sold it to Linus for a fortune, haha.
Just imagine if every industry had a company like Noctua, the world would be a much greater place.
It would be kinda expensive but you get quality and service, i love noctua!
Capitalism makes it a huge challenge to prevail with excellence.
Although in theory the masses are to blame, but they are also the ones abetting capitalism.
So as always, any system can only be as good as the people who make it up.
@@Dowlphin that and shareholders holding companies hostage if they decide to become publicly traded. Linus has talked about it a few times but to summarise, you get a butt-load of money from it to fund without decades of gold grinding, however shareholders typically want more money quarter by quarter and if they don't get their way they have the power to FIRE THE OWNER(S) OF THE COMPANY AND FORCE THEIR WAY. it's stupid really, because if the shareholders truely believe only their way will work or make the most money then they're free to sell their stocks and buy into a competitor who will try, but instead they would rather mutiny and sink the ship if/when their plans fail. this is the main reason LTT/LMG remain a private company, as they would rather grind and not have to worry about some jaded cynical billionaire calling the shots over people who ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND the industry and consumers. luckilly, Noctua is Private too, so unless they change and decide to go Public, they are in full control, not some cash goblins. (imo no doubt there are (albeit rare) shadow shareholders who do this purposefully as a form of corporate espionage, or even just for their own twisted kicks, however this is speculation on my part)
Sometimes the cheap stuff is the better value. It could be argued that there are severely diminishing returns with ultra high end.
I am glad that Noctua is there as an alternative choice.
And completely brown
Noctua should get company of the year award or something. We really need more people like that in every industry.
They can get company of the year in marketing. There are other comparable fans for a quarter of the price.
They are years behind their own road map… How does that make you company of the year? They have been dethroned in terms of fan performance for a long time now. If the new fans don‘t deliver, they can just gtfo.
@@cl4ssic I could care less about their road map when I'm still using fans I bought from them 15 years ago.
@@_-Montana-_ Yeah man i‘m such a noctua hater with 4x NF-A12s and 2 A14s in my build. I‘m such a hater that i‘m waiting for over two years for their damn upgraded 140mm fan that probably will be delayed for the 1525262th time.
@@cl4ssic Everyone can just say oh I own this Noctua product I am not a hater. In any case the reason they kept delaying it is because they don't want to cut corners and want to make sure their fans provide the best possible performance and last the longest possible time. Fans from my water cooling build that had fans pull hot air through the radiator still work 10 years down the line and still work consistently which other company can boast that? The fans are still in use cooling my personal NAS running 24/7 still and work about as well as they did when they were new. Also never realized this but that's why my Corsair fans would make horrible noise after 2-3 years doing a pull configuration on AIOs is because of thermal creep. But I guess fortunately for impatient people like you there are tons of companies out there that will cut those corners and will sacrifice quality to release a product earlier good for you isn't it.
I have so much respect for Noctua. They sent me an adapter upgrade kit for my old Noctua CPU cooler so that I could keep using my old Noctua cooler when I switched from AM3 to AM4, for no charge, and this was already after the 6 year warranty had expired. And, yet, I don't really think of my cooler as being old, because it still works and sounds the same as I remember when it was new. (It's an NH-L12)
My D-14 served me through AM3 LGA 1150 and now AM4 withy free adapter upgrade from Noctua afer I contacted support ;) Now my brother and several friends have Noctua :]
TBF, a lot of cooler manufacturers do this. It's not limited to noctua...
Same. I have an ancient cooler and was happy to buy the mounting kit. However, I wasn’t sure which one I needed so I sent them a question to make sure I’d order the correct one. They came back offering to send it to me for free.
Same here.. When i moved from AM3+ to AM4 i contacted Noctua about AM4 mounting kit for my NH-D15 cooler, and they send one for free... Great company...
@@winebartender6653 do they do it completely for free (not even charging shipping costs worldwide) forever even if you bought the cooler 15 years ago? Most don’t. Noctua does.
My experience with Noctua products has been so positive that I really don't even cross-shop the top performing fans anymore. I just pick from the Noctua lineup for whatever application i need. This level of detail is how all companies should operate.
same at this point
never had an issue with their hardware and their support has been nothing short of stellar for what few issues i did run into
I only buy noctua fans for my personal builds. They are so awesome I’d rather save up for the fans.
If they keep up with their company priorities in making the best fan possible I’ll always buy from them.
Same. I have 9 fans in my personal PC and they’re all Noctua. Lol.
