Noctua Passive Cooler Enters Production

[Brooksie359]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

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.  

Yes it having a fan makes a big difference but what is the point of a passive cooler if it requires fan type airflow to function properly? I guess if you had an open air case then it would likely work alot better than a traditional case and maybe that is the intended use case of this cooler. 

[inteli7.Ti]

Hopefully Noctua's SecuFirm mounting system and modern motherboards can cope with the heft of this cooler. It's 3.3 pounds (1.5 kgs), 0.44 pounds (0.2 kg) heavier than the already massive NH-D15. 

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Yes it having a fan makes a big difference but what is the point of a passive cooler if it requires fan type airflow to function properly? I guess if you had an open air case then it would likely work alot better than a traditional case and maybe that is the intended use case of this cooler. 

If you’ve also got a fanless case and a fanless PSU it means no fans at all.  If you don’t it means 1 fewer fan.  Case fans have grown immensely in size over the years and have grown quieter as a result.  It used to be the most common fan size for desktops was 80mm for the case, the cpu cooler, and the PSU.  Now it’s 120-140mm. This means less impingement of fans is possible because static pressure is lower, but total noise has gone down.  They were more needed than they perhaps now are.  They might also possibly work better with the large volumes of air that now move through cases.  I don’t know.  What will matter to noctua is if they sell or not.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Bombastinator

[Bombastinator]

6 hours ago, huilun02 said:

My concern is not the adequacy of this new Noctua cooler to shift heat away from the CPU.

 

Rather, what is going to shift the heat out and away from the PC, for an overall setup that makes sense.

 

I find it hard to believe that there wont be a fan somewhere that defeats the point of passive cooling for silence, when just the CPU is dumping 100W+ of heat. 

A fan that runs slow enough is so close to silent as doesn’t matter for most purposes. Part of the issue is sound measurement isnt additive it’s logarithmic.  2 fans over 3 fans all running at the same noise level still increases noise by 1/3rd even though the amount of decibels doesn’t increase noticeably. 

[GreatnessRD]

Noctua ever get in the AIO business, gonna be trouble for a lot of folks. This passive cooler looks interesting, but I don't think I could ever own one personally.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, GreatnessRD said:

Noctua ever get in the AIO business, gonna be trouble for a lot of folks. This passive cooler looks interesting, but I don't think I could ever own one personally.

Depends on what you do.  One of those on an intel chip with Xe makes a lot of sense for an HTPC.  It’s not even remotely small, but if your case will hold it it’s either no fan or one exhaust fan at low speed and that’s near total silence.  Your chair will make more noise.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Bombastinator

[Bombastinator]

22 minutes ago, comander said:

I'm referring more to a btx-like set up. 

 

Think huge heatsink and the mounting to the case is only done to limit board stress. I'm imagining a brace system similar to GPU braces. 

You want to use gpu braces or gpu brace like structures as thermal conduits to the case.  That’s been done.  Works ok.  They have to be made out of heat pipe though.  The impression I get is heat only travels efficiently in solid metal for about an inch and a half

Edited December 23, 2020 by Bombastinator

[Gix7Fifty]

Well no fans for gpu's on the roadmap (yes, i know about mods). 

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

If I wire a WC loop to a full bathtub with a massive radiator in the bottom, does that count as passive?

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

There you go... a fan in a fanless system. Integrity broken

 

Now tell me where in the case would you place the single fan, for the least perceivable noise to the user?

If only one fan it goes in rear exaust on a regularly set up PC. Apparently there are some cases that are made to be set up sideways in “chimney” mode I recently heard it called which should need no fans at all. It would need both bottom and top gratings for that and the motherboard i/o often points straight down with those.  They’re kind of an all-round pita.

 

notice how widely separated the cooling fins are.  That means it’s designed for extremely low pressure cooling.  Like thermal convection. With a small high static pressure fan the fins are much closer together. 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Bombastinator

[Bombastinator]

31 minutes ago, Colonel_Gerdauf said:

If I wire a WC loop to a full bathtub with a massive radiator in the bottom, does that count as passive?

That’s water to water cooling.  Custom loops are most commonly water to air.  Masarati did water to water cooling for a few of its turbocharged cars.

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

13 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

That’s water to water cooling.  Custom loops are most commonly water to air.  Masarati did water to water cooling for a few of its turbocharged cars.

Nuclear reactors commonly use water to water to water cooling.

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Colonel_Gerdauf said:

Nuclear reactors commonly use water to water to water cooling.

Possible.  Oil to water is quite common.  It’s what caused the discovery of ricin(?)in Japan.  One of those very sad stories. There was a heat exchanger that cooled cookin oil that developed a tiny crack so a minute amount of the coolant mixed with the cooling oil.  A lot of horrible birth defects.  Was worse than thalidomide.

[Bombastinator]

50 minutes ago, comander said:

I didn't say that at all. The idea of structural support would be to allow bigger and heavier heatsinks. The brace could be an insulator for all it matters. 

 

Think + 10 cents bom costs not including machine costs. 

Ah.  big big coolers.  Missed a question mark in my statement. Should have read “...to the case?”
 The problem there is coolers have hit triple thick already.  If they go quadruple thick they’re deep enough to put a couple fans in horizontally.  Do that and you can have drastically lighter quieter blower coolers.  The max would be pentuple thick.  That’s actually over square. 

[Mling]

im gonna drop this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator

[Morris_lee_9116]

cool, let me just slap 5x 200MM noctua fan on it and we are all set