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PC HARDWARE | Noctua Chromax Kits

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Noctua provides some of the legendary enthusiast CPU coolers in the market as they have an excellent reputation in high performance fan and CPU cooler technologies.

na_hc1_chromax_black_swap_7

Introduction

Noctua provides some of the legendary enthusiast CPU coolers in the market as they have an excellent reputation in high performance fan and CPU cooler technologies. Naming some of their popular CPU coolers, the NH-D14, NH-U12S and NH-D15, PC enthusiasts love Noctua’s fans and their CPU coolers because they are near-silent and provide excellent cooling performance

The biggest complaint most people have about Noctua’s fans are their traditional brown color scheme and it has always been their signature color. When you see the brown fans, you can tell right away that it is Noctua. Personally, I have been a fan of Noctua’s fans and their traditional color but I also understand why a lot of people disapprove of it.

So now we are going to take a look at Noctua’s Chromax kits. These consists of Noctua chromax fans, heatsink covers (available for the all the variants of Noctua NH-D15 and NH-U12S), and anti-vibration accessories.

Naming scheme

Do take note of the naming scheme: when it says chromax.black.swap, it means it’s in color black (either a fan or heatsink cover) and it has interchangeable colored accessories: either the anti-vibration pads for fans, or colored inlays for the heat sink covers. Then the rest  of the naming schemes are just in plain colors: chromax.black, chromax.white, chromax.red, chromax.green, etc.

Chromax Fans

So first, let’s take a look at the fans

IMG_1881
NF-A15 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap – the 140mm fan found in all variants of the Noctua NH-D15 and NH-U14S heatsink, but only in black.
IMG_1882
NF-A14 PWM chromax.black.swap – the 140mm fan found in the Noctua NH-C14
IMG_1883
NF-F12 PWM chromax.black.swap – the 120mm fan found in all variants of the Noctua NH-U12S, but only in black.
IMG_1884
NF-S12A PWM chromax.black.swap – their 120mm case fan.

As you can see, these are the exact same fans of Noctua, but only in Black. The anti-vibration pads give users the option of customizing their fans to match the color scheme of the PC builds. The available colors for the anti-vibration pads red, blue, green, yellow, black and white.

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NF-A15 side by side with the chromax.black.swap version

Chromax Heatsink Covers

While the NA-HC3 chromax.black.swap, NA-HC4 chromax.black, and NA-HC4 chromax.white are the ones for all variants of the Noctua NH-D15.

IMG_1878
NA-HC3 chromax.black.swap
IMG_1879
NA-HC4 chromax.black
IMG_1880
NA-HC4 chromax.white

The NA-HC1 chromax.black.swap, NA-HC2 chromax.black, and NA-HC2 chromax.white are compatible in all variants of the NH-U12S.

IMG_1877
NA-HC1 chromax.black.swap (installed on the NH-U12S), NA-HC2 chromax.black and NA-HC2 chromax.white (left)

The colored inlays for the chromax.black.swap heatsink covers are available in red, blue, green, yellow, black and white as well.

Chromax Cables

Then finally we have the NA-SEC1 4×4 pin extension cables and the NA-SYC1 3×4 pin Y-cables  available in different colors to match your chosen color theme.

IMG_1885
NA-SEC1 4×4 pin extension cables
IMG_1886
NA-SYC1 3×4 pin Y-cables

Conclusion

I’m really glad that Noctua didn’t go with the RGB lights bandwagon and I personally think that they would be the last in the world to touch anything RGB. I love the fact that they came up with the Chromax kits as a way for us to customize our Noctua products without impacting their timeless and legendary core designs as well as not skimping out on performance.

Forward Compatibility

I also love how they think about forward compatibility. I’ve had my NH-D15S for a while now and I’ve used it on our old Core i7 on the LGA1366 socket back from a few years ago. Now that I’ve switched to the Ryzen platform, they graciously provided AM4 mounting kits for free.

I am quite satisfied with the thermal performance of my Noctua CPU coolers and even though they have not really introduced that many new CPU coolers in the past few years, their products are meant to last. Basically, you get what you paid for, and we pay for quality.

Now with these Chromax modding kits, Noctua is really stepping up their game and they still are at an advantage over those who are selling out in the RGB trend.

Availability in the Philippines?

I’ve reached out to Noctua about this they said that our local distributors won’t have Chromax kits on our shores anytime soon. The only way to get them in the Philippine market right now is through Amazon or Newegg.

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by Ira James, contributing writer
Contributing writer at TechSabado.com | Website

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