Noctua's Fanless 'Passive CPU Cooler' Slated to Arrive Soon...

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https://www.pcmag.com/news/noctuas-fanless-passive-cpu-cooler-slated-to-arrive-soon

"Noctua’s fanless CPU cooler is finally close to launching, with the Austrian company tweeting on Sunday that it's “coming very soon!”

In an email, Noctua also confirmed that "The cooler is indeed still on track for Q2. Pricing will be disclosed at launch.”
The company first introduced the idea for its “Passive CPU Cooler” at 2019’s Computex trade show. The product essentially nixes the fans on a standard CPU cooler and instead bulks up the metal heatsink to include bigger aluminum fins capable of distributing the heat".

"The prototype unit from Noctua ended up being quite large, weighing in at 3.3 pounds. But on the plus side, it generated no sound. Hence, the fanless design should appeal to PC builders who want a quiet desktop rig. No fans also means potentially less dust buildup. At most, Noctua’s cooler can run a CPU at 120 watts in an entire fanless case. If the desktop rig has some fans, then the threshold rises to 180 watts.
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I'm excited for this, having built computers for 20+ years now & owned many of their products, IMO they have the some of the best cooling solutions around. Now days, Noctua is all I use. Can't wait to see the results on a Ryzen Platform at 65w & 125w.
 
3.3lbs lol. That thing is going to be massive.
Yeah, that was the prototype in 2019 if I read it correctly, hopefully they were able to trim it down some. That's pretty massive, would have to have a hell of an anchor system.
 
My question, how many Watts if I add fans?
From the article: If the desktop rig has some fans, then the threshold rises to 180 watts. No mention of a fan directly on the Heatsink though.
 
Meanwhile, I'm still painting NF-A12x25s for people almost two years since they said the chromax version was supposed to come out.
 
I want to know if it can be rotated 90° to match the rotation of my case.

I can't wait to get one of these things and slap a fan on it!

(Not sarcasm)
You might be disappointed. This sort of heatsink is highly optimized for passive cooling and won't benefit much from the increased airflow. It will be worse than a normal heatsink if you're going to use a fan, except maybe at very low speeds.
 
My first reflex would be too assume that ti would not necessarily perform much better if any better than a heatsink made for airflow in mind with a fan, even if it would be much more massive and costly, could be wrong obvisouly.

But if it would be working really great with a fan (enough to make a difference versus the current best offer) they would almost certainly release a fan version anyway, if they do not that would be a sign.
 
Looking at the design, it would not benefit much from a fan being attached to it. You'd get plenty of airflow across the fins with just case fans.

The only good reason to attach one would probably be if your case fans are really far or not pointed at the cooler at all. In that case, having one would help circulate air through the fins, but you'd probably still be limited to their max advertised TDP (or thereabout).
 
I want to know if it can be rotated 90° to match the rotation of my case.


You might be disappointed. This sort of heatsink is highly optimized for passive cooling and won't benefit much from the increased airflow. It will be worse than a normal heatsink if you're going to use a fan, except maybe at very low speeds.
Very low speed giant fan that's basically silent is my goal!
 
With two new socket types being released, alder lake and am5. Im wondering what the mounting system will consist of. Will it just be adapters or something fully implemented into the heatsink?
 
Silverstone has been offering this sort of cooling for over a decade now with their nt06 and the he02. The hard part with this solution is not the cooler itself, but having a case that has the proper airflow for the cooler in question.

Luckily, noctua will have an easier time with that part, as there's more than enough high airflow cases nowadays.
 
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Do less fatter fins cooler better than more thinner fins?
If the overall surface area is the same. thinner fins can restrict movement of heat through a fin.
But the primary measures generally used to design a heatsink are more based on size, weight and cost vs effectiveness.
Thin fins figure highly in cheaper/lighter designs.

Silent cooling swings the balances around and can introduce ease of air flow and natural warm air flow.
 
Very low speed giant fan that's basically silent is my goal!
Silverstone fn181 sleeve bearing 180mm is what I recommend and what has run my scythe ninja rev1 for around a decade. Just re grrase them every few years.

Do less fatter fins cooler better than more thinner fins?
It's actually the fin gap being larger that promotes better flow at low pressure aka fanless operation. Orientation is also important.
 
Not the NF-A12x25. The NF-A12x15 has been out for some time, but that's not a good fan for anything other than applications where you can't fit a 25mm fan.
My bad, I didn't see they were delayed again, ugh...

The NF-F12 and NF-S12A are out but I know what you mean, those NF-A12x25 are nice!


With two new socket types being released, alder lake and am5. Im wondering what the mounting system will consist of. Will it just be adapters or something fully implemented into the heatsink?
Generally Noctua uses the same universally adaptable mount called SecuFirm2 for their heat sinks, so they might offer it as an option down the road if they don't already include it. I know that was the case last time I got a D15, they offered to send compatible part kits for much older/newer sockets for free at the time. I believe s939, and I can't remember if it was the 3000+ pin AMD/Intels or what.
 
