'Still a slight risk of critical deformation': Noctua isn't happy with its next-gen 140mm fan so it's pushed until Q2 2024 at the earliest
You're going to have to wait a little longer for Noctua's next-gen 140mm fan. Despite positive signs out at Computex this year that had suggested the fan would head to mass production by the tail-end of 2023, that plan has been scuppered by late issue. This means it has to go through a lengthy validation process all over again, and now we're looking at a Q2 2024 release, if not later again.
Noctua pushed back the fan's release date on its product roadmap around a month and a half ago, but I've reached out to company spokesperson Jakob Dellinger to find out exactly why.
«We won't be able to kick off mass production at the end of the year as targeted back in June, so we have moved our current ETA from Q1 to Q2 2024,» Dellinger says.
«As usual, this projection is based on our current best-case scenario and we cannot rule out further delays in case the solutions that we're currently targeting do not give the desired results or further concerns arise.»
Dellinger says the cause of the delay is the Sterrox LCP material now used for the frame of the fan. Now if you are well-informed about Noctua's fan development process—and why wouldn't you be—you'll have noticed that this is the very same material that was originally rolled out to the frame to try and fix a previous issue. So in fixing one issue, it's led to another showing up during the lengthy validation process.
It all comes down to the minimal clearances required for this fan to operate efficiently. A complete redesign of Noctua's popular NF-A14, the next-gen version promises to be better in every way, but to do that it has a tip clearance—the gap between the blade and the frame—of only 0.7mm.
I've seen this fan in person and that 0.7mm gap is only just visible if you get
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