← Back to context

Comment by vladvasiliu

1 day ago

Well, I have a bunch of lower-end black fans, some of them quite old, from before transparent cases were a thing. They're actually pretty much gray if I don't wipe them off.

Noctua's signature... brown-orange? Whatever that color is, it has the same issue. The blades are basically gray if I don't wipe them.

Haven't seen anybody start a gray craze, though. Though I have a grayish motorbike that also shows dust and dirt like nobody's business (it's a bike I use strictly on paved roads).

Silver is the ideal color for hiding dirt. I had a silver car once. Unless you drove it down a dirt road during a rainstorm, you basically never had to wash it.

I found that having a positive pressure setup with an intake filter practically eliminated the dust buildup on my fans.

If it were about performance and not marketing, they'd try to optimize for resistance to dust adhesion and resource consumption: energy, cost, durability, etc.

  • Okay, I'll bite.

    What is it you think they're doing wrong?

    Does another vendor satisfy your criticisms?

    Why do you think they don't optimize for things like performance when they often win performance competitions against other vendors for both sound mitigation and airflow?

    Do you know they have a specific high efficiency line?

    Have you ever had a noctua fan fail where you think another vendor fan would not have?