It's literally marketed as TG Putty, rather than having a 'gamer' name, so at least you know exactly what you're getting. It's designed to be used instead of thermal pads in a graphics card and because the electrically non-conductive substance can be spooned or squeezed into place, all the guesswork about what thickness of pad one requires is removed.

At least, that's the theory, because in practice, knowing exactly how much putty to apply is difficult to ascertain. Thermal Grizzly provides some guidance on the product page but the whole process has a significant degree of trial and error to it.

There are three grades of TG Putty to choose from (Basic, Advance, and Pro) but other than some fairly generalised descriptions of their thermal conductivities ('moderate, good, excellent') and putty colour (pink, blue, and silver-grey), you'll left to determine which version is most suitable for your needs on the basis of price.

All variants of TG Putty come in a 30 g (1.06 oz) tub, along with three plastic spatulas and a very brief instruction manual. A tub of TG Putty Basic will set you back $16 / 15 whereas Advance and Pro tubs cost $26 / 25 and $42 / 40. That's a 168% price difference between the Basic and Pro versions, but without any technical information or statistics, there's no way of knowing whether the Pro is 168% better.

Thermal Grizzly suggests that one 30 g tub should be sufficient to cover the VRAM modules and VRM components on most graphics cards, while two tubs are likely to be needed if one is planning to fill in the backplate area of a card. I received three samples of each version so I set about choosing a suitable GPU to test it all with.

I settled on using a Zotac Gaming RTX 4070 Ti Trinity OC, a card that I bought myself when Nvidia launched its RTX 40-series. It's never had any problems with GPU temperature but in heavy, sustained workloads, the VRAM would frequently reach 90 °C. That's within operating limits but I always felt that with better thermal pads, it could be easily reduced.

Applying the putty

Thermal Grizzly recommends that any areas where the putty is going to be applied should be cleaned thoroughly with conventional isopropanol, so after stripping down the test card and peeling off the original thermal pads, I wiped the VRAM modules and VRM components with thermal paste remover.

A fresh layer of Arctic MX6 thermal paste was applied to the GPU (and repeated for each test run of TG Putty). Thermal Grizzly stresses that its putty must be kept well clear of the GPU, as it's not suitable at all for use on such high power, high temperature chips.

Starting with TG Putty Pro, to get an idea of what the 'best' version had to offer, I initially tried to apply it directly to the heatsink base. However, I rapidly learned that my mental impressions of what the putty would be like, before testing, were wildly misplaced—rather than being a thick, semi-viscous compound, TG Putty is quite delicate and greatly prefers sticking to anything other than itself.

Eventually, I abandoned applying the putty to the heatsink and instead used an entire tub to cover the GDDR6X and power delivery chips that would normally be covered by a thermal pad. As you can see, my efforts were not in the least bit professional looking but in theory, it shouldn't matter. The putty doesn't conduct electricity, so it can be liberally applied to any surface—however, it's important to avoid the GPU die itself.

For testing the thermal performance, I ran a 20 minute loop of 3DMark Speed Way, at a resolution of 1080p. This particular test involves a lot of memory read/writes and works the GPU itself quite hard.

Thermal performance

The above chart shows figures for the GPU's main and hotspot temperatures for an important reason, even though the putty is only being used to predominantly help cool the VRAM. GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards have a bit of a reputation for undergoing thermal paste pump over time. This is where the thermal paste between the GPU die and heatsink gets slowly squeezed out, leaving the die surface with increasingly less and less paste.

I mention this because RTX 40-series cards generally have the heatsinks attached quite firmly, to apply sufficient pressure on the chip. What I noticed with the first application of the putty is that the GPU's temperatures immediately went to their maximum limits, and the GPU's clocks throttled right back to prevent damage.

The second and third application attempts involved packing more putty in place, to the point where I used almost two full tubs, but I couldn't manage to get the main temperature and hotspot down to the same figures as seen using the original thermal pads.

While the VRAM temperatures were considerably lower, all of this proved to be a huge mistake. After completing the three applications of the Pro putty, I cleaned off as much as I could and then applied the Basic putty, using the same amount as my third attempt with the Pro.

The card managed one full run, with temperatures similar to those as above, but on the second application attempt, the test PC froze completely. It never restarted after that and after trying the graphics card in a number of other PCs, I realised that it had failed completely.

As to why this happened, I suspect the hotspot temperatures are the clue—repeatedly going over 100 °C, and hitting 110 °C in the first test runs, was probably too much for the GPU. I'm still trying to resurrect the graphics card but at the time of writing, it's still dead.

Conclusion

The failure of my graphics card left me conflicted on how to judge Thermal Grizzly's putty. The VRAM temperatures were significantly lower using the putty compared to the original thermal pads, so on that basis alone, it's a remarkable product. And the failure of the card isn't a fault of the putty itself—it's clearly a heatsink mounting problem and that's down to the specific card model in question.

However, it's not in the least bit easy to apply, or at the very least, not cleanly and consistently. During the testing, I had a thought to purchase a large plastic syringe and experiment with squeezing out like a slightly runny dough, but the failure of the GPU put paid to investigating that method.

The single test run I achieved with the Basic TG Putty also suggests that, for most users, it's more than good enough to use. However, at the time of writing this review, Thermal Grizzly was out of stock of the Pro, which suggests that overclocking enthusiasts are only interested in using the best materials, which raises a question as to why Thermal Grizzly thought three variants would be of interest.

But by far the biggest issue with using putty is the fact that some, if not many, graphics cards rely on the thickness and resistance to compression of the thermal pads to ensure the heatsink applies enough pressure on the GPU die. Having discussed this with Thermal Grizzly, it shouldn't normally be a problem, as removing thermal pads can allow for a better contact to be achieved with the heatsink and GPU die.

In the case of the Zotac card used, the use of small washers on the heatsink's mounting screens might have greatly helped, to account for the removal of the thermal pads, but this all of this just adds to the trial-and-error nature of using putty instead of pads. It could well be fine with your card but there's a chance it might not be.

A single tub of TG Putty Basic is roughly the same in price as a 1.5 mm thick, 120 x 100 mm strip of Thermal Grizzly's TG Minus Pad Basic, a replacement thermal pad. My tests suggest that one tub may not be sufficient and ideally, one would buy at least two, just to ensure one has enough putty to complete the job. The same is likely to be true with the thermal pad, of course, but one isn't saving any cash by using the putty.

For most PC gamers, TG Putty isn't worth buying and the score reflects this. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the product itself and it's clearly more effective than the thermal pads in the card I used, though I question whether there is any significant difference between the three variants. However, as I have amply demonstrated, either through sheer bad luck or just sheer stupidity, the risk to one's graphics card is potentially catastrophic.

Only serious, experienced overclockers are going to be truly interested in the putty, and anyone who has messed about with custom watercooling setups, soldering voltage mods, or delidding CPUs will be right at home with TG Putty. For them, it's certainly worth considering, but as the saying goes, audentes fortuna Iuvat.

Chinese techtuber 电解碳酸钠 (which machine translates to "Electrolytic sodium carbonate") has shown off the extreme cooling system in a video on Bilibili.

The channel says that it's still waiting on a water block for a planned RTX 5090 build, but in the meantime the air conditioner has been hooked up to an RTX 4090, dropping temps down to a claimed 20 degrees Celsius under load (via Tom's Hardware).

Given the power (and size) of the air conditioning unit used here, that's probably no surprise. It's rated to 12,000 BTU of cooling, with a 1.2 kW power draw. That means it's not exactly the most efficient of cooling solutions, although it is mounted on castor wheels for, err, ease of use.

And it's even been festooned with a faceplate featuring the logos of some popular PC hardware brands. I don't think I've ever seen Nvidia, AMD, and Intel logos featured quite so prominently on a build—but when you've got this much chassis real estate to play with, why not.

The processor on the test system is Intel's Core i9 13900K, which also appears to be cooled by the outer air con unit. Well, it does run a little hot, after all.

Two hoses are diverted from the outside of the air conditioner into the rear of the PC and then into what looks like respective water blocks, and, aside from the bulk of the air conditioner itself, it seems like a surprisingly neat and tidy job.

Plus, you can even feel the breeze as your PC plunges to extremely low temperatures, as our host demonstrates by sticking her head in front of the main fan:

Well, it's all in good fun, isn't it? The host later says that the setup seems ready for the addition of a 14900K and RTX 5090, and possibly even a future RTX 6090, too.

Given that we've been impressed with the performance of the RTX 5090 FE cooler (and by how slim and svelte it looks despite the mighty power of the chip inside), all of this seems very unnecessary. However, if ultimate cooling is the goal, it's difficult to think of a system that would provide more headroom than this.

Should it take the top spot as an addition to our best CPU coolers guide, perhaps? Err, no. A 12,000 BTU air conditioning unit is a very expensive and impractical thing, at least for these purposes. Still, hats off for the attempt, at the very least.

The NH-L12S is a known quantity—it's been available for years now. Yet it remains a solid pick for a mini gaming PC in 2025. If it ain't broke…

I've rolled out two test systems for this cooler: one, fitted with an Intel Core i7 14700K; and the other, an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X. The former is our usual test bed for cooler reviews—there are no case fans to help the cooler out and the chip requires sufficient cooling for its high power draw up to 253 W. This is too big of an ask for a plucky low-profile cooler—though prepare to be mildly impressed later in this review—hence why I grabbed the 9700X off the shelf for my mini PC build. This AMD chip runs at a mere 65 W TDP, which is fantastic for small form factor.

The cooler itself is made up of nickel-plated copper heat pipes and plate connected to an aluminium heatsink. As I mentioned, there are four heatpipes, which all run the full length of the plate and through the heatsink.

This cooler comes with a single fan, one Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM. This is the width and height as regular case fans and can get up to 1850 RPM, except it's slightly thinner than most. This allows it to be set-up in one of two ways: on top of the heatsink or sandwiched between the plate and heatsink. The former is the better option, as it leaves 48 mm of clearance for system RAM, while the latter offers only 35 mm.

First off, installation. This was relatively straightforward on the open Intel bench. Noctua includes a metal backplate in the box that fits a range of Intel sockets, including its latest, LGA1851, and the one I'm using, LGA1700. Once attached, the legs protrude through the motherboard where I'm able to attach some large spacers, brackets, and screws. It's a touch fiddly to get all on at once and then firmly attached, but nothing ol' Jacob couldn't cope with. For those familiar, this is largely the same mounting method used across many of Noctua's air coolers.

With a dab of thermal paste (more like a dollop), the cooler then sits atop of the bracket and has a pair of sprung screws to help keep tension evenly applied across the CPU's heatspreader (IHS).

All that's left is to plug the fan into the CPU Fan header with the 21.5 cm long PWM cable. There's also a low-noise adapter included in the box, measuring an additional 10.5 cm, which knocks the fan down to 1,400 RPM. You shouldn't need to use the adapter as the fan isn't particularly loud most of the time, but there's a degree of personal preference here.

Let's talk performance. Considering its small statute, the cooler put up a good fight against the 14700K. The chip reached a maximum temperature of 92°C while running a stress test of 3DMark's Steel Nomad benchmark, and just 86°C in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. That's admittedly not great by the standards of most liquid or larger air coolers, but the fact it wasn't thermal throttling had me impressed.

When you push the 14700K to its limits in X264 or Cinebench R23, however, the NH-L12S starts to collapse. The chip hit 100°C in both benchmarks, engaging thermal throttling, which means the lack of adequate cooling limited to the performance of the PC. That's not great.

Though, as I mentioned before, this isn't a CPU/cooler combination I would recommend. I wouldn't have paired them up if our cooling tests hadn't demanded it. For a more realistic test, then, I paired the NH-L12S with the Ryzen 7 9700X and plonked it inside a Fractal Terra chassis. This is more its natural habitat.

I needed to flip the fan mounting for this case. That's easily done, though it leaves me with less room for RAM and did mean my cooler came in contact with the edge of the motherboard IO. The motherboard being the Asus ROG Strix X870-I Gaming WiFi. That's a bit of a concern. The cooler packs down to just 70 mm in height, including the fan attached between the plate and heatsink, which is impressive, and offers a RAM clearance of around 35 mm. That's just about enough space for low-profile RAM sticks—nothing fancy.

A word of warning: I decided on PNY XLR8 Gaming 32 GB DDR5-6200 sticks inside my test machine. These are, by my measurements with a set of iFixit calipers, 34.87 mm in height. That's under the 35 mm required, though even so there was some contact between the cooler and closest DIMM, even in the second slot away from the CPU. Both ended up sitting pretty in the end, though with a little pressure applied to the side of one DIMM.

The NH-L12S dealt with the 9700X fantastically. It reached a maximum temperature of just 76°C while gaming, and 79°C under more intense loads, such as Handbrake and Cinebench R24. This is both a compliment for Noctua's compact cooler, which was operating with only a moderate amount more airflow from the additional 1x 120 mm fan installed in the Terra, and AMD's power-savvy 9000-series processors.

Even with the additional fan in place inside the Fractal Design Terra, and the case sat atop of my desk within earshot, the NH-L12S isn't overly loud.

Small form factor components tend to illicit large prices—make of that what you will—and the NH-L12S does come with a tall price tag considering its stature. It'll set you back $65/?64. If you want a cheap air cooler, we have other budget air cooler recommendations for that. Likewise, Noctua makes a taller variant called the NH-L12Sx77, which features two additional heatpipes for greater cooling potential, though this will run into greater compatibility issues with a number of Mini-ITX cases due to its 77 mm height (NH-L12S is only 70 mm).

Yet there's something to be said for this compact cooler even in light of other units. It straddles a fine line between cooling potential and size. It's a great fit for one of AMD's latest processors—at least the lower wattage ones—and, as proven in testing, you don't really need much more than it offers.

They might be seen by some to be out of fashion these days but the humble air cooler still has a lot going for it. In the past few months I've built a range of gaming PCs—you can read about my most recent build here—and none did I enjoy building more than the latest, featuring a chunky air cooler at its centre. This got me thinking: why are we so quick to ditch the air cooler, anyways?

The past decade has seen a shift from air to liquid cooling. Liquid cooling promised easier installs, more flexibility, more pizazz, and even, in some instances, lower temperatures. That's still true of liquid cooling today, generally. Though on that last point, just because a 360 mm radiator has the potential to be better than your average single or even dual-tower air cooler isn't a death knell for all air coolers, in fact it's quite the contrary.

So, here's my argument for an air cooler in 2025.

Air coolers are robust. They're not easily ruined by accident and they last a long time, if taken care of. In theory as long as a fan's motor lasts. In some cases, that's a very, very long time. Take a Noctua NF-A14x25 G2, for example, that's rated to a MTTF—or mean time between failures and meaning the average time it takes for a product to run into a failure—of over 150,000 hours. That's over 17 years. Be Quiet!'s latest fan, the Silent Wings Pro 4, is rated to up to 300,000 hours. That's over 34 years.

