Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Review

A Closer Look

As this is a passive CPU cooler, out of the box we’re presented with what can only be called a ‘WYSIWYG’ (what you see if what you get). There are no fans, and basically, what you’re looking at is exactly when you can expect to see when this is fully fitted to your system. Given that this is a passive design, however, there is clearly a lot of interest to be paid in the individual aspects of its overall design. Let us, therefore, take a closer look!

Contact Plate

Coming off from one side of the contact plate, the Noctua NH-P1 has 6 heat pipes leading directly to the radiator. These are well situated both in terms of their distribution and the fact that Noctua has managed to cram so many into a relatively speaking, quite small contact plate is more than a little impressive.

The contact plate itself is of a fairly standard size but has clearly been polished to an extremely high standard. Offering support for all major Intel and AMD processors, this should provide perfect coverage to ensure that all-important heat is efficiently moved away. And just in case you were curious, no, this is not TR4 (Threadripper) compatible. If you were, however, considering going ‘passive’ for that monster of a CPU, then you might need to re-evaluate your PC building skills.

Radiator

Given that about 90% of the bulk of this CPU cooler is dominated by the radiator, as you can expect there are a lot of things happening here. First things first, it is huge. Clearly to compensate for the passive design, Noctua has had to design the NH-P1 with a monumentally huge radiator that will (hopefully) be able to absorb enough of that heat to allow for the passive functionality to work correctly.

Despite its size, however, the stainless steel look is both very impressive and imposing. Even the air vents looks more than a little attractive and with the Noctua branding to the top, while subtle, its certainly eye-catching and appealing enough to carry this cooler in a relatively minimalistic way. Well… In branding at least.

With the radiator fins stacked at 13 high, this is quite a tall CPU cooler. Additionally, you’ll note that they are rather thick, unlike what you usually see in other Noctua coolers. This should mean that, unlike their thinner finned radiator designs, it will be practically impossible to bend these unless you utilise a hammer in your installation methodology (please don’t do this!).

The large spaces between the fins have been given a particular design to allow for air passage without the higher pressure you would usually see from a directly mounted fan. Put simply, the gap is big because Noctua needs the airflow to run as smoothly and uninterrupted as possible for this to work as a ‘passive’ design (specifically as part of a PC cases overall airflow).

Although the NH-P1 is rather a big beast, you’ll probably not have too many issues here in terms of RAM compatibility. On more restricted motherboards or case designs, however, and particularly so if you opt for the optional fan, space might be tight, especially so if you have some rather chunky memory with big heat sinks or RGB embellishments.

Overall

While certainly very big and imposing, as it needs to be for a passive cooler, there are undoubtedly some limitations here in terms of system compatibility. If you already find something like the NH-D15 inconveniently large (even with both fans attached), this definitely isn’t any better. You need space and lots of it to accommodate the NH-P1 happily. Just for rough size comparison, this isn’t much smaller (if indeed at all) when compared to a fairly standard power supply.

Despite its rather bulky stature, however, the build quality here is absolutely beyond reproach and even in terms of aesthetics, while this certainly isn’t going to win any awards, it doesn’t look like a pig in make-up either. Think of it as the CPU equivalent of Oliver Hardy. Big, but immaculately presented and exceptionally articulate.