No matter the component, be it a fan or GPU - it is refreshing to see a company take pride in their product.
Pride by focusing on quality and engineering built by a company culture instead of marketing.
Noctua is the golden standard, we are privileged.
The largest thing for me was the comment about the warranty. Very few things have a 6 year warranty, and they said it wasn't good enough!
I cannot overstate the monumental engineering task that is simulating a fan with CFD, as well as visco-plasticity for creep and fatigue. I do FEA for my job, mostly linear dynamic and some thermal (conduction only), and some explicit with simple non-linear materials. The work that Noctua puts into their simulations must be top notch for sure. Kudos to Steve for the interesting insight and Noctua for the great fans!
This guy is legitimately passionate about fans. I dig it.
ONLY FANS.
He's a Fan of Fans
Name checks out for op
I love when Steve busts out his Mandarin Chinese hidden super power. I bet the guards were like "Oh snap! This guy needs 10 more minutes and were gonna give him 10 more minutes because he asked us nicely in our native language."
Bro I've been watching Steve's videos for years and never knew he spoke Mandarin! That was awesome!
@@themacjunkie He doesn't flaunt it or look for ways to put it in videos, but he's known Mandarin for a while now and it has been shown in some of his factory tour videos as far as I can recall.
I know Steve knows Chinese because he actually pronounces Chinese names the way Chinese people do!
with his grumpy face while rolling his eyes
@@josh_ari Steve is a grumpy guy.
You get the best interviews holy crap!
It's great to do them! We try to keep up with the interview subjects!
@@GamersNexus GN getting the scoops no one else can get. That’s what makes your team special
It says a lot when the company rep (who writes all their emails I just realised) stays after the show has ended to talk about their products. That's a level of mutual respect you cannot buy.
Security didn't expect at all you speaking mandarin to them, hell even I didn't expect that lol.
The coverage of computex has been amazing this year, especially the ones you guys did with other content creators. Shout out to the editors working their fingers off to release these videos so quickly.
This is the stuff I live for. It's so cool as an aerospace engineer who studied rotors to see all the effort and care put into the design, fabrication, testing, and validation of Noctua's products. I've got a Noctua fan in my case that's a transplant from years ago, and the plan is still to continue replacing any fan that dies with a Noctua one.
I love noctua's absolutely uncompromising vision.
The voice isolation part of post production was working overtime here. The tech has come so far its genuinely easy to overlook the hall noise sneaking in when either of your speak.
And you snuck in a before filter example. Wew lads I'd go mad running a booth there.
@@POVwithRC - Your ears / brain are actually quite good as isolating sounds based on direction. Which doesn't really work after you record it, of course. So being there isn't _quite_ as bad as hearing a recording of it.
@@RFC-3514 I'm rife with hypersensitivity. I live in airpods pro 2 all day with ANC maxed out. A show floor would in fact drive me up a goddamn wall.
@@POVwithRC - I'm just saying a *recording* of that show floor would drive you up a wall even _faster._
@@RFC-3514 Perhaps stop saying. I didn't ask. Nor do you have license to interpret my lived experiences. Dig?
While you were releasing RGB fans, Noctua studied the -blade- Airflow
Need more RGB on that RGB
lmao
They studied the fan blade
Noctua does make R.G.B. - Really Good Brown fans
Shots fired to every other fan makers. 🤣🤣
10 years of warrenty. Even for EU standards that's an insane amount. You need big balls to pull that off on so many technical and financial disciplines!
Especially in a product that is almost entirely "moving parts".
Actually 10 years warranty should be the standard for ALL basic tech products. And for things like cars, washing machines, fridges etc. it should be 20.
Anything that fails earlier is crap by design.
Would be great if laws would be changed in THAT direction for environmental reasons, instead of just banning old tech and forcing people to buy new (e.g. ICE vs. EV cars)...
@@franklehmann3785 If we simply consider environmental reasons then some sort of limited warranty might be better. Say 3 years of full warranty and rest are limited where company will attempt an repair but is not required to make full replacement. As if you get full replacement it's not really doing anything for the environment. The old one just gets trashed anyway. It's only a question of money at that point. But repairs would be better. Of course no one truly cares about environment but only about the money.
@@franklehmann3785 exactly everyone oh the environment I care about so much!!.. while they mass produce crap instead of quality because of worship of money.
@@franklehmann3785 It's a very double edged sword. Such long warranty simply doesn't work for all markets and business models.