Even with these slightly ludicrous lifetimes seeming a little unlikely in practice—I don't think anyone is keeping a CPU cooler operational for 34 years nor do I suspect the fan will be in good shape by the end of it—we're talking a longevity largely unmatched by your average liquid chiller.

That true to an almost endless degree of air coolers without any fans at all, such as the Noctua NH-P1. That's a different beast altogether and not exactly suitable for every application. It''s a beauty nevertheless, which brings me onto my next point.

Air coolers look fantastic. We so frequently discard these understated coolers for radiators, tubes, and pumps adorned with LEDs and sometimes even entire screens. Yet there's a mechanical simplicity to an air cooler that shouldn't be overlooked. A good-looking air cooler, like Be Quiet!'s Dark Rock 5, acts as a focal point for a clean-cut aesthetic. Air coolers generally aren't visually overwhelming like their liquid counterparts—though they do take up a lot of space in your side panel view.

Then, performance. We've been gaslit by Big Cooler for too long into thinking we need a mighty 420 mm radiator for our plucky gaming processors. Okay, that's an overstatement, but I do think it can often be assumed that an air cooler isn't capable enough for most modern chips. That's not the case at all, and with today's lower-wattage processors or undervolted chips, they're a great fit.

I tested the Dark Rock 5 with an Intel Core Ultra 5 245K recently. Not the most popular chip, I know, but it's far more power-savvy at 125/159 W compared to the generations prior. The Dark Rock 5 barely broke a sweat. My max CPU temperature was 65°C in games and 76°C in CPU-heavy benchmarks.

We also tested the same cooler with the Core i7 14700K, which isn't so easy on the outlet at 125/253 W. The Dark Rock 5 was understandably less well equipped for this chip and long, demanding benchmarking runs, leading the chip to throttle and reach temperatures well into the upper 90s. However, this is the single-tower model from Be Quiet! and it offers a larger dual-tower for this sort of thing. We don't have that but we do have the Noctua NH-D15 G2, which stood up to the task and kept temperatures in control around the mid to high 80s.

In the interests of fairness, I have to say that Arctic's Liquid Freezer III 360 and Be Quiet!'s Light Loop 360 mm hovered at lower temperatures, even under duress, around the low 80s or high 70s. Even as low as the high 60s while gaming. So, if you just want the lowest figure, well, go figure.

You'll want a liquid cooler in other scenarios, of course. A high-end Intel processor that can easily suck up to 253 W from the wall, ie the 14900K, definitely. A Threadripper chip? Of course. But the best gaming CPU on the planet, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D? No, actually, you're good with just a heatsink and some good old-fashioned airflow. How well it copes will depend on the overall size, stature, and fans on your chosen air cooler and the airflow provided by your case, but even plucky designs such as the Arctic Freezer 36 are brandishing claims to compatibility with performant processors.

And they're quiet. That shouldn't come as a huge surprise. A single fan, maybe two, maybe none (in some rare instances) is a lot quieter than a couple fans and a pump. Any moving parts tend to get louder as they become more worn out, but generally fans take a long time to reach that point, and they're replaceable.

I'm not a big believer in 'liquid coolers are a flood risk' school of thought, as I've been unfair to more than my fair share of liquid coolers over the years and I'm still yet to experience a leak, but there's always that argument for air coolers—they can only go so wrong. That said, a chunky air cooler attached to a motherboard might stay in tact, but take it on a bumpy car journey or send it in the post and sometimes the motherboard comes out worse for wear. Support your cooler and GPU when shipping, people!

These are all mostly important benefits for air cooling. Though I've saved the best until last. Air cooling is, of course, affordable. Really affordable.

Our favourite all-in-one liquid cooler, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360, will set you back $90 on Amazon right now. A Dark Rock 5? $65. That's by and large considered a 'premium' offering—whereas a Hyper 212 will suffice for many mid-range processors and costs only $30.

So, before you head to the checkout, heed my call at least to consider an air cooler for your next build. Or don't. I don't actually have a stake in the matter and the beauty of PC building is you can do whatever you want and no one gets to tell you otherwise. But I do think air coolers are often overlooked when they should be more on our radars. They're affordable, quiet, and competent—more often than not, an air cooler is all you need.

Fun aesthetic additions to the insides of cases aren't exactly a new concept but one thermaltake design from CES this year has caught my eye thanks to its being entirely curved.

Some of the PC Gamer team got eyes on the new MAGFloe and MAGCurve coolers on the CES show floor but they were also announced in a press release. The one that interests me is the Thermaltake MAGCurve 360 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO liquid cooler (long name, I know), which comes with a 6.67-inch curved AMOLED screen.

That screen can display visuals of up to 2400 x 1080, including videos, gifs, and images, through Thermaltake's own RGB Plus software. Interestingly, Thermaltake showed off a handful of use-cases, like displaying a scene of a car, images of some of Thermaltake's upcoming gear, and, as is expected from gamers looking to show off their PC, anime girls.

The anime image is split down the middle, displaying one girl on the centre of the screen, and one on the left side, with a noticeable slash in the middle to differentiate between images. We don't know if this is one image created to look like that or two separate images that the software is choosing to display like that.

To me, I feel like the best use case is either a looping gif (like the one I currently display in the OLED screen of my Steelseries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3) or performance stats of the rig like the temperature.

The curved nature of this screen could mean you have room on one side to display those stats and room on the other for a nice image. It is available in white and black so it could be nice for that all-white build you've been pining for.

Internal components with unique aesthetics are somewhat niche, as you need both a case intended to display them, and you need your rig in a spot you can actually see but it's a bit of a trend of this year's CES. Corsair has just announced personalised RAM that equally intrigued and confused me too.

Announced alongside this cooler is the Thermaltake MAGFloe 360/420 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO liquid cooler, which is a similar design except it uses a flat 3.95 inch 480 x 480 screen. Once again, anime girls were shown off on this display too. Both coolers are compatible with Intel and AMD CPUs and the MAGFloe comes with a 460 mm tube length to work around a variety of builds.

In the press release, Thermaltake says these coolers are for "unmatched performance and visual appeal" Though I can see the argument for the latter, we don't yet have performance stats for the former. It certainly looks pretty sweet though.

With a massive 168 mm-tall dual heatsink stack and dual 140 mm fans that top out at just 1,500 rpm, the NH-D15 G2 is designed for one thing, which is to bring the best that air cooling has to offer for as little noise as possible. That makes sense seeing as at $150, it’s competing directly with large 360 mm AIO liquid coolers.

There’s also a strong case for opting for cheaper air coolers too, many of which have similar size heatsinks and dual fans while costing less than half the price. If you want to dial down the noise even further then Noctua includes speed reduction cables if you’re prepared to take a small hit in cooling, with zero need to fiddle with your motherboard’s own control.

So what makes Noctua think the NH-D15 G2 is worth its asking price?

Well, there’s a lot of R&D that’s gone into making this the king of coolers for modern CPUs. For starters Noctua has worked out that having two fans mounted in close proximity on a cooler and spinning at the same speed can actually cause unwanted noise and vibration as the two interact. Ever wondered what that random, intermittent vibration from your PC is that comes and goes? If you were using a dual fan cooler in a push-pull configuration, this could be the reason.

To solve this problem, the NH-D15 G2’s fans spin at slightly different speeds.

The heatsink stacks have been optimised according the performance of the fans too, which have an improved pressure to airflow curve. This has allowed Noctua to reduce the fin clearance from 1.9mm to 1.6mm and include 23 extra fins compared to the original model, with the added benefit of making the heatsink nearly a centimetre less deep, but offering even better performance. The most important change, though, is that the NH-D15 G2 comes in three variants, all with slightly different shaped cold plates. This is to cater for the wide variation in convexity between modern CPUs.

For example, the high socket and cooler pressure applied to Intel LGA1700 CPUs can cause them to bend in the socket and over time came become permanently misshapen. With a combination of washers to reduce heatsink pressure on the CPU heatspreader and machining the cold plate of each variant to different amounts of convexity, you can buy the cooler that’s best-suited to your particular CPU.

For example, the high base convexity or HBC model caters for used Intel LGA1700 CPUs where a shaped base will allow for better contact and in term better cooling. By contrast, AMD Ryzen 7000 and 9000 CPUs remain relatively flat, so the low base convexity (LBC) model will result in better performance. There’s also a standard model that Noctua claims also works well with AMD CPUs as well as Intel LGA1851 Arrow Lake CPUs as well as LGA1700 CPUs that use a contact frame.

We’ll be looking at the results later, but Noctua has an excellent table on its website that we highly recommend checking out to see which model is best for your CPU. The down side here is whether you swap CPUs in future as it’s not recommended to use an HBC model with AMD CPUs and similarly performance might be worse with an LGA1700 setup with no modifications such as contact frames. In addition to these features, the cooler is equipped with an offset for AMD Ryzen 7000 and 9000 CPUs, which allows the cold plate to sit closer to the hot spot on those models that’s slightly off centre due to the location of the CCDs.

Installation is fairly straightforward, but in addition to requiring a specific screwdriver, the heatsink is heavy and quite ungainly to deal with that can make installing it a challenge. It’s something you’ll only have to do once or twice so we can’t be too harsh here. You’ll need to pay careful attention to the components too as some look similar apart from their colour, but the key is to make sure you get the right model for your particular CPU.

PC Gamer test rig
CPU: Intel Core i7 14700K | Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 Gaming X DDR4 | Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 3466 | SSD: 512GB Samsung 980 Pro | GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition | PSU: MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIe5 | Case: BarrowCH Rhopilema Test Bench

In our thermal testing it was very clear that both using the NM-ISW1 shim washers to reduce socket pressure or using the HBC version of the cooler definitely improved performance on our Core i7 14700K, with the HBC version usually edging ahead by a few degrees. The best result in Cinebench of 86°C of the HBC was 3°C better than the standard cooler, but that was still 11°C warmer than the Be Quiet! Light loop 360mm with both coolers hitting a peak of 52dBA.

There was another noticeable benefit using the HBC cooler in 3DMark’s Steel Nomad test where the NH-D15 G2’s lowest temperature of 84°C was only 6°C higher than the Be Quiet Light loop 360mm. It was 10°C adrift in the X264 test, with not much difference here between different configurations, but the Metro Exodus test saw the HBC version again edge out a lead and also come within 4°C of matching the 360mm liquid cooler and all but equalled it in returning to idle temperatures too, massively outstripping the smaller single fan Be Quiet! Dark Rock 5.

In games and lightly-threaded tasks the Noctua NH-D15 G2 offers real benefits over smaller air coolers and also keeps up with and even matches large 360 mm liquid coolers too. Even in its warmest results it was never more than 10°C warmer than the Be Quiet Light loop 360mm and was only a few degrees away from matching the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB while also running rings around smaller air coolers, completely taming the Core i7 14700K.

Its price is eyewatering for sure, but the fact it keeps up with enormous and powerful liquid coolers is impressive as are its maintenance-free credentials and potentially longer life span too. The only issue is that certain variants are CPU-specific and picking the right one can be tricky, especially for Intel owners. However, we can’t argue with the build quality and cooling performance, even if there are far cheaper dual-fan coolers out there.

It was much happier in our game tests, sitting at 83°C in Metro Exodus and 87°C in our 3D Mark Steel Nomad test, but even these were noticeably higher than Noctua’s larger dual-fan NH-D15 G2. Part of the reason for this is undoubtedly airflow.

The cooler was fairly quiet at full speed, hitting 50 dBA on our sound meter, which was 2 dBA quieter than the Noctua cooler, but also shoving far less air through its relatively large heatsink. It also took a long time to return our processor to idle temperatures. Adding a second fan would undoubtedly help it out in all areas.

While it’s hideously expensive, the fact that air coolers such as this one last decades means that it will likely serve you well for many years maintenance-free where liquid coolers won’t. However, with that in mind there are some question marks over future compatibility the differing base convexity does reduce compatibility, especially if you swap from AMD to Intel or vice versa.

The price of $150 is still a lot to spend on an air cooler with limited features so it’s always work checking out cheaper alternatives and never miss out on GPU, CPU or SSD upgrades when something cheaper will be adequate. We can’t argue with the cooling, build quality or packaging, though, with performance on par with some 360 mm liquid coolers.

Starting with the design, Be Quiet! has introduced a magnetic cap for the Dark Rock 5 that covers the heatpipes and screwdriver hole for mounting the cooler. Its coolers, especially the more premium models, haven’t exactly been ugly in the past, often sporting a black anodized finish.

However, the cap, which can rotate around depending on the cooler’s orientation, looks even better and definitely makes the cooler stand out from the crowd. That’s just as well because you’re not looking at much change from $70 or ?70 from this cooler, which is pretty steep for a single fan heatsink arrangement.

There are benefits to its compact dimensions and single fan, though, such as the ability to avoid all of your memory slots allowing for unrestricted height memory modules. At 161 mm tall it’s also going to fit in practically any ATX case too. The downside is that it’s a relatively deep heatsink and six heatpipes might benefit from a second fan.

Thankfully, Be Quiet! has included the clips for one in the box, but with a peak speed of 2,100 RPM, the included Silent Wings 4 120 mm PWM fan isn’t the largest or most powerful we’ve seen included with a heatsink so we’ll have to see how it holds up against our toasty Core i7 14700K.

The machined base is nickel-plated rather than bare copper, which means if you want to use liquid metal paste, you won’t run the risk of the paste staining or being absorbed by the copper and drying out as quickly. You won’t need to do any liquid metal paste research, though, as standard thermal paste is included.

This is in the form of a tube, so you get a couple of applications as opposed to just one when the paste is pre-applied. The base also has two sprung mounting screws fixed in place, while owners of older Be Quiet! coolers will remember a separate fiddly plate had to be used to secure the cooler.

The mounting mechanism is identical to that on Be Quiet!’s liquid coolers with quite a few pieces to deal with. It’s straightforward, but probably not something you’d want to attempt with your motherboard still mounted in the case.

The exception here might be on AMD motherboards, which don’t require the included backplate. Installing the Silent Wings 4 fan is far easier, though, as the clips slot into recesses in the heatsink with minimal fuss. The same definitely can’t be said of some cheaper heatsinks.

Unfortunately, the Dark Rock 5 wasn’t quite able to tame our Core i7 14700K. For the first few minutes of our various stress tests, the temperatures were acceptable, but would steadily climb and in our torturous x264 and Cinebench stress tests, the CPU ended up coming close to 100°C and throttling.

