Should I get the brown Noctua or the black one?

Depends on everything else in and on your case.

I have a soft spot for the brown, though, even though it’s ugly as beans.

noctua.random()

They're functionally identical, the difference is only cosmetic (i.e. exact same cooler with different plating and different colour fan). If you don't have (or expect to have) anything to match the brown against (which would be for example Noctua case fans, the Noctua x Asus RTX 3070 or custom cabling if you're into that), the black is probably the "safer" choice. If you have space in the case, consider a bigger cooler - even if you don't need all its thermal capacity, it will just be more silent.

Brown so it doesn't matter if shit hits the fan

@Root Yeah I'm leaning that way as well. There's just something about that Noctua brown 😅 The other shit is all over the place. A true Frankenstein build.

@kamen Yup I'm only asking for cosmetic opinions :p I'll stick with this size due to budget though.

@electrineer It already did, that's why I'm getting this one 🙈

black

What CPU do you have? Maybe the Scythe Mugen 5 would be enough, you don't pay a premium just so that it doesn't look like a literal piece of shit, and it's even cheaper.

The brown just looks nicer to me, but i think that's only because it screams noctua.

@Fast-Nop Could work, but a quick Google shows I can't get it in Malmö. And I need it done before the weekend 😅 Noctua just felt like a safe card. But I'm all up for suggestions!

Ryzen 5 5600x btw

@ScriptCoded
Is Skythe not available in general?
I have the Skythe fuma 2 which I can recommend. What about Alpenföhn Brocken?

@SAM41 Basically what I've got to choose from is

Arctic Cooling
Be quiet!
Cooler Master
Deepcool
Noctua
Phanteks (only PH-TC12DX)

So yeah :P

Whatever is cheaper. It should be in a closed box...