Noctua Shows Off Top-Tier Triple Fin Stack CPU Cooler Prototype

[btarunr]

One of the most interesting CPU coolers in the show, this prototype from Noctua is a sort of an "inversion" of the NH-D14 design. While the NH-D14 has two aluminum fin stacks with room for three fans (intake for the first stack, exhaust for the second stack and one in between the two stacks), this prototype uses three stacks, with two 120 mm Focused Flow fans in between (or any 140 mm fan). So now you have an aluminum fin stack before the first 120/140 mm fan, which conveys air onto a large central stack, from which air is drawn by the second 120/140 mm fan, and onto the third stack which is the size of the first one.

Heat is conveyed to the three stacks by eight nickel-plated aluminum heat pipes that pass through the CPU base. The heat pipes that pass through the central portion of the base pass though the central stack, while those that pass though the peripheral portions pass through the peripheral (1,3) stacks. The relatively slim central stack coupled with the high peripheral stacks leave plenty of room for RAM and VRM heatsinks, by up to 70 mm, should be plenty for Corsair Dominator modules. Noctua claims that this heatsink has 20% higher surface area than NH-D14, more surface area is always better.

[micropage7]

omg thats huge, as big as your board
if it placed on horizontal motherboard thats nice but vertical motherboard?, i just afraid it would bend the board although it has backplate

[Flanker]

for some odd reason i'm starting to get sick of these ever growing larger air coolers, sooner or later they will want to invade the space for PCI Express

someone should just make an air cooler so large that can also serve as a case

[halfwaythere]

Long heatpipes are failed heatpipes. OTOH since the hot cpu era might be over why not milk some ignorant folks and sell them anything as new and better.

[RejZoR]

Yeah i have the same opinion about that. As a microATX user these massive coolers are all pretty much useless. Why is no one focusing on creating the smallest possible but still very high performance cooler? I'm currently stuck with Thermalright AXP-140 because it is by far the smallest (low profile) and performs similar as TRUE. I know there aren't many of such users but i prefer to cram highest end stuff into smallest case possible. Because these little cases look really nice and they still pack some punch. Opposed to those fat massive ugly cases everyone have and take up half of the room...

[KashunatoR]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Yeah i have the same opinion about that. As a microATX user these massive coolers are all pretty much useless. Why is no one focusing on creating the smallest possible but still very high performance cooler? I'm currently stuck with Thermalright AXP-140 because it is by far the smallest (low profile) and performs similar as TRUE. I know there aren't many of such users but i prefer to cram highest end stuff into smallest case possible. Because these little cases look really nice and they still pack some punch. Opposed to those fat massive ugly cases everyone have and take up half of the room...

they don't care about the size because if you want an average cooler there's plenty to choose from. if you want the best you have to make compromises.
if this outperforms the D14 (and i think it will), this will be my next cooler

[arterius2]

Originally Posted by Flanker

for some odd reason i'm starting to get sick of these ever growing larger air coolers, sooner or later they will want to invade the space for PCI Express

someone should just make an air cooler so large that can also serve as a case

oh, you mean this? PCIE lane invaded!
http://www.nofencomputer.com/eng/products/CR-100A.php

[Strider]

I am a fan of Noctua, they make some of the best high-end air cooling out there. The thing is, I think they are just getting carried away at this point. There are plenty of air cooling solutions out there now from multiple manufacturers that can handle any popular consumer processors to almost any standard overclock, and beyond.

The only time you would need more that what is out there now would be if you were going to do an extreme OC that's well outside the boundaries of the processor. In cases like that, you would go with liquid over air anyway. Or more extreme with record breaking overclocks.

For a vast majority of overclockers out there, the air coolers available now are more than sufficient to keep your processor well within it's thermal range.

I will admit though, that thing does look beastly, would look killer in a large case. Even if it is major overkill. heh

[fochkoph]

I get the feeling that this cooler was designed with SB-E in mind.

[FilipM]

They should've called this the W16 (we have a V6, V8, V10..)

