Noctua chromax.black.swap Fans – A Touch of Colour!

NF-A8 PWM

Specification

• Premium quiet fan, 80x80x25 mm, 12V, 4-pin PWM, max. 2200 RPM, max. 17.7 dB(A), >150,000 h MTTF
• Award-winning 80x25mm A-series fan with Flow Acceleration Channels and Advanced Acoustic Optimisation frame for superior quiet cooling performance
• 8cm format is ideal for compact PC cases (HTPC, ITX, Small Form Factor) and other chassis (intake & exhaust), replacement fan for NAS and other devices, etc.
• 4-pin PWM version for automatic speed control via 4-pin PWM fan headers, broad 450-2200rpm speed range (1750rpm max. with supplied Low-Noise Adaptor)
• Includes anti-vibration mounts, fan screws, Low-Noise Adaptor, extension cable and y-cable for running two PWM fans on the same header

A Closer Look

Here we have the NF-A8 PWM, and like all Noctua products, it comes beautifully packaged and protected. I mean, it’s just a fan, but even still it’s very well presented. You’ve got more technical information than you could ever ask for on the outer box and a fantastic layout display on the interior.

You get the fan, obviously, which uses a short break-away cable, and then a sleeved long 4-pin cable. Actually, all the fans we’ve looking at today use this very same design. In the box, you’ll also find six colours of inserts for the corners. You get 8 x black and a set of 4 x each colour.

These are more than just aesthetic add-ons though, they’re the anti-vibration rubber mounts. Noctua wouldn’t put something in there unless it made the fan better, but they do look fantastic with such vibrant colours!

The fan its self looks superb, and as you can see, it’s pretty tiny too. At 80mm it’s perfect for many small form factor builds.

It’s actually a good fan for a lot of scratch build projects too. I’ve seen these 80mm models tucked into the back of AV racks to keep airflow good around the amp.

As you can see, you get the little notches on the corners allowing you to mount the anti-vibration pads.

Typical Noctua, even the little details are spot on. They really do have the neatest cables and shrinkwrap compared to rival fans.

Throw on some corner pads and BAM! You’ve got one of the slickest 80mm fans on the planet. I’ll admit, it’s a small market for a fan this size, pun very much intended, but it’s great to see Noctua covering the whole range.