Noctua is an Austrian computer hardware manufacturer of CPU-coolers and computer fans with a primary focus on the enthusiast market. The company's inception occurred in 2005 through a joint venture partnership between the Austrian company Rascom Computer distribution Ges.m.b.H., established in August 2000,[2] and the Taiwanese cooling specialist Kolink International Corporation.[1]
The name "Noctua" draws inspiration from the scientific name of the little owl, Athene noctua, signifying wisdom and intelligence in Greek mythology. This connection is reflected in the owl present within the company's logo.
Product range
The Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler in Noctua's brown and beige colour scheme
A unique aspect of Noctua's computer fan products is their signature brown and beige color scheme. However, this color choice has elicited mixed opinions within the customer and enthusiast community.[3] The color palette has faced criticism with PC Gamer characterizing it as a "khaki-and-mud color scheme straight out of the '70s".[4][5][6]
Noctua has introduced more conventional color options with their chromax line. This line encompasses black editions of certain CPU coolers and fans, along with a variety of colored heatsink covers, cables, and anti-vibration accessories.[7] During Computex Taipei in 2018,[8] Noctua unveiled all-black versions of their most popular CPU coolers as part of the chromax.black series, which was formally introduced in October 2019.[9]
Noctua's redux line reissues some of their most favored fans and coolers at a reduced cost, characterized by a light/dark gray color scheme. The redux line fans lack some of the advanced features present in their other offerings, instead featuring Noctua's first-generation SSO bearing and minimal accessories.[10]
The industrialPPC (Protected Performance Cooling) line by Noctua comprises robust high-speed variants of their retail models, purpose-built for industrial applications.[11]
Collaborative ventures
In October 2021, Noctua partnered with Asus to release a Noctua-branded Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics processing unit (GPU) featuring Noctua cooling technology.[12] This cooling solution incorporates a substantial heatsink and two full-sized Noctua NF-A12x25 PC fans, resulting in an effective thickness of five slots (actual thickness of 4.3 slots). Further collaboration between Noctua and Asus for graphics card offerings was confirmed in March 2022.[13]
In 2021, Noctua also partnered with mechanical keyboard manufacturer Drop to create a keycap set,[14] along with other keyboard-related accessories.[15]
