Noctua announces Chromax black version of its high-performance NF-A12x25 G2 120mm fan 10 months after launch

A year after its release, Noctua has finally released a black version of its NF-A12x25 G2 120mm fans for PC builders who desire a more conventional color scheme over Noctua's love it or hate it beige and brown default color scheme. The Chromax.Black version of the NF-A12x25 G2 costs the same as its brown counterpart and is going for $34.95 on Amazon at the time of writing.

Just like all of Noctua's outgoing Chromax black fans and coolers, the new black NF-A12x25 G2 fans are fully blacked out from the fan blades to the rubber grommets that help dampen vibrations during operation. Unlike most other fan manufacturers, Noctua is unable to create black versions of its products on a dime. The complexity of Noctua's fans is so extreme that even changes in color pigmentation can shift the reliability and performance of its fans without additional development.

Noctua described the complications of making Chromax black models of its products in a recent article, where it noted that its designs for some of its latest fans (including the NF-A12x25) are built at the absolute maximum of what injection molding can accomplish, even with the advanced polymers it uses, such as Sterrox LCP. Changing color pigments can impact the molding process, including affecting how a mold cools and solidifies. Noctua has to modify its injection molding process to account for the side effects that different color pigments have on the molding process. In a worst-case scenario, Noctua says it will recreate a product design completely from scratch just to make a black version.

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At a minimum, Noctua claims a minimum delay of around 6 months between the release of its brown and beige products. If initial validation tests fail, that gap can grow to a minimum of 12 months. For the NF-A12x25 G2 specifically, Noctua claims a 10-month gap between the release of its beige/brown model and its new Chromax black model.

For the uninitiated, the NF-A12x25 G2 came out in 2025 and is Noctua's successor to the original NF-A12x25 that debuted in 2018. The new model improves on the old by using a tighter lip clearance of only 0.5mm between the impellers and the frame. Noctua also incorporated a new fan and blade design called Flow Acceleration Channels and the Centrifugal Turbulator Hub to improve performance and increase airflow while keeping noise generation low. The NF-A12x25 G2 is a multi-purpose fan and can be used as a chassis fan or a cooler fan for heatsinks and radiators.

Noctua has multiple variants available (beyond the new Chromax black models now available). There's the default version with a max speed of 1800RPM, an LS-PWM version with a max speed of 1100RPM, and a combo pack with two of the default models, but with a 50 RPM offset between the two fans. This very specific combination is designed to reduce unwanted noise from harmonic phenomena when two of the same fans are installed side by side or in close proximity.