WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:08.320 Get a load of this thing. This Noctua Thermosiphon prototype cooler has 00:00:05.359 --> 00:00:14.080 boiling coolant inside the CPU block and uses physics magic to circulate said 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:18.400 coolant around the system without a pump. It's not exactly a new idea. 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:23.359 Derbauer showed off this phase change cooler prototype 6 years ago, and 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:28.000 Raentech made enough progress on their pumpless concept that they even sent me 00:00:25.439 --> 00:00:31.679 an early sample to test. Neither of those designs ultimately made it to 00:00:29.599 --> 00:00:37.440 market. But it shows that companies have been hard at work on this for a very 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:39.760 long time. But why? Well, because every 00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:46.079 pump on Earth has two things in common. One, it makes noise. And two, it will 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:48.879 eventually die. So, going back almost 20 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:53.840 years now, the holy grail of silent, reliable PC liquid cooling has been to 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:58.719 find a way to circulate the coolant with no moving parts. Cool, you might say. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:04.400 But why should I get my hopes up this time? Because this time, Noctua says not 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:10.159 only is it going to happen, but they believe that with some science, they can 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:16.240 actually achieve performance that is on par with an actively pumped AIO liquid 00:01:13.479 --> 00:01:22.640 cooler. I need to take a closer look at this after this close look at our 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:24.560 sponsor, Corsair. Their Platform 4 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:29.439 Elevate is anything but a generic sit-to-stand desk. It stands out, pun 00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:33.040 intended, with its modular T-channel rail system that allows you to mount a 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:36.400 whole variety of accessories. Check it out using our link down 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:50.079 below. Right away, Noctua was careful to disclaim that this unit is non-final, so 00:01:48.240 --> 00:01:55.439 they can't give any raw performance numbers. But it's also clear that it 00:01:52.799 --> 00:02:03.200 can't be that bad. Under that boiling fluid is a Ryzen 9 9800 X3D CPU running 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:05.280 a live gaming demo without overheating. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:10.720 I mean, this is not quite the same as running a 100% CPU load in a real case, 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:16.400 but what it shows is that Noctua has gotten at least as far as anybody else 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:19.920 in achieving pumpless water cooling, or 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:21.840 should I say fluid cooling. Noctua is 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:25.680 collaborating with Calios, the same aerospace cooling company that helped 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:29.680 design StreCom's passive cooling case that we checked out recently. And while 00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:35.599 Noctua was quick to point out that their implementation is different and 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:38.400 shouldn't have the uh weird noise issue, 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:44.080 Calios's specialty is two-phase passive cooling systems where they leverage the 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:46.400 evaporation of a liquid to transfer heat 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:51.840 and force coolant to circulate to a heat exchanger or a condenser where fans can 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:57.519 cool it back to a liquid state before it makes its way back to the heat source. 00:02:54.720 --> 00:03:02.480 So then it all looks great, right? What's holding them back? Well, boiling 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:06.879 a liquid, it turns out, is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:10.959 dramatically increases the thermal energy that the coolant can capture and 00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:15.920 take away to the condenser. But on the other hand, it creates pockets of gas on 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:20.640 the copper surface of the cooler that act as an insulator, making it hard for 00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:25.760 the liquid coolant to ever make contact with the heat source. And the hotter the 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:32.000 heat source, the more vigorous the bubble formation. Adding another layer 00:03:29.040 --> 00:03:38.080 of inconvenience is the fact that CPUs do not heat up uniformly. There are hot 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:43.599 spots right above the dyes where the most heat is generated. And these are 00:03:40.640 --> 00:03:48.560 the areas where ironically it's also the most important to maintain excellent 00:03:45.519 --> 00:03:50.799 thermal transfer. So you've got this 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:55.840 more vigorous boiling occurring right where you need your cooling the most. 00:03:53.200 --> 00:04:01.040 Noctua says that if there was a perfect CPU that heated up uniformly, they could 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:05.680 be finished development on this already. So what can they do? Well, first they 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:10.000 had to try to fix the uneven distribution of heat coming up through 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:16.320 the CPU's heat spreader by both trying to speed up thermal transfer in the cool 00:04:12.799 --> 00:04:18.880 spots and slow it down in the hot spots, 00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:23.360 which flies completely in the face of conventional cooling dust practices 00:04:20.400 --> 00:04:29.600 where for forever the goal has been to bring heat pipes and water block fins as 00:04:26.320 --> 00:04:32.080 close to the hot spot as possible. After 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:36.400 that, the next goal was to improve the effective cooling surface area. Now, in 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:40.639 a normal water block, this was achieved by using ever thinner surface 00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:45.840 structures, which eventually resulted in coolers that literally created their 00:04:42.880 --> 00:04:50.080 fins by shaving the top of the copper and then folding up the slices in a 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:55.120 process called sking. The issue with this for this application is that the 00:04:52.800 --> 00:05:00.240 smaller the surface structures, the more little tiny nooks and crannies exist to 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:04.400 trap bubbles, destroying any hope of efficient thermal transfer. Now, one 00:05:02.479 --> 00:05:08.639 solution to this problem is to use impingement jets that accelerate the 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:13.680 liquid before it hits the copper surface, which will dislodge any bubbles 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:18.479 and also increase turbulent flow, which aids heat transfer. that uh small 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:24.240 problem. You may or may not have noticed this, but there's no pump to provide the 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:29.280 necessary head pressure. And we don't want a pump because then