Noctua's passive cooler has been delayed, again

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No fanless goodies for us until Q2. Sad times.

Noctua fanless CPU cooler prototype at Computex 2019
(Image credit: Noctua)

Having already been delayed once, Noctua's fanless CPU cooler that was first teased back in July looks to have been set back again, along with a slew of other Noctua products. 

A recent tweet from FanlessTech, who we believe has been working with Noctua to drum up enthusiasm for its upcoming products, pictures an updated Noctua release roadmap. It shows that the upcoming passive CPU cooler, said to be able to handle max CPU loads of 120W (devoid of any other case fans), is not expected to release until Q2.

You can check out the updated roadmap for yourself on the company's website.

Back in July last year, Noctua said "prepare to be surprised" by the cooler's performance, and maybe we will be when we get our hands on one. Noctua indicated that with added quiet fans in your case for active airflow this new passive CPU cooler should be able to handle up to 180W.

That means it should be able to handle top-tier CPUs. Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake processors like the Core i9 10700K only throw up a 125W TDP, and AMD's Ryzen 5000 series CPUs like the Ryzen 9 5950X default to a TDP of 105W. Just bear in mind that they will actually exceed those TDP ratings from time to time.

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(Image credit: Colorwave)

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We cant say we really have been surprised about the setbacks this time, either. Times are tough for the tech community and it seems manufacturers are under a lot of stress, to say the least. 

Late last year we witnessed malicious reseller bots ransacking top tech launches (including that of Nvidia's RTX 3080s and RTX 3090s) as well as GDDR6 memory shortages being blamed for tech stock woes. Now retailers are reportedly gearing up for a host of GPU and motherboard manufacturers to announce price increases—and it's not going to stop there.

Still, considering all the hullabaloo, I think we're willing to wait an extra few months for this baby. We're a little disappointed at the delays, but it's to be expected with COVID-19 still raging in the background.

Katie Wickens
Katie Wickens
Hardware Writer

Having been obsessed with game mechanics, computers and graphics for three decades, Katie took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni and has been writing about digital games, tabletop games and gaming technology for over five years since. She can be found facilitating board game design workshops and optimising everything in her path.