Review Noctua NH-P1 Review: For those who demand silence

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bill001g said:
I wonder if you can actually run without any fans. In effect it just replaces the cpu cooler fans with the case fans. Case fans tend to be louder just because they are closer to the outside. If it was just in a open air mount with little air flow from say a room fan I wonder how well it cools.
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Most users run this air cooler in an "open" setup, so it kinda balances out 😉
 
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They should make a version with a cold plate designed for m.2SSDs, and a fin and heatpipe design designed to shift the cooler over the CPU area, and then they can push a design of a Noctua CLC for the CPU, and a NH-P1 for the SSD.
 
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razor512 said:
They should make a version with a cold plate designed for m.2SSDs,
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The M.2 slot has a specified max power dissipation around 12W. Also, it has way less mechanical strength than a CPU slot. So, there are going to be much lower limits on what you can physically fit, and that's not even considering what else is near the slot (i.e. GPUs, other SSDs with coolers, etc.). But, that's okay, since there's also much less need for cooling capacity.
 
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bill001g said:
I wonder if you can actually run without any fans. In effect it just replaces the cpu cooler fans with the case fans. Case fans tend to be louder just because they are closer to the outside. If it was just in a open air mount with little air flow from say a room fan I wonder how well it cools.
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I respectfully disagree, case fans can be set on a less aggressive curve maintaining steady rpm while a CPU fan will need to rev up depending on load. Also depends on the brand I'm running 4 Corsair QL140 and 3 QL120 case fans and my AIO pump is still the most (but barely) audible component.
 
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DingusDog said:
I respectfully disagree, case fans can be set on a less aggressive curve maintaining steady rpm while a CPU fan will need to rev up depending on load.
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If you want constant or variable fan RPM, that's just a question of how you configure your fan curves, regardless of whether we're talking about a CPU fan or case fans.

If you're using a passive heatsink with case fans and you don't configure variable RPMs for your case fans, then you risk the CPU hitting its thermal ceiling early.

There's no free lunch, here.
 
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Interesting review, but the only cpu with comparative performance is the AMD. How much performance can I expect from using it? What about a graph of performance over time? I think it feels more like just a quick test than a proper Tom's Hardware review.
 
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thestryker said:
As interesting as I find this cooler it doesn't really seem to have a place outside of a passive system. I suppose if someone was really sensitive to the pitch of the sound of fans pushing through dense fins that could be a benefit.
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That is the main point, it is for passive systems. I think gamers nexus uses a passively cooled PC for his sound chamber and some other situations could benefit from passively cooled PCs too.
 
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bit_user said:
Thanks for the review, Albert! I have yet to go through it in detail, but I didn't see the weight specified. Noctua claims it's 1180 g. This is exactly the same weight as they claim for their NH-D15 G2 (without fans).
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They are still quite different though, the P1 has much larger spacing between the fins and different fin design.
 
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Tried to build my machine as passive possible but the Chipset goes into frymode and the system lockup.
I don't know if is as asrock problem.

13600T idle draw 2w
14600T idle 1.2w
14700T idle 0.8 - 1w

Fresh system without background programs.

These little cpus you can boot the windows without heat sink.
 
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Paradoxically, it works extremely well with i7/7 grade SKUs, but somewhat lackluster for i9/9 even in semi-passive/low-rpm/full auto-fan curve mode. I used it in multiple systems. Works best with 12600K, 13600K, 14600K and alike wirh fans rumbling at 300 - 400 rpm...
6cgnJd4.png
 
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bit_user said:
The M.2 slot has a specified max power dissipation around 12W. Also, it has way less mechanical strength than a CPU slot. So, there are going to be much lower limits on what you can physically fit, and that's not even considering what else is near the slot (i.e. GPUs, other SSDs with coolers, etc.). But, that's okay, since there's also much less need for cooling capacity.
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It ain't power consumption that's the problem, it's the heat density. To put this in better perspective, that's the same amount of power a single Ryzen core will use under full load - and those also get hot!
 
salgado18 said:
Interesting review, but the only cpu with comparative performance is the AMD. How much performance can I expect from using it? What about a graph of performance over time? I think it feels more like just a quick test than a proper Tom's Hardware review.
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I don't expect that most users interested in this cooler will need to run a full-strength workload over an extended period of time.

That said, if you read the section covering Intel's Core i9-13900K CPU, you'll the last benchmark tested the cooler over a period of 45 minutes.
 
bill001g said:
I wonder if you can actually run without any fans. In effect it just replaces the cpu cooler fans with the case fans. Case fans tend to be louder just because they are closer to the outside. If it was just in a open air mount with little air flow from say a room fan I wonder how well it cools.
Click to expand...
Ehh loudness is a factor of rotation speed more then anything. A 40mm internal fan spinning at several thousand RPM is going to be more audible then an external 140mm fan spinning at less then 1000 RPM. The larger fan moves a lot more air while being quieter.
 
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bit_user said:
If you want constant or variable fan RPM, that's just a question of how you configure your fan curves, regardless of whether we're talking about a CPU fan or case fans.

If you're using a passive heatsink with case fans and you don't configure variable RPMs for your case fans, then you risk the CPU hitting its thermal ceiling early.

There's no free lunch, here.
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The question isn't about getting a free lunch, it's about getting one that's "extremely economical" in the audible vibrations department. It's absolutely possible to offload enough of the work of dumping heat energy into the environment to virtually silent or totally passive elements to make the exchange of more space for less sonic output drop the second part to "close enough to zero for all observable purposes".