a we would risk 00:05:27.280 --> 00:05:32.800 accidentally circulating the fluid too fast, which would throw away the 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:37.639 advantage of evaporative cooling. And also then we'd have a pump, which was 00:05:35.840 --> 00:05:43.360 kind of the whole point, right? Counterintuitively then, the prototype 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:45.600 thermosiphon is using much, much taller 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:50.160 copper structures than a typical water block would in an effort to leave enough 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:54.639 space for the bubbles to escape and then for liquid to be able to penetrate all 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:58.240 the way to the base of the block. With those challenges out of the way, the 00:05:56.240 --> 00:06:03.520 last big one is to find the optimal shape that maximizes coolant flow. They 00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:07.840 don't need nearly as much flow as a traditional AIO water cooler, but more 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:11.919 is still generally more better when it comes to heat transfer. There's no word 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:17.039 on case compatibility or exactly when this thing will launch, but hey, Noctua 00:06:14.479 --> 00:06:20.360 has a mostly pretty good track record for actually launching the things they 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:24.479 show off. So, uh oh, I guess I'm in the Noctua booth, 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:28.240 so I should probably talk about the fans on the condenser. Thanks to its high 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:33.919 torque motor and progressive bend impeller, the A12X25 Gen 2 excels in 00:06:32.080 --> 00:06:38.000 high resistance applications where Noctua found three and a half degree 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:42.639 better temperatures at the same noise level compared to their last gen or the 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:47.840 same performance for a 1 to 3 decel difference in noise. Pricing is expected 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:50.000 to be the same as Gen 1 at $34.90 and 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:53.680 who the knows US dollars due to the ever evolving tariff situation. I was telling 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:57.840 Nacha they should get into crystal balls. Then they could give me an answer 00:06:55.360 --> 00:07:01.759 on that. There will be two versions, a slightly faster one and a slightly 00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:06.639 slower one that will help to counteract the undesirable harmonics of having two 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:10.800 identical speed fans that operate right next to each other or on a pushpull 00:07:08.880 --> 00:07:16.400 cooler. These same fans were present on a variety of products around the booth, 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:20.319 including Noctua's upcoming AIO liquid 00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:22.479 cooler. I um am not the only one who was 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:27.120 surprised to see this and for a number of reasons. For starters, Noctua has 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:32.080 always maintained that a heat pipe air cooler is capable of equal or even 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:36.960 better performance compared to an AIO. And for another, instead of designing 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:42.080 their own pump, they actually opted to partner with ASET on a design that uses 00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:48.080 the same Gen 8 platform as other vendors. Like what? You guys literally 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:53.280 make motors and impellers for a living. But according to Natua, water impellers 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:57.759 are a lot less similar than you would think to air impellers. And after a year 00:07:55.759 --> 00:08:01.759 of trying to tune the performance and acoustics of the pump, they determined 00:07:59.599 --> 00:08:06.720 that there just wasn't much that they could do to it. Which isn't to say that 00:08:04.479 --> 00:08:11.840 they're just slapping their logo onto a Gen 8 reference design. The special 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:17.520 sauce is in this cover. Instead of a screen or several screens, Noctua has 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:22.160 designed a three layer acoustic blocker that acts as a tuned mast damper, 00:08:19.520 --> 00:08:26.319 helping to reduce vibrations, at least in one direction. There isn't really 00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:30.639 much that they can do about any vibrations that will pass through their 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:34.560 secuer mounting system into the motherboard. But in total, they are 00:08:32.719 --> 00:08:39.360 expecting a few decibel reduction in noise, especially uh compared to 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:44.080 competitors who have large plastic structures on top of their blocks that 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:49.839 actually serve to amplify pump noise and vibrations. The last innovation in 00:08:46.560 --> 00:08:53.200 typical Noctua fashion is to put a fan 00:08:49.839 --> 00:08:55.760 on it using guiding fins around the AIO 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:59.920 cover. This magnetically mounted 80mm fan is designed to cool down your 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:04.240 motherboard VRM and your system memory. The whole setup comes with a 6-year 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:08.959 warranty and will be available in 2026. As for pricing, they literally said, 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:13.920 "Don't worry about that." So, I'm doing the exact opposite and worrying a lot. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:18.320 The final element of the Noctua booth is actually probably the most exciting to 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:21.680 me and it was all of the non Noctua products that they were showing off. 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:25.120 Noctua has really ramped up their partnerships over the last few years and 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:30.160 they were showing off everything from the Noctua equipped power supplies that 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:35.519 we saw over at CIC to a refreshed 50 series Noctua edition GPU to this 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:40.560 incredible looking Anttech case to a Pulsar gaming mouse that has an 00:09:36.959 --> 00:09:42.560 integrated 40mm cooling fan. I generally 00:09:40.560 --> 00:09:46.480 love Noctua's engineering first approach to product design, and I'm always happy 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:50.240 to see their unsightly brown and tan fans, making other people's products 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:55.839 just a little bit cooler and a little bit quieter. I'm also happy to see our 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:58.640 sponsor, MicroEnter. Rated number one in 00:09:55.839 --> 00:10:03.360 PC Mag's 2024 Reader Choice Awards, it's clear that MicroEnter is the place to 00:10:00.880 --> 00:10:07.279 shop for your next gaming or work setup. With close to 30 locations all over the 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:11.200 US, they've been dishing out deals and providing excellent customer service, 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:14.720 technical knowledge, and support for decades. Speaking of deals, from now 00:10:13.040 --> 00:10:20.720 until the end of May, they have deep discounts on over 150 desktop PCs. 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