Noctua announces fuzzy PC fans – get the flock out

Today Noctua took the wraps off their latest innovation in PC fan design, the Flocked Surface impeller. Yup – fuzzy fans.

So, what’s the point in this velvety ventilation?

Well, thanks to the fibrous flock layers along the surface of the impellers, this creates a turbulent boundary layer of air which means increased air-flow, as well as decreased air-flow separation (whiplash).

Noctua is flocking its fans in two ways, flocked impeller, and flocked frame interior.

Initial testing shows that these flocked surface fans show a reduction in fan noise by 2dB, which is a good gain.

Whether or not we will eventually see this implemented across future Noctua fans remains to be seen but I can see them being quite the dust magnet as well as being difficult to clean. Are they going to try and sell you some special cleaner like when you buy suede shoes?