Support our extensive testing efforts & equipment purchases while getting something in return via the GN store -- like our Wireframe Mouse Mats, which are in stock and shipping now: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-wireframe-mouse-mat To see a cooler that’s almost the exact opposite of the NH-P1, check out our EK AIO Elite review: th-cam.com/video/TTRFkYJMf9Y/w-d-xo.html CPU cooler testing methods: th-cam.com/video/fmTOJP4KOyk/w-d-xo.html
Could you stop doing acoustics in all tests? It's wasted fucking time, it's almost as bad as how you used to take 5 minutes to slowly explain that "standardised fan testing isn't valid." Where Standardised fan tests have A LOT of merit, these noise tests are completely fucking worthless.
To be clear the fact that everybody else includes phizo, or even worse philips, head screws for a computer part in 2021 is utter horseshit. Torx just works a hell of a lot better and the smaller the screws the more relevant a torx head is due to it's massive advantage in terms of surface area for the screw driver to grip onto. I own a Fractal Design case that cost me 140$+ and has a removable tray for mounting a radiator at the top. The screws on said tray have Philips heads and are so small and screwed in so tightly from the factory that I have never been able to remove it as any attempt starts stripping the screw heads. This would have been pretty much impossible if the screws in question had a torx head.
I wonder if he could run a water cooling loop through a wall into a dust free room for the radiators. Just make sure never to let the loop fall too much under ambient temperature in either of those spaces, or there could be a condensation issues.
@@gunnar6674 That seems like 10x more effort than a simple shop-computer is really worth. Not to mention the maintenance that would probably be just as bad, if not worse than just using normal fans that require cleaning often.
It's surprising how many known brands do OEM stuff. I got a 450 MHz Pentium 3 that came with a stock Cooler Master cooler. Seasonic and FSP are some of the few companies that actually build PSUs, most others order from them and slap their own sticker on. Same for OEM motherboards.
Yeah, many thanks for that, that's always something many reviewers omit, as a result, I ended up buying a NR600 (ODD version btw, it does exist Steve!) but it won't fit my NH-D15's second fan because of ram clearance.
Sorry, but this thing is practically useless, especially at this price point. Dedicated servers have their own cooling, especially if they use multiple racks with several processors in each. For a gaming computer you would still need GPU with its own ventilator and possibly case vents. Only theoretically useful application would be some dedicated science computer with weak passively cooled graphics card, that needs to be as quiet as possible. In that case PSU would need to be cooled quietly as well.
@@aleksazunjic9672 actually this type of Cooler if PERFECT for places where a lot of dust and debris can end up clogging normal fans (happens a lot where I live where you can literally see an 2 cm dust appear in just a day on any surface) sure its weak and not useful for heavy and high end stuff but for a normal computer its perfect.
@@m-w-y7325 Frankly, 2cm of dust would appear only if you live on factory floor :) Industrial computers usually employ different strategy, strong fans that blow dust out of the PC case. They do not care much about sounds for obvious reasons. Passive coolers do not need fans, but they would be covered with dust like anything else, and that would reduce thermal convection.
@@Mostlyharmless1985 But Earth doesn't spin under its atmosphere. The atmosphere spins with it. Otherwise you'd have global storms with speeds across the ground of up to about a third faster than the speed of sound.
It would have been kind of interesting to see it compared to a massive air cooler like the NH-D15 also run passively, just to see how much better this design is compared to something not designed to run passively.
@@simoSLJ89 A NH-D15 is more comparable in mass to the NH-P1 though and has a lot more surface area than a U12S. I'm not saying that it will do well, but when running passively, more heatpipes and more surface area makes a big difference. Open bench vs. inside a case makes a huge difference too, unless the case fans are going very fast, then it might not matter as much.
@@Nakna_ankaN thanks to your comment I realized I wrote wrong: I have a U14S. But yes, the D15 and D15S are way bigger anyway, and maybe they will be better even without a fan.
Yeah I'd love to see that. I run my NH-D15 passively most of the time, since it can keep my 1700X cool just fine under low load. (The case does have a 200mm fan exhausting out the top, which helps a lot)
As an opposite point of comparison, it'd be interesting to see how some of the active coolers would fare without fans to see how much of a difference it makes to actually design for passive.
Man I'm still using an old Artic Cooling 64 Pro without the fan. Yes, from way back in the days of the Athlon 64s. This was a pretty cheap 35$ cooler and it's still absolutely fine for something like a "65W" CPU even without the fan. The only problem these days is that the listed CPU TDP numbers mean almost nothing with all the boosting crap so things are a little bit more confusing for consumers. Back in the day the 64 Pro was recommended for up to 125W CPUs, 160W max (I think), with the fan on of course, something like that. Taking the fan off raises temp under load by about 12 degrees Celsius, in an old Cooler Master case with 4 case fans. You can get a replacement fan to this day for like $3 if you live in Germany or you can stick an 80/90mm fan on with some wire or zip ties or something but I've given up on that. You only need to put a fan on it for "90W"ish CPUs. Oh and BTW there's a new semi-passive version of this cooler and it's also under $40. Maybe it's called the Pro Rev2 or something like that, I can't remember. So there's your answer over a year later. You don't need a giant $110 radiator for a normal CPU unless you have a case with no fans or something really weird like that and I'm rather disappointed Gamers Nexus didn't clearly mention this in the video. Now I believe them that a bigger gap between the fins is better convection, if you're not going to have a fan on at all anyway but it doesn't make that big of a difference. I'd personally rather get a new Artic cooler and just remove the fan than buy something so big and expensive as the product from Noctua. And yes, the new Artic Pro cooler also has a little more space between the fins, it's like in between the old 64 (and other normal tower coolers) and this monstrosity presented here. Lastly I'd mention that I don't care about overclocking or anything else like that these days. For me those days are in the distant past. Cheers.
this one requires time to grow to become a true noctua... after years when rust takes over it will reveal its final noctua form you can fast forward this process with some help from vinegar or saltwater
So not only do Noctua do great fans, coolers and such, they have good manuals and marketing. It is a nice change of pace to hear&see Steve&Co have a good time with a product :)
The schlieren photography is so cool! i'd probably blow away so much time just messing with cooler and fan configurations just to see what happens. Thanks for including it in video.