So ethically I 100% agree with you, but I know from experience that it means that it's not doable to run certain types of business and/or products with that. 10 years is really difficult to maintain even for repairs. Some parts are not even available anymore at all.
Something poetic about Noctua in the dark.
I see what you did there
Noctua: Knock knock
Steve: Who's there?
Noctua: I'm an owl.
Steve: I'm an owl hoooo.
Noctua: Welcome, brother. 🦉
@@pittvypr Can you believe that I really like that one? 😁
What an amazing interview. In regard to the common quote “they don’t make things like they used to”, Noctua is unrivaled in regards to a company promoting quality over replaceability. So many manufacturers engineer their products to fail within a shorter lifespan, whereas Noctua is committed to their products outliving anything else on the market without sacrificing performance. You absolutely get what you pay for with Noctua, and their quality and engineering have earned them their well-deserved reputation that is unparalleled throughout the industry. I am so excited to see what future innovation Noctua can bring to the industry.
edit: I’m currently running a NH-D15S cooler, and my next “blacked out” system will run full Noctua cromax black fans!
That was really cool of Jakob to stay after-hours of the event to be part of the interview! Top man.
Forbidden? I'm a fan already!
Pun intended?
What's your airflow rate?
I have 2 of cheapest Noctua fans running outside, one cooling a solar inverter and another cooling a car charger enclosure..harsh environments and still working fine. A testimony to the quality of these fans.
As long as I have used Noctua fans, I have never once had one fail on me. Great products!
Same here.
I had Thermaltake Fans fail on me after many years (bearing got louder first and then the fanspeed oszillated).. which where rather cheap, so that still was a good lifetime for the price.
Currently I have be-quiet and Fractal Design fans running more or less daily for 5+ years now - and not a sign of wear. There are some really good brands in the business, which usually cost a little more - but you get best quality in return. Noctua imho is the spearhead here...
Be-Quiet in Germany propably is their closest competitor - to what I know (and I don't have any special insights!) be-quiet also invests a lot in engineering, quality and testing - but not to the level of detail as Noctua. BQ is partly offloading engineering to their suppliers and then is selecting the best options they come up with resp. refine the prototypes.
Using a cyclist comparison (not cars this time) - Noctua is Specialized and be-quiet is Canyon 😉
I am always happy when a company will talk with you about methodology. You can tell when they have a passion for what they are doing.
Yea I think most companies are afraid of giving away their hard earned secrets.
Noctua by comparison doesn’t care because they know every other fan manufacturer is going to copy them anyway, and Noctua knows how difficult it is to make a fan to their specifications. Plus Noctua’s brand mostly relies on their warranty. Evga was the same way. Someone making a similarly performing product for cheaper isn’t really a concern to them because they know that most of their customers choose them because quality is guaranteed, and are supported by super long warranties.
It's refreshing and wholesome to see a company that loves doing what they do and lets their work speak for them (shout-out to Fractal Design, too). Keep up the great work, Noctua and GN. Proud to be a consumer of both :)
I love the emphasis Jakob puts on quality and longevity. You can't see build quality on a new product, it's a very unsexy thing to the most companies, it's great to see Noctua's commitment to it.
An answer to the supposedly incredibly quiet metal fan would have been really interesting
Hoping to check that out soon!
@@GamersNexus FAN TESTER MASHEEN? :D
@@GamersNexus Didn't your hair already whisper you the answer during a full moon night? ... Everything is better with metal!
Shh, don’t mention the hair, Emily will get jealous.
@@СусаннаСергеевна And Roman aka Der8aur. Ha ha.
When people say spending the big bucks for some fans is beyond crazy, I'd fall back to this video, and be further assured in my purchase decision
Kudos Steve and team, you guys keep raising the bar with each one of your vids you put out
This is a very important highlight in reporting journalism worldwide. You can call it "niche" market, you can call it whatever you want, but it's unique content in the world for a specific topic that no one else does, so it's important and important to give credit and importance. Thanks for Noctua to wanting to be on the top engineering, and thanks for Gamer Nexus for doing so important work.
Noctua's booth looks like they're presenting at a science fair with all the graphs/text on the back wall, lol! Very cool.
My respect for Noctua is immense, they aim for the best of the best and it really shows. As a proud owner of NH-D15 chromax I know that they got me if anything goes wrong. Can't wait to see the new stuff on sale.
Noctua has always been a respectable company, doing things the right way, clearly transparent, and not giving in the market pressures. Much respect.
