Korean Passive Cooling Company NoFan Reportedly Shuts Down

[Uskompuf]

The Korean NoFan Computer company has released a variety of cooling products that targeted quiet operations such as passive coolers, liquid coolers, and "silent" fans. Their CR-95C series of passive CPU coolers were released in 2012 for the enthusiast market and carried a significant price tag. The NoFan CR-80EH was released in 2013 and brought the technology used in the CR-95C to a cheaper product. The company hasn't released any new passive coolers since and has faced increased competition from the likes of Noctua and SilverStone. A new report from FanlessTech claims the company has ceased operations which is very likely given their site has been taken down and only limited stock remains. If you want a NoFan CR-80EH now might be your last chance as remaining stock sells out.



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[King Mustard]

That's a real shame. There aren't many passive CPU coolers that can handle 95W

 

[Caring1]

I guess they had no fans.

 

[Ammar]

I guess they had no fans.

haha nice one.

 

[Vya Domus]

There aren't many passive CPU coolers that can handle 95W

Because they don't really work and you can achieve quiet operation even with active cooling.

 

[Dammeron]

I guess they had no fans.

I see what You did there...

 

[King Mustard]

Because they don't really work and you can achieve quiet operation even with active cooling.

But not silent, and that's the point in passive coolers.

 

[Vya Domus]

But not silent, and that's the point in passive coolers.

A quality fan below 500rpm is going to be virtually inaudible. In fact your ambient noise is probably louder.

 

[stanleyipkiss]

Because they don't really work and you can achieve quiet operation even with active cooling.

I don't believe you own one -- I DO.
I bought the 65 Watt version of the No-Fan and have 50-60 idle and 80 full load (Prime95) temps with a i5-9400.
I pair it with a 1050 Ti KalmX Palit that is also fanless.
I do however not use a case -- they are on a streacom open bench, with a Nightjar Silverstone Fanless PSU.
No noise whatsoever -- exactly what I want for my audio monitoring PC.

 

[Vya Domus]

I don't believe you own one -- I DO.
I bought the 65 Watt version of the No-Fan and have 50-60 idle and 80 full load (Prime95) temps with a i5-9400.
I pair it with a 1050 Ti KalmX Palit that is also fanless.
I do however not use a case -- they are on a streacom open bench, with a Nightjar Silverstone Fanless PSU.
No noise whatsoever -- exactly what I want for my audio monitoring PC.

A 9400 is a low power chip, people want to plop a passive cooler on their favorite 95W+ high end CPU which just ain't gonna happen. You have products such as that passively cooled case that TPU reviewed recently and it took a block of metal the size of a small bucket to work. A cooler inside a standard case, nah, it's not going to work.

 

[brian111]

A 9400 is a low power chip, people want to plop a passive cooler on their favorite 95W+ high end CPU which just ain't gonna happen. You have products such as that passively cooled case that TPU reviewed recently and it took a block of metal the size of a small bucket to work. A cooler inside a standard case, nah, it's not going to work.

He said he used the 65 watt version for the 9400.

The larger cooler does work on for the TDP it's designed for but you do need a case that's well ventilated (if you use one) to allow the heat to escape.

 

[Assimilator]

The issue with passive coolers is that they still need some sort of airflow to move the hot air away from the heat source, because convection is not going to do it fast enough in a standard PC case, unless you have the top open or somesuch. Which means you need a fan. And for silence you actually want the maximum number of fans, because the more you have the slower and therefore quieter you can run them.

So unless you have an open-air test bench, or Streacom case, you can't get away from fans. Best to accept this and find the best ones you can.

Also important to remember that there are other components that will make more noise than a good fan. Water cooling pumps and HDDs are the two major contributors.

My HAF 932 was a great case because of its 200mm fans that only ran at ~500RPM but still moved a ton of air. Silverstone tried something similar with their 180mm fans and I see 200mm are starting to make a comeback. I'd love to see 200mm radiators - the surface area on those would be more than even a 140x280 rad.

 

[Dammeron]

The issue with passive coolers is that they still need some sort of airflow to move the hot air away from the heat source, because convection is not going to do it fast enough in a standard PC case, unless you have the top open or somesuch.

That. Unless You move the heat outside the case (eg. outer case being also a radiator), there will be need for airflow in case of increased heat output. So passive coolers can mostly help You remove additional fans, but cannot completely replace them.

