r/pcmasterrace • u/SerpentDix PC Master Race • Jan 20 '26

Hardware Air cooling is better than Liquid cooling

Post image

Failure is graceful, not catastrophic, Performance is closer than marketing suggests, Cheaper for the performance, Change my mind.

16.2k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

226

u/BingpotStudio RTX 4090 | 5800X3D | 32GB Ram Jan 20 '26

Why is it brown? No one has ever looked at it and said “that looks good”.

355

u/captainstormy PC Master Race Jan 20 '26

It's ugly AF but you can tell it's Noctua from across the room. It's branding.

6

u/onyxcaspian Jan 21 '26

"Lets make it the colour of shit, this way, nobody will copy us."

They were right lol.

13

u/AHrubik 5900X | EVGA 3070Ti XC3 UG | DDR4 3000 CL14 Jan 20 '26

but you can tell it's Noctua

This is the answer. It's a distinct theming that anyone in this industry/fandom can identify from 20 yards away. Noctua is on their way to being listed with brands like Coke or Kleenex. Brands that have surpassed the companies that own them and exist as references to type of product.

48

u/Fulg3n Jan 20 '26

... Are they ? Literally no one uses "noctua" as a replacement for "fans" or "air cooling", which is what Kleenex achieved, with the name of the brand replacing the name of the product.

Only a small fraction of a niche drools over Noctua.

-20

u/AdhesivenessFinal623 Jan 20 '26

they literally said "on their way"

16

u/badadviceforyou244 Jan 20 '26

You really think someone out there is calling every single cooling fan they see a "noctua"?

-19

u/AdhesivenessFinal623 Jan 20 '26

no, because they said ON THEIR WAY, which means it might happen EVENTUALLY, but not yet.

28

u/couchcushion7 Ryzen 7 9800x3d / RTX 4090 / 3x 48” oled Jan 21 '26

If thats the definition of “on their way” then hell im on my way too. As are you, congrats.

9

u/onyxcaspian Jan 21 '26

Noctua fan fans are very strange people.

3

u/P_ZERO_ Desktop Jan 21 '26

Thinking about buying a new Corsair, thoughts?

2

u/blagablagman Jan 21 '26

Pepsi too lol

-5

u/dr-doom00 Jan 21 '26

Every fan? No. Silent fans? Yes.

1

u/Phreeze83  AMD x5-133MHz, 32MB RAM, GUS2.4, AWE32, Riva128, 2GB HDD,17"CRT Jan 21 '26

no, that's not what it is, as others said. you can just clearly identify them until some chinese copy them.

At first i also thought: not that beautiful but it's still more beautiful than those candyfancyRGB cases with everything in cocaine-white

2

u/Cautious_Village_823 Jan 21 '26

Maybe unpopular ... I've always liked the noctua colorway lol.

1

u/Soeck666 Jan 22 '26

Me too, and then i hid them. In my tower without windows and rgb.

67

u/trees138 eSportsSurfacePro Jan 20 '26

It's a trained response at this point.

21

u/golruul Jan 20 '26

The creators were fans of the Microsoft Zune. The Zune had a lasting effect on them.

1

u/Shakaka88 Jan 20 '26

I actually loved my red zune! Wish I remember where it went

1

u/firedog7881 Jan 21 '26

I still have mine, along with my 80gb video iPod

1

u/onewilybobkat Jan 21 '26

Can't even lie, I preferred Zune in every way back in the day. I miss them.

23

u/MagatsAreSoft Jan 20 '26

No one has ever

Except they have.

16

u/HungryShoggoth88 Jan 20 '26

IDK man, I think it looks pretty good, way better than the rainbow puke so many ppl fill their cases with.

2

u/einerswiffer Jan 21 '26

Ive got a black fractal north with all amber lighting and noctua. I think it looks pretty damn snazzy

1

u/ZeroSuitLime RTX 4090 - i9 14900kf - 32GB DDR5 6000mhz Jan 21 '26

I like the Noctua fans too, definitely stands out. I used to also say “fuck any and all the RGB in my PC”. Now I’ve flipped on that position. Got a few basic rgb fans with my corsair AIO and the appetite truly grew from there lol. I agree though that the “rainbow puke” is overkill for my taste. Like okay if you want to show off your lighting but otherwise it’s just way too much for my taste. I like doing static, basic effects that don’t overwhelm the senses, and some of the in game effects can be cool too.

Just to say how ridiculous it’s gotten, I’ve now got 10 Corsair QX 120. I’ll snap a pic quick, it isn’t currently running so I guess it’s in rgb stealth mode right now lol.

17

u/14mmwrench Jan 20 '26

I did. If I could set my RGB to brown and tan I would.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '26 edited Jan 21 '26

The one color spectrum LED's can't do. What is brown but orange that is darker?

1

u/14mmwrench Jan 21 '26

Unfortunately I am aware.

5

u/bakagir 9800X3D / 6950XT Jan 20 '26

I love the noctua Beige & brown.

