Noctua’s Next Big Thing: Liquid Cooling and Thermosiphons | Technical Deep-Dive

The company showed off its AIO liquid cooler prototype, which consisted of 3D printed pieces that are intended to go into the pump block to reduce some of the most annoying aspects of liquid coolers with pumps as opposed to thermosiphons. 

The fan that goes on top of the pump block is an existing Noctua fan that they’ve reshaped the frame for. And it’s optional to mount on top and it projects the air out towards the memory and VRM components. 

We also looked at the company’s thermosiphon, which was briefly shown at Computex last year. It is a 2-phase thermosiphon, which means that it does a phase change. This makes it comparable to a heat-pipe in a way. 

We also got to see a bunch of different types of cold plate designs.

We also got another look at the Noctua x Antec Flux Pro case, which we previously covered at Antec’s booth.

G2 Fans

Noctua showed off its 120mm G2 fan, which also appears in the shroud top of the Antec Flux Pro case. A couple things have changed about the fan, which include the RPM offset being a little different.

When we reviewed the NH-D15 G2, the RPM offset between the 2 fans was about 25, but the fans we saw at Computex are about plus or minus 50.  

Noctua provided some first-party data and stated that on a 120x49mm water cooler radiator comparing the G2 fan versus the company’s NF-A12x25 fan under a 200W heat-loud, the G2 fan performed roughly 3 degrees cooler, which is really good.    

Paired with an air cooler, there was about a 1 degree difference between the 2 fans, which is a lot for an air cooler. 

Noctua Liquid Cooler

For its liquid cooler, Noctua is working with Asetek, using the company’s Gen 8 V2 platform.  Asetek has been around for a long time and they’re one of the biggest suppliers. In the old days, they worked with Corsair, NZXT, and basically everyone’s stuff.

The landscape has diversified a bit. Apaltek has gotten really big as a supplier. For as much s*** we’ve given Asetek over the years, in our experience, they’ve had fewer widespread failures of gunk buildup compared to competing solutions. 

Noctua Mouse

We don’t cover mice, but Noctua also showed off a mouse with a small fan built into it. 

Noctua’s Jakob Dellinger Interview

We wrapped up our Noctua coverage by interviewing Noctua’s Jakob Dellinger. Make sure to watch our Computex video where we do a deeper dive into the company’s upcoming liquid cooler, how a thermosiphon works, and more.

---