Noctua starts mass production of its passive CPU cooler

Austrian PC cooling specialist Noctua has had a passive CPU cooler in the works for at least a couple of years. We saw it in prototype form back at Computex Taipei in 2019 but earlier this year it was reported that this thermal solution would be delayed until Q1 2021. As we near the New Year, and the rearranged launch date, Noctua has let it be known, via Fanless Tech, that it is about to start mass production of these hulking coolers.

The image above is the latest tease from Noctua and its shows a close-up detail of the cooler's fins and heatpipes. From what I can see it hasn't significantly changed from the unit on show at Computex in 2019 except that the plate where you see the heatpipes thread through now has more rectangular cutouts than previously.

Product as seen at Computex 2019

Other previously touted qualities of this passive CPU cooler, that I can't promise are still current, are:

• 12x 1.5mm aluminium fins
• Six copper heatpipes
• Copper heatsink
• Weight: 1.5Kg
• Performance: targets 120W in fanless case or 180W with quiet case fan in cooler vicinity
• Good PCIe clearance
• 100 per cent RAM compatibility on modern motherboards
• Bundled with NT-H2 thermal compound

With the Noctua passive cooler entering mass production now one might assume it will be ready for January or February. We don't have any pricing indicators at this time.