This makes me feel a lot better about spending a couple hundred dollars to replace all of my case fans with Noctuas.
Made my build quiet, beautiful, and ugly all at the same time.
Mine is beautiful with it, not only because it's not all visuals for me but also because I have a windowless case anyway.
I replaced the pair of fans on my Enermax AIO cooler three or four times because they started rattling and then I had enough of all the RMA hassle and replaced them with Noctuas. The only noise they ever make is the wind flow sound and they run so low on vibration that rubber spacing seems unnecessary, and even if they were slightly necessary at max RPM, then the air noise would drown out any vibration noise anyway.
EVGA-level brand loyalty for Noctua. Even more so since they stay away from the lighting silliness.
I've gotten used the their colours, so that's just what I want now. The colour of quality. :)
they sell black ones now, just saying
@@arch1107 Yeah, but the ugliness has a certain charm. Plus I don't have a side panel window.
Honestly, I would love a case in their maroon colour or the champagne/vanilla. Steve made a video recently showing a PC case design team and one of their cases would be a close fit....
This is incredible. To see the level of care and time and thought they put into their product is exceptional. Next time I need fans I’m getting Noctuas
I absolutely love nothing more than hearing engineers talk about their jobs when they are as passionate about their job as this person. Thanks for doing this Interview GN. As always love this sort of content you provide..
Super impressive how you cleaned up the sound with A.I.
I am so thankful, and we all are so lucky to have you guys as tech journalists!
Seriously, the depth and sheer level of details and research GN puts in these videos is unbelievable. Those analysis-videos, the industry-coverage etc. I honestly don't understand how you aren't featured regularly in every major hardware outlet.
Noctua, please take your time to do everything right! It's why you are the benchmark for a consumer brand, let alone the fact that the NH-D15 has been the benchmark air cooler for longer than I can remember, and I got in during early Haswell.
Against all odds, Steve always brings us the best content
Thanks, Steve.
We can now appreciate the cost of Noctua fans! The project development and management that goes into these products justifies this alone and the result is insane quality! I have better respect for this company. Thanks, Steve.
Steve just casually speaking Chinese 💀
I had to scroll too far to find this comment. I had to rewind and check that was Steve saying it. I love that dude.
@@obpwrx It REALLY helps for getting these nice interviews,
Man like i didn't even imagine he can
@@chaon93 Helps a ton! Especially in situations where we need to ask permission to stay after we started like this. He had been motioning for us to leave.
He's been working hard on that I think. I feel like he's improved a lot.
Absolutely stunning to see such engineering enthusiasm and professionalism. It's sad that some Companies will just rip off the design. Thanks to the GN Crew for making such quality content possible!
All my original Noctua fans are still running, and they cool so damn good, love this brand, and if they stick to what they say, I will be a customer for a long time to come.
This is such a fascinating view into a very specific application of aerodynamics, engineering, material science, and manufacturing. I'm blown away with the attention to detail that Noctua's products clearly get during the research and development workflow, and that they're open to talk about it like this. It's a fresh breath of air in the world were most marketing consists of just fancy keywords, RGB lighting, and performance numbers that don't really make sense without proper context. Especially in these turbulent times, I wish Noctua's new products get good wind beneath their wings.
Well done GN for the interview. And thank you to Noctua for giving a solid interview. As a longtime buyer of Noctua heatsinks and fans, it is reassuring to see this level of commitment.
This was extremely informative and educational. Thanks GN for their professional persistence in bringing us this very enlightening interview with Jakob Dellinger at Noctua. It was refreshing to listen to Jakob as he was clear, concise and didn't overly rely on jargon as some people tend to do. Looking forward to seeing what Noctua resolute persistence and strive for perfection brings to the market next year.
"Industry currently Forsaking performance" followed bv an image of Corsair, absolutely EPIC!
This shows how amazingly professional you are and how you're still grounded to just 'get it done' with open and honest intro
So much kudos to noctua for having somebody so informed and have better things to do (obviously) at the booth to share so much information.
This made me realize that we take a lot of things for granted.
Who knew designing a fan would take so much effort.
It always amazes and excites me how every corner of the Tech world we have all these areas where things look so simple to an outsider (just a fan here, thermal/performance testing in GNs typical coverage, almost every software stack that makes modern computing work, etc).. but dig a bit below the surface with an expert and there's layers upon layers of complexity where experts spend their lives buried in the details, usually invisible and vastly underappreciated, so everything will 'just work' for the rest of us. To just go a tiny bit further down the rabbit hole, I would love to hear why that second design ran into manufacturability challenges. It seems so similar to the other options there and elsewhere in the market.. what was the detail(s) that made it so different?