We should emphasise this only happened during extended multi-threaded stress tests and with Intel 14th Gen CPUs, but it seems that handling high loads for long periods with these CPUs is a bit beyond the Dark Rock 5.

It was much happier in our game tests, sitting at 83°C in Metro Exodus and 87°C in our 3D Mark Steel Nomad test, but even these were noticeably higher than Noctua’s larger dual-fan NH-D15 G2. Part of the reason for this is undoubtedly airflow.

The cooler was fairly quiet at full speed, hitting 50 dBA on our sound meter, which was 2 dBA quieter than the Noctua cooler, but also shoving far less air through its relatively large heatsink. It also took a long time to return our processor to idle temperatures. Adding a second fan would undoubtedly help it out in all areas.

The Be Quiet! Dark Rock 5 is an attractive cooler with excellent build quality that remains fairly quiet at full speed and doesn’t suffer from memory and motherboard compatibility issues nearly as much as larger coolers.

Even with toasty Intel 14th Gen CPUs such as our Core i7 14700K, it’s able to tame them in games, but the same can’t be said for extended multi-threaded workloads where eventually the temperature climbed high enough to see it throttle.

Coping with less power-hungry AMD processors will be a different story, though, as will avoiding multi-threaded workloads using a high-end Intel 13th or 14th Gen CPU that take more than a couple of minutes to complete.

We can’t be too critical here as a result, especially if gaming and low noise are your main focus as most scenarios are well within this cooler’s capabilities.

That said, it’s a shame a cooler costing this much can’t handle all situations with popular current CPUs at stock speed and while it includes clips for a second fan, the inclusion of one would have made it a much sweeter deal.

Ultimately, the future looks like a chillier place as far as CPUs go, with Intel’s Core Ultra 200 processors running far cooler than their predecessors so while it’s not ideal for handling everything a Core i7 or Core i9 Intel 14th Gen CPU can throw at it, the Dark Rock 5 will fare much better once Intel’s hot-running LGA1700 CPUs have been consigned to history.

Thankfully, a lot of the great features of previous Be Quiet! coolers are still here. You get a trio of Be Quiet!’s own Light Wings LX fans and being best known for its fans and air coolers, you can all but guarantee these will be epic.

Here, they have 16 RGB LEDs embedded in the fan hub that radiate light outwards through nine semi-transparent fan blades. The fans themselves use rifle bearings and are 4-pin PWM-controlled, topping out at a reasonable 2,100 rpm.

You get screws for the included fans to mount them to the radiator, but sadly there’s no extras included to add your own should you want to boost cooling or lower noise at a later date as some other manufacturers allow. Our sample had all-black components, but there is a white version available if that’s more your thing. The actual illuminated sections are the pump top, which features a diagonal blade-like design, and the fan hubs and blades and both can display multiple colours simultaneously. The lighting is very punchy and vibrant and easily more appealing than that on Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III coolers.

The pump can spin up to 2,900 rpm, but as it has its own 4-pin PWM cable, it can be controlled separately. However, Be Quiet! has certainly been singing the pump’s new progressive motor IC in terms of reducing noise so hopefully running it at full speed won’t involve dealing with any hideous whining. Another noise-reducing feature we’ve seen on previous Be quiet! liquid coolers is the cooler’s ability to be refilled. Coolant can, over time, evaporate out of the sealed loop meaning air can be introduced, potentially increasing the noise in the pump.

A coolant bottle is included to top the coolant up should this happen, but should also mean the cooler can be installed in any orientation without fear of air getting into the pump if it’s higher than the radiator, which also acts as a reservoir, trapping any air in the loop. This is a well-known issue with long term use on standard liquid coolers, but so long as you top up the coolant here every year or so, the Light Loop 360mm should live a long and happy life in any position. The radiator itself is your standard thickness model, sitting at just 27 mm deep and 52 mm with the fans installed.

Unlike Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III coolers, which feature much thicker radiators, there should be no compatibility issues, even in cases with modest clearance around fan mounts. Arctic’s coolers also suffer from motherboard compatibility issues due to their large pumps and integrated VRM fans, but the Light Loop 360mm’s pump is very compact so we double any standard motherboard will struggle to house it.

PC Gamer test rig
CPU: Intel Core i7 14700K | Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 Gaming X DDR4 | Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 3466 | SSD: 512GB Samsung 980 Pro | GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition | PSU: MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIe5 | Case: BarrowCH Rhopilema Test Bench

While its fan and pump cables lack the brilliant pre-tidying of Arctic’s alternatives, Be Quiet! has at least included a fan and lighting hub that can combine all of the cooler’s cables into a single 3-pin ARGB and 4-pin PWM cables. This means you just need to route the cables behind your motherboard tray to the hub, rather than trailing across your motherboard, but we’d still rather see something more elaborate here from Be Quiet! in future.

The installation process is simple, although there’s a significant number of parts to deal with. Thankfully, you don’t need to remove the processor socket mechanism on Intel motherboards like you do with Arctic’s coolers and the pump itself attaches to mounting brackets you construct on the board using just two screws. On AMD Socket AM5 boards, the brackets allow for a slightly off-centre pump installation too, catering for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 processor hot spots that sit away from the centre point on the heatspreader.

The pump’s noise level was impressively low, only audible at full speed if you turn down all other system fans and put your ear within a foot of it so if you’re concerned about pump whine then we can highly recommend the Light Loop 360mm and that’s before playing around with the pump speed, which cut the noise even further. The fans, on the other hand, were not so quiet, adding a few decibels to the noise we’ve seen from coolers such as Arctic’s Liquid Freezer III 360 and definitely less pleasant to sit next to at full speed. Thankfully, as you edge away from full speed, the noise drops significantly and the noise quality improves so if you’re particularly noise-sensitive, we’d suggest limiting the fan speed to only hit 100% under extreme conditions.

There’s definitely scope to do this too as the Light Loop 360mm outperformed the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 in all of our tests and even once the ambient temperature was factored in, undercut the Arctic cooler by up to 5°C when pitched against our Core i7 14700K with a temperature of 77°C in our x264 test. It even shaved a few degrees of the temperature in our game test too and returned to idle temperatures far quicker as well.

Ultimately the Be Quiet! Light Loop 360mm is powerful, flexible, looks fantastic and its unique feature of being able to top up the coolant potentially means it has an extended lifespan compared to other coolers too. The negative points you’ll want to be aware of are relatively high noise levels from its fans at full speed and relatively high price in some areas for what is a fairly basic AIO liquid cooler in terms of not being software-controlled or having cable-free fans or other premium features. However, its excellent performance, good build quality and super-quiet pump go a long way to make up for this.

They’re available in a range of sizes in both 120 mm and 140 mm fan configurations, with the model I'm reviewing being the Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB. If you have more modest requirements then 240 mm and 280 mm models are also available, alongside a monstrous 420 mm model with three 140 mm fans.

This review concerns the illuminated white model with RGB lighting spanning both pump and fans, but if you want to save some cash there are standard black versions too with RGB lighting that cost even less. The equivalent of the 360 mm model I'm looking at here, for example, can be had for just ?77 here in the UK—that’s good for a 360 mm AIO liquid cooler in anyone’s books.

Part of what impresses here is the extra thick radiator. At 38 mm, its depth is a good 10 mm or so above what you’d see on most other coolers and the added surface area inside means more heat can be dissipated with the same airflow. In theory it’s able to deal with more heat before its fans need to spin up too, but the added thickness can also mean more restriction.

Thankfully the fins inside the radiator spaced a little wider apart to reduce that restriction, but it can still potentially be a limiting factor, especially at lower fan speeds. The other issue with a thicker radiator is case compatibility, but most cases that can fit a standard liquid cooler can also house a Liquid Freezer III as we’re only talking another 8-10 mm.

If in doubt, your case’s manual or product page often has this information, though five minutes with a ruler will also suffice. Still, the thickness requires some fairly beefy fans and the P12 PWM PST A-RGB fans included top out at 2,000 rpm, though there are AIO liquid coolers with fans way north of this. So, I'm hoping Arctic has done its research, finding a balance between fan speed and optimising the airflow as well as the thicker radiator.

PC Gamer test rig
CPU: Intel Core i7 14700K | Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 Gaming X DDR4 | Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 3466 | SSD: 512GB Samsung 980 Pro | GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition | PSU: MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIe5 | Case: BarrowCH Rhopilema Test Bench

The other eyebrow-raising feature is the removable fan that sits on top of the pump section. This drives air down onto your motherboard and helps to cool components such as the VRMs and SSD heatsinks that otherwise can get very toasty due to an AIO liquid cooler’s lack of local airflow compared to an air cooler. There are two cables included in the box that you’ll need to choose from and attach to the pump to allow for different modes of control.

One combines the pump, radiator fans and VRM fan into a single 4-pin connector, ramping all up or down depending on CPU temperature. The other cable separates those outputs giving you individual control. If you’re worried about the pump or VRM fan making noise (after all, the latter does max out at 2,500 rpm), thankfully you can control them separately using your motherboard’s additional fan headers.

In fact, many motherboards allow you to swap from the CPU to the VRMs as the input for fan control on specific fan headers, so you could ramp the fan up only when the VRMs get toasty, which is a fabulous option. The down side is that the pump section is quite large and occasionally has issues with motherboard compatibility, especially with Mini-ITX models, so make sure you check Arctic’s list on the product page.

All these separate cables sounds like a nightmare, but Arctic has at least combined the three fans’ 4-pin and RGB cables into a single line and also run those through the coolant tube’s sleaving. Using a few cable ties—which you'll have to source yourself as Arctic doesn't include these—you could easily combine the separate cables into one strand for neatness. The RGB lighting itself covers the pump and fans from one cable. It’s vibrant and contrasts well with the white components, although it's maybe not as bright as more expensive coolers.

Arctic further impressed us with the inclusion of a contact frame for LGA1700 and LGA1851 CPUs to reduce the pressure on the CPU that can otherwise cause it to bend or affect the contact with the pump section. This sounds great in practice, but was a little fiddly to install. Adjusting the pump’s contact plate to sit directly over the hottest part of the CPU, which on modern AMD CPUs is not quite in the middle, also offsets the AMD mount slightly.

Installation was otherwise pretty straightforward, but attaching the correct PWM cable for your needs before mounting the pump to the motherboard definitely requires a bit of work, as doing so later is tricky. There seems to be plenty of length to the tubing too and, with the cables on the fans pre-tidied, the installation didn’t take long at all.

With everything at full speed, I recorded a reading of 49 dBA on my sound meter, but without any horrible whines or droning. The removable VRM fan proved its worth too, dropping the peak VRM temperature by 5°C with no discernible increase in noise either. The pump was a tad loud at full speed, but the VRM fan housing encloses it, hiding most of the noise within, plus the pump only reaches full speed when the fans run flat out with the single PWM cable.

Tuning the fan down to 40% speed saw it operate almost silently, and I only saw a 2°C rise in the peak load temperature with my Core i7 14700K. In my Metro Exodus game test, the CPU reached 69°C, but rose to 83°C and 84°C respectively in 3DMark’s Steel Nomad stress test, and x264 encoding test. Cinebench was a little cooler at 80°C, while it took the cooler just under three minutes to drop back to idle temperatures from load.

If you’re looking for an affordable AIO liquid cooler that’s both capable of handling the hottest CPUs out there, but also operates at very quiet levels under lower loads, then the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 A-RGB is well made, easy to install (for the most part), and even includes RGB lighting. The VRM cooling fan is an added benefit, and the option to control it, the pump and radiator fans separately for fine tuned airflow is a welcome addition that caters to both die-hard tinkerers as well as those that just want to build their PC and start racking up headshots.

Yes, you read that right: a cooling fan that has a cooling fan to cool the cooling fan. The main cooling fan, not the extra cooling fan. That apparently doesn't need a cooling fan but I do wonder at what point in the future we'll see cooling fans' cooling fans sporting an additional cooling fan. Okay, I'll stop now.

Arctic's new S8038 and S12038 series of server cooling fans (via Tom's Hardware) all sport an additional itsy-bitsy fan in the central hub. Its purpose is to lower the operating temperature of the bearings, helping to prolong their lifespan. Where a typical gaming PC's air wafters will spool up and down, only occasionally running at full RPM, those in a server will usually be called upon to blast as much air as possible at all times.

And oh boy, do these fans run fast: the 120 mm S12083 model comes in two flavours (4,000 and 8,000 RPM), while the smaller 80 mm S8038 is 7,000 or 10,000 RPM. If you've never experienced the deafening wall of noise blasted out by a typical server rack, then it's hard to appreciate just how loud a bank of 8,000 RPM fans is, let alone those with extra fans making more noise and vibrations.

Of course, such racks aren't meant to be used while sitting next to them, so the noise is a minor concern. Longevity is everything, though, so even if Arctic's solution only increases the bearing's lifespan by a few months or so, the potential savings from cutting back on server downtime easily outweigh the added cost of the extra fans.

Not that they're particularly expensive: Arctic is selling the S12038-8K for 19 (a fraction over $20). I'm very tempted to buy one just to mess about with but the inner child in me keeps looking at my main PC's case and giggling at the thought of it being loaded to the hilt with them. It's a Fractal Design North XL which can fit up to seven 120 mm fans so with a full complement of S12038s, I'd technically have 14 fans in my PC.

And since they're PWM fans, I could run them at their lowest rotation rate (800 RPM) and probably be fine, noise-wise. Well, fine-ish, because these really aren't designed to be as quiet as possible. The vibrations would be awful, too, because that's never much of a consideration in server cooling fans either.

Still, I'd probably be able to cool any CPU with such a setup. A Core i9 14900K at 300 W? Pah, not a problem. Not sure that the long-term hearing loss and raging wrath of my partner would quite justify it, though.

Noctua NF-P12 Redux bundle | 3x 120 mm fans | 450-1,700 RPM | PWM | 25.1 dB(A) noise (claimed) | $69.75 $61.95 at Amazon (save $7.80)
Noctua's fans are rarely on sale and arguably they're not in the case either, just that you're getting a discount with the bundle. But any saving on the best PC case fans money can buy is welcome. Go on, give your rig (and ears) a treat.View Deal

Yes, I know. Fans. Not hot-snottin' CPUs or graphics cards, just spinny things that blow air around your PC case. Hardly the first thing you think of when it comes to Black Friday deals but what if you already have all the hardware you need right now? You don't have to spend any money at all in the sales (and I strongly recommend you don't, if there's no pressing need) but if you want to spruce up your gaming rig and give your ears some much-deserved relief then a set of Noctua fans might be just the ticket.