@@GamersNexus I was thinking about that case recently. Did you know that fans are frequently credited with supernatural capabilities in Korean culture? Do a search and some reading on "korean fan death" (and the proposed theories as to how fan death occurs in korea) and you'll understand the case's design, and why it is named after a pharaoh.
@@JD-tl4zs Note that part of why "fan death" was so spread was it was sometimes used to cover up less "honorable" means of dying as well. For many people, Fan Death is about equivalent to the american saying "To spend more time with my family" when talking about a politician who stepped down due to a legal or personal scandal.
I was really looking forward to this since your tease, thanks for the short wait time. I don't know why but; Mike's no no no finger for the grey stand-offs cracked me up.
There’s another reason for having a fanless system actually. In operating rooms and such the computers are required to be fanless because dust and other debris could have disastrous consequences.
This is why I love to support GN. Years I lived in an open loft, with my computers needing to remain on 24/7, yet any noise needing to be bearable. In that era, Zalman was the only "creative" choice along with under-volted fans, thankfully CPUs were far less power hungry too. Then came Noctua to rule the roost. Now we have GN to do the analysis we can all trust and you can buy with confidence. Aces!
Steve! Just gotta say thank you guys so much. Just got my wire frame mouse mat, and I feel like it's one of the best things I've ever spent money on PC wise! Absolutely love it. Great job!!!
Great to see the 3600 load testing with stock cooler and reasonable alternatives. Can make some amazing display office pc with this new passive cooler.
Silverstone always did a good fanless cooler, pretty massive too. The HE02 is rated to 95W fanless or higher with case fans and up to 150W with a fan on the cooler itself. They made it compatible with AM4 as well through new parts. Would be nice to see a modern day comparison.
Thanks for mentioning the specific fin spacing for passive coolers - there are actually engineering calculations for passive cooler fin spacing (depending on heat load, overall cooler size, etc.) and this is quite common in industrial applications. Of course yeah no fan means no intake of saw dust, metal particles.. I would add that usages for totally silent PCs include sound studios, where any parasitic noise is unwelcome, test chambers, and of course quiet homes (no street noise, no A/C...) where you do hear even those Noctua fans very clearly. This would be perfect for a home theater PC as the power requirement for those is quite below the 65W limit, allowing for iGPU and passive PSU, and i'd certainly use this for a non-power user build as it means it's zero maintenance.
I think this makes the most sense in an airflow case where you’re not planning to watercool it, or something like Linus did with a SFF case and the side panel cut to have the fins sticking out. Strapping exhaust fans to the top of a case instead of a front to back or all positive build seems the way to go with this
25:02 "What do they mean "not suitable for passive cooling", adding a passive cooler to case that comes with 12 fans preinstalled is a brilliant idea!" -The designer of the Ramesses 780, after spending the night inside his case and suffering from asphyxiation-induced brain damage
I bought one and so far loving it, being one of those people who relishes absolute silence. When the CPU is hit with some load, I sometimes do hear a metal ‘twang’ like you hear when you have a pan heating on the stove. Kind of weird and discomforting to hear inside a PC, but I think that makes it special 🙂
@@wotertool 90% of what I do on it is work, and that's when I want it to be quiet. I've got a RTX 3090 FE and the fans stay off when I'm working. When I fire up a game, of course the 3090 comes alive, though it has such big fans on it you can barely hear it, and games have sound + music so you can't hear the fans anyway.
It's not like this product has much competition, also it doesn't have much to prove. All it has to do is properly cool low end CPUs and it achieves it's goal/purpose. My question would be the price, quite expensive, considering what, extra aluminum but cutting the fan. Wonder the margins.
@@bluelabel222 I thought about that, and still. Like it was already known that you need less fins but them thicker and better spaced out. It's sad it took so many years for such a product but it's noctua, it's taken them years to make a black version of their fan.
You should do a test where you remove the fan from the active coolers, effectively making them passive, just to show exactly why the NH-P1 is designed the way it is.
Here's the result of that test: all heatsinks will fail at cooling the CPUs without a fan. Some heatsinks will work with Intel T models at the cost of low performance.
@@Z4KIUS I doubt it. 60W generates a lot of heat and if the fins are close together, without forced airflow even a big heatsink gets saturated quickly. Also most CPUs with a TDP of 60W use a more power than 60W under stress.
@@Z4KIUS SilverStone HE02 > Ninja, just not sure if you can still buy it. I've had both and while Ninja (3) did pretty good passively (used it on A10 APU), HE02 is in a different class. P1 is definitely my next cooler, though.