 

[King Mustard]

The issue with passive coolers is that they still need some sort of airflow to move the hot air away from the heat source, because convection is not going to do it fast enough in a standard PC case, unless you have the top open or somesuch. Which means you need a fan. And for silence you actually want the maximum number of fans, because the more you have the slower and therefore quieter you can run them.

So unless you have an open-air test bench, or Streacom case, you can't get away from fans. Best to accept this and find the best ones you can.

Also important to remember that there are other components that will make more noise than a good fan. Water cooling pumps and HDDs are the two major contributors.

I'm fully M.2

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

I have an AIO on my CPU, my GPU, one intake fan, one output fan and the PSU fan.

My desktop is quieter than my ceiling fan.

The loudest thing I ever had to deal with was a mechanical HDD. Now I'm straight SSD.

 

[freeagent]

That's a real shame. There aren't many passive CPU coolers that can handle 95W

Thermalright Le Grand Macho can be used passively up to 95w iirc.

 

[moproblems99]

I'd love to see 200mm radiators - the surface area on those would be more than even a 140x280 rad.

Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 200mm raditor

https://www.aquatuning.us/water-coo...hacool-nexxxos-xt45-full-copper-200mm-raditor

 

[Assimilator]

https://www.aquatuning.us/water-coo...hacool-nexxxos-xt45-full-copper-200mm-raditor

Should've been more clear: I'd like to see some AIOs using 200mm rads.

 

[Chrispy_]

True passive designs have died, because cooling VRMs on both GPUs and CPUs these days requires active case airflow. There's absolutely no point passive cooling a performance CPU any more because the vast majority of that target demographic also requires a 200W+ GPU, for which there is no passive option.

For the people who just want a quiet, zero-fan web/media box, there are downclocked passive options using notebook parts.

I guess I'm saying that the venn diagram of "people who need a totally silent PC" and "people who need a high-TDP CPU" does not contain an instersecting set. There is literally no market for this any more. NUC-a-likes using laptop parts from Intel's U series and AMD's Banded kestrel Embedded stuff offers Athlon 200GE/Vega 3 performance at 12 Watts. That'll do your non-gamers just fine; Large, fancy heatsink not required.

 

[watzupken]

The heatsink may be fanless, but it will surely require some sort of airflow. Even without casing, unless the ambient temps are very low and some sort of constant natural breeze, I don't think it will handle the heat from most modern processors. There are also a lot of heat generating devices within a PC, i.e. motherboard, SSDs, dedicated graphic card which will need some sort of airflow. So if a fan is required, that pretty much negates the point of passive coolers. I feel one is better off buying a cooler that uses low RPM fans instead so as not to compromise performance/ cooling.

 

[Keullo-e]

Totally forgot this; I didn't even know that they got to retail market.

 

[Chrispy_]

The heatsink may be fanless, but it will surely require some sort of airflow. Even without casing, unless the ambient temps are very low and some sort of constant natural breeze, I don't think it will handle the heat from most modern processors. There are also a lot of heat generating devices within a PC, i.e. motherboard, SSDs, dedicated graphic card which will need some sort of airflow. So if a fan is required, that pretty much negates the point of passive coolers. I feel one is better off buying a cooler that uses low RPM fans instead so as not to compromise performance/ cooling.

This is why I'm not enthusiastic on full-passive designs. I have a masters in engineering and spent a good 18 months learning about thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. Plus I took an optional module in acoustic engineering and one of my projects was fan blade design (did a short work-experience stint for Rolls Royce working on their turbine blades because of that). So no, I'm not an experienced expert in the field but I do know more than your average bear when it comes to fans, cooling, and noise levels.

The way I see it, human hearing has a natural cutoff, so even in an anechoic chamber, some fans are going to be inaudible. We're talking 3-blade fans at 400rpm here. Even though that sounds like a woefully weak fan, it would successfully move air across a low-density heatsink, and it would still move more air across a high density heatsink than convection alone could manage on a low-density heatsink.

What I'm saying is that it's possible to double or triple the cooling performance of any passive cooler whilst still making it actually silent by human hearing standards. Yes, that fan is generating absolute noise, but the sound of your blood flowing through vessels that supply your cochlea is greater, and the vast bulk of the sound waves from such a slow fan are below the frequency that human hearing even functions.

The sole market for which passive cooling is valid is sealed units that have zero airflow inside. If you need to keep flammable gases or vapours away from anything that could potentially spark (like a DC motor or electrical connection) then you can't have fans and you probably can't have an open design that lets cool air in to replace the warm air.