My main work and gaming PC has a full set of Noctua NF-P14s redux fans ($16.95 apiece on Amazon), that I've installed over time to replace those that came with the case (Fractal Design North XL) and the CPU cooler (Arctic Liquid Freezer III, $90.08 for the 360 mm version on Amazon). They didn't alter the overall thermal levels of my rig that much but they made a huge difference to how much noise it makes.

? Check out all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here ?

And this is the key feature about all of Noctua's fans—you get the same airflow as pretty much any other fan, but the acoustics are so much better. Not just in terms of volume and pitch, but also with regards to bearing noise. My PC isn't silent (that's not going to happen with a Core i7 14700KF and an RTX 4080 Super) but it's far less intrusive than it was with the original fans.

Because they're so good, they're rarely on sale but you can save a penny or two by picking up an NF-P12s bundle on Amazon. We rate these as being the best affordable PC fans that you can buy right now.

I've selected the triple fan bundle but you can also get two for $46.95 or five for $75.95. The reason why I've gone for three is that's the most common configuration of pre-installed 120 mm fans that most PC cases have. Normally they're all RGB-festooned so do bear in mind that you'll lose all those lovely lights if you do go down the Noctua route.

Noctua ships its fan bundles with a really set pair of cables: One is a header splitter, and the other is a 30 cm (12 inches) extension cable. They're very high quality but that's par course for being part of the Noctua fraternity. Join the clan and see...well, hear...just what all the fuss is about.

? Check out all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here ?

Corsair iCue Link H170i | AIO liquid cooler | 3x 140 mm fans | 420 mm radiator | 0-2,000 RPM | $199.99 $99.99 at Amazon (save $100)
You'll need to have a full-size PC chassis to fit this Corsair AIO liquid cooler inside but with it, you'll be able to keep any CPU's temperature under control.View Deal

This deal isn't for everyone. It's not because it's too expensive (it really isn't) or that it's not much of a discount (50% saving). It's not like it's a poor product, either, as this is a seriously capable CPU cooler. The reason is very simple: Corsair's iCue Link H170i AIO liquid cooler is absolutely massive.

With three 140 mm fans and a 420 mm radiator, it's not going to fit in most PC cases unless it's a particularly roomy full-size chassis. Given that mid-towers are the most popular size, and they're usually designed to house nothing larger than a 360 mm radiator, this cooler is going to have a limited appeal.

? Check out all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here ?

That's a shame really because at this price, you're getting a monstrous amount of cooling for relatively little money. The fans do get a bit on the noisy side when set to their maximum 2,000 RPM but if you let Corsair's iCue software handle things, they'll be perfectly fine.

And speaking of the fans, not only are they replete with RGB goodness, they're Link models. This is Corsair's system for chaining hubs, fans, pumps, etc altogether, with only a single USB cable required to connect them to the motherboard. Our Katie had a go at building a full Link setup, although they chose to not bother with the instructions for...umm...reasons.

It's normally all very pricey but at $100, this AIO cooler is a genuine bargain. You might be wondering just why it's so cheap and suspect that it's down to the size. Because it's so huge, and therefore not suitable for most PC gamers, Amazon probably still has a fair number of them on its shelves.

Cue (or should that be iCue) the need to drop the price to shift them. Amazon's loss is your gain, if you ask me, because with the iCue Link H170i you'll be able to keep any CPU's thermals under control—even a Core i9 14900K's.

If your PC case has the space and you want masses of RGB and processor cooling, I recommend you snap one of these up pronto.

? Check out all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here ?

But according to Akash Systems, they might actually be the future of chip cooling, too (via Tom's Hardware). The company has recently signed a "non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms" for $18.2 million of CHIPS act funding (alongside $50 million in federal and state tax credits) to scale up production of diamond-cooled semiconductors, and that's pretty hip and happening if you ask me.

While the exact methodology for how this diamond cooling technology works remains under wraps, the company has released a soaring-soundtrack-filled promotional video to explain the tech, and the claims are pretty impressive.

Akash Systems claims that it's fused synthetic diamond with conductive materials like Gallium Nitride to make semiconductors. Diamond is said to be five times more thermally conductive than copper, making it perfect for dissipating heat from electronic devices.

Diamond doesn't conduct electricity, however, so this fusing technique is supposed to be a "best of both worlds" scenario, where devices using the material are both capable of functioning in a conventional way while being much more thermally efficient—allowing chips to draw more power while running cooler than conventional chip materials currently allow.

How much more efficient? Well, Akash Systems is claiming a 20°C hot spot temperature reduction, along with potentially 50% reduced fan speeds, 25% more overclocking, a doubled potential server lifetime, and less thermal throttling overall. I'll believe it when I see it, but on the face of it, yes please.

Akash Systems says that its diamond-cooling tech is also revolutionising satellite communications thanks to the materials heat-busting properties, leading to five to ten times faster data rates, increased reliability, and a 50% smaller form factor.

Still, whether the CHIPS act funding will ever be received remains a major question mark for now. While this first step is an important one, there will be many hurdles to pass before funding could potentially be agreed.

Not to mention, with a new US government incoming, CHIPS act funding looks to be in a precarious position. President Elect Donald Trump has previously been critical of the act as a whole, so companies are now racing to get contracts approved before his administration takes over on January 20, 2025.

All that being said, this diamond-cooling tech seems promising. Anything that allows for more efficient chips strikes as a good thing to me, although whether that means my PC gets shinier on the inside remains unclear.

At some point in the near future, I'd like to wear it around my neck like Flavor Flav. Just spit balling ideas here, don't all jump on me at once.

Your average thermal paste is a colloid—a liquid with solid particles in suspension—with tiny grains of aluminium oxide and/or zinc oxide being mixed into silicone. It's perfectly decent stuff and unless you're really into overclocking, you don't need anything else. However, in recent years, so-called liquid metal has become the favoured option for high-end cooling.

As the name suggests, the material is a metal alloy, typically a eutectic mixture of gallium, indium, and tin (GaInSn, often sold under the brand name Galinstan). Some liquid metal compounds are even colloids, with microscopic copper grains added for that extra oomph, in terms of ultra-low thermal resistance.

However, a team of material scientists and engineers at the University of Texas has developed a new compound to beat them all (via Tom's Hardware). This liquid metal colloid is a mixture of the same GaInSn alloy (though other gallium alloys work too) and aluminium nitride particles.

But rather than just throwing them all in a tub and stirring furiously, the team used a more rigorous process. The supplementary data sheet for the research paper makes the process sound pretty darn cool.

"The colloidal [liquid metals, LMs] in this study were synthesized via a mechanochemical approach, in which substantial force propelled the LM to infiltrate the crystal lattice of the ceramic particle, establishing efficient LM-solid interactions by coordinating the unoccupied orbit of metal atoms in the LM with the lone pair electrons of nitrogen atoms in the AlN [aluminium nitride]."

The upshot of this "substantial force" is that the new thermal compound has a much lower thermal resistance than some of the best liquid metals commercially available, up to 72% than those tested by the team. As to why the team is interested in developing such a material, the focus isn't any kind of gaming PC but massive data centres.

"The power consumption of cooling infrastructure for energy-intensive data centres and other large electronic systems is skyrocketing," said Guihua Yu, a professor in the university's mechanical engineering department and the Texas Materials Institute.

"That trend isn’t dissipating anytime soon, so it’s critical to develop new ways, like the material we’ve created, for efficient and sustainable cooling of devices operating at kilowatt levels and even higher power."

The rate at which something is cooled is primarily affected by two things: the temperature difference between the hot thing and the coolant, and the path of resistance to the heat flow between them. If the latter is quite high, the coolant's temperature needs to be lowered to ensure that the heat flow is high enough. Drop the thermal resistance and you don't need to have coolant as cold.

For data centres, that means you can reduce how much energy is used to pump coolant around and the team estimates that its new thermal compound can knock up to 5% off the energy required. That doesn't sound like very much but if one scales it across the entire industry, those savings would really add up.

Right now, the material isn't manufactured on any commercial scale but the research team estimate that the material cost for its Galinstan/AIN colloid could be as low as 50 cents per gram. I don't how expensive the process is but it seems to me that this could be one research project that could actually be used in the real world soon.

The Coolify Holo Fan is kitted out with 11 transparent blades for a clearer holographic image, and rubber pads around the screws to minimise noise. Regrettably, we missed seeing it in person at the show, but according to Quasar Zone, it's not quite as swish as some of those impressive promo images would have you believe.

For a start, the holographic display is nowhere near as crisp as the product page's mockups. Your source images, no matter how high resolution, are always going to look a little chunky on the holo fan as it's only 390 × 49 DPI. To be fair, for a fan that's only 120 x 120 x 25 mm in dimension, there's not that much space to work with.

Then there's the whole process of actually getting your faves to display on the holo fan, which requires uploading them over Wi-Fi via the Coolify app. It's a fairly straightforward process for still images, but uploading GIFs doesn't appear to be fully supported yet. Drat—no dancing Miku Hatsune display for me then.

And lastly, Quasar Zone's own benchmarking tests suggest the Coolify Holo Fan is a little style over substance when it comes to actually keeping your rig cool. For me though, style is part of the substance I search for when it comes to buying new hardware, and I've definitely got my eye on Coolify now.

Well, you could get something like the Noctua NV-FS1 for your personal cooling needs, or any other decent desk fan—but what about if you need cooling on the move? Sony appears to quite literally have your back here, as the Sony Reon Pocket 5 is a wearable that doesn't just cool you down but gives you a decent dose of heat in winter, too.

Sony advertises this bizarre device as "our most powerful cooling system yet", as there have been previous iterations of this temperature-changing gadget, but supposedly this model is 80% quieter with 1.8 times the cooling efficiency.

The idea here is to put the neckband on either side of your, err, neck, and leave the thermos module plate sitting in contact with the skin mid-way between your upper shoulder blades. The Peltier element inside cools down one side and warms up the other when electricity is passed through it, with a built-in fan to expel hot air through the vent at the top when used in cooling mode.

The device has five levels of cooling and four of warmth and can detect ambient temperature and adjust itself accordingly. It can also be synced with the Reon Pocket Tag to detect sunlight and anticipate your internal temperature needs.

Or you can connect it to an app on your phone and adjust it manually, thanks to a built-in Bluetooth connection. There's also a choice of two vents, one mounted close to your neckline for casual wear, and one that sits higher to get above the collar of a formal shirt. Sony says that the neck strap is suitable for a wide range of neck sizes, from 34 to 46 cm.

I know, I know, it looks faintly ridiculous. But having just spent my summer trawling around exhibition halls in the heat, I did notice that many people were cleverer than I. In general, if I'm honest, but the really clever ones brought personal fans.

You'd still have to hold a fan in front of you and look a bit of a plum, though, whereas this looks like it might escape detection—while stopping the back of your shirt from looking like Niagara Falls on a particularly heavy day.

To that end, Sony says that the Reon Pocket 5 is splash and sweat-resistant. It's available on the Sony UK store for ?139, although I had trouble finding it available for sale in other countries. There's perhaps an irony that it appears to be easiest to buy in the UK—given the miserably sun-free summer we've just endured—although that warming function means it may well come in handy for, well, living in UK-like temperatures in general.

But beyond looking odd (it can't just be me crossing my eyes looking at a desktop mobo with no RAM sticking up from the board, can it?), there are several potential advantages to the new form factor, at least according to MSI. It live-streamed a deep dive into CAMM2, espousing the benefits of the new standard and why it might show up in your next build (via Wccftech).

Unlike traditional RAM sticks, CAMM2 modules are directly connected to the corresponding CAMM2 interface, rather than via SI (System Interface) "stubs" which limit the bus speed. This more direct connection allows both the inner and outer IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) channels to connect to a single CAMM2 module, which means you can have dual-channel operation on a single module—unlike SO-DIMMs, for example, where you'd need two separate sticks.

CAMM2 motherboards also require few (and shorter) signal traces, cutting down on costs and potentially leading to higher clocks and lower latency.

The modules have a smaller PCB overall compared to traditional RAM sticks of similar capacity, with only a single PMIC (Power Management Integrated Circuit). Not only does this lead to further reduced costs compared to a traditional DIMM, but lower power consumption and less heat.

Speaking of heat, CAMM2 is also said to improve cooling. Essentially, RAM sticking up proud from the motherboard can block airflow to the underneath of a CPU cooler, whereas mounting it flush allows air to pass over the top. Traditional RAM sticks can also get in the way of fan placement and water-cooling system tubing, whereas clever old CAMM2 tucks itself neatly to the board, leading to more cooling options.

That being said, Bitspower has already shown off a water block designed to sit on top of a CAMM2 module, which takes up a fair bit of the space that would be otherwise saved and looks like it might reduce some of those benefits for the rest of the system.

That's not to say all cooling solutions would need to be that large, however. MSI's CAMM2 heatsink features a thermal pad on the front-facing part of the module, with a corresponding thermal pad on the PCB that directs heat to a metal mounting bracket on the rear side of the mobo. Dual-channel CAMM2 DDR5 module designs feature DRAM ICs on the rear, necessitating the rear pad and bracket solution to stay chilled.

And finally, there's repairability to consider. CAMM2 connectors are said to be cross-compatible across all motherboards and aren't soldered to the board. This means that, unlike a traditional DIMM slot, if one becomes damaged then it should be a lot easier to replace.?

There's also only one way it fits into place, which should help prevent the cack-handed among us (and I'm including myself here) from forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Overall then, CAMM2 modules may well be an improvement over the current form factor, and they look pretty neat, to boot. With rear-connector motherboards cropping up left right and centre, and manufacturers like Asus experimenting with innovative cable-hiding methods, it looks like we'll be seeing some very flush-looking desktop PC internals in the next few years—although whether CAMM2 ends up becoming the new RAM standard overall, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

Sodabaka began by testing an older Sandy Bridge era i5 2500K Mini-ITX system with an atypical tower heatsink. They placed it into a centrifuge that caused the entire PC to spin. I could not tell how fast exactly, but it looked to be around three revolutions per second.

A PC needs wires connected to provide power and a display output, but Sodabaka got around this by cleverly rigging up some wires so they don't get all twisted up after half a revolution.

This PC ended up being a bit too hot for comfort, reaching temperatures in the 100 degrees Celsius range, leading to throttling. So, it's not exactly a viable PC cooling solution. Not that I expected anything different! Not to be deterred, Sodabaka went on to equip a much larger Noctua NH-P1 passive cooler with and without a small fan attached to the top of the cooler. It performed better, but it still hit 100 degrees.

Sodabaka then gets really creative, by 3D-printing some large fan blades that were attached to the motherboard tray. The system with the Noctua cooler was installed and the RPM was cranked up. However, the presence of a full face mask and protective riot shield gave us all the information we needed that isn't a cooling option that can be seriously considered.

