PC cooling specialist Noctua looks as though it’s about to venture outside of the (PC-shaped) box with its latest idea, which looks very much like a desk fan to us. The company has just posted a teaser video on its social media channels, with a suitable vague caption telling us that “something new is coming,” and it bears a striking resemblance to the prototype for a Noctua desk fan that it showed off at Computex all the way back in 2019.
Noctua’s air-cooler designs have consistently ranked well on our guide to the best CPU cooler, with the Noctua NH-D15 being our favorite overall air cooler. Although they might have a weird beige and brown color scheme, Noctua coolers nearly always impress us with not only their great cooling performance, but also their low-noise operation and superb build quality. Why not apply those same principles to a desk fan?
Indeed, Noctua has been playing with this idea for a few years now. The company had a prototype of a desk fan on display at Computex in 2019, which was based on Noctua’s NF-A12x25 PC case fan – a simple 120mm model that spins at up to 2,000rpm and has PWM control to vary the speed.
On the prototype, the fan is mounted onto a frame, which Noctua describes as an “Airflow Amplification System.” According to Noctua, the end result is a desk fan that “produces a strong, focused beam of air” that reaches over a distance of “more than 2m.” Despite this performance, the company said the fan was “quiet enough to blend into near-silent office environments.”
At the time, Noctua said we could expect to see its desk fan appear on the market in 2020, but four years later it looks as though it’s finally coming out. In Noctua’s teaser on X (formerly Twitter), a video shows four darkened closeups of a new product, including a fan grille and a screwhead, but it’s the curvy plastic moldings that really caught my eye, as they look just like the fan housing used on Noctua’s desk fan prototype.
Compare the images in the first and last sections in the image above with the desk fan housing in the next image, and you’ll see what I mean. I could be wrong, of course. Others have speculated that Noctua could be about to launch a new PSU, for example. However, the shape of that fan case looks like a giveaway to me.
With Summer approaching, the prospect of a quality USB-powered desk fan from a company such as Noctua is looking mightily appealing, however, I’ll be interested to see how much cooling power it can produce.
In the meantime, if you’re looking to keep your PC cool, check out our guide to the best PC fans, which does indeed list the aforementioned Noctua NF-A12x25 as one of our favorites.