Noctua has a number of cooling technologies on display here in Taipei at Computex 2019, including its Fanless CPU Cooler, a 140mm A-Series Fan and its upcoming new D-Series coolers.
140mm A-Series Fan
The next-gen, 140mm A12, which Noctua is currently eyeing for 2021, is very much like the existing 120mm A12, including an Sterrox liquid-crystal polymer Impeller and basically the same appearance and technology. But a Noctua representative told me the biggest challenge is beating themselves: part of the reason it’s taking time to come to market is that the company wants this product to be significantly better than the 120mm A12 with 140mm adapter.
Fanless CPU Cooler
One of the more interesting prototypes in Noctua’s booth was its Fanless CPU Cooler (probably not a final name), which it's planning for 2020. Its fins are thicker and further apart than most heatsinks, and Noctua says it can run up to 120W in a case with good natural convection. And if you were to add two case fans or a single fan to the cooler itself, it could hit 180W.
The design, compatible with LGA115x and AM4 CPU sockets, has an asymmetric design for PCIe clearance. The company’s NT-H2’s thermal compound will come bundled with the cooler for better temperatures.
On a demo system, the Fanless CPU cooler was over an Intel Core i9-9900K CPU on an Asus Prime Z390-A motherboard, along with Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3200 FAM, a Palit GeForce GTX 2050 Ti graphics card, Samsung SSD and Nofan-P500a, all in a Jonsbo UMX4 case. When I saw it, it has been running Prime 95 for two hours and the CPU was running at 94 degrees Celsius (201.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
There isn’t any final pricing, but a representative told me the company hopes to keep it under both $100 and €100.
Next-Gen 140mm D-Type Coolers
Noctua’s next set of D-Type coolers, based on the NH-D15 & NH-D15S, are scheduled for early 2020. Pricing isn’t final, but the company suggested just over $100 for dual-fan versions and $90 for single-fan models.
They have 7 heatpipes and cover 10% more surface area, as well as an asymettrical design for PCIe clearance. The single-fan model has 65mm of RAM clearance, while the Dual fan model offers 35mm.
There will be two variants of each: a multi-socket version (LGA20xx, LGA115x, AM4) as well as a dedicated model for AMD’s Threadripper processors on TR4 slots. Each will use the company’s NF-A15 fans, and price won’t change between multi-socket and TR4 versions, the company told me. Like the Fanless cooler, it will be bundled with NT-H2 thermal paste.
While the company’s official statement is that the TR4 version can handle more than 400W, in a demo at its Computex booth, I saw it handling 435W with aplomb.
In another demo, the new dual-fan version was keeping a system roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius cooler than the existing model.
White Chromax Fans
Noctua told me after demands, white Chromax fans are coming. It hopes for them to come in 2020, but it could be late in the year. White, I’m told, is a very unforgiving color both in use and the manufacturing process
The company is starting with popular 120mm and 140mm models like the NF-A15 PWM, NF-A14 PWM and NF-F12 PWM fans to start, but not the NFA-A12 just yet.
It can be used with optional white heatsink covers for an all-white look and comes with white cables and anti-vibration pads.
