In 2018, after four years of development Noctua finally unleashed its NF-A12x25, which quickly went on its way to become the world's most praised fan for its technical performance. One year later it appeared on the NH-U12A CPU cooler (our review here), which also went on to be considered one of the top CPU coolers -- at least as far as acoustics and thermals are concerned.
But not everyone is in love with the signature brown and beige color scheme Noctua's products come in, and as much as we might ache for the thermal and acoustic properties of the NF-A12x25, the market wants a black one. Noctua hasn't kept it a secret that it's working on one, but a release date has been kept under tight wraps. Now that changes, as Noctua has revealed its product roadmap for the next year or so.
You'll see on this roadmap that black version of the NH-D15S and NH-U9S are due next quarter, and a redux line CPU cooler will come out near the end of the year.
However, it's Q1 2021 that most of you are probably looking forward to. Noctua will out a black version of the famous NF-A12x25 fan, along with a black version of the NH-U12A that uses two of these fans. It'll also out heatsink covers for this CPU cooler, and come out with a handful of white fans.
Alongside this, Noctua is also unveiling its passive CPU cooler in Q1 2021, which is a product we've been following closely for as long as I remember. An 8-way fan hub is also coming.
Because it's too far ahead in the future, Noctua hasn't specified a narrow window for its 140-mm variant of the NF-A12x25 that will presumably be called the NF-A14x25. The same goes for the next-generation NH-D15, and it wouldn't surprise us to see this cooler come with this new 140mm spinner. Both of these, along with a desk fan will come in 2021.
Of course, there's one thing that's important to note about Noctua: it isn't exactly known for meeting deadlines and release dates. It notes that the dates listed on the roadmap are subject to change, and frankly, you can color us surprised if it meets even a couple of them.
But that's just the way things are at Noctua. The Austrian company would rather miss release windows and take more time to iron out its products than to release prematurely, and if we're praising CD Project Red for doing this with its games, surely we can give Noctua the time it needs too.