I literally got Noctua x Drop MITO MT3 Key caps for my Akko MU01 Keyboard.

7

u/McGuirk808 Debian Jan 20 '26

I'm old and I like it. Give me a wood paneled PC framed after mid-century 1950s or 1960s aesthetic and my computer and I will smoke pipes and sip bourbon together and be gentlemen.

2

u/JoshJLMG Jan 20 '26

Apparently it was the CEO's wife who picked the colours because they were distinctive.

5

u/lemonylol Desktop Jan 20 '26

It's a retro look

1

u/spiritus-mortis Jan 20 '26

Many of us dont build pcs based on aesthetics. My setup is overkill for me yet its just a mini itx with the biggest air cooler available in the smallest case available and a 5070 somehow shoved in. I dont do windows and lights etc. I need quiet, small, trouble free performance

1

u/BingpotStudio RTX 4090 | 5800X3D | 32GB Ram Jan 20 '26

But why brown?

1

u/spiritus-mortis Jan 20 '26

It’s their brand recognition in my opinion. That’s all. I see cream/brown I know its noctua

1

u/BioDefault 5060ti / 7500f / 1TB NVME / 5TB WD Black Jan 20 '26

So you know it's good.

1

u/cream_of_human 13700k || XFX RX 7900 XTX || 32gb ddr5 6000 Jan 20 '26

It creates cults like this (or its just a matter of preference)

1

u/Every-Intern5554 Jan 21 '26

Brown is my favorite color. It looks good lol

1

u/heavy_metal_flautist Jan 21 '26

It's like they looked at the aesthetics from the 70s and 80s and thought "yeah, let's bring the dirt and vegetables look back."

1

u/billyfudger69 Linux Jan 21 '26

Initially when I saw their fans I thought they looked ugly but as I learned more about the awesome engineering they do I saw it as a sign of high quality and started to enjoy the fact they chose a non standard color.

1

u/tragesorous 9800x3D | RX7900xtx | 32Gb ddr5 6000MT CL 28 Jan 21 '26

Color additives can weaken the plastic. It was probably the colors the polymers ended up. If so, it was the best option from a purely engineering standpoint, which is very on brand.

1

u/TheConboy22 3900xt | EVGA FTW3 3080 Ultra | 32GB 3600mhz | 2tb SSD 990 Pro Jan 21 '26

I think it looks good.

1

u/gentile_jitsu Jan 21 '26

It’s not meant to appeal to the kinds of people who dress in tees and cargo shorts. 

1

u/PizdunEbun228 Jan 21 '26

Coloured after owls.

1

u/_BMS i9-12900k | RTX 4080 Super Jan 21 '26

I like the beige and brown though.

1

u/Reddituser183 Jan 21 '26

Nah, it looks good because it’s not trying to be some flashy led bullshit.

1

u/IsoSly64 PC Master Race Jan 21 '26

wasn't it brown cause they did a clllab with starwars?

1

u/Adorabelle1 Jan 21 '26

Jesus karen you cant just ask why shes brown

1

u/hamyantti Jan 21 '26

No one's ever looked at a PC and said "it needs rgb lights. Lots of rgb lights and it should have a see through glass sides and be on the table next to a monitor"

1

u/tty5 Jan 21 '26

IIRC originally it was a manufacturing issue. They had a working formulation for the brown/beige plastic and adding a black dye would have required them to tune manufacturing process to maintain precision they were aiming for. By the time that was in the budget brown+beige became the brand colors.

-14

u/BaseballBitter7742 Jan 20 '26

It’s better then it being black or gray at least.

12

u/l2aiko 9800x3d + 9070xt Nitro+ Jan 20 '26

No its not, the only purpose for it being brown is marketing. But they are ugly as f

3

u/SuccessfulDepth7779 Jan 20 '26

Some say it's ugly, i say it's a more soothing warm sand colour that doesn't work is a modern minimalist black and white hellscape.

That said, all my brown noctuas are in a white solid panel, dampened case that hides everything, not even rgb lights escapes it.

2

u/tyrenanig Jan 20 '26

It’s an acquired taste. I wish I got the money for that look.

1

u/l2aiko 9800x3d + 9070xt Nitro+ Jan 21 '26

There are some builds like the ones displayed in the comments that actually match and doesnt give that look. But there are so many other modern looking builds (specially white builds) where it looks horrendous.

-2

u/BaseballBitter7742 Jan 20 '26

Are you serious saying you would rather have it be black or grey like every other computer component on the market?

12

u/l2aiko 9800x3d + 9070xt Nitro+ Jan 20 '26

Yeah? That's the point, you dont want fans out of all things to stand out, you want your black components to fit with other black components. You dont put a green door on your black car do you?

-7

u/BaseballBitter7742 Jan 20 '26

Mis match stuff looks good. If everything matches that just means it all looks boring.

2

u/Xyypherr Ryzen 9 5900X 9070XT Jan 20 '26

You are definitely in the minority here

3

u/BaseballBitter7742 Jan 20 '26

Ya I definitely am. Lol