Many thanks to Steve and his crew for pulling back the curtain and giving us a glimpse of how the magic happens & how the sausage is made. It's an absolute kid-in-a-candy-store thing for some of us and it's so, so rare to get that opportunity particularly in this industry. Hats off to you and Noctua for the education and insight.
Fans are cool and all but god damn that AI noise cancellation is amazing.
It should be integrated into fans to make them even less noisy. 😄
I have that integrated into my brain. It's even superior to the AI process because I can both isolate the voice *and* still hear the music. 😉
Pretty sure it's Nvidia RTX Voice.
@@Dowlphin cancel out my tinnitus eeeeeeee
@@aliancemd Nvidia RTX should just shut up. 😜
Very impressive. I am a retired software engineer. But could have never imagined what goes into the design of something as simple looking as a fan. Also, Steve I appreciate all your science and engineering as opposed to builder folklore. Finally, your Mandarin was an unexpected surprise. Despite the constant MSM plans for another war as if it just the Super Bowl, let’s hope your Mandarin is never needed under stress again. Writing from, Taiwan, China in the Mountains overlooking where you just were.
As an Austrian Noctuas success in the market makes me feel proud of them, because they are not many computer companies in Austria and none if them are as famous as Noctua. I loved their fans before but now I've grown to a real fanboy😂 And I love your Computex coverage, it was the best and on the same level as der 8auer.
it seems Austria is known on a global scale for Swarovski, Noctua, and high wine quality standards.
@@Robbie-mw5uu also for a small angry mustached guy.
Great interview Steve! You just have to respect Noctua's unwilingness to compromise on quality in today's disposable consumer product market. I love that they are singularly focused on cooling performance, instead of jumping on the RGB hype train that seems to be focus of virtually every other fan manufacturer. A cooling performance improvement of nearly 3°C over the NF-A14 fans is simply astounding, especially given that those still rank as some of the best performing fans available more than 10 years after they were originally released.
Noctua I
Steve, you are an amazing person, with a goodwill, the amount of work you make for us is outstanding. Best wishes for you, thanks for everything you're doing!
Constructive criticism regarding the noise reduction being used, the way it is processed you get a very hard noise gate. If you re-add some ambient noise in the background it will be easier to listen to and would not cause as much fatigue to the viewer/listener as the volume won't be rapidly changing. Otherwise great content as usual!
Thanks! Considered adding some white noise or something but didn't have many samples without talking.
Interesting, it doesn't bother me (maybe *yet*) but it makes sense that sudden changes are not that great
Noctua are my favourite company in the PC building biz. Why yes, I do want to buy your fans that have been obsessively crafted over many years!! They're the best ones!
This was very cool seeing a direct interview with Noctua about the process they take.
I AM BLOWN AWAY by the quality of this interview on both sides! Neither GN nor Noctua cut the corners to compromise the performance :D thank you guys!
I remember Jacob from previous years. It's great he got a long interview this time. It was really interesting to hear what he had to say then too
Noctua just makes a seriously quality product. I'm still running 10 year old Noctua fans in my build and they run flawlessly.
I appreciate their strive for quality, I'm still running my NH-D14 since 2010 and although it's gotten a little noisier since then, it's still going strong! :)
*Steven and Jakob: Thank you ever so much for this marvelous discussion/interview. Noctua appears to be the only enterprise in the PC cooling space or even the small fan space (looking at you, EBM-Pabst) whose rigorous, uncompromising processes and quality-focus rivals that of any aerospace entity designing and producing MIL quality components and systems. Noctua behaves as though every fan produced will determine whether the warfighter lives or dies. Noctua's rigor deserves every engineering accolade they may receive. On a side note, Jakob accurately describes some of the challenges Dowty Aerospace faced when designing the C-130J's curved, composite propellers. Again, thank you and Cheers!*
There is a reason why I've always considered Noctua fans to be the benchmark standard for PC fans, and this only further reinforces my reasoning behind that. Thanks Steve & Jakob (& Noctua) for this! Oh, and thank you security for letting them finish this interview (I know it likely was inconvenient). I look forward to using the new fans (when they are ready of course). 🙂
Steve, I know you are hardcore about your hardware coverage but please keep your sense of humour....Really appreciated how you dealt with all the chaos around you. Makes me happy to have a deeper interest in PC hardware. Keep bringing us this kind of coverage and content! Long live high performance air cooling!
