@lanodan Depends on product. For most of Noctua's products I guess they need some packaging. For example due to their material choice the NF-A12 fan's blades are quite brittle and could break easily if hit.

But yes, some of Noctua's procuts come in big boxes despite really not needing it.

For example Noctua ships their thermal compound in a stupidly big ass box. While thermal grizzly is doing just fine sticking their thermal paste in a zip-lock bag.

Noctua straight up gives you like a third of a liter worth of cardboard box (multiple of them even, both inner and outer paper) just to transport 3.5g of paste.