In the end, centrifugal force wins out. The NH-P1 weighs over a kilogram and it eventually got flung off, effectively destroying the PC.

It's all in good fun, ?and really shouldn't be taken as any kind of effective cooling advice. Sodabaka goes above and beyond in their video to prove that the humble fan is not going anywhere. And, they don't even need the user to hide behind riot shields to operate.

A step out of the comfort zone for Noctua, the cooling company hasn't let standards slip with its latest addition. I've been using the desk fan (NV-FS1) to fend off the British summertime heat (16°C, rain) over the past couple of weeks, and I've come away wholly impressed with how it operates.?

The NV-FS1 kit is a preassembled desk fan made up of a few key components, each of which is available to buy separately.

• Pivoting fan mount (NV-FM1)
• Airflow amplifier (NV-AA1)
• Controller (NA-FC1)
• Fan grill (NA-FG1-12/14)
• Power supply (NV-PS1)
• And the fan (NF-A12x25 chromax.black)

Yep, that's Noctua's finest fan at the centre of the FS1. The Noctua NF-A12x25 is our pick for the best PC fan and it makes a surprisingly excellent stand-in for a desk fan, too. It shouldn't be any surprise that this fan works as well outside of a case as it does inside one. A good fan pushes the most air for the least amount of noise. The NF-A12x25 does that exceptionally well.

Using the included controller, which contains only a single small dial and a button, I'm able to set the NV-FS1 to a speed that offers a noticeable cooling effect for near-imperceptible noise. That's a lot more than I can say for my regular, rather crappy, USB desk fan, which I picked up from a Korean market many years ago. It's somewhere on the other side of the noise/airflow chart—high noise for not much airflow.

Noctua cites many fancy concepts for how its airflow amplifier works to keep air flowing in a "strong, focused beam of air" at my face. All I know is that it does do a bloody good job of it. So much so, this fan can be cranked all the way up and not cause any issues with my gaming headset's microphone, which has no foam covering to protect it from gusts of air.

If you choose to buy all the parts for the fan separately, you could choose to opt for a 120 or 140 mm fan as the base. The upside of a 140 mm fan is higher airflow for lower RPM, therefore decreasing noise, or increased airflow, should you choose to ramp the RPM all the way up. The downside of a larger fan is there's no airflow amplifier available for the 140 mm size. That means you might lose some direction and end up with a more scattershot blast of air across your desk.

At least there's a larger fan grill available for a 140 mm fan.

Personally, I'd stick to 120 mm. If only because the fan takes up enough space as it is. It's easily adjustable, at least, with vibration dampening hinges on either side of the stand. It also looks fantastic. The chromax.black A12x25 within an all-black frame serves an industrial look that suits my PC setup and Secretlab Magnus Pro desktop well. You could technically stick a brown and beige fan in here if you were building it yourself—I wouldn't, though.

Since the NV-FS1 comes with magnetic mounts on the bottom, it is kept securely in place on the Magnus Pro's metal desktop—no matter how much my cats try to knock it over. Other mounting options include zip ties and wall plugs, should you wish to affix it more permanently.

So an efficient, quiet and DIY-friendly fan—Noctua has made a good impression with its first product catering to sweaty summer gamers.?

Though there are a few downsides to the NV-FS1, however.?

The cabling isn't great—using an off-the-shelf PC fan means you're relying on a 4-pin PWM connection, which is fine, though there's no way to secure it firmly to the controller. Similarly, the cable out of the rear of the controller and connecting to the power supply is another 4-pin connector. There's plenty of length to the cable runs but if I adjust the fan's position on my desk by very much, the 4-pin connector comes loose. They're just not really connectors intended for outside a PC.?

I'm not suggesting some special fan with a different connector in place of the excellent A12x25—it being a regular PC fan with a 4-pin connector is part of the appeal—but some sort of latch on the controller would be handy to keep both cables firmly in place. Maybe someone could 3D print something to achieve the same result.

Then there's the price.?

The NV-FS1 costs $100/?86. That's as much as some CPU coolers or a trio of new chassis fans, and when it comes to personal cooling or PC cooling this summer, which will you choose to invest more in?

Though if you are looking for that finishing touch to your PC gaming setup and you've already nailed your thermals elsewhere, the Noctua desk fan is one of PC gaming's little luxuries. It's not a gimmick or a half-arsed attempt at a product—it's a genuinely excellent Noctua cooling solution and a really quite nerdy way to keep cool over the summer.

"Asetek A/S has received updated purchase forecasts from a number of the company’s largest OEM customers," the company said on June 11 (via Overclock3D). "Based on these new forecasts, the expected increase in demand in the second half of 2024 of the company’s liquid cooling products may not materialize."

The company has suspended its guidance for 2024, effectively throwing its hands in the air and saying it isn't sure what the future may hold.

The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Copenhagen. When the news reached the exchange, the company's share price fell 40% in a single day—from 5.02 DKK to 3.00 DKK. It's declined slightly further since. Today it's sitting at 2.62 DKK.

You might not know Asetek as a brand but you've likely used one of its products. The company invented the all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler, and it's been responsible for making many popular models around today, including those from Thermaltake, Lian Li, NZXT, Phanteks, Asus ROG and more. It also works with system builders, including Alienware, iBuyPower, Falcon, and Overclockers UK.

It's these component makers and system builders that generate the demand for Asetek products, and they're just not biting right now. The PC market is in a bit of a slump, which most firms are hoping AI will drag them out of. However, most 'AI ready' devices today, such as Copilot+ PCs, are laptops today.

Asetek's liquid coolers are primarily aimed at desktops, though liquid cooling is also used in datacentres.

"The management team and board of directors of Asetek will consider the long- and short-term consequences of the weakened and uncertain market situation. The assessment today is that the negative trend in revenue may continue into 2025."

Though whether this is a general malaise for liquid coolers in the wider market or one more localised to Asetek is not entirely clear.

We spoke to one hardware manufacturer at Computex and were told it has invested in a new cooler without Asetek due to Asetek's prices. Though with customers of all sizes, prices likely vary a lot. Ultimately Asetek's cooling business is tied to PC demand, and that's been in the doldrums for a while.

A new generation could spark fresh interest in PCs, however, and we are expecting both AMD Ryzen 9000-series CPUs in the very near future and Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs later in the year. Also, Nvidia and AMD are surely, surely, working on new graphics cards to bless our gaming PCs with at some point in the near future. That's why this slump towards the tail-end of 2024 is a bit surprising—there's actually heaps of new hardware coming out to bolster demand.?

Or maybe everyone is just really excited for Noctua's pump-less AIO concept? Nah, that's miles off being a finished product yet.

Asetek also designs sim racing gear, its SimSports division, which it says is doing just fine and on track. So it's not all bad news.

At Computex 2024 I got the chance to get hands-on with the latest version, the Frore AirJet Mini Slim. I also had the opportunity to chat to Frore Systems CEO, Dr. Seshu Madhavapeddy, about scalability, use-cases, and exactly what sort of performance the new models can deliver.

Surrounded by various devices jury-rigged with AirJet Minis, one of my first questions was about noise. A pet theory, perhaps, but an early assumption I'd made about the lack of adoption was how much noise a jet of air would make, and whether a high pitched whine or similar issue might be holding it back. I asked Dr Madhavapeddy if I could hear one, up close, moving air at full-tilt.

"Of course", he replies. "You're surrounded by them right now."

While the various Macbook Airs, iPhones and similarly thin devices around me were wearing transparent cases to show the AirJets inside, I'd assumed they were idling, given the lack of fan noise in the room. I picked a laptop up and held it to my ear, and sure enough, it was pushing a decent amount of hot air while running a benchmark—and the noise was only audible a few inches away. Even then? Surprisingly quiet.

Granted, this was in a conference room at the Nangang Exhibition centre, so background noise was absolutely a factor. However, with no distinct whine or noisy whooshing of air from even a close distance, the AirJets I saw were running much more quietly than I'd expect at max capacity.

Beyond that, the benchmarking graphs show significantly better performance results for chips fitted with AirJets compared to models featuring traditional cooling systems, or passive solutions. So if the performance is impressive and my personal noise theory quashed, why haven't we seen the AirJet feature in more devices?

"Doing something as disruptive as we are doing—basically we are creating the entire supply chain, and the manufacturing line for this—this is a very complex product that we've built using entirely new materials, and manufacturing processes," explains Dr. Madhavapeddy.

"So, you know, I would urge you to be a little patient."

Fair enough. However, the products I was shown looked—and felt—like production units, not prototypes, and the room was full of them. How many are Frore ready to produce, I asked?

"Millions," Madhavapeddy replies, with a grin.?

Holding the AirJet Mini Slim in my hands and looking through media detailing its internal mechanism, it isn't difficult to see why such a small unit with such a radical approach to moving air would take time to scale for mass production.

The internal piezoelectric membrane vibrates at 24 kHz, and pulls air in from the top of the device, disrupting the "boundary layer" of hot air above the chip being cooled underneath it, before firing it out of a thin vent at one end. This mechanism is said to be key to the AirJets efficiency in such a small device, compared to a similarly-sized conventional fan.

That fast moving membrane, however, strikes as an easy point of failure. I asked if Frore had conducted any long-term durability testing, and the expected lifespan of a single unit:

"We've gone through numerous reliability tests," says Madhavapeddy. "We have been able to confirm that it would last for about 10,000 hours of continuous operation. That should be about five years in a typical use case scenario."

While fans die all the time, I'd say it'd be reasonable to expect a conventional fan to last for over five years of operation. A Noctua fan is rated at over 150,000 hours, for example. Still, with the AirJet acting as a single, self-contained unit—and providing a device using one could be opened easily—replacing one when it fails doesn't seem like it'd be too taxing of a task, and potentially easier than a conventional fan/heatsink combo in a regular laptop.

Looking around the room, most of the demonstration devices had one thing in common: very thin, very light, and difficult to design around conventional fans. Given the claimed efficiency of the device, I wondered out loud about eventually seeing several strapped to a desktop CPU. At this suggestion, Dr Madhavapeddy seems to slightly recoil:

"For desktops, I think right now, with this generation, we could help with spot cooling. For Gen 5 SSDs, if your main fan-based cooling system is taking care of the CPU cooling, you can put one of these on top of a Gen 5 NVMe controller, and get relief."

So, it seems that as things currently stand, even several AirJets don't seem capable of handling something like a high-powered modern desktop CPU any better than a good old-fashioned heatsink and fan. Still, the suggestion of a thin, efficient Gen 5 SSD cooler compared to some of the sizeable models I saw at this years show seems like a tangible use case for the tech as it exists today.

To this point, I was shown an external SSD with two AirJet Minis integrated into the chassis. A passively cooled version dropped to a 1,061.77 MB/s write speed over sustained usage, whereas the AirJet-cooled sample was shown to maintain a consistent 3,153.98 MB/s rate.

Roughly three times the performance is not to be sniffed at, although the form factor could do with some work. The prototype I was shown had the output vents situated on the side, meaning it was blowing uncomfortably hot air right where you'd put your hand to pick it up. A production model was suggested with the vents on the end of the device, although I think it'd take some getting used to an external drive venting large amounts of hot air, no matter how quietly or efficiently.

So then, the million dollar question: Given the inevitable R&D and manufacturing setup costs, how much does an AirJet Mini eventually cost per unit?

"It's reasonable," says Dr Madhavapeddy. But reasonable in comparison to the costs of manufacturing a good fan?

"No. No it's not. But reasonable compared to the overall cost of the product that you purchase as a consumer. We fit into the structure of the costs that typically can be borne by anybody who's making a device of this nature.

"But if we compare head to head with a fan, we will be more expensive. [The price] would come down with scale. It will also come down because our second generation, third generation are going to be more high performance.

"We wouldn't expect the cost to go up at the same rate as the performance is going up," Madhavapeddy continues. "So the performance, the cost per watt, will come down with subsequent generations. And also, in any given generation, the cost comes down with volume."

Speaking of future developments, the company has a credo that, on the surface, seems somewhat outlandish. It's called "Frore's Law", a play on Moore's law, which in this case is the goal to double the thermal performance of the unit every two years.

"We're not bound by the limitations of mechanical devices for how we can make it more and more powerful," says Madhavapeddy. "We could increase the performance by increasing the frequency of vibration, we can also increase the performance by increasing the amplitude (of the vibrations).

"So we have several levers that we can continue to improve on to significantly improve the thermal dissipation capability of the chip"

That's an ambitious goal, and one that seems more than a little unfeasible. That being said, the units I was shown seem much more ready for prime-time than I was expecting. If they really can be scaled up in performance at that kind of a rate, it does seem like more adoption would follow.

While the AirJet Mini Slim might not be the solution for all cooling needs as it currently stands, what it does seem to do well is move significant amounts of air in form factors that are unsuitable for a traditional cooler.

You won't be seeing one in a desktop PC anytime soon, at least on something substantial like a GPU or CPU. But in ultra-slim laptops, tablets, phones and the like, or atop an SSD? The AirJet, at least in Mini Slim form, does seem like a product that's ready to go. Whether mass-adoption follows, however, we'll just have to be a little more patient to find out.

The Q60 is a big beast. It's an all-in-one liquid cooler with a radiator double as thick as some, coming in at 52 mm. That's reportedly to utilise space not often utilised to its fullest in modern PC cases, according to Hyte—it's opting for a thicker radiator in the place of a longer one.?

The Q60 is billed as a 240 mm radiator, on account of the two 120 mm Thicc FP12 fans included, but it's actually 288 mm from top to bottom. The remaining space is taken up by the pump, which takes residence on the radiator rather than in the more traditional spot behind the cold plate. The benefit of this being, for the Q60 at least, more room for the enormous screen above the CPU.

The 5-inch screen on the Q60 is best described as a tiny computer. It includes a quad-core Arm Cortex CPU, with 2 GB of DDR4 running at 2,666 MT/s, and running at 1.3 GHz. It also has 32 GB of eMMC storage. All to run the many widgets, which Hyte has named 'faces', available via the Nexus application, which is pretty much a must-install with this cooler.

"You can watch the entirety of Shrek on the Q60 if you want to," a Hyte representative tells me.

I've opted for a parade of system monitoring 'faces': liquid in temp, liquid out temp, CPU temp, and GPU temp. Oh, and the clock, which I cannot seem to remove. There are a lot of options to choose from and a few more 'coming soon'—clock speeds, fan speeds, and throughput are all reportedly on their way to the app. You can also set the screen to display your current media playing via Spotify.?And play your own media. And you're free to change the background. It can do a lot of stuff, actually.

The screen is only capable of showing four custom faces, however, which feels pretty limited. I'd like a bunch more. Though I'm told you could also break out some Android commands and run anything you like on this thing, even ditching the entire Hyte Nexus application altogether.

