Noctua's Amazing Desk Fan Is Too Expensive-But I Made It Affordable with 3D Printing! 

Do a wind test to see if your original design blows more air than Noctua's. I'd be interested in seeing the numbers.

Fair play to Noctua for releasing the files for free, rather than them wait for bad models of their own product by others and make sure everyone has the quality they stand for, amazing.

A desk fan competition for the next season of fan showdown would be amazing! The goal could be airflow at a distance. I'm not sure how the fans could be fairly scored, but the concept seems cool.

Uh, that visual effect of that fan housing exploding was a little too perfect for a RU-vid video... I'm not even 100% sure how you did it (parts drop and video overlap?). That was like Hollywood level of precision.

We neeeeeed an airflow comparison between your year old version and the updated Noctua CAD file printed version. I'd bet there's less than 5% cfm difference.

I made a 140mm version by scaling it in the slicer but the first one that i printed at 1.16x scale did not align with the screw holes so rescaled it at 1.19x and it fits perfect with just a slight 1.4mm overhang over the fan

Well now I know what my next printing project is.

I came for the cool prints, I stayed for the b-roll music. Thanks James, lookin good dude.

All the parts really add up in cost, so $100 seems crazy, but it’s got a $40 fan at the heart of it…a fan controller, grill, ac power adapter, the flow attachment, and then of course the heavy duty stand.

I named mine “Not Tuah”. Summer 2024 can’t end fast enough.

i ve made two fans with my printer, love them, bought the fan controllers on aliexpress and used old pc fans

👍👍 to Noctua for doing this for people who want to DIY or adapt their design at the cost of 3d filament, and you for all the rest of the bits and pieces to make it work. Wonder how well it would scale up for a 200mm fan? 🤔 Some public libraries also have 3d printers for patrons use.

I was sitting at my computer, browsing through youtube, when this vid came up. I thought, "hah... I already have one of those that I printed off about 2 years ago. Kinda late to the party Noctua." And then I remembered where I got the files from. Incidentally, my fan was on and running marvelously. Thanks for the stls from two years ago. Well played.

I waited for years for this fan . $40-$60 would have been okay but $100 was just nuts. Thanks for looking into this.

Love the music choice during the montage

It's good that they released the shroud model at least. I got so tired of waiting that I designed my own desk fan instead, it has a custom PCB with an onboard 12V boost converter and 555 timers to generate a 25kHz PWM signal with adjustable duty cycle. Granted my 3D printed stands aren't tilt adjustable but the parts cost (besides the fan) is only around US$12.

I just printed one of these myself a couple days ago, though I used someone else’s fan stand. Fair warning: PC fans run on 12V, so you’d actually need a 12V brick. The fan Noctua puts in the $99 fan is a special 5V fan. 5V fans, though powerable by USB, are only typically used in assembled industrial/commercial products. I wonder if they just wanted a new market for their 5V fans… In any case, 5V power into a 12V fan and the fan will be anemic. 12V power into a 5V fan and the fan with be on fire! Also, I put the Cheater funnel thing on mine instead of a grill. I’m not sure if it makes a difference.

When one prices out all the components, it still is a relatively expensive fan. For a novelty product, I'm not going to hold the price against them.

I have been trying to design a desk fan for about 2 months. So happy this popped up in my YT feed. Exactly what I needed! Only thing I am going to change is instead of sitting on the desk I am going to build an adjustable mount that can mount from behind my monitor using my VESA wall mount arm hanging down to keep it off the desk.

So perfect thank you I'll be printing this soon I have a 120mm fan that I got gifted recently and was actually designing a stand for it this is leaps and bounds better than what I made!

The USB fan adapter is only providing 5v no? PC fans generally use 12v.

Finished printing mine! Like most people, I had a few spare 120s lying around so this will be a fun project for them! Thank you for putting it on our radar and putting in the leg work on the stand!

Dude thank you cant wait to print mine!!!!!

In all my years, I have never said to myself, "man, I wish I had a desk fan." I can't be the only one. What you contributed though, that was awesome! Still, I don't need a desk fan, lol.

Omg... the 80s music is amazing! And the NOTua, omfg! Bwahahaha! Thanks a ton, man. Fun video, for sure!

Didn't you have that 200mm Noctua fan? If you still have it, it would have been a nice addition to see a version scaled up for that.

I'm surprised that Noctua isn't selling a 140mm kit; as I see it, the main reason to buy this is to get the quietest desk fan possible for its size. But maybe there's diminishing returns on going from 120mm to 140mm. Personally, I spent ~$90 on a Duux Globe fan. It runs at only 13dB at the lowest speed, but is a lot bigger. It uses a 180mm fan with a depth of a whopping 60mm to really be able to push air.

considering all you had was a static image from a media slide your design is pretty dang close.

Anyone looking for a desk fan, check out the Vornado AXL! It's a low profile horizontal desk fan that will fit perfectly under most people's monitors. Stands about 4.5" high. It's lowest mode is silent, and it's highest mode is about 8x as powerful as the Noctua fan. It's in the same $100 price point too.

