Noctua Passive Cooler Enters Production

[TVwazhere]

Summary

CES 2019 saw the introduction of a lot of things including chromax line, black CPU tower coolers and the prototype NF-A14x25, but arguably the part that got the least noise :^) was the passive cooler they showed off. Today we got unofficial confirmation the cooler has entered production. 

 

Quotes

Quote

Noctua was supposed to put this fanless CPU cooler into production by 2020; however, presumably due to the pandemic, the cooler didn't see the light of day this year. Thankfully Noctua still wants to produce its fanless CPU cooler, so hopefully, we'll see it by early next year.

 

There's still no official name for this "fanless CPU cooler" from Noctua, and we still don't know the full dimensions of this monster CPU cooler. Judging by the image, you will probably need a very wide ATX chassis to support it.

Quote

In the lead-up to the launch, the folks at FanlessTech managed to get their mitts on a photo of what is presumed to be the final design, and posted it to Twitter. According to FanlessTech, the cooler is about to enter mass production.

My thoughts

It's not a Black NF-A12x25, but it might be just as cool :^) This also shows that Noctua's timeline seems to be on track, which bodes as good news for users waiting for the Black NF-A12x25. 

 

Sources

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/noctua-fanless-cooler-enters-production

https://www.pcgamer.com/noctuas-upcoming-fanless-cpu-cooler-gets-teased-and-promises-not-to-blow/

Original article from CES 2019 announcement:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14486/noctua-shows-off-concept-fanless-cpu-cooler-up-to-120w-of-cooling-performance

[TVwazhere]

5 minutes ago, comander said:

Also I feel like coolers need to be BIGGER but also mounted to the case. Case + cooler combos anyone?

They exist, but they usually still have some form of compromise for performance users.

 

Passive coolers tend to do better. 

[Tristerin]

7 minutes ago, comander said:

I wonder how this compares with the Scythe Mugen/Infinity. 

 

Also I feel like coolers need to be BIGGER but also mounted to the case. Case + cooler combos anyone?

Ahhhh the 90's when the CPU cooler was hooked to the case panel lol

 

Agreed btw

 

Im kind of interested in this.  

 

Im also liking the fact that they kept the metal finish, as any coloring adds another layer for less thermal transfer (which is not negligible in passive situations imho)

[RejZoR]

I used to run highly overclocked Intel E5200 using Akasa Evo Blue cooler in full passive (stripped it of the plastic shroud and fan). It's a 65W chip, but it was running at 3,75 GHz. I don't know how much power it was burning, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't 65W

 

I think setting 5800X to Eco Mode so it's limited to 65W it should be doable with basically any larger tower cooler without a fan. Hell, given how these CPU's control their clocks now based on power and temperature, has anyone tried just running these using very good tower cooler, but without any fans? It should simply start to clock down as temps shoot up.

[unsorted]

The sticker-shock should be interesting.

[GDRRiley]

can't wait for more nocuta coolers. now they just got to improve stock. I assume they are waiting for boat shipping to be easier to get.

[Doobeedoo]

Cool. I like their roadmap so far.

[Bombastinator]

There have been fanless coolers out for years and years.  NoFan has been doing them for a very long time.  They even did whole fanless cases and complete fanless prebuilts.  The thing that wiped everything out is the gpu.  Making a gaming quality fanless gpu cooler is just hard.  They put out way too much heat. 

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

Good luck running no case fans. Else I don't see the point

I would assume that anyone who went this route would use this for a build without a gpu. Otherwise I wouldn't see the point in having a passive cooler if you already have a gpu that has fans. 

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I would assume that anyone who went this route would use this for a build without a gpu. Otherwise I wouldn't see the point in having a passive cooler if you already have a gpu that has fans. 

There are fanless GPUs. They aren’t very good and they tend to be massive. Zotac makes or made a few. There’s a 3 slot 1650 that is passive iirc. 

[williamcll]

Very interested in what Noctua Desk Fan would be like.

 

Would it have a mount for people who want to have air intake for the entire side panel?

[Bombastinator]

NoFan did some cases that were designed to not have fans.  They were all about thermal convection and tended to be set sideways with open tops and bottoms.  This made them strange looking and hard to build in.

[lostcattears]

No Fans? They will still put fans on it LOL

[Mling]

I remember when the scythe ninja was advertised as being able to passive cool, but only with case fans. Of course it is so large it sits right next to the exhaust fan. Cooler master also did I giant passive cooler about 10 years ago. Cant remember what it was called.

[Mling]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

I would assume that anyone who went this route would use this for a build without a gpu. Otherwise I wouldn't see the point in having a passive cooler if you already have a gpu that has fans. 