"If you're a software developer and have the know-how and tools and abilities, we kept the door open."

I'm not usually a fan of sticking a screen on peripherals and parts for no discernable reason except 'we could'. But I'm sorta into the Q60's central screen. It's impressive and not at all as domineering as I had originally expected. The subtle two-tone design of the rest of the cooler helps—if the fans were also adorned with RGB lighting, it'd probably feel a bit too much. As it stands, the screen is pretty wicked.

Yet as I mentioned at the beginning, the Q60 isn't only about appearances. It is a capable liquid cooler in its own right.

In balanced mode, with the PC idling, the Q60 is nominally audible. During gaming it's only a little noisier—I've been running the Metro Exodus benchmark many times over and the only noise coming from the Q60 throughout is a steady, polite hum. It doesn't noticeably fluctuate between speeds, either, which makes the noise it does produce much less distracting.?

Only during more CPU intensive workloads did I begin to take note of the sound coming from the fans and pump unit. Moreover, for adequate cooling performance, I found I needed to crank up the cooler to performance mode. This increases the fan RPM considerably, even when idling, which makes for a notably louder buzz.?

Though, in return, this cooler delivered the lowest temperatures while gaming out of those I tested, which included a 360 mm AIO.

The Q60 isn't quite as capable as others when it's really pushed to the limit, however. The Q60 didn't fair as well in Cinebench R23. There was no thermal throttling, but the Q60 was the only cooler to hit 90°C.

It couldn't quite cope with the bouncy demand of the X264 benchmark, either, which seemed to get the better of the Q60 more than any other. That might be because the Q60 also appeared the slowest cooler to reset back to idle temperature. At a certain threshold, around 35°C, the fans switch off completely, which means the CPU tends to stay hotter than with other coolers that don't do this.

It's possible to reduce idle temperatures into the twenties by setting the Q60 to be controlled by a firmware-set curve. There are a few control options to choose from in the Nexus application: Nexus, firmware, or motherboard. Firmware is made up of two simple curves: one for fans, the other for the pump. With this set I saw the idle temperature drop to 27°C, as the fans were never fully off.

The fans will go up to a whopping 3,000 RPM, and they do not get anywhere close with Hyte's preset fan curves. That said, I've tried running at full RPM and it's not worth the extra noise generated—I recorded only marginal reduction in CPU package temperature through Cinebench R23.

A bit of a mixed bag then. If you want pure cooling performance for the money, look elsewhere. Though if you want to strike a balance between performance and noise levels, and mostly plan on gaming, the Q60 is a stronger pick.

There are other reasons to consider the Q60.?

It's extremely neat and tidy, for one. It requires only a handful of cables, collected into a single dual-USB Type-C connector, and plugged seamlessly into the radiator. It's then easy to keep this single cable run out sight, and, unlike most liquid coolers, there's no need to run any cables around the VRM or RAM. The screen is controlled via cables embedded into the mesh-covered tubing, which is thicker than most liquid coolers on the market as a result.

The fans can also be bought separately and daisy-chained together with a dedicated cable-free connector or specially fitted cables. Same goes for the RGB lighting kit, which hooks together via USB-C. The Q60 offers one spare port for both connections, which are called Nexus Link ports, and means it can act as a hub for a heap of other stuff.

It also comes with a six-year warranty, which matches the likes of Corsair and Arctic.

I do end up coming back to the Q60 on looks alone. Though they have to mean a lot to you—not only can be matched by simpler devices but often significantly cheaper ones, too. The Q60 is priced at the tremendous sum of $300/?330. With a massive screen attached to the centre of it, I can see why. Though for that much money, and for being so thicc, I'm a bit disappointed it couldn't match a more traditional 240 mm cooler in demanding tests.

Though I'll be damned if it doesn't look good.

From chonky radiators to innovative (and not so innovative) heatsink designs, to entire rigs dunked in cooling fluid, we saw plenty of cooling systems and cases designed to keep Gen 5 SSDs, high-end CPUs and powerful graphics cards from throttling back under the thermal strain.

And as for aesthetics? Well, you've got your pick, it seems. Transparent water blocks, RGB, err, everything, and case designs ranging from the subtle and discreet to something that looks more suited to a scientist's lab than your desktop were all on display.

Below, I've rounded up some of the more interesting and unusual approaches to cooling we spotted at this year's show.

SSD heatsinks: Towers of power

Plenty of Gen 5 SSD heatsinks were on display, in various form factors, shapes and sizes. Team Group had a selection of prototype designs at its booth, I suspect in a conciliatory effort to say "we know, we know, but we're working on it".

One of which is particularly fun to play with, at the very least. The Dark AirFlow 06 SSD cooler is made up of modular heatsink units that can be magnetically clipped together, complete with a magnetic (optional) mini fan.?

While I didn't get a chance to hear it running, I'd imagine that like most small, high-speed fan units, it creates quite the noise.

Still, as a desk toy? Top marks. As a practical cooling solution? The jury's out.

Tower SSD heatsinks were everywhere, something that still strikes me as a somewhat inelegant solution to a significant cooling and packaging challenge. However, one of the more intriguing, smaller solutions was at MSI's booth. A "non-metal vapour chamber" concept looked, from a distance at least, like it was more of an aesthetic choice than a new design.

However, the cooler makes use of a "two-phase flow transition" of gas and liquid inside the transparent casing to beat the SSD heat. Whether this increases the efficiency of a smaller SSD cooler in comparison to a regular heatsink remains to be seen. That being said, it does look like a potentially promising solution in a small form factor, with a production version suggested for later this year.

Water cooling: Transparency and chonky rads

Speaking of see-through, while transparent water blocks and water cooling systems are nothing new, it did seem like many exhibitors were keen to show off just how much variation there can be in the designs.?

There's a level of child-like joy in seeing exactly how cooling fluid is moving inside a block, although I could have done with less white-coloured fluid reminding me of Ash's milky android blood spraying up the walls, à la Alien.

Still, from steampunk-inspired reservoir tanks to oversized, Bioshock-reminiscent CPU cooling blocks, transparency was everywhere.?

While there's a lot to be said for a cooling system that blends into the background, it was difficult not to be entranced by the greens, blues and pinks, flowing around various systems like an essential life force in a biological machine.

Entranced, or occasionally queasy. Again, white cooling fluid. Just say no.

While we're on the subject of water cooling, how about this for the most extreme example of radiator implementation I could find—the Corsair 9000D has room for not one, not two, not...ok, potentially four 480mm radiators.

It also looks like it makes ice cream. Or maybe that's just me.

Still, I wonder if it has room for four of these. Hyte's new AIO CPU cooler claims to be the coolest and quietest ever, but it's also thick. How thick? Well, put it this way—it's spelt with two "c's".

Watercooling ey? It seems there's no end to the possibilities, but leave it to Noctua to throw the cat among the pigeons. While the company doesn't currently make a liquid cooler, transparent or otherwise, it's working on a prototype unit that doesn't need a pump at all.

And as for the RGB, the transparency, the flashy effects? Well, it's Noctua. So, the final version will be mostly brown then. Probably.

Fans, fans, and more fans

AI PCs were, I'm sure you are aware, a big deal at Computex this year, especially for enterprise use. Many beastly rigs were on display, stacked to the rafters with multiple GPUs, inconceivable amounts of RAM, and chunky processors.

All that hardware in one case means a huge amount of heat. Which, in turn, means fans. Many, many fans.

That being said, for your average gaming PC user there were some interesting designs on display for cooling your home rig, too. Thermaltake's modular magnetic fan linking solution, the CT EX ARBG series, allows you to clip up to seven fans together with one cable. Complete with iridescent RGB, of course.

Also at Thermaltake were the Toughfan EX12 and EX14 Pro, two heavily-reinforced fans with magnetic connectors. While these are primarily designed for server and enterprise use, the heavily overbuilt design principles seem like a good fit for anyone looking for an air-mover that's designed to stay running year after year.

Having held the fan blades myself, I can say that they feel capable of cutting vegetables, too.?

As someone that's been known to poke my hand inside a running rig and catch it on a spinning fan, I live slightly in fear of these reinforced models, but tough they certainly seem. Just watch those fingers.

Here's something I didn't know I needed: A CPU heatsink fan clip that doesn't require those horrible, snappy metal springs to attach itself to the tower. I have sacrificed many a fingernail over the years to cooler clips, and the MAGAir 600 Ultra's easy clip-on design seems like a blissfully simple solution.?

It's also got a removable LCD screen for showing temperature info, or pictures of your dog. Y'know, whatever you need a screen on your cooler for.

Nope, I can't quite think of another reason either. Moving on...

While we're on the subject of fans though, this Team Group RAM cooler is just....I still can't quite get my head around it. I'm all for high performance, but if my RAM is running hot enough that it needs a clip-on pivotable fan attachment, I may just call it a day and go for slow.

Water cooled GPUs

While most think of water cooling a GPU as a custom, jury-rigged sort of affair, I did come away quite impressed with the integrated solution in the MSI RTX 4080 Super 16G Expert Fusion. With a shroud that seemed mercifully discrete compared to some of the over-designed examples we've seen from some AIBs over recent years, the 16G Expert Fusion actually looks even better with its clothes off:

That being said, it wasn't all roses. The RTX 4090 24G Suprim Fuzion might try to capture the same effect, but there's no getting around the fact that the RTX 4090 is a card that seems to point-blank refuse to be shrunk down to a reasonable size.

Yep, that's a little MSI anti-sag arm keeping all that bulk aloft. It's an impressive-looking thing, but one of the biggest card coolers I've ever seen.?

Although, the hybrid air-cooled/liquid-cooled Palit GeForce RTX 4090 Neptunus certainly provides some tough competition. When one cooling solution is deemed not enough, I suppose the next step is, why not both?

Frore's AirJet Mini Slim

Remember the Frore AirJet? A fanless solution to small form factor cooling that promised some excellent performance in a tiny frame, but seemed to suffer from a lack of adoption.

Well, Frore has since announced the AirJet Mini Slim, a thinner design with intelligent self-cleaning and the capability to optimise its performance based on the surrounding temperature.

I managed to get my hands on several of them at Computex, and had a good long chat with Frore's CEO about exactly why the AirJet has taken its time to show up in consumer products. I'll be publishing a piece covering all the highlights of our discussion in the next week or so, but what I can say is that while the AirJet Mini Slim might not be the future of all hardware cooling, the specific demonstrations I was shown were quite impressive.

Given all the huge cooling solutions on display, seeing something so tiny move a decent amount of air was a welcome change in pace.

Immersion case

Y'know what they say: if in doubt, dunk the whole PC in fluid and call it a day. Ok, maybe they don't say that, but this Intel, ASRock and Thermaltake collaboration was a real crowd-pleaser this year.

Water cooling, taken to its extreme. While the temperature reduction is likely to be impressive, let's be honest, in practical terms this is all about the visual effect. Still, bubbling GPUs and inert CPU fans suspended in fluid seem at first glance to defy some basic laws of physics—although I don't think any of us will be immersing our home PCs anytime soon, no matter how stunning the result.

Size matters

While the Frore AirJet Mini above might be trying to keep things small, for everyone else, bigger seemed to be better. Huge radiators, massive water blocks, and fans that looked like they'd be better suited to hovercraft rather than PC internals were everywhere.

Palit though, may have taken the cake. For those of you complaining about the size of graphics cards like the RTX 4080 Super and the RTX 4090, well, try this one on for size:

Yep, those fans were spinning. Of course, this is a display piece rather than a comment on the size of GPUs to come (I hope), but I can think of few things that sum up Computex 2024's cooling displays better than this. Big, bold, and occasionally, downright bizarre.

Now, if only someone had hooked up some fans to me, as I wandered the displays. Wearing jeans and a formal shirt to stalk the floors of the Nangang Exhibition Hall, was, in retrospect, a big mistake.?

Next year, I think I'm going to turn up with some personal cooling hardware of my very own. Water cooled hardware writers. Now that's an innovation I can get behind.

When it comes to cooling your gaming PC's CPU, there's no shortage of options out there. From massive 420 mm liquid AIO setups to low-profile, whisper-quiet blocks, there's something for every budget and heat demand. Sometimes, though, all you want is a cooler that's suitable for lots of processors but isn't too large or too flashy. If that's you, then the Aerocool Apnx AP1-V might just be what you need.

At first glance, it does look a bit like Aerocool's engineers took an Nvidia Founders Edition graphics card and ran it through a bandsaw, slicing it all down to size. But there's also a little bit of the DeepCool Assassin IV to it, with that aluminium shell surrounding the cooling fins.

However the looks were decided upon, I have to say that I rather like the clean, almost clinical appearance of Aerocool's AP1-V, especially the white version. These days I've really toned down how much RGB lighting I use, but I'd be happy to use with what's on offer here.

There again, there's not much use having a CPU cooler that looks great, if it doesn't actually do a good job of things. The spec sheet states that it's good for 245 W of heat, which is fine for the most power-hungry AMD Ryzen chip but less so for the maximum power of Intel's best Core i7 and i9 processors (which is 253 W).

If you browse through the pictures above, you'll spot it inside an Aerocool Apnx V1 case. Compared to the Klevv RAM sticks, which are 137 mm in length, you can easily tell that it's using a 120 mm fan for cooling and given that there's just one of them, I don't think it's going to be a particularly quiet cooler under full load.

The AP1-V was actually launched last year and I don't think Aerocool have updated it for Computex. There have been relatively few independent reviews of it to confirm whether it is actually noisy. I prefer using 140 mm fans throughout all of my PCs as they spin at a lower rate than 120 mm, for the same volume of airflow. That makes them quieter and less 'pitchy' in noise.

At least it's not an especially expensive cooler. Both colours sell for around $50 on Amazon, although at that price sector, you might as well get the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE, which is just $34 on Amazon for the RGB version. That's a more capable cooler, thanks to its twin fans and larger fin stack, though it doesn't look quite as nice nor as compact.

While I wouldn't pick the Aerocool Apnx AP1-V for a top-end Intel gaming PC, I'd probably be willing to give it a go in a compact Ryzen system, thanks to the lower power consumption of AMD's chips. Fit an AMD Radeon graphics card in there too and you could then claim you were getting one over Nvidia by chopping up one of its graphics cards to use it as a CPU cooler.

It's becoming increasingly clear that you're absolutely nobody at the Computex show this year if you haven't got a panoramic goldfish bowl in your booth. However, newbie case specialist HAVN has gone one better than the competition with its new HS 420.

What most, if not all, of the alternatives in the panoramic case segment share, including the Corsair 3500X we featured earlier today, is a two-piece glass construction. Basically, two sides of the case are glass panels, and each of those two panels is a separate sheet of glass.