@@quintoblanco8746 I never did proper testing of my Ninja in passive to be exactly sure but it definitely can handle more than just a T, and if you're not going for sustained load it'll work flawlessly too, though I definitely don't recommend that
@@hansdietrich83 you don’t need crazy amounts of processing power to record or even master music. Also you don’t need dedicated graphics as well cutting you’re moving components down even further.
y'know, I think it would be really neat if another company were to roll with this and try to make a really artsy lookin' passive cooler. Not like plastic shrouds and RGB LED nonsense, I mean crazy heatpipe bends and fancy shiny fins. Kinda like how coolers in the early 2000s got all whacky with their designs to draw eyes. Make a showpiece out'a the thing. It'd more than likely be a market failure, but it sure would be neat
Great rundown! I think something like this would be ideal for people who do a ton of audio recording and are using sensitive condenser mics in cramped situations.
2 remarks: 1) your testbed has no case, and in that sense, I think it's not a good testbed. I assume it's not the first time you hear that, and you put some thought into why you don't use cases. I'd be happy to hear! [P.S.: Ok, just watching your RTFM on how you test, and I take the above back. You are doing much more homework than I would have dreamed of. Well done!] 2)another argument for Noctua Kit is that they sell socket upgrade kit. Not sure about the other vendors. Though, I was very impressed when I could bring my 10 year old NH-C12P from 1156 to the AM4 socket with an 8 EUR (9 US$) mounting kit (+ shipping). That is so cool! Maybe this thing will get 15 or even 20 years of service life. Do other vendors provide that? [P.P.S.: I just saw that you actually appreciate so many aspects of this, e.g. in your air vs liquid cooler vid. I appreciate your channel. Really great stuff! Considering patreon now. ;-) ]
I've always wondered how heavy a cooler could be before it puts so much stress on the motherboard that it just slowly breaks all the traces inside the board over time with its sheer girth.
I'm a huge fan of this .......... despite it having no fans .. it would be very useful in warehousing or workshop environment where dust and crap is prevalent I have been witness to huge money losing breakdowns which have been caused by heavy dust ingress into computers as well as metallic dust that has caused shorts on systems I know there are systems made for these environments but I think for smaller companies that can't afford to buy build specific systems this would be a great solution. great coverage as always fellas.
I'd be really curious to see how this passive cooler would hold in a "true tower" type case where air intake would be at the bottom and exhaust at the top if such a case exists on the market of course. I'd argue that it would do pretty well as it could use the full extent of heat movement physics.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1489140137/nsg-s0-worlds-first-fanless-chassis-for-high-perfo/posts/3171901 The project has taken over three years I think, and still no actual cases. But the company is legit in the server cooling space, so it's not a scam. It's just taking years of delays. The design has changed a few times as well.
Nice product from noctua, lets hope we see more of these. Like that one big-massive cooler that goes to the opposite side of the motherboard, and can work passive
My father is a over the road trucker and has recently gone Owner/Operator if I ever build a tiny computer for him this is going to be one of the key components. With all the road vibrations everything that can be solid state and otherwise not moving must be in order to last.
I’m going to be installing on of these passive coolers for my friend, he’s a police officer though he can be a bit too political correct sometimes. When I install this PC in his PC he’s going to be one happy PC, PC.
We can try to get one in to test it out! Looks like that one can't be oriented any direction, unlike Noctua's. We could test vertical and horizontal on it.
Noctua should collaborate with a case manufacturer where the passive cooler is even larger and converges with an aluminum panel of a PC case so the case itself is dispersing the heat from the outside.
How does this perform in an actual case, however? I have doubts that the air movement created by convection is strong enough to overcome dust filters for example. So the hot air would have to pass its heat on to the case surface, which would itself be cooled by convection with the ambient air? Or am I missing something?
Like every cooler, performace scales with the temperature differential. That said, dust filters pose no big resistance to slow moving air, it's the turbulence at higher airspeeds that creates most of the resistance. Lastly, with such a cooler you'd need next to no dust filtering in many environments, this thing won't ever clog up.
"you'll see how heat rises... which is a known thing" but seems to be unknown for most of case manufacturers, and I guess whoever designed ATX standard too
AT and ATX standards were designed around desktop computers, not tower cases. It would be hugely rare to see a motherboard on its side at that time. 10 years later, sure that would be the norm.
ATX is ancient, PCs had like 60mm fans at the time and, as someone pointed out, true desktops were more popular back then. BTX tried to address cooling but failed horribly. These days it doesn't really matter since cases allow you send air straight up if you want.
@@MiGujack3 barely any cases do and most active coolers are designed for horizontal airflow, and that's not even weird seeing how all the expansion cards block convection anyway
@@GFFrankJaeger if you consider quality, price is adequate TBH. What is better, buy one more expensive cooler for 10+ years with possibility to buy extra mounts if necessary, or buy cheaper and worse without that possibility? But I am not saying that N is cheap, I myself buy something bit cheaper, and almost that good.
@@slizgi86 i would say price is bad, but think of the reliability. and its good. leave it running for 10 years straight and dont think you will have issues. and that is the thing that costs. same for business and enterprise things, yes there are cheaper and better things, but you need to have it and leave it running for maby 10 years, and you expect it to run it. as for home use stuff. 5 years if you are lucky
Even if this is not a high end super performing product, steve seems so happy presenting it. He just loves good engineering and of course playing with his ett's (expensive testing toys).
@@ferdinandbardamu3945 I have no interest in Gaming, my use case is a general purpose / video streaming / HTPC. I'm looking at the Silverstone FARA H1M case as it has good airflow, fits a 160mm CPU cooler and fits in the furniture under my TV.
@@Richies_Beer_n_Gear If you want to go ITX, I suggest the Silverstone LD03. The case structure is well suited for convection cooling with a heatsink like this NH-P1.
