Noctua explains – Why do their Chromax Black fans take so long?
Why does it take Noctua so long to release Chromax Black fans?
Noctua is preparing to release its Chromax Black NF-A12x25 G2 fans, which will arrive around 10 months after the release of its standard brown/beige versions. Ahead of this release, Noctua has decided to give its fans a glimpse behind the curtain and explain why it takes them so long to release Black versions of their products. The simple answer is this: making black fans isn’t as simple as you think.
Injection moulding isn’t easy
Making a new colour of Noctua fans isn’t easy. They can’t just add a dye to their plastic and call it a day. Changing the colour requires a change to Noctua’s recipe, and when fans are made to high tolerances, even a simple colour change can make a big difference.
Noctua’s fan blades are injection moulded. This requires a plastic to be melted and forced into a steel mould. Once moulded, plastic is cooled, hardening it into a specific shape. Aspects like temperature, flow rate, cooling time, and pressure matter. When the fan’s colour changes, the recipe for its plastic changes. This results in changes to its crystalisation and to the structure it forms. In other words, if you change the recipe of the fan’s plastic, you change the dimensional precision.
Noctua builds its fans with fine tolerances. This is part of the reason why Noctua’s fans perform as well as they do. For their 120mm models, their fan blade clearances are only 0.5mm. This maximises performance and minimises airflow leak. To make black fans with the same tolerances, Noctua needed new tooling. Simply using the same moulds as the brown fans wouldn’t work, since their carbon-black fans could be a few tenths of a millimetre off. That’s a problem for precision-built fans.
Noctua only starts creating its Chromax Black fans after its standard models are in production. From there, new tooling is created to enable the creation of Chromax Black fans. This includes rigorous testing procedures that ensure that Noctua’s new fans are just as reliable as their standard models. Because of this long-term testing, Noctua’s black fans can only be released at least 6 months after their brown originals. If this testing needs to be repeated, a minimum delay of 12 months is required.
Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2 Chromax Black fans are launching soon
Noctua is about to release its Chromax Black NF-A12x25 G2 fans, roughly 10 months after the brown counterparts. Aside from tooling and validation, factors such as production capacity constraints, material availability, and logistics considerations can also delay product delivery. This is why Noctua’s G1 NF-A12x25 Chromax Black fans took three years to produce after their brown versions. Strong demand for Noctua’s standard fans, the global pandemic, and supply chain issues all conspired to make it extra challenging to bring Noctua’s Chromax Black fans to market. As we have said above, making black fans is harder than you think.
If you want to learn more about Noctua’s fan-making process, you can read their official blog on the topic.
Why no white fans?
When asked about the prospect of white fans, Noctua has confirmed that tooling and validation are what’re stopping them from creating white fans. In 2024, Noctua removed white fans from its roadmap. In late 2025, Noctua confirmed that it has “no plans” to make a White NH-D15 G2 CPU cooler. Right now, Noctua appears to have no plans to create white fans.
Yes, exactly!
— Noctua (@Noctua_at) April 30, 2026
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