Not the HAVN HS 420. It has what HAVN is calling Unisheet Heatformed Glass. Put simply, it's a single sheet of glass with a right-angle bend. No seams, no joins, just one large sheet of glass for the front and side panels. What's more, the bend in the glass has been designed with as small a radius as possible, to reduce visual distortion.

The case measures 541 x 260 x 547 mm (21.3 x 10.2 x 21.5 inches) and supports up to E-ATX motherboards. You get 480 mm of clearance for graphics cards and 185 mm of CPU cooler accommodation. Meanwhile, there's space for three 420 mm radiators and you can fit a total of eleven 140 mm fans. It's also a dual-chamber design for optimal GPU cooling.

Along with the wrap-around glass, the HS 420 has a pretty neat, minimalist design with some unusually shaped vents on the rear and non-glass side of the chassis. It definitely has its own unique look—kitted with some clear-coloured custom water cooling, it looks very clean indeed.

The chassis looks well-engineered with some nice, tight shutlines between the panels. Overall, it looks like a high-quality bit of kit.

There's also a version of the case with vertical GPU mounting known as the HS 420 VGPU. If you're wondering who HAVN is, it's a new brand from Pro Gamers Group said be be staffed by former Fractal, NZXT, Wistron and Corning bods. The brand has a website, but it's so new it appears to still be in launch mode with few product details.

The HS 420 is their first release and for now, there's no word on pricing or launch dates. Here's hoping we can get our hands on one soon to see if it performs as well as it looks.

Successor to the beastly 1000D, the new Corsair 9000D is ridiculous. We don't have measurements, but this thing is big enough to support two separate PCs inside, the second one a mini-ITX, enabling a secondary streaming setup without impacting your gaming rig's latency one little bit.

There's also enough room for multiple independent liquid cooling loops, up to four 480 mm radiators and, really, anything you can throw at it. We haven't got pricing, but if you're in the market for this kind of thing, do you even care?

Of course, we do tend to care about value, which is where the new Corsair 3500X comes in. It's a more standard-sized ATX tower which offers that wrap-around goldfish bowl thing with two sides of the case almost entirely composed of glass for maximum internal component exposure.

The good news is that pricing starts at a relatively affordable $89.99, making it one of the cheapest full-view cases yet. The 3500X measures 506 x 460 x 240 mm (20 x 18 x 9.4 inches) and is made mainly of steel and tempered glass.?

It also has full support for those trendy new reverse-connection motherboards with all the connectors on the bottom of the board, including ASUS BTF and MSI Project Zero. When you've got such a panoramic view of the internals, that's appealing.

Both of the glass panels are fully removable, so not only can you see inside the case easily, but access is great, too. For the record, the 3500X supports up to E-ATX motherboards, while the component clearances are 180 mm (7.1 inches) for the PSU, 170 mm (6.7 inches) for the CPU cooler and 410 mm (16.1 inches) for the GPU, the latter including support for four-slot graphics cards.

Radiator compatibility comprises 360, 280, and 240 mm at the top and side, with room for 120 mm fans at the bottom and rear of the case.?Fully kitted out, airflow shouldn't be an issue at all.

The 3500X is available with and without a set of RGB fans, and it's the model with no fans that hits that lowest $89.99 price point. Oh, and it's available in both black and white. Sign us up!

It's called the WRLS System. It works alongside the Uni Fan SLV3, Lian Li's interconnected RGB fans; and Strimer Plus V3, an RGB cable.

"So actually everything, all the fans in the system and the Strimer, are controlled by the wireless," Jonathan, a Lian Li representative, says.

That's fans, RGB cables, the lot, controlled via a wireless dongle.

"So the way this is done actually for the Strimer, there's a built in transmitter inside the development of the cable and also everything receives power directly through the power cable as well."

Each set of up to four connectable fans uses a single power cable from the most convenient spot to a fan header. This is purely a power solution, as the rest of the fan control and RGB header control (which would usually require another cable altogether) is transmitted wirelessly from the receiver.

The receiver can either be plugged into the rear of your PC like any other USB dongle, or you can put it inside your PC using the including USB and fan header connection. Then it sort of acts like an internal RGB/fan controller, albeit without the mess of cables running to it.

Also the cables required to hook it up internally can be disconnected when it's plugged in externally.

"It's a very clean solution that frees up a lot of clutter."

The WRLS system will be sold from Q3 this year. The three-pack of fans, with a receiver and controller (as in, to control it all wirelessly), will be priced at $90. The Strimer has no price listed yet.?

Keeping all these hot chips cool is a problem everyone seems desperate to solve, and it seems most are throwing heatsinks and fans at the problem in increasing numbers.

In Intel and ASRock's case, however, a towel may be more than appropriate. At the ASRock booth, I spotted a PC immersed in what looked like a fish tank—with two GPUs merrily bubbling away, looking for all intents and purposes like they'd been the victims of a mafia hit.

Of course, what looks like conductive water is instead a dielectric liquid (in this case, a "perfluorocarbon coolant"), so while the components may look like they've been give a slow death, instead they're transferring all that heat into a cool bath.

The project is the result of a collaboration between Intel, ASRock, Thermaltake and Taimax. Supposedly the system is so efficient that wild overclocks are achievable, or in the case of modern Gen 5 SSDs, presumably sustained speeds over long periods without thermal throttling.

After some of the heatsinks and cooler designs we've seen this year, throwing your hands up and dunking the whole thing in a fish tank might actually be the most elegant solution at this point. Plus it'll look great in the background at a dinner party.

Speaking of "screw it, go big" cooler solutions, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out this beauty that our Jacob found at the Seasonic booth:

Yep, that oughta do it. If in doubt, chuck a huge radiator outside the case and cover it in high-powered fans. Job done, we can all go to lunch.

Noctua's 'next-gen' 140mm fan has been teetering on release for months, nay, years. ?Every time it seemed to be getting somewhere Noctua would give it a kicking in testing and find something wasn't quite right.?

Most recently, a "slight risk of critical deformation" over extended use, which pushed back the release by around six months. Though it was already pushed back by around a year prior, to redesign the frame. It's also been in development for nearly a decade now.

The fan's extremely tight tolerances between the blades and frame make any minor movement potentially fatal.

As it turned out, switching out the frame material wasn't quite the answer Noctua was looking for. That's actually good news for PC builders, as the proposed switched to an LCP (liquid-crystal polymer) material, the same used on the fan blades and hub, would've pretty expensive had it been used everywhere.

"So we instead slightly modified the structure of the frame as such to make it a little bit more rigid. And then we have those fan clips that will put lower stress on the on the fan," Noctua's Jakob Dellinger says.

And that means it can commit to making lots of the things.

"We have production in full swing. Units on the ships."

Dellinger is keen to point out it's still an estimated delivery date, but it seems pretty much a done deal.

There are slightly different dates depending on the frame you're after, however. The NF-A14x25 G2 with a round frame is coming first, in June, and it'll be followed by the more traditional square format in September. This had some separate issues around radiator mounting pressure that have been solved now, but took a little longer to sort.

The Chromax.black version won't be finalised until Q1 2025—that requires individual validation before it gets the go-ahead. The traditional brown and beige version will be your best bet for a while.

If all you care about is performance, then Noctua says you should be able to push around 13% more airflow around a case with this fan, depending on the exact case. Though that can also be traded in for a reduction in noise—perhaps two or three decibels at a slower RPM.

Lastly, on the fans, there is a 120 mm version coming. It hasn't been officially named yet, but I'm going to guess it'll be called the NF-A12x25 G2. It's scheduled to arrive in Q1 2025.

Noctua's next-gen CPU cooler: NH-D15 G2

Not only are individual fans coming our way, Noctua is focusing more on the launch of its new air cooler, the NH-D15 G2.

The NH-D15 G2 is a CPU cooler with a twin-fan, twin-tower design. It comes with two of the new NF-A14x25 G2, of course, but also eight heatpipes (as opposed to six on the previous version), a modified offset design, and choice of three different versions. Also thermal paste and shim washers for LGA 1700.

The three versions of the NH-D15 G2 are:

• NH-D15 G2
• NH-D15 G2 LBC (Low Base Convexity)
• NH-D15 G2 HBC (High Base Convexity)

The reason for these options being that Noctua has taken note of how some CPUs are prone to deformation over time. Most notably, Intel CPUs using the LGA 1700 socket. There are ways to prevent this deformation, but if you ?weren't keen enough to install a contact frame or washers on your motherboard at the very beginning, ideally before you ever socketed your chip, you're likely to now have a slightly warped CPU.

This warping can affect thermal performance. You can see how in the images below, showing performance for one Intel and one AMD chip and where the mounting pressure is being placed by the cooler.

Ideally, you want mounting pressure central to where the die is on the chip—for Intel that's right in the middle, but for AMD it's actually offset a little. Hence why Noctua provides an offset mounting bracket for AMD.

The good news for anyone with a bent Intel chip is the NH-D15 G2 HBC is designed to offer better coverage with these.?

"That's where the HPC the high base convexity version steps in. It just better conforms to the concave shape of the integral heat spreader with full island pressure to get better performance out of it," Dellinger says.

The standard model should work pretty well, too, providing you install the included shim washers. Also it's great for modern AMD chips.

"The standard version is going to be the same base convexity as all other cores are and that means you get excellent contact on AM5 if you use the offset mounting to shift the pressure point over the CCDs."

The LBC model offers pretty great performance out of the box on AM5, though the standard model with the offset mounting comes out on top.?

If in doubt, go for the standard, then.

The other interesting tidbit from my time at the Noctua booth, and I promise this is the last one, is how the company is trying to avoid excess noise by running the two fans within the NH-D15 G2 and twin-packs of NF-A14x25 G2 fans at slightly different speeds.

"If you have two signals very close to each other in frequency, you can end up with a phenomena called beat frequencies, which can be perceived as a periodic humming.

"So what we're doing is offsetting the fans on the cooler, but also in dual packs we will sell, by 50 rpm. So one is 25 faster, one is 25 slower. And this way, we're creating a beat frequency that's much faster and the faster the frequency is, the less perceptible it becomes."

I'm once again very impressed with the level of detail Noctua is willing to brief for its new products. We're not at a loss for information on why this cooler and the next-gen fans are good. It'll be even better once we (I) get our (my) hands on this cooler for testing.

Noctua's design hopes to offer effective cooling despite lacking this one key component. Rather than a pump above the cold plate or embedded beside the radiator, Noctua's design harnesses a two-phase thermosiphon.

"I guess you're familiar with the basic concept of thermal siphons and fluid circulation being created due to density differences because of heat input?" Noctua's representative Jakob Dellinger asks me.

"Yes," I confidently reply, though Dellinger explains to me the details anyway. Here's how it works—for your benefit, not mine. Obviously.

"So in Italy or Greece, you see those rooftop water heaters? Yeah, thermosyphon base, heat the water, and then start circulating. And that's exactly what happens here, except for a difference that it's a two-phase thermosiphon."

"So when the working fluid is over the CPU, it will evaporate and go through the vapour tube up into the condenser, where it cools off, condenses back to liquid state and then flows back the return line back to the evaporator to eventually evaporate again."

It sounds a lot like how a heatpipe works with a GPU or CPU cooler—something Noctua knows very well. Nevertheless, it's teamed up with an aviation cooling company called Calyos to work on the thermosiphon project.

"The reason why this is so such a promising technology is due to the latent heat of vaporisation.

"So when you have a pot of water, it takes, I don't know, maybe 10 minutes to bring it to boiling, but it will take probably two hours to evaporate the whole amount of water. So there's just so much more heat capacity in that phase change process. And this is what we're utilising for cooling here."

Effectively, a lot of heat can be absorbed before vaporisation takes place. That's headroom for shifting heat away from a power-hungry CPU.

The goal is "AIO level performance", albeit without any of the downsides of an AIO cooler. Essentially, no pump means no pump noise, vibration, or risk of failure.

Though a thermosiphon has one potential drawback. It relies on gravity. The 240 mm or 360 mm radiator would need to be top-mounted within a chassis to work. Also it's not so much a drawback, per se, but there are still fans attached to the radiator on the thermosiphon prototype—if you were hoping for fully-passive, you best look elsewhere, such as the NH-P1.

It's one helluva concept, anyways. Noctua won't put an ETA on when it might arrive, however, the prototypes are "already looking very good."

"The most THICC, cool, quiet, and intelligent AIO ever made," reads a placard at Hyte's Computex booth. I'm told the same sorta thing by a company representative, too, who tells me they've not managed to find an equal in their testing.

The cooler includes three Thicc FP12 fans pre-installed on a 360 mm radiator. Moreover, and it's probably hard to tell from the images alone, it lives up to its name. This thing is supremely thick at 52 mm.

It's definitely set to be in the standings, if not top dog—Hyte reports 105.8 cubic feet/minute airflow and static pressure of 8.14 mmH2O, which is way up there, though that's a rating for the entire cooler—all three fans combined. We'll have to put its claims to the test ourselves for something more comparable.

Though to talk just cooling potential would be to ignore the 5-inch screen loaded onto this cooler. It's a HD display that's customisable via the Hyte PC application, Nexus. On the rear sits an array of RGB LEDs for a gorgeous backlit ambient glow effect.?

I've been testing the smaller version of this cooler over the past few weeks, the Thicc Q60. What has stood out to me is just how quiet it is, especially considering the cooler's impressive performance. I even have it loaded onto an open-air test bench at desk height next to where I work and I've no complaints about the noise. The price is a big factor, however. It's $399. Phwoar.

Most gamers won't need a cooler with a screen on it, however, and especially not a triple-fan model that'll make your wallet weep. The Thicc Q80 Trio has no confirmed price tag just yet, but it will be dear.

The Thicc Q80 Trio is expected to launch in August.

To help with the price factor, Hyte is also releasing a more modest version of the Thicc Q60. It's called the P60 Duo.

The P60 Duo comes with much the same radiator, fans, and performance as the Q60. However, it ditches the big screen and opts for some more subtle lighting instead. Though note I said more subtle. This thing still stands out.

Unfortunately we don't have a price for the P60 Duo, either. Though it's set to launch in September.

Noctua has announced two new fans as a part of a new Home line-up. First, its desk fan is finally here. The Noctua NV-FS1 is designed to keep the sweat from your brow while you game, which should come in handy as we head into another ripper summer. Second, the NV-FS2 is a multi-purpose fan set for use cooling any device that might get a little too toasty in the heat.

The NV-FS1 desk fan is a modular kit. You can either purchase each part individually, so you can build it with a fan you already own, or buy it as a complete kit. The kit includes a pivoting frame, an "airflow amplifier", a PWM fan controller, a multi-region power supply, and an NF-A12x25 fan.

