Sterrox 140 mm Noctua fans in three months?
The title couldn’t fit a “despite complications with the frame”. Even though Noctua figured out that the fan blades could collide under adverse circumstances due to deformation of the frame in a more advanced stage of prototyping, it seems that the fix for this inconvenience didn’t take too long. We’re again at the point where it looks like Noctua’s 140mm LCP fans are right outside the doors of the retail market.
In Noctua’s latest roadmap (March 2024), their „sterrox“ fans in the 140 mm format (i.e. the new generation of Noctua 140mm fans and successors to the Noctua NF-A14) still stand in the second quarter of 2024. That is, as it was in the December 2023 roadmap.
In the meantime, Noctua has reported that it has run into situations where these fans may not always work correctly. Namely, in certain situations on radiators where the mounting system can cause too much pressure and thus deformation of the frame. Then the frame, or the inner wall of its tunnel, eventually gets into a collision due to the too small (0.7 mm) gap between the blade tips and the frame. In other words, the blades may brush against the frame, which is of course undesirable. If the frame deforms significantly, there is also the risk of a collision in which the impeller could be completely prevented from moving (the force of the frame acting on the blades would be greater than the power of the motor).
We haven’t released details on this, but I have quite a bit of information from Noctua. Maybe too much, and we agreed in the end that Noctua will answer very specific questions only during Computex 2024. That would also roughly correspond to the release of these fans themselves. Illusions that the second quarter of 2024 also refers to a possible release in early April are pointless. That almost certainly won’t happen, and Noctua’s current efforts are pointing towards the end of June. Of course, even that may not be definitive, and it can’t be ruled out that there will be another delay as the end of the second quarter approaches. But for now, this is how Noctua sees it (towards the end of June), and you’ll probably find out if everything will come together during Computex.
Also, nothing should change for the successor to the NH-D15 CPU cooler.It could theoretically come out alongside (or just after) the new 140mm fans, to which it is tied (because it uses them). Meaning, again, at the end of June.
It looks like some sort of a surprise is coming as well, as an “undisclosed project” has been added to the Q2/2024 window since Noctua’s earlier roadmap. Among other things, Noctua is also working on new 60mm fans with a 15mm profile. These have been moved (from Q1/2024) to Q3/2024. Only the black variant of the NH-D12L is due out this quarter, by the end of March.
White fans were also missing in the previous roadmap, but then with a slightly different justification. It’s now similar, that Noctua is prioritizing key projects (such as the 140mm LCP fans and a new high-end dual-tower CPU cooler) and is unable to estimate when the white fans might be realistic. For that reason, it doesn’t even put them on the roadmap.
But recently, Noctua’s interpretation changed from the last one, and according to this post on X, it officially admits to the possibility that the white fans might never be finalized and reach the market..
But perhaps this statement is just a result of the excessive stress and time pressure Noctua is probably experiencing, especially with the finalization of the new generation of 140mm fans. These are also important for the Austrian company in the context of being able to keep up with the competition, or to surpass it again. That’s something the NF-A14 fans no longer manage to do after all these years, when it comes to comparisons with, for example, the Thermaltake 14 Pro and many other fans with more modern impeller geometry.