Noctua confirms that its Passive CPU Cooler is “Coming Very Soon”

Need to keep your system as quiet as possible? Want to replace your fans, pumps and other cooling devices with something a little quieter? Don’t worry, because Noctua is working on a passive/fanless heatsink.

Noctua’s planned “Passive CPU Cooler” is due to launch this quarter, with Noctua confirming on Twitter to @FanlessTech that the heatsink is “Coming Very Soon“. 

 
The beauty of passive CPU cooler designs is they have no points of failure. If installed correctly, there are no parts to fail. A fanless heatsink cannot have its fans stop working, and neither can a passive heatsink produce additional noise as fan rotors wear out or get compromised by dust. Simply put, it just works. 

Noctua’s Passive heatsink will be an all-new design from the company, and it will be released into an unproven market. This heatsink requires different design considerations than forced-air/fan-driven heatsinks, new manufacturing techniques, and a lot of R&D effort. Noctua needs to make this heatsink cost-effective and thermally efficient, neither of which is an easy task. 

Noctua will likely showcase their latest heatsinks around Computex 2021, possibly as part of a digital event. This timeframe satisfies the company’s “coming very soon” statement and sits in line with Noctua’s typical product reveal schedule.

At this time, it is unknown how effective Noctua’s Passive CPU heatsink will be, as high-end processors have only gotten larger and more power-hungry since Noctua first showcased this cooler. Could this heatsink be enough to cool a high-end Rocket Lake or Zen 3 CPU?