Noctua unveiled its pumpless thermosiphon CPU cooler project at Computex last year. Now, the company is back at the Taipei-based tradeshow, showcasing updates to the cooler prototype.
The science hasn’t changed. The device is still using two-phase cooling that causes the liquid to boil and vaporize at the CPU heat spreader, go up to the radiator, and then condense back into cool liquid to start the process again.
This creates a cooling system with no moving parts or pump noise, except for the spinning fans.
The big difference now is that the condenser is a 360 mm radiator, rather than the 240 mm option we saw last year. The radiation has to be mounted in the top exhaust of a case, as it depends on gravity for the system to work properly.
The evaporator, which comes in contact with the CPU’s heat spreader, has been further engineered to reduce hot spots and to guide condensed liquids back to the hottest parts of the CPU.
The system features flexible tubing, which the company says should allow for easy installation and “broad compatibility.” Flexible tubing is already fairly common in off-the-shelf all-in-one coolers, though these certainly look a bit more rubberized than most.
Noctua describes this as a “long-term development project,” so there’s no word on pricing or when this will turn into a product you can actually buy for your PC.
Noctua is developing the cooler with Calyos, which makes two-phase cooling solutions for the aviation, automotive, and renewable energy industries.