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GamesRadar

Technology

Duncan Robertson

Your home can now run at a steady 60fps thanks to Noctua’s latest fans

Noctua Amazon

When you’re shopping for an affordable, low-profile, and quiet CPU cooler, Noctua is probably one of the first names that comes to mind. It certainly was for me when I was building my first gaming PC last year, and the ITX CPU fan the brand sent me has been keeping my 13th Gen i5 processor cool ever since.

If you had told me back then that, a year later, Noctua would be launching a series of homeware and multipurpose fans that aren’t for PC builders, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. It sounds like a silly April Fools idea that’s been taken a bit too far.

Then again, if Noctua’s brilliant little fans can keep the best CPUs for gaming cool, then why wouldn’t they be the perfect desk companion? Quiet? Check. Powerful? Check. Modular designs and pivoting mounts? Ok, I’ll bite.

Some of those fans looked a bit too tech-bro for me to take seriously when I first watched that trailer. They’re like something you'd see in your Dad’s office and jokingly mock him for having on display - although maybe that shot of the Hi-Fi system being luxuriously cooled by two top-mounted fans spurred that image on.

All the while, I can’t help but think this new product range has the same inherent charm that the brand’s CPU coolers have. As Noctua’s CEO, Roland Mossig says, it’s not the first time the brand’s fans have been used for novel purposes outside of the gaming PC realm.

“Our industrial clients as well as tech-savvy DIYers have already been using our fans for applications beyond the PC cooling space for many years, so the new HOME line marks the next step in leveraging our technologies for a wider scope of cooling demands and making them more accessible for a broader audience.”

There’s no accounting for taste, (despite my joking, I’ve always liked the clean and simple look of Noctua’s fans) but the practical modular designs of this home range does let you change the face of each cooler as you see fit.

The launch range of this new Home line gives you the choice between two fan sets and nine modular accessories. The NV-FM1 has a pivoting mount and lines up perfectly for a desk or bookshelf. The NV-AA1-12 airflow amplifier looks like something out of Dyson’s labs, and it “significantly enhances” the fan’s performance. There are also fan controllers and hubs so you can set up a proper network of cooling devices, and a power supply that comes with both sets and sports adapters for different wall sockets.

Those top-mounted fans on the Hi-Fi system fix on top of DVRs, game consoles, routers, and any other technology that has airflow vents thanks to clever multi-purpose gaskets. Just be wary of airflow when you think about adding one of these and make sure you’re mounting fans in the right direction for the device. Putting an intake fan on top of a device’s extractor vents could actually leave you with more problems.

While Noctua lists game consoles as a potential use-case for these, I’ve personally never been convinced by third-party cooling devices for the PS5 or Xbox Series X. Credit where it’s due, Noctua probably has the right idea since these fans wouldn’t be powered by the consoles themselves. But given the funky shapes and notorious cooling problems of the PS5, I’m not sure how these multi-purpose fans would pair with them. They could certainly work well with mini PCs though, which need all the cooling help they can get.

The full list of the product range is as follows: