This Insane 15-Fan Noctua Superdome Slashes Gaming Temps By 20C

The owner of YouTube channel Major Hardware is showing off a cooling mod that incorporates no less than 15 Noctua fans assembled into a 'Superdome' of cooling power, and it works remarkably well. How well? Compared to using a traditional tempered glass side panel, the superdome mod kitted with over a dozen fans knocked temps down by around 20°C. Impressive!

In the video's description, channel owner James says, "What started as a small gadget-style fan project has now become the 'Superdome' — a massive custom PC side panel built from 15× Noctua A12x25 120mm fans."

"To really test how ridiculous this build has become, I installed it directly onto my gaming PC, compared it to a normal 120mm fan for scale, and even pushed the concept further into something that looks like it belongs in the year 2505," James continues.

This project started off as something much smaller. Four weeks prior to the Superdome showcase, James replaced a standard 120mm PC fan with a custom design features 15 miniature fans in the same space, molded after Noctua's NF-A12x25 blade design. His experiment effectively shrank it down to around 30mm, with 15 tiny fans packed into a custom fan frame, with 15 individual ducts.

It was a neat experiment and when he asked for feedback, it was suggested that he try to build a one giant fan array with 15 fans to go on a PC case, rather than a tiny one with 15 miniature models. And so the concept for the Superdome was born.

Part of the initial challenge was overcoming the cost. Noctua's premium NF-A12x25 PWM fans run $34.90 on Amazon, bringing the cost to $523.50 plus applicable tax. That's close to the MSRP for a GeForce RTX 5070 (street pricing is higher) and more than what it would cost to buy a GeForce RTX 5060 Ti—PNY's OC Dual Fan model sells for $399.99 on Amazon.

Instead of taking on a monster cost for a Superdome project, James reached out to Noctua, and fortunately the folks in charge were willing to hook him up with 15 fans to make this a reality. With the fans acquired, James set about 3D printing a giant fan frame-themed side panel, with the idea to install the 15 fans in a dome-shaped design that he could plop on his PC case.

There was a minor issue with fan cables hitting the blades, but once he solved that issue, the Superdome proved to be surprisingly quiet. According to James, the entire contraption sounds like a single fan and is quieter than his PC.

As for the power draw, he measured around 27.6 watts, compared to a single fan drawing 8.1 watts. Not too shabby, all things considered. He then tested the cooling performance in Battlefield 6, with the Superdome dropping the CPU temps down from 86.34°C to 66.91°C, for right around a 20°C drop.

Beyond the sheer cost to replicate this at home, the project is also bulky compared to a flat panel design. However, it sure is...wait for it...cool!