Yea I have a 3200G for a silent office build. With all the power saving features turned on I could prob take the fan off the CPU cooler. It never ramps up for the way it is used.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Case fans are placed right at the openings of the case and as such more audible than the fans placed on the CPU cooler

for the record, 2 noctua front intakes, 1 amd cpu cooler, 1 be quiet exhaust fan (which is *off* while idling so irrelevant in this case) at roughly the same rpms I almost can't hear the 2 noctua case fans, whereas I *always* hear the amd cpu fan, about twice as loud, I'd say... 

 

And if the exhaust fan goes on I still hear the cpu fan more.... nothing is annoyingly loud mind you, still my experience doesn't line up with what you said at all...

 

The only fans that are actually loud are from my EVGA 1070 FTW2... very disappointing how loud they are compared to my previous MSI gaming X fans (which were basically inaudible) 

[Poison4K]

Ayyyy fuck yeah dude, this'll be cool 

[Mark Kaine]

4 minutes ago, Poison4K said:

Ayyyy fuck yeah dude, this'll be cool 

I wonder if it allows for any overclocking, iirc I saw some slides back then that seemed to imply this is appropriate cooling only at stock speeds, though I suppose that depends on the processor as well. 

[Poison4K]

Just now, Mark Kaine said:

I wonder if it allows for any overclocking, iirc I saw some slides back then that seemed to imply this is appropriate cooling only at stock speeds, though I suppose that depends on the processor as well. 

Yeah we'll have to wait and see; i imagine it'll be a possibility knowing Noctua, but even if not i very much welcome more competition into the space of fanless coolers. Especially if Noctua has some revolutionary design that changes things up.

[Mark Kaine]

3 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Thats because you are comparing apples to oranges. Replace your case fans with the same AMD cooler fan. And then you will get what I mean.

yeah good point, no plans on doing that tho...

 

but I might replace the amd fan with a noctua, should be definitely more silent and maybe even better cooling (I doubt this fanless one would work in my case, it's pretty small mATX) 

[Bombastinator]

The one fanless passive cooler ive seen is the NoFan cr95 it’s the size of a small plate and is literally all heat pipe.  It’s so big it frequently impinges on pcie slot 1

it should be able to take a 3700x stock or a 3600 with a bit of overclock.  The “95” is for 95w.  The 3700 is supposed to be 65w but it’s really more like 80w.

[Brooksie359]

5 hours ago, huilun02 said:

You mean without a GPU and case fans?

 

Case fans are placed right at the openings of the case and as such more audible than the fans placed on the CPU cooler.

 

Even if we pretend the case fans don't make any sound, you would still need air flow to move the warm air away from the PC. This means a source of noise outside the PC.

 

I applaud Noctua, but logically the only people buying this would be hypocrites. Who's running their work system on an open air test bench?

I don't believe that is the case. If you are doing passive cooling then there is no need for airflow other than natural airflow otherwise it wouldn't be passive in the first place. Hot air rises so you get air flow without case fans anyways. Now I am uncertain if that amount of airflow would be sufficient for the rated tdp of these coolers I am unsure but I would imagine they are designed with no case fans in mind. 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

I don't believe that is the case. If you are doing passive cooling then there is no need for airflow other than natural airflow otherwise it wouldn't be passive in the first place. Hot air rises so you get air flow without case fans anyways. Now I am uncertain if that amount of airflow would be sufficient for the rated tdp of these coolers I am unsure but I would imagine they are designed with no case fans in mind. 

They will be released and tested and then we will know.  Generally cases that were designed for case fans need them. The thermal convection you describe does happen, but it is very slow and weak compared to a fan to the point that if a fan is used it is so overwhelming that it can be ignored.  

[TVwazhere]

8 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

The only fans that are actually loud are from my EVGA 1070 FTW2... very disappointing how loud they are compared to my previous MSI gaming X fans (which were basically inaudible) 

As someone who has owned EVGA cards his whole life (970 FTW, 180ti FTW3 1070ti FTW2) they're still loud/audible at mid ranged RPMs. The Gaming X board design was easily the best/quietest card on the market when the 9/10 series was out, mostly due to the fans being larger than the 3 slot designs (i think 105mm compared to 90?) which allowed them to spin slower and reduce noise. 

[Moonzy]

12 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Good luck running no case fans. Else I don't see the point

I see your point, but I used to run 0 fan on my desktop when doing light tasks like browsing, case fans only turn on when I'm gaming

 

I removed the fan on my dark rock pro 3 so my i5 6600 ran passively, my GPU was a strix 970 so it had 0db fan until I put a load on it

 

I also built a i7 9700k computer without a GPU, I only included one case fan and tune it to turn on only when CPU is running warm (80+), it was built for a silent freak.

 

Passively cooled computer is possible, depending on what your expectations are