0:08 Nice edit, I had to see frame by frame to understand how you did it

If you add up all the parts Noctua sells separately, that's $35 for the fan, $25 for the NA-FC1 fan controller, $20 for the wall plug, $40 for the stand... that's already $120 and you don't have a shroud yet. Sure it's all expensive and you can assemble something comparable for far less on aliexpress, but at least the pricing is internally consistent and the quality is high.

What would be neat to see is this fan enclosure used with some of the top performing fans from your fan showdown series.

I'm thinking they decided to sell the fan just so people would shut-up about it, and probably only made a small batch to sell. I kinda doubt there here to make much of a profit in the end since they released the files for free.

I used a 110v fan from Amazon for $20, most likely louder than my Noctua’s, but the 3D printer funnel and stand are nice and would be great additions to a sim rig.

Please build one for the 200mm fan please. Or do a comparion of the desk fan will all the different sizes :)

The grill should say "HACKTUA" 😂

I was really worried we weren't gonna get a shredding fan/smoke music clip... but you saved it at the end! Just wouldn't be a major hardware video without it.

I made my GF and myself two versions in 140mm - even one with controllable RGB via WLED. Besides the Noctuacontroller being pretty hefty on the priceside, you can achieve a good solution with the files from noctua with about 25€ in parts. and if you bling out like i did, you can sink somewhere between 60-70€ in this - but then its hella custom. Also noticed that for this design a Noctua Fan is not a must have - with minimal sealing any fan does a great job, especially the one with constant pressure. Also smoothing the air touching parts is also helpful in minimizing turbulent air

I 3D Printed this like 5 years ago when it was first announced. Its been on my desk since.

You can scale the model to 120mm and print it successfully - I've done it. It'll be thin and you may have to drill out the screw holes to be a bit larger but it otherwise works fine.

The air amplifier is arguably the only part that needs to either be printed or bought for $15 to allow you to convert whatever fans you have lying around. The stand doesn't have to be as good as theirs; you can make something simple to aim it somewhere for fairly cheap using whatever you like. And you can power the fan a number of ways, although the usb fan power cables that are already made up are kind of nice. I had some old antec tri-cool fans that have a built in L/M/H switch so I didn't need separate speed control, but those exist. I didn't make a stand though.

Thank you for designing/sharing the model. I was hoping you might compare the one you made to theirs in some sort of shroud performance test.

Dang, I never noticed that I get a dopamine hit from the fan showdown smoketest music. It not being in the smoketest here felt like a bummer :D

Great video btw. I have load of fans so thinking of making a quad fan version

Love this! I found a triple fan and going to make it into a Noctua. 😂

Good stuff! I have two 3d printed grills on a Noctua F12 120mm. But this is a more useful solution for lots of purposes, for sure. As soon as I finish my current print, I may start printing this. The only upgrade I'd think would be to use threaded Heat Insets and metal screws, but keeping it all printed is awesome.

Massive bong rips, I'm impressed

I have a suggestion. Take a look at the InWin Mars fan, which is almost impossible to buy nowadays, and reproduce that so we have the functionality it provides, too! :)

Brought me right back to the '80s with that music.

Did you also observe some pulsing motion on the footage of the smoke text? This is very similar to the pulsing that takes place in a hyperbolic funnel or a flowform. Is there a similar basic principle at work?

Should make an extra large version for the 140, or those even larger fans they use on the D15.

This makes me think, perhaps its a good project to try and optimize a solder fume extractor.

I finally printed your originally released design last week.

Now you need a whole new season (or spin off series) of a desktop fan show down

Excellent music choice for the build montage.

I wonder what adding a velocity stack would do. I’d love to see that in a smoke test.

Just here for that 80's high energy training montage assembly music.

They dropped it on Printables? That's... oddly funny. And very cool of them.

I think adding a velocity stack / trumpet to the back might improve airflow even more.

Subscribed! Thank you for putting so much time and effort into this, at the end of the day it probably would have been cheaper for you to buy one but then we'd all miss out on this badass video

LOL! At 3:55 there are so many little corrections on screen, and the last one is still wrong ❤️ You'll only have to print the air shroud

I’d love to see a DIY solder fume extractor

You should use a tradazoidal thread where you want male printed threads to have strength. I personally use a 30 degree single start, but a 2 start works well too.

This is the perfect nard cooler. Put under the desk and aim upstream and so much more comfortable. 😝🤪😜

Our library system has a Maker section with 3-D printers. I haven't checked it out yet, as it is at a branch 20 miles away, but this could get me to.

The magnets should be on the top side of the base so they don't just pull out when you try to move the fan. The verticals should retain them quite well.

And here I have just had a case fan on my desk via a fan header for 20-odd years, controlled using any fan software.

Bruh, the bots in these comments.

NOTUA! Spit on that thang!