My wife said that she couldn't believe I "made her" sit through this entire video on fans...
She was playing on her Switch at the time.
She is also now accepting of the fact that when I do a new build, it will be with beige and brown fans 😂
I appreciate you Steve and everyone that made this video possible ❤
Just be like "hey babe, this is the Only Fans I'm watching 😉"
@@scarletspidernz lol I told her this and she nearly died laughing 🤣
@@captainanorach better have been in a sexy, seductive voice 😂
And then use that voice everytime to tell her you're going to watch GN's only fans content .
Kudos to Noctua for never settling for 'good enough' I replaced my 140mm aio fans with noctua a14s a while back and the performance in both temp and sound levels improved massively, the commitment to providing a premium product is rare in the industry and should serve as an example to everyone
COMPUTEX: Steve, how much time do you need?
STEVE: Yes
Been buildings PCs in DIY and a business fashion for quite some time _(two decades ^-^)_ now - but videos like these are still *_fascinating_* to me! I love how you went above and beyond to deliver this piece - both parties involved, really nice - appreciate it!
Noctua is probably the only company I don't mind throwing money at, they seem to really care that we get both the best design, performance, and value due to longevity. I hope they stay as adamant forever.
This is what we as customers respect the most. Companies like noctua who persistently put much effort into improving the experience and the product. Hats off guys
This is really interesting and great content, Noctua's philosophy and attitude is so fantastic in a world where so many companies are dictated by marketing and cost.
Respect for the amount of engineering that went into these products. And also respect for not settling by lowering targets to be able to launch the product.
Going above and beyond.
@Steve and Jakob
Thank you so much for going through these lengths doing an extra mile to provide us with this insightful information about fan designs and challenges!
That was such a good interview! I'm looking forward to reviews of the new fans once they are out.
Still running NF-P12 and NF-S12 fans bought 2008, still rocking their cpu coolers with upgraded mounting kits. Only had 1 Noctua fan bearing go bad after 5 years, a 40mm fan. Replacement was a breeze, directly shipped from Noctua.
This was a informative interview...
I'll be watching it a few times to learn from it!
@@GamersNexus Actually true. Goes to show how much serious noctua are about their product quality and customer and focused on them rather than many other companies trying to reduce cost and cutting corners! Hopefully if some of the other fan company people watch this, they get motivated and do the same.
And huge props to you for staying in your ground determined to get the interview, even after the closing hour, lights off, ending music, and guard telling you to go!!
I can't get enough of this stuff. I love hearing from engineers and designers that are passionate about the things they're creating and selling.
I am looking forward everything Noctua is doing!
Great interview. 8+ years development for a fan is just insane (in a good way). Imagine if all companys shared the same ethos. What a world it would be!
This level of content is why GN is growing and being respected in the community
Loved the interview. Especially the part about manufacturing a issues during the injection moulding phase. Thank you!
I was on the verge of upgrading my 120 noctuas in the front of my case to 140s now that this new one can support it. Now i am very impatiently awaiting the release of their new fan instead.
Steve speaks Chinese (Mandarin) here. We also speak Taiwanese in Taiwan, but more people use Mandarin in Taipei.
@@b1ack0ops84 you replied under wrong comment
Really, really appreciate being able to nerd out about something I've always loved but never known much about.
Noctua After Dark series. Do it. Lets goooo.
This is what goes into making a fan when you have a reputation to uphold, when you like what you do and strive for the best possible outcome. Great interview!
I dont fan boy for any companies. I think fanboying over a company is a terrible idea... However Noctua always has my money. I do wish they made more niche fans like a 5015 radial blower and more stuff for 3d printers but at the same time I'd rather have quality over quantity of a product line. Also their cpu coolers are incredible and I hope to see them get into those airjet things that was at computex that Frore is making.
Also I love the beige and brown and will be buying another LTT screwdriver once the noctua ones get released.
Boo. Buy a precision screwdriver kit instead, and spend the leftover money on Noctua fans. You’ll get much better electronics screwdrivers, Noctua gets more than a pittance, and you get some great fans.
Noctua 5015s would be nice but i don't see you they can make one that will live for more than a year on modern printers.
Dual/single ball bearing or sleeve they will all still die quite quickly with 50k accel when mounted upright.
If you want quiet cooling go for a remote mount setup with a larger blower, like a ws7040 or a fan stolen from a roborock vacuum cleaner.