Silverstone has been offering this sort of cooling for over a decade now with their nt06 and the he02...
Those aren't the same sort of heatsink. They are "fanless" in the sense that they can be used without fans on them, but they still require active airflow from case fans. The Noctua is a truly passive heatsink intended to work even in cases with no fans at all.

There have been heatsinks like this before, but as far as I know there are none currently available with such a high power rating. The closest is the NoFan CR-95 which, as the name suggests, is only good to 95W.
 
Those aren't the same sort of heatsink. They are "fanless" in the sense that they can be used without fans on them, but they still require active airflow from case fans. The Noctua is a truly passive heatsink intended to work even in cases with no fans at all.

There have been heatsinks like this before, but as far as I know there are none currently available with such a high power rating. The closest is the NoFan CR-95 which, as the name suggests, is only good to 95W.

That's not what I read. I read that Noctua recommends case airflow and even goes so far as to say which fan they recommend to use with the "passive" HSF.

https://wccftech.com/noctuas-nh-p1-...00-us-pricing-insane-passive-heatsink-design/

I think that's where I saw it.

"Fanless heatsink for 100% silent cooling through natural convection (see setup guidelines & list of recommended cases)"

The fact that there are recommended cases and a setup guideline seems to indicate it needs some airflow for higher TDP CPUs IMO. 300W isn't going to happen with zero airflow.
 
That's not what I read. I read that Noctua recommends case airflow and even goes so far as to say which fan they recommend to use with the "passive" HSF.

https://wccftech.com/noctuas-nh-p1-...00-us-pricing-insane-passive-heatsink-design/

I think that's where I saw it.

"Fanless heatsink for 100% silent cooling through natural convection (see setup guidelines & list of recommended cases)"

The fact that there are recommended cases and a setup guideline seems to indicate it needs some airflow for higher TDP CPUs IMO. 300W isn't going to happen with zero airflow.
30w won't happen with zero airflow...
 
30w won't happen with zero airflow...
Well, if you are being pedantic and restricting all natural convection (No passive airflow, IE heat sink in a sealed case) then 30w is hard, but with enough surface area you can accomplish anything.

This heatsink is design to generate its own airflow passively via natural convection: Buoyant airflow due to difference in density driven by heating.

As to the question of fewer fat fins versus more skinny fins, for natural convection (Passive cooling) more spaced fat fins will work better. This is because a fat fin will maintain a more even surface temperature and the wider spacing will reduce pressure loss. Basically Noctua is maximizing the Grashof number by increasing the flow velocity between the fins by reducing restriction. Wide spacing is a given, the fatter fins likely help to keep the flow laminar for pure natural convection by minimizing local hotspots, which would reduce turbulence and therefore pressure loss.

Slap some forced convection (a fan) on this and it will improve, but like high FPI vs low FPI radiators, with more forced convection the tighter fins will start pulling away more heat.
 
Also, a funnel for warm air to rise up can massively increase air movement silently.
The longer the funnel the more time rising air has to keep air speed up, drawing more colder air across the heatsink.
Not so easy on sideways mounted systems but not impossible, it doesnt need to be directly vertical to be of benefit.
A highly insulating funnel is best to prevent loss of heat.
 
Well, if you are being pedantic and restricting all natural convection (No passive airflow, IE heat sink in a sealed case) then 30w is hard, but with enough surface area you can accomplish anything.

This heatsink is design to generate its own airflow passively via natural convection: Buoyant airflow due to difference in density driven by heating.

As to the question of fewer fat fins versus more skinny fins, for natural convection (Passive cooling) more spaced fat fins will work better. This is because a fat fin will maintain a more even surface temperature and the wider spacing will reduce pressure loss. Basically Noctua is maximizing the Grashof number by increasing the flow velocity between the fins by reducing restriction. Wide spacing is a given, the fatter fins likely help to keep the flow laminar for pure natural convection by minimizing local hotspots, which would reduce turbulence and therefore pressure loss.

Slap some forced convection (a fan) on this and it will improve, but like high FPI vs low FPI radiators, with more forced convection the tighter fins will start pulling away more heat.
My point was you can't just stick a heatsink in a box with no fan and expect good results because it's rated at 160w fanless (or whatever it is). There has to be some consideration for airflow even in a fanless case.
 
My point was you can't just stick a heatsink in a box with no fan and expect good results because it's rated at 160w fanless (or whatever it is). There has to be some consideration for airflow even in a fanless case.
Absolutely agree. This thing will die in a closed case. It needs open airflow above it, and ideals open flow beneath it, although from the side will probably be acceptable.
 
Its available on Amazon for $109.90 as of this morning. Whos going to be the first to give it a try?

https://noctua.at/en/nh-p1/buy

Right on the product page...

If necessary, Noctua recommends adding a near-inaudible 120mm fan like the NF-A12x25 LS-PWM to the heatsink for improved performance headroom.

Also, the "recommended" cases are mostly just a mixture of cases with well ventilated bottoms and tops to increase the chimney effect. If the PSU is mounted on the bottom of the case restricting this direct bottom to top airflow, it doesn't get a highly recommended rating.
 
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