Whether it's practical to do so is another question entirely and likely depends on how much slack you are willing to give to how you measure or define "practicality". If space needs and material cost are of very little concern, then you can dissipate a LOT of heat passively without violating any hard rules, with the extreme case being something like monocrystal diamond fins (stupidly high heat conduction) in a gallium bath (metallic, so still high heat conduction but also able to convect) that gravity-circulates through some sort of heat dump or heat battery. Or, have this all heat piped to a large enough radiator to silently self convect using gravity and the density gradient of the slightly warmer air at the surface and you have some massive but essentially silent gravity driven passive cooler that can probably take anything you could practically throw at it. It also would probably be *enormously* expensive and also just plain enormous, at least by PC cooler standards.

Of course you can scale that whole thing down in some ways, use active components like large but slow fans that don't generate much audible noise or thermal electrics that let you cheat the temperature the device sees in comparison to what the differential with the environment is, which would let you make trades in other places for smaller sized components, sufficient radiant or convective cooling into various expanding heat dumps using much cheaper and/or smaller interfaces or you could even use some trickery to transport heat to something far more efficient (but not quite as hands off) such as an atmospheric vented evaporative or phase transition cooler (anything from a big evaporative water tank, which can actually work without a huge fan if you can submerge the thing you are cooling and get even minimal air movement at the surface of the water, to the LN2 bath coolers that are, aside from the need for LN2 in the first place, totally passive and capable of being quite compact overall).

And then, if you take a step back from all that, this noctua cooler feels remarkably sedate and realistic for a passive cooler, even if it's neither as effective nor probably as independently good at cooling as the total absurdity I just dove into.
 
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bit_user said:
Thanks for the review, Albert! I have yet to go through it in detail, but I didn't see the weight specified. Noctua claims it's 1180 g. This is exactly the same weight as they claim for their NH-D15 G2 (without fans).
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Albert.Thomas said:
Most users run this air cooler in an "open" setup, so it kinda balances out 😉
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This is super interesting!

This made me wonder though... if it's theoretically possible to run a completely silent, fanless system, maybe for some basic stuff.

I imagine this cooler could possibly handle weaker CPUs no problem. I mean, I have an oversized 160W cooler strapped to a 65W CPU, and when the fan died some time ago, the system's temps remained somewhere about high 30s / low 40s range, purely from the sheer size of the heatsink (and some help from the case fans, I guess).

Like, throw in a more power efficient CPU with integrated graphics, an SSD with no moving parts, this hunk of a cooler, stuff them all in a relatively "open" case, it might be even possible to not bother with case fans and have a completely silent PC. That would feel like black magic!

EDIT : Oh right... the fan in the PSU...
I forgot about it. Maybe just place the PSU outside the case.... or something.

I guess one can only dream...
 
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Exploding PSU said:
This is super interesting!

This made me wonder though... if it's theoretically possible to run a completely silent, fanless system, maybe for some basic stuff.

....it might be even possible to not bother with case fans and have a completely silent PC. That would feel like black magic!

EDIT : Oh right... the fan in the PSU...
I forgot about it. Maybe just place the PSU outside the case.... or something.

I guess one can only dream...
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It is not a dream and it can be done, just costs extra because passive components are always mlre expensive.

Pick a 65W Ryzen, you can cool something like RTX 5050 passively without issues. You already mentioned SSD, pick of a good MBO with solid chipset cooler (or add beefier cooler yourself). And passive PSUs do exist, besides, this wouldn't need more than 400W PSU. People have had been using 450W PSUs for years, I've seen posts of people using same one for 7+ years, so that's completely non-issue.

What you really need is:
- sane expectations
- good planning
- 20% extra $€£

What I'd do is also add a few fans, but either setup a master switch to cut them all off, or a well done fan curve that only kicks in when components reach close to 100°C.

In theory, specially with some undervolting and smart component picks, you can have 100% passive system that is still competent performer for most people and at (almost) all times.

If you are used to RTX XX90 and i9 CPUs then forget about all of this.

But if you can do with Ryzen 9700X and RTX 5050, undervolt for best effects, get nice tried and tested passive PSU and enjoy.

P.s. RTX 5050 is too new so no passive versions on horizon, but if RTX 3050 did it, someone will do a 5050 or maybe RX 9050, just give it some.time...
 
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I have to ask why now?

The NH-P1 was released four years ago. June 15, 2021.
https://www.fanlesstech.com/2021/06/noctuas-nh-p1-is-official.html

Has anything about the design changed since then?

I did consider the NH-P1 back in 2022, but ended up with a Noctua NH-D15. These days I cheap out and buy Thermalright 120 series.

Exploding PSU said:
EDIT : Oh right... the fan in the PSU...
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The fans in some of my ATX PSUs remain silent, until the power demand exceeds a certain level, e,g, somewhere around 300W or thereabouts.

Perhaps if you bought an overkill 1800W PSU for a 700W system, it would remain silent (passive) most of the time.
https://silentpc.com/

When I'm running my HP servers with screaming Delta fans, I just turn up the music.
 
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"Can only be mounted one direction on AMD systems"

If you email Noctua support they'll send you brackets for free to rotate it 90 degrees.

I run one of these in a completely fanless home server system. Except the X570 chip set got a bit hot so a did mount a small, slow, silent Noctua fan next to it. Also the case is a weird vertical tower chimney affair: Nofan CS-70
 
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