I made my own Notcua desk fan around 2015 (as many people have over the years). I didn't bother with a guide though. instead, i used a NF-A20 (the 200mm fan). The off the shelf noctua desk fan shroud only fits their NF-A12!! A 120mm fan is WAY too small!!!! I didn't mind that the 200mm fan tends to blow air in a very large cone though. and my "mounting case" was insane simply. i took a standard off the shelf 200mm fan grate and simply stuck a bit of wire coat hanger on it to make a little kick stand. then i just attached that to the NF-A20 like normal. For the fan controller, i tried a few off the shelf 120vac to 12vdc controllers, but i hated them all. i ended up rolling my own fan controller to make a true 25 kHz Intel spec 4 pin PWM fan controller. The actual Intel fan spec that the entire industry uses in online and free. A lot of "pwm fan controller" guides actually have the user changing the PWM frequency to change fan speed, which is wrong. your controller should be a nominal 25kHz with the duty setting the fan speed. I've found that PC fans last longer when you feed them a nominal PWM signal. at any rate, it would be interesting to scale up the 120mm shroud from noctua to snap on the 200mm and see how nice that is. The truth is, there is NO off the shelf fan that performs as well as the noctua and lasts as long.

That price is strange. Even the best 120mm Noctua fans are below half of that price. It's hard to imagine the highest quality stamped metal and injection molded plastic would be worth $60.

What filament brand and color did you print yours in? It looks amazing.

Nice.. should have done 120mm only brackets to get rid of those extra bits but other than that it turned out sweet

I don't know if it's actually that overpriced if you consider what you're paying for. The fan included costs 40$ to begin with so the cost of the power supply, mount, grill, and shroud for 60 dollars, seems reasonable. Feels like a very esoteric product to begin with, and the cost likely reflects the low volume production.

What you really need to do is to put a low volume mister head or four in there and call it a Hoctua. Maybe make it a 3 lobe and have 3 mist heads. Regular water pressure from the wall is enough to get a really fine mist with a proper nozzle. Also evaporative coolers are crazy expensive for what they should be.

Thank you for putting in the work. I'm definitely gonna build one.

I’m literally printing this to try it as this video popped up. 🤣🤣🤣

Need to see the air flow numbers! If you were with in 10% that would be a win!

id love to see you design in a process driven way, thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of 3d printing and how they differ from say sheetmeal or injection molding. for example thin walls are artifacts of these old school technomogies that aren’t necessary and are even detrimental to a 3d printed product keep up the good work

Yeah I printed one of these a few years ago after you did your first video on it. There were already models on thingiverse with a base. The one I printed appears to be gone now, however. It's also a 140mm model so apparently I rescaled it to 120mm, which I don't remember doing.

You gotta give 'em that NOCTUA and spin on that thang

pretty cool of them to share the files tbh.

What filament was used, I like the look

Any way we could get your recommendations for the most effective and quiet bathroom exhaust fan?

tried to completely ditch the 120mm fans that had terrible performance for the noise they make. Idk it was long time ago so might be wrong with today's designs. Anyways, i made one myself with a simple 140 (from a fractal case, no idea about the specs but its pretty good for the speed its running) and also i had somehow somewhere a universal ac/dc adaptor from Philips with 6 voltage switch positions (3_ 4.5_ 6_ 7.5_ 9_ 12) model is scu3030nb/12 Pretty convenient at summer time for sweaty palms. i always had that problem with sweat damaging my mice coatings

I wonder how well this works with "non noctua a12x25" fans. A big ol delta fan at max speed? Some case fans that blow gently? (like nf12-redux?). Also looking forward to the version that is just 4 of these combined together in a square.

Please test your 3d model vs their 3d model in air speed at various distances. Maybe you could measure the size area of the flow at 5ft using the smoke test and a ruler.

Love the 80s montage music. :)

Hi, thanks for publishing the model! Unfortunately something is wrong with the size of the screws. Could you please rescale them?

i got a 120mm fan that will take 230v (im european) itd be interesting to put this kit on it. granted its frame is made of some sort of metal so its a little chunky

Considering this directs the airstream in a very controlled manner; would a duct like this have any applications for exhaust, let's say; as post-air for soldering fume extractor after a carbon filter? Or even with a PC to direct exhaust air away from the system. I'm thinking it might help prevent turbulent air reuptake into the filter/system.

Gotta give em that Noc-tua Spin on that thang

Still some of the best music on RU-vid!!!!

With that USB charger you are only giving it 5V instead of the 12V the fan is made for. You'd get a lot more flow with the proper voltage.

I've watched it a couple times and I'm a little curious how you got your fan thing to explode on command or if it just happened to blow up during your take and you kept it in the video?

Future mod - add water sprayer and run it in the winter at freezing temps to create snow.

I feel like basically if you put this on your case fan i your case you can super-direct the airflow :)

The Arctic Summair and Summair plus are so much more value. The plus has a built in battery and only cost 30€, you can fold it and take it with you, has a built in controller and charges over USBC. I bought it when it was released last year and it's the best thing ever

How about powering it via USB c and power bank? Is that feasible?

Please do a 140mm and even larger comparison video!!