Loved the review Steve, you guys did a great job! I didn't know there were 'fan-less' coolers like this, but I'm glad to know now. I might consider this for my next build with an i5 11400, plus I can always add a fan on it if I need extra cooling. I'm still looking forward to your fan testing machine in the future, and your new office! :)
Support our extensive testing efforts & equipment purchases while getting something in return via the GN store -- like our Wireframe Mouse Mats, which are in stock and shipping now: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-wireframe-mouse-mat
To see a cooler that’s almost the exact opposite of the NH-P1, check out our EK AIO Elite review: th-cam.com/video/TTRFkYJMf9Y/w-d-xo.html
CPU cooler testing methods: th-cam.com/video/fmTOJP4KOyk/w-d-xo.html
How much sheer girth would it take for a motherboard to be flexed enough That the traces inside the board break.
It'd be nice to compare this to 'no cooler'
Could you stop doing acoustics in all tests? It's wasted fucking time, it's almost as bad as how you used to take 5 minutes to slowly explain that "standardised fan testing isn't valid." Where Standardised fan tests have A LOT of merit, these noise tests are completely fucking worthless.
Would love to see how the Scythe Orochi Rev.B does compared to this.
To be clear the fact that everybody else includes phizo, or even worse philips, head screws for a computer part in 2021 is utter horseshit. Torx just works a hell of a lot better and the smaller the screws the more relevant a torx head is due to it's massive advantage in terms of surface area for the screw driver to grip onto. I own a Fractal Design case that cost me 140$+ and has a removable tray for mounting a radiator at the top. The screws on said tray have Philips heads and are so small and screwed in so tightly from the factory that I have never been able to remove it as any attempt starts stripping the screw heads. This would have been pretty much impossible if the screws in question had a torx head.
My Father ordered one for the pc in his hobby workshop. Less airflow means less sawdust going into the pc, so it is perfect for that.
Excellent fit!
I wonder if he could run a water cooling loop through a wall into a dust free room for the radiators. Just make sure never to let the loop fall too much under ambient temperature in either of those spaces, or there could be a condensation issues.
@@gunnar6674 That seems like 10x more effort than a simple shop-computer is really worth. Not to mention the maintenance that would probably be just as bad, if not worse than just using normal fans that require cleaning often.
@@DeadNoob451 Oh, definitely - it's only something you would do as a hobby project. It's not something you do to save money or time.
@@gunnar6674 From that perspective, i have to admit it sounds kinda awesome in an over-the-top kinda way.
You should have just done a sound test, just to mess with everyone lol
this would have demonstrated how much noise in the test is backround noise...
@@ulrichkalber9039 Maybe even some coil whine
Could have plot it against the noise from a H1 running hot
room with pc off - 40db, turns on pc, 35db... noctua wtf :D
Noise normalised comparisons with fans means passive cooler is infinitely better?
I remember seeing my first passive PC in a calibration room for hearing aids at an ear care center, so that's another class of use-cases.
places like these will probably get something like Airtop 3 to not rely on aftermarket parts and complex warranties
@@Z4KIUS OEMs can also buy stuff from Noctua..
Makes a ton of sense!
Yeah, I’ve gravitated from Noctua because of their prices recently, but this cooler can certainly be clutch in niche situations.
It's surprising how many known brands do OEM stuff. I got a 450 MHz Pentium 3 that came with a stock Cooler Master cooler.
Seasonic and FSP are some of the few companies that actually build PSUs, most others order from them and slap their own sticker on. Same for OEM motherboards.
The lines referencing the dimensions was a nice touch, liked that a lot.
Thanks! Will let Keegan and Andrew know!
Yeah, many thanks for that, that's always something many reviewers omit, as a result, I ended up buying a NR600 (ODD version btw, it does exist Steve!) but it won't fit my NH-D15's second fan because of ram clearance.
I totally agree ! For non-native english speakers, having the numbers displayed on screen is always appreciated.
You guys make the most thorough product reviews on TH-cam. Thanks!
@@GamersNexus Could you possibly also give Keegan and Andrew a kiss on the forehead for the exceptional idea? I'm sure it's well deserved.
From now on I'll exclusively refer to this as the Passive Massive Cooler™
The Noctua Pass Mass for short.
got it backwards :P Massive Passive Cooler
@@Apollo-Computers But mass pass sounds like some kind of pass that will get you into a lot of different venues or something.
Look at the NoFan coolers. Then you know what passive massive really is
I'm sure we could fit "cooling tool" in there somewhere.
Steve: Buys a super expensive custom fan tester.
Noctua: Bout to ruin his whole career.
plot twist; noctua knows and released this cooler just to yank the GN teams chain.
@@kenabi double plot twist: the fan tester has an attachment to test fanless coolers
Sorry, but this thing is practically useless, especially at this price point. Dedicated servers have their own cooling, especially if they use multiple racks with several processors in each. For a gaming computer you would still need GPU with its own ventilator and possibly case vents. Only theoretically useful application would be some dedicated science computer with weak passively cooled graphics card, that needs to be as quiet as possible. In that case PSU would need to be cooled quietly as well.
@@aleksazunjic9672 actually this type of Cooler if PERFECT for places where a lot of dust and debris can end up clogging normal fans
(happens a lot where I live where you can literally see an 2 cm dust appear in just a day on any surface)
sure its weak and not useful for heavy and high end stuff but for a normal computer its perfect.
@@m-w-y7325 Frankly, 2cm of dust would appear only if you live on factory floor :) Industrial computers usually employ different strategy, strong fans that blow dust out of the PC case. They do not care much about sounds for obvious reasons. Passive coolers do not need fans, but they would be covered with dust like anything else, and that would reduce thermal convection.
16:45
Love the "~0RPM" for the cooler. It's technically not wrong, but it's also not right, and it just got me for some reason.