[Velvet Wafer]

Originally Posted by Flanker

for some odd reason i'm starting to get sick of these ever growing larger air coolers, sooner or later they will want to invade the space for PCI Express

someone should just make an air cooler so large that can also serve as a case

it was already done, but it seems the attempt failed, as the resulting product never reached market maturity

Source

[Flanker]

Originally Posted by arterius2

oh, you mean this? PCIE lane invaded!
http://www.nofencomputer.com/eng/products/CR-100A.php

<snip>

looking at those makes me feel... violated

Originally Posted by Velvet Wafer

it was already done, but it seems the attempt failed, as the resulting product never reached market maturity
<snip>
Source[/URL]

holyshit lol

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

I don't really like CPU-cooler manufacturers going for more size rather than efficiency. Don't really feel like buying a huge cooler that dwarfs everything on the top half of the board and makes everything cluttered, just to gain like 200 MHz or 5 degrees. Compact and well performing coolers is the way to go. Especially when Sandy Bridge runs pretty darn cool anyways. Just imagine Ivy Bridge: you won't need anything beefier than like a Corsair A70.

[Bundy]

Originally Posted by Yellow&Nerdy?

I don't really like CPU-cooler manufacturers going for more size rather than efficiency. Don't really feel like buying a huge cooler that dwarfs everything on the top half of the board and makes everything cluttered, just to gain like 200 MHz or 5 degrees. Compact and well performing coolers is the way to go. Especially when Sandy Bridge runs pretty darn cool anyways. Just imagine Ivy Bridge: you won't need anything beefier than like a Corsair A70.

In Denmark that may be the case - but not in the hot parts of the world

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by KashunatoR

they don't care about the size because if you want an average cooler there's plenty to choose from. if you want the best you have to make compromises.
if this outperforms the D14 (and i think it will), this will be my next cooler

This thing is just a more compact design that should bring D14 class performance.
People in this thread seems to miss the point.

Originally Posted by Yellow&Nerdy?

I don't really like CPU-cooler manufacturers going for more size rather than efficiency. Don't really feel like buying a huge cooler that dwarfs everything on the top half of the board and makes everything cluttered, just to gain like 200 MHz or 5 degrees. Compact and well performing coolers is the way to go. Especially when Sandy Bridge runs pretty darn cool anyways. Just imagine Ivy Bridge: you won't need anything beefier than like a Corsair A70.

Compact and "well performing" coolers tends to sounds like fucking jet engines

[theeldest]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Yeah i have the same opinion about that. As a microATX user these massive coolers are all pretty much useless. Why is no one focusing on creating the smallest possible but still very high performance cooler? I'm currently stuck with Thermalright AXP-140 because it is by far the smallest (low profile) and performs similar as TRUE. I know there aren't many of such users but i prefer to cram highest end stuff into smallest case possible. Because these little cases look really nice and they still pack some punch. Opposed to those fat massive ugly cases everyone have and take up half of the room...

Noctua was showing a low profile cooler too: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=146789

[Hayder_Master]

Wow another no1 air colling from noctua

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

Originally Posted by Zubasa

Compact and "well performing" coolers tends to sounds like fucking jet engines

I guess you're right on that one, e.g. the Thermaltake Frio OCK and Cooler Master V6GT.

[zehpavora]

Doesn't it looks like a super-edition of Cooler Master's V8? I think it resembles the V8 a lot.

[Swamp Monster]

It looks like inverted CM V8. This should perform better because of 2 fans.

[pantherx12]

Originally Posted by Velvet Wafer

it was already done, but it seems the attempt failed, as the resulting product never reached market maturity
http://images.bit-tech.net/news_imag...malright-1.jpg
Source

Reason none of these heatsink cases get made is due to compatibility. socket location would have to be standardized for these cases to work.

Meaning the position has to be the same on all mobo types as well, hard work

( I'm sure you know, just thinking loudly)

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by Swamp Monster

It looks like inverted CM V8. This should perform better because of 2 fans.

This, but also the fact that these fin stacks are big enough to cooler anything, the fins on the V8 are just silly.

[Velvet Wafer]

Originally Posted by pantherx12

Reason none of these heatsink cases get made is due to compatibility. socket location would have to be standardized for these cases to work.

Meaning the position has to be the same on all mobo types as well, hard work

( I'm sure you know, just thinking loudly)

they should have made a water loop out of it, opposite to an air cooler... that would have made the block mount much more flexible

[pantherx12]

Yup, I'm suprised cases don't come with built in water cooling , truly built in as in water flows through the case.

[erixx]

Listen up: they already make the 'best' coolers of the market, but even when you make the best, you still have to make stupid 'changes' (Called 'developments) to your products to attract attention. Sad and stupid.

Fortunately, this 'market' rule does not (yet) apply to fruit and vegetables, etc.