Haha, thought it was funny to do it that way!
As many RPM as times you rotate the case. There will be many zeroes.
Isn't it closer to 0.00069444420027778 RPM? Earth spins...
@@Mostlyharmless1985 But Earth doesn't spin under its atmosphere. The atmosphere spins with it. Otherwise you'd have global storms with speeds across the ground of up to about a third faster than the speed of sound.
@@Anvilshock I don't see how that's really a concern, you still rotate.
It would have been kind of interesting to see it compared to a massive air cooler like the NH-D15 also run passively, just to see how much better this design is compared to something not designed to run passively.
+1 This.
I tried my U14S with no fan and a R5 2600, and after a couple of mins pc was off (I was just in the bios)
@@simoSLJ89 A NH-D15 is more comparable in mass to the NH-P1 though and has a lot more surface area than a U12S. I'm not saying that it will do well, but when running passively, more heatpipes and more surface area makes a big difference.
Open bench vs. inside a case makes a huge difference too, unless the case fans are going very fast, then it might not matter as much.
@@Nakna_ankaN thanks to your comment I realized I wrote wrong: I have a U14S. But yes, the D15 and D15S are way bigger anyway, and maybe they will be better even without a fan.
Yeah I'd love to see that. I run my NH-D15 passively most of the time, since it can keep my 1700X cool just fine under low load. (The case does have a 200mm fan exhausting out the top, which helps a lot)
The Noctua NH-P1: For those with enough space to fit a whole Gamecube over their CPU.
Not that it would cool the cpu down enough to emulate some GameCube games, especially something like SSBM online.
As an opposite point of comparison, it'd be interesting to see how some of the active coolers would fare without fans to see how much of a difference it makes to actually design for passive.
Yes! I was hoping to see this. And also, how low an RPM would an NHD15 need to be run at before it makes sense to get the NHP1. 400rpm, perhaps?
I always wonder how my old scythe mugen would fair with that. It's a fair old hunk of metal.
Man I'm still using an old Artic Cooling 64 Pro without the fan. Yes, from way back in the days of the Athlon 64s. This was a pretty cheap 35$ cooler and it's still absolutely fine for something like a "65W" CPU even without the fan.
The only problem these days is that the listed CPU TDP numbers mean almost nothing with all the boosting crap so things are a little bit more confusing for consumers. Back in the day the 64 Pro was recommended for up to 125W CPUs, 160W max (I think), with the fan on of course, something like that. Taking the fan off raises temp under load by about 12 degrees Celsius, in an old Cooler Master case with 4 case fans. You can get a replacement fan to this day for like $3 if you live in Germany or you can stick an 80/90mm fan on with some wire or zip ties or something but I've given up on that. You only need to put a fan on it for "90W"ish CPUs.
Oh and BTW there's a new semi-passive version of this cooler and it's also under $40. Maybe it's called the Pro Rev2 or something like that, I can't remember.
So there's your answer over a year later. You don't need a giant $110 radiator for a normal CPU unless you have a case with no fans or something really weird like that and I'm rather disappointed Gamers Nexus didn't clearly mention this in the video. Now I believe them that a bigger gap between the fins is better convection, if you're not going to have a fan on at all anyway but it doesn't make that big of a difference. I'd personally rather get a new Artic cooler and just remove the fan than buy something so big and expensive as the product from Noctua. And yes, the new Artic Pro cooler also has a little more space between the fins, it's like in between the old 64 (and other normal tower coolers) and this monstrosity presented here. Lastly I'd mention that I don't care about overclocking or anything else like that these days. For me those days are in the distant past. Cheers.
The schlieren imaging is sick, great work!
It's actually far better for this situation than watching air being blown around. The lack of turbulent flow from a fan makes for awesome clarity
Thanks for putting this review together guys!
Thanks Steve! My CPU heard you calling it low end and now it's crying...
It knows what it did
Been waiting Steve! Thanks man.
Why isn't it brown?
So it doesn't look already burnt? lol
this one requires time to grow to become a true noctua... after years when rust takes over it will reveal its final noctua form
you can fast forward this process with some help from vinegar or saltwater
@@pihermoso11 i recommend concentrated HF or HCl for this tho
Because the brown goes for the fan, not the heatsink. The joke prob flew over my head.
Is brown the new black? I saw a brown car the other day. Not seen one since the 80s
So not only do Noctua do great fans, coolers and such, they have good manuals and marketing.
It is a nice change of pace to hear&see Steve&Co have a good time with a product :)
Noctua needs to make more products so we can see "Happy Steve" more often.
Clicked faster than the fan in this cooler spins
@Dr. Hibbs Yes indeed
The new testing methods are so awesome, guys. You guys are setting the bar for tech channels
Thank you GN for indulging my neuroses about silence. Such a great review of a fanless cooler.
The amount of raw information givin by you guys is unmatched, literally the best tech channel on YT keep it up!
"Today we're doing some really cool stuff" - I see what you did there lads, nice.
The schlieren photography is so cool! i'd probably blow away so much time just messing with cooler and fan configurations just to see what happens. Thanks for including it in video.
Steve, you just can't wait for an opportunity to destroy the Abkoncore Ramesses 780.
Hey now. That one was the editors!
@@GamersNexus I see what you mean Steve Burke - Editor-in-Chief
@@GamersNexus I was thinking about that case recently. Did you know that fans are frequently credited with supernatural capabilities in Korean culture? Do a search and some reading on "korean fan death" (and the proposed theories as to how fan death occurs in korea) and you'll understand the case's design, and why it is named after a pharaoh.
Timestamp? :D
@@JD-tl4zs Note that part of why "fan death" was so spread was it was sometimes used to cover up less "honorable" means of dying as well. For many people, Fan Death is about equivalent to the american saying "To spend more time with my family" when talking about a politician who stepped down due to a legal or personal scandal.
I was really looking forward to this since your tease, thanks for the short wait time.
I don't know why but; Mike's no no no finger for the grey stand-offs cracked me up.
I’m trying to figure out a way to fit this in a silent itx build 🤔
Use one of this really tiny ITX-cases with a pico-PS and cut out the cover and let the massive cooler stand out
Just make it like a hot rod
It will fill the case and there will be room for nothing else 😉
same. I have that silverstone case and had the same idea in the LTT video, replacing the same cooler too lol
want to try it with 3400g + inwin chopin without mesh)))
I'm using one of these in a nature streaming machine, keeping an i5-11400 to
There’s another reason for having a fanless system actually. In operating rooms and such the computers are required to be fanless because dust and other debris could have disastrous consequences.
This is why I love to support GN. Years I lived in an open loft, with my computers needing to remain on 24/7, yet any noise needing to be bearable. In that era, Zalman was the only "creative" choice along with under-volted fans, thankfully CPUs were far less power hungry too. Then came Noctua to rule the roost.
Now we have GN to do the analysis we can all trust and you can buy with confidence. Aces!
My favorite looking thing Noctua makes. The sound of silence, so sweeet.
And not just that, the "tone" of their fans are low and nice.
And they have very nice boxes
Steve! Just gotta say thank you guys so much. Just got my wire frame mouse mat, and I feel like it's one of the best things I've ever spent money on PC wise! Absolutely love it. Great job!!!
Great to see the 3600 load testing with stock cooler and reasonable alternatives. Can make some amazing display office pc with this new passive cooler.
It's nice to open their website and check CPU compatibility and its limitations in a very organized way.
Silverstone always did a good fanless cooler, pretty massive too. The HE02 is rated to 95W fanless or higher with case fans and up to 150W with a fan on the cooler itself. They made it compatible with AM4 as well through new parts. Would be nice to see a modern day comparison.
Thanks for mentioning the specific fin spacing for passive coolers - there are actually engineering calculations for passive cooler fin spacing (depending on heat load, overall cooler size, etc.) and this is quite common in industrial applications. Of course yeah no fan means no intake of saw dust, metal particles..
I would add that usages for totally silent PCs include sound studios, where any parasitic noise is unwelcome, test chambers, and of course quiet homes (no street noise, no A/C...) where you do hear even those Noctua fans very clearly.
This would be perfect for a home theater PC as the power requirement for those is quite below the 65W limit, allowing for iGPU and passive PSU, and i'd certainly use this for a non-power user build as it means it's zero maintenance.
I think this makes the most sense in an airflow case where you’re not planning to watercool it, or something like Linus did with a SFF case and the side panel cut to have the fins sticking out. Strapping exhaust fans to the top of a case instead of a front to back or all positive build seems the way to go with this
Thank you for your no bullshit content. I feel like you are the only reviewer I can trust because you instantly call out shitty products and flaws
25:02 "What do they mean "not suitable for passive cooling", adding a passive cooler to case that comes with 12 fans preinstalled is a brilliant idea!"
-The designer of the Ramesses 780, after spending the night inside his case and suffering from asphyxiation-induced brain damage
It's true! It has so many fans that they can create extra-dimensional air traversal!
Can’t wait for the fan testing! Love the current content too.
I admire how GN can hold the cooler fins like that without getting minor cuts.
Noctua engineering means the edges aren't sharp.
I like how totally redundant the schlieren photographe is but it remains so friggin cool to see in action!
I bought one and so far loving it, being one of those people who relishes absolute silence. When the CPU is hit with some load, I sometimes do hear a metal ‘twang’ like you hear when you have a pan heating on the stove. Kind of weird and discomforting to hear inside a PC, but I think that makes it special 🙂
may I ask how you passivly cool your GPU or is it a low power one for home entertainment and not screaming-your-lungs-out shooter sessions?
That sound alone kinda defeats the whole purpose of "absolute silence", especially when better and cheaper active cooler are barely audible anyhow
@@wotertool 90% of what I do on it is work, and that's when I want it to be quiet. I've got a RTX 3090 FE and the fans stay off when I'm working. When I fire up a game, of course the 3090 comes alive, though it has such big fans on it you can barely hear it, and games have sound + music so you can't hear the fans anyway.
@@grasthube it's occasional, really, not every single time the CPU boosts, that would be annoying. But I agree it's not 100% quiet, perhaps 99% ;-)
@@kasimirdenhertog3516 ah ok. I though it was a constant sound due to heat exchange and thermal deformation
Awesome review! It is good to see this type of product go out to the market.
Imagine being confident enough in your product to actively send it free of charge to GN 🤔😂
Noctua is probably one of the only companies that can do that.
There's not much to fear when you're honest about your product though 🤷🏻♂️
It's not like this product has much competition, also it doesn't have much to prove. All it has to do is properly cool low end CPUs and it achieves it's goal/purpose. My question would be the price, quite expensive, considering what, extra aluminum but cutting the fan. Wonder the margins.
@@sladewilson9273 don't forget R&D. ✌️
@@bluelabel222 I thought about that, and still. Like it was already known that you need less fins but them thicker and better spaced out. It's sad it took so many years for such a product but it's noctua, it's taken them years to make a black version of their fan.
The Schlieren photography was really interesting! It really does help give some perspective of how much air/heat is actually moving
This cooler is made for audio recording studios.
Very cool!
If only it could handle high tdp high core cpus
After this review it is not cool. I would give it a "Very warm" instead :)
I built a passively cooled PC years ago using a Noctua cooler with the fan pulled off. Worked like a dream.
You should do a test where you remove the fan from the active coolers, effectively making them passive, just to show exactly why the NH-P1 is designed the way it is.
Here's the result of that test: all heatsinks will fail at cooling the CPUs without a fan. Some heatsinks will work with Intel T models at the cost of low performance.
@@quintoblanco8746 Ninja will work quite fine with 60W probably, but everything else will fail
and P1 can go higher and higher
@@Z4KIUS I doubt it. 60W generates a lot of heat and if the fins are close together, without forced airflow even a big heatsink gets saturated quickly. Also most CPUs with a TDP of 60W use a more power than 60W under stress.
@@Z4KIUS SilverStone HE02 > Ninja, just not sure if you can still buy it.
I've had both and while Ninja (3) did pretty good passively (used it on A10 APU), HE02 is in a different class.
P1 is definitely my next cooler, though.
@@quintoblanco8746 I never did proper testing of my Ninja in passive to be exactly sure but it definitely can handle more than just a T, and if you're not going for sustained load it'll work flawlessly too, though I definitely don't recommend that
The fancy airflow shots are beautiful to look at!
I know people that run audio recording studios and quite is the name of the game. This works perfect for them
Having a high power PC running in the same room as your Audio recording is probably not the best idea anyways
@@hansdietrich83 you don’t need crazy amounts of processing power to record or even master music. Also you don’t need dedicated graphics as well cutting you’re moving components down even further.
Yessssssss. Been waiting for y'all's test on this since I first saw Noctua show the concept off at Computex 2019.
“That's no cooler - it's a space station.”
I've just been rocking a Cooler Master T4 for the last 10 years. been through AM3, 1151, and AM4 and god I love big ol tower coolers
the Schlieren Photography is badass! love it
y'know, I think it would be really neat if another company were to roll with this and try to make a really artsy lookin' passive cooler. Not like plastic shrouds and RGB LED nonsense, I mean crazy heatpipe bends and fancy shiny fins. Kinda like how coolers in the early 2000s got all whacky with their designs to draw eyes. Make a showpiece out'a the thing. It'd more than likely be a market failure, but it sure would be neat
Great rundown! I think something like this would be ideal for people who do a ton of audio recording and are using sensitive condenser mics in cramped situations.
You could get some nice grill lines on this one... I might have to retire my Quadro M4000 backplate
Thank you for all the great work you put in GN!
That would be perfect to cool the VRAM on a 3090
2 remarks:
1) your testbed has no case, and in that sense, I think it's not a good testbed. I assume it's not the first time you hear that, and you put some thought into why you don't use cases. I'd be happy to hear!
[P.S.: Ok, just watching your RTFM on how you test, and I take the above back. You are doing much more homework than I would have dreamed of. Well done!]
2)another argument for Noctua Kit is that they sell socket upgrade kit. Not sure about the other vendors. Though, I was very impressed when I could bring my 10 year old NH-C12P from 1156 to the AM4 socket with an 8 EUR (9 US$) mounting kit (+ shipping). That is so cool! Maybe this thing will get 15 or even 20 years of service life.
Do other vendors provide that?
[P.P.S.: I just saw that you actually appreciate so many aspects of this, e.g. in your air vs liquid cooler vid. I appreciate your channel. Really great stuff! Considering patreon now. ;-) ]
I've always wondered how heavy a cooler could be before it puts so much stress on the motherboard that it just slowly breaks all the traces inside the board over time with its sheer girth.
Considering my kg of Thermaltake macho was fine for over 5 years and several moves - seems to be more than one can reasonably stuff in a normal case!
If the motherboard sits firmly in place and the case is not "thrown down" on the floor it should be absolutely fine.
@Ádám Bezzegh Which I would say is still not a lot considering how tough motherboards are.
I'm a huge fan of this .......... despite it having no fans .. it would be very useful in warehousing or workshop environment where dust and crap is prevalent I have been witness to huge money losing breakdowns which have been caused by heavy dust ingress into computers as well as metallic dust that has caused shorts on systems I know there are systems made for these environments but I think for smaller companies that can't afford to buy build specific systems this would be a great solution. great coverage as always fellas.
I'd be really curious to see how this passive cooler would hold in a "true tower" type case where air intake would be at the bottom and exhaust at the top if such a case exists on the market of course. I'd argue that it would do pretty well as it could use the full extent of heat movement physics.
they tested this with rv02 by putting it on its side and it made no difference.
Best I think, would be to wall mount and put a chimney on it.
Excellent review! Got exactly what I needed out of it!
This will eliminate the need for a radiator heater in the winter!
At 65 watts, I hope your apartment is a literal shoe box.
It is really nice to see a company not over hype a device. Have to respect Noctua for being conservative in their ratings of this new passive cooler.
Imagine a cooler, that used the entire case a heat sink.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1489140137/nsg-s0-worlds-first-fanless-chassis-for-high-perfo/posts/3171901
The project has taken over three years I think, and still no actual cases. But the company is legit in the server cooling space, so it's not a scam. It's just taking years of delays. The design has changed a few times as well.
Didn't LTT already do something like this?
there are many of these but somehow they don't really do better than this
The Streacom db4 is exactly that.
I recall Zalman had a case like that
Nice product from noctua, lets hope we see more of these. Like that one big-massive cooler that goes to the opposite side of the motherboard, and can work passive
I feel like "Not incompetent" is the best possible score you can get out of a passive cooler with todays watt hungry CPUs
My father is a over the road trucker and has recently gone Owner/Operator if I ever build a tiny computer for him this is going to be one of the key components. With all the road vibrations everything that can be solid state and otherwise not moving must be in order to last.
can you try putting a funnel over that cooler? the chimney effect might raise airflow and improve performance.
Steve's hair is looking absolutely fabulous today.
I’m going to be installing on of these passive coolers for my friend, he’s a police officer though he can be a bit too political correct sometimes.
When I install this PC in his PC he’s going to be one happy PC, PC.
Man, a PC cop ? that sounds like an identity crisis coming down the line.
boooo
You need a backup plan for that joke.
Not even 3 seconds in and there is already a pun. Intended or not, good job.
But is it better than the Thermalright HR-22?
We can try to get one in to test it out! Looks like that one can't be oriented any direction, unlike Noctua's. We could test vertical and horizontal on it.
@@GamersNexus Please do!
Finally
A GamersNexus review of the BFG under the CPU coolers
Noctua should collaborate with a case manufacturer where the passive cooler is even larger and converges with an aluminum panel of a PC case so the case itself is dispersing the heat from the outside.
Honestly hoped you'd include a NH-D15 without a fan on it for comparison.
I was hoping they would orient the cooler the same way as a D15 and install the same D15 fans, to see what the diference in temp was.
Been waiting for this one! Really curious to see how it performs in the benchmark suite.
How does this perform in an actual case, however? I have doubts that the air movement created by convection is strong enough to overcome dust filters for example. So the hot air would have to pass its heat on to the case surface, which would itself be cooled by convection with the ambient air? Or am I missing something?
Like every cooler, performace scales with the temperature differential. That said, dust filters pose no big resistance to slow moving air, it's the turbulence at higher airspeeds that creates most of the resistance. Lastly, with such a cooler you'd need next to no dust filtering in many environments, this thing won't ever clog up.
Great video! Was looking forward to seeing how this performed.
Thank god Noctua hasn't found a way to create brown aluminum
There's anodization but I have no clue how it affects thermals.
The best tech reviewers on the platform by a mile. Fantastic review!
"you'll see how heat rises... which is a known thing" but seems to be unknown for most of case manufacturers, and I guess whoever designed ATX standard too
AT and ATX standards were designed around desktop computers, not tower cases. It would be hugely rare to see a motherboard on its side at that time. 10 years later, sure that would be the norm.
As Steve also says, as long as you have just a single fan, the heat will go whatever way you point the fan...
@@morromeyer it's better to run fan slowly and quietly to assist convection than to run it fast and loud to fight it
ATX is ancient, PCs had like 60mm fans at the time and, as someone pointed out, true desktops were more popular back then.
BTX tried to address cooling but failed horribly. These days it doesn't really matter since cases allow you send air straight up if you want.
@@MiGujack3 barely any cases do and most active coolers are designed for horizontal airflow, and that's not even weird seeing how all the expansion cards block convection anyway
I think I have to buy one - just in case it isn’t available forever - to play around with, and because it is so awesome.
Excited to see silent pc builds with this.
I did expect slightly better performance, but still glad it exists.
Well, this is Noctua, do they have anything bad, besides colors maybe :P
Price?
@@GFFrankJaeger if you consider quality, price is adequate TBH. What is better, buy one more expensive cooler for 10+ years with possibility to buy extra mounts if necessary, or buy cheaper and worse without that possibility? But I am not saying that N is cheap, I myself buy something bit cheaper, and almost that good.
@@slizgi86 i would say price is bad, but think of the reliability. and its good. leave it running for 10 years straight and dont think you will have issues. and that is the thing that costs.
same for business and enterprise things, yes there are cheaper and better things, but you need to have it and leave it running for maby 10 years, and you expect it to run it. as for home use stuff. 5 years if you are lucky
Even if this is not a high end super performing product, steve seems so happy presenting it. He just loves good engineering and of course playing with his ett's (expensive testing toys).
Undervolted 5700G analysis with this heatsink, soon?
THIS! Yes please!
that would be an awesome setup
Either of the APUs and this in an matx or itx cube would be neat at least until/if mid range GPUs return to 2013~2015 prices.
@@ferdinandbardamu3945 I have no interest in Gaming, my use case is a general purpose / video streaming / HTPC.
I'm looking at the Silverstone FARA H1M case as it has good airflow, fits a 160mm CPU cooler and fits in the furniture under my TV.
@@Richies_Beer_n_Gear
If you want to go ITX, I suggest the Silverstone LD03. The case structure is well suited for convection cooling with a heatsink like this NH-P1.
Loved the review Steve, you guys did a great job! I didn't know there were 'fan-less' coolers like this, but I'm glad to know now. I might consider this for my next build with an i5 11400, plus I can always add a fan on it if I need extra cooling. I'm still looking forward to your fan testing machine in the future, and your new office! :)
holy heckle
i like the idea of getting an overbuilt cooler designed for passive cooling and then reintroducing a fan for additional cooling when you need it.
Technical point: at th-cam.com/video/N8EjMwS2ut0/w-d-xo.html I think you meant "hot air rises". Heat can go in any direction.
Really thorough review, btw. Great job!
Steve: Here's an in depth look using scientific methods
Linus:Haha Dremel go Brrrrrr!
Considering this for my 5600x with 5 quiet case fans. Thanks for this video.
I ran this exact build for a couple years and it didnt cause any issues until Black Myth Wukong came out
Hi guys 👋
+1 for the FUMA 2, mine has been rocking solid for a long time! It is keeping my CPU (3600) at around +20C above ambient.
Hello steve
Thank you, Steve