That's a pretty great choice of fan—it's our pick for the best PC fan right now—though it's far from the cheapest. That may go some way to explaining the price of the full kit.

This desk fan will set you back $100/?86/100. A stark difference to the USB desk fan I purchased in Korea for the equivalent of a couple of bucks.

Noctua says the desk fan will provide a "strong, focused beam of airflow" via the airflow amplifier—the weird funnel bit that attaches over the top of the fan. I'm inclined to believe it, too. That said, I'm hoping to get a first-hand experience with the product over at Computex. The hot and humid Taiwanese weather has a way of making you appreciate quality cooling.

The other product announced as a part of Noctua's new Home lineup is perhaps even more useful. The NV-FS2 is a self-enclosed Noctua NF-A12x25 fan, with a protective "anti-vibration" case and grill, and includes a power supply to keep it spinning outside your chassis. The cable for the power supply is a generous 2.65m.

The NV-FS2 is intended to be used to cool off any other tech you may own that has a propensity to get toasty, such as game consoles and high-end audio equipment. The kit also includes pads to use the fans as mounts beneath your equipment, with enough space for the fan to draw in plenty of air. That's pretty darn neat.

You'll wince a little at the price, though. One fan with all the gubbins costs $80/?69/80.

The prices certainly give me pause. However, I do like the option of sticking a Noctua fan under my partner's PS5 to prevent it from going into meltdown in the summer.

ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) is a motherboard and power supply configuration specification introduced by Intel in 1995. Its purpose is to define the basic fundamentals of our PCs. If you look at the internals of a PC from the mid 90's and compare it to one today, the layout is easily recognizable.

At its most basic, ATX exists to ensure compatibility across the PC ecosystem. In theory, any ATX motherboard can be installed into any ATX case with any ATX power supply. The dimensions, mounting points, the shape and location of the I/O panel and the positioning of the expansion slots are key to this.

Over the years the ATX standard has undergone many revisions and expansions. The most well known of these are the addition of the microATX and Mini-ITX standards, though there are others more relevant to workstation and enterprise motherboards. Extended ATX is one we often see in high-end consumer motherboards.

PC power supplies are also required to meet certain specifications. That includes the physical connectors and the requirement to supply various voltages within tolerances. These include the 12V, 5V and 3.3V rails, so that it ensures compatibility with—hopefully—all motherboards.?

The most recent major ATX power supply revision is ATX 3.0, which was released in February of 2022. ATX 3.1 is coming this year. It introduces the 12V-2x6 16-pin connector which can supply 600W of power to the thirstiest graphics cards. It replaces the issue prone 12VHPWR connector, which has not exactly gone well.

There are a multitude of reasons why I believe there's a need for an ATX replacement. These include the rise of M.2, the physical size and demands of modern graphics cards, cooling requirements, power efficiency, cable management, and the need to prepare for future technologies.

But there are some parts of the standard that are perfectly fine. The positioning of the rear I/O panel and the motherboard mounting points are two features that have stood the test of time.

M.2 wasn't even a twinkle in daddy Intel's eye 30 years ago

I'll begin with M.2. I've previously outlined the reasons why I think M.2 is a poor solution. It's got nothing to do with the performance of a speedy NVMe M.2 drive, it's all to do with the physical, electrical, and cooling demands it places on a modern system. These days, motherboard designs are pretty much dominated by M.2 slots, and there was nothing like them when ATX was introduced in 1995.

Ditching M.2 in favor of an alternative form factor would remove the necessity for expansive motherboard mounted heatsinks, it would free up motherboard PCB space for other components (or make them cheaper), and they require inefficient 3.3V power.?

For some reason, competing cabled standards including U.2 and U.3 connections have never taken off in the consumer space. U.3 includes support for 12V power. Removing 3.3V support would fix one of the inefficiencies of modern ATX power supplies. But, I'll get to that shortly.

A U.3 drive could incorporate cooling into a 2.5-inch SSD chassis. Such a drive would require the *shock* routing of a cable. But, that could be easily solved by putting the connectors on the rear of the motherboard, which brings me to my next point.

Make backside cable connectors mandatory

Mounting all of the motherboard connectors and headers on the rear of the motherboard would be one of the easier changes to mandate. Motherboard manufacturers are already experimenting in this regard, with MSI's Project Zero and Asus' BTF concepts being prominent examples.

Rear mounted motherboard connectors improve aesthetics and case airflow. It would also make the system easier to access. M.2 drives are a pain to install, whereas a SATA (or U.3) SSD could be simply and easily mounted and attached with none of the fiddliness of M.2 drives.

Another example many builders have probably come across is the difficulty of accessing the EPS power connectors if you have top mounted fans or an AIO cooler installed. Rear mounted connectors completely remove this issue, and others like it, such as cables that attach to headers along the bottom of the motherboard. They can be difficult to access if you have a PSU shroud immediately below them, or have expansion cards installed.

So, backside motherboard connectors make your system look better, improve case airflow, are relatively easy for motherboard manufacturers to implement, and make system modifications easier. It's a no brainer.

?Graphics cards have become physically dominant?

Changing the discrete graphics card form factor is much easier said than done. It's almost laughable how physically large a modern high-performance graphics card is. Compare them to the heatsink-less single slot designs from the 1990's! Interestingly, though, a quad slot RTX 4090 can theoretically be installed into an ATX case from 30 years ago when single slot, half length passive cards were common.

A modern graphics card still needs to be installed into a slot that physically differs little from the AGP slots of the 1990's. The same can be said of a case's expansion slots. Anti-sag brackets address the weight aspect, but the reason they exist at all is proof that modern graphics cards are nothing like their 1990's ancestors. Their dimensions and weight, along with runaway power and cooling demands have come too far to be sustainable. What's next? 600W five-slot cards? That's ridiculous.

This brings me to the difficult part. I'd like to see a new graphics card form factor. A large graphics card already protrudes above the top of the I/O bracket. Why not take that a step further? Instead of a card that's 140mm tall, why not make it 180mm? Makers could install higher CFM, lower RPM fans that are quieter, while allowing the cards themselves to be thinner or shorter. You could mount them vertically, away from the motherboard, not unlike you can do with riser cables now. That way we wouldn't have to resort to cases that are more like cubes than the rectangular towers they are now.

Another option would be to go in the opposite direction, so, let's say a card takes up five or six slots. In theory, a GPU cooler could incorporate a single 120mm or 140mm fan to direct cool air from the front of the case over a huge heatsink surface area and straight out the rear of the case. That idea could be a bit silly, though.

That's just a spitballing of ideas, but with graphics cards trending upwards in power consumption, which means ever steeper cooling requirements, the PCIe graphics card form factor we know and love is trending in an unsustainable direction.

The case for ATX12VO?

Firstly, the 20-pin and now standard 24-pin power connectors are relics. It wouldn't be hard to make them physically smaller, along with the 8-pin EPS connectors. But, there's an existing standard that addresses that, among other things. It's called ATX12VO, developed by Intel in 2019. Its main claim to fame is that it supplies 12V DC power only.

The problem with ATX (and SFX) power supplies is that they carry the legacies of prior decades. These days, PCs rely far more heavily on the 12V rail of the power supply. System components that require 3.3V (such as M.2 drives) or 5V (USB) could use motherboard mounted step-down circuitry to supply the power those devices require. The motherboard is already required to route these voltages anyway.

The upside is that ATX12VO power supplies would be much simpler in design with better efficiency. That means a combination of less waste heat and lower power consumption, a longer lifespan and cheaper purchase price.

One of the potential stumbling blocks I see is the rise of USB Power Delivery. ATX12VO PCs with several USB-PD supporting ports would be challenging for motherboard makers to implement.?

ATX12VO is probably the change I'd award the lowest priority to. I'd love to see better efficiency and millions of ATX12VO power supplies combining to lower global energy consumption, but the ongoing development of ATX power supplies, with ATX 3.0 and 3.1 being the latest examples, means ATX12VO has a steep—but not insurmountable climb ahead of it, if it's to ever see widespread adoption.

As we move towards the 2030's there will be new considerations?

It's a little hard to peer into the crystal ball and predict some of the changes to come. One example that comes to mind is if or when optical interconnects become viable. System power consumption continues to rise, and there's a need for better efficiency that's faster, with lower latency. Optical interconnects are something we'll surely hear more about in the years ahead. What if you could get by without the need for PCIe slots?

Since the mid 1990's PCs have required SDRAM, DDR1, DDR2 and so on. Their physical dimensions remain essentially the same, even if they are not compatible. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a story after spotting an Asus ROG motherboard with SO-DIMM slots, and it got me thinking about how desktop PC memory could do with a physical change, if only to create a little bit of extra PCB space for an extra M.2 slot.

Might we see something similar to CAMM memory in the years ahead? How about optical RAM? It's nice to think about, but honestly, we're far more likely to have the same RGB equipped DDR7 in 10 years from now. Whatever the case, a smaller RAM footprint would not go astray, if the industry could get on board with it.

Finally, just how high will CPU TDP's go? Long gone are the days of flagship 65W CPUs that could get by with a simple air cooler. The ATX standard doesn't specifically address the subject of cooling, but if CPU TDPs start reaching ludicrous 500W levels, it is something that needs to be considered. The area required for monstrous VRM solutions and heatsinks to tame them need to be factored into a future standard.

Remember BTX?

Ahh, do you remember BTX? That was Intel's attempt to replace the ATX motherboard form factor in the mid-2000's with something more relevant in the 21st century. Apart from a few concepts and OEM systems, BTX came and went with a whimper.

It did have some interesting properties, one of which was swapping the positioning of the I/O panel and expansion slots. It also gave the CPU 'first dibs' on incoming case airflow. Some systems had the ability to vertically mount the graphics card, or even have it positioned opposite the motherboard, allowing airflow to move more freely though the case.

BTX was a novel idea, and one which had some real advantages. It was developed to address the severe heat issues affecting Intel's Pentium 4 era CPUs. History is repeating…

The problem was its lack of industry support. Motherboard vendors did show off products around 2004, but BTX quickly fell by the wayside. And therein lies the problem with any effort to replace the ATX standard.

Some closing thoughts?

Any replacement of the ATX standard would require near universal industry support. Intel can't come over the top and say: 'Let's do it this way' as it could in years past. Something like an IEEE group or some other industry body made up of all the key players is the only realistic way forward.

Such changes affect every area of not just the PC, but everything else to some extent. From a simple motherboard to laptops to data centers covering football fields: all would be affected in at least some way.

I say let the enterprise folks do their thing. Those folks can chuck a billion dollars at a problem and solve it. But the humble PC needs a redesign that introduces better power efficiency, improved cooling, and improved cable management. Add a dash of simplicity and more attractive aesthetics, and we've got a bunch of things all gamers would benefit from.

Sadly, if I had to put a bet on it, I'd say the chances of major form factor changes are pretty much zero in the short term. The industry is just too big these days, there's too much money and time invested in the existing ecosystem. A change of momentum of this scale when so many companies have their fingers in the ATX pie makes imminent change unlikely.

From the video it's clearly a product with more coverings and curves than a usual case fan, though there definitely is a fan included. So we can rule out more screwdrivers, then. Dive into the replies for the post and there may be an even clearer indication of what it might be, however.

X user thatcsdude has posted an image in reply that shows off a prototype for a Noctua desk fan, with an "airflow amplification system". Lo and behold, it shares the same coverings and curves as shown in the teaser video, albeit in a far less attractive plastic finish to the clean-cut black shown in the video. The prototype is essentially a mount for a Noctua fan with USB power, meaning there's no need to keep the fan hooked up to a header in the inside of your case.

We've no confirmation that what's shown in this video is one and the same with the prototype product on display, but it sure darn looks like it. We know what this teaser isn't showing us, however, and that's Noctua's long-awaited next-gen 140mm fan.

Noctua's next-gen fan promises to be the final word in gaming PC fans, with world-beating performance in a range of use cases, including both airflow for a case fan and static pressure for a radiator fan. It does so with the use of premium materials and extremely tiny margins for the fan's blades and casing. Unfortunately, tiny margins and high expectations mean it's been beset by delays. After nearly a decade of development, it remains to be released. Expected in Q2 of this year, the fan has been delayed again until Q3, 2024.

When asked about this over on X, Noctua says it'll offer updates about the fan over at the Taiwanese tech show, Computex—the last place I saw the prototypes in-person.?The show runs from June 4 until June 7.

Igor's Lab ripped apart six 120mm liquid coolers for testing:?

1. Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper X-Flow
2. Aqua Computer Airplex Radical 2/120
3. Bykski CR-RD120RC-TN-V2 Full Copper
4. EKWB Quantum Surface P120M
5. Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTS – 120 XFlow
6. Watercool Heatkiller Rad 120-S

Each cooler claims a different combination of materials making up their often unseen innards, though primarily those of a premium tilt will use copper for its thermal conductivity. Copper's thermal conductivity is rated to around 401 W·m?1·K?1 (watts per metre-kelvin), which is a good deal higher than aluminium at around 237. There are other factors at play for cooling efficacy, but that's often why you'll find coolers bragging about full or part copper construction—as indeed some of those tested by Igor's Lab claim.

Two coolers come out of Igor's Lab testing pretty much unscathed. The 'full copper' Alphacool NexXxoS ST30, which was genuinely made of copper throughout, and the mostly aluminium Aqua Computer Airplex. Both made claims of which materials they were using and where, and Wallossek's testing proved that to be true.

The Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTS – 120 XFlow also comes out fine. It only claims copper construction for the cooling fins, and that's what was found during testing. Though why the rest of the materials aren't listed could be because they're primarily a copper/zinc alloy, in other word's brass, of a relatively low copper content—63/37 Cu/Zn but some 70/30 Cu/Zn. All in all, nothing massive to worry about but not exactly a premium construction, either.

The EKWB Quantum Surface P120M claims to come with Copper H90 tubing, which as Wallossek points out gives the impression that it's copper, whereas 'H90' designates it as an alloy. Testing put it at 90% copper and 10% zinc. So it's brass. Technically it is listed as an alloy, but in a way that Wallossek feels isn't entirely clear to the customer. Wallossek had some other complaints with the EKWB cooler, such as the "soft, cheap screws" and some flux residue.

Bykski's CR-RD120RC-TN-V2 Full Copper did live up to expectations of what was advertised, however. The investigation found that the so-called full copper construction used a lot of brass in the place of pure copper. High traces of lead were also found within the solder, which may fall foul of RoHS certification.

Below: all six coolers tested by Igor's Lab.

Bykski has verified the results of the investigation from its own testing and has said it is moving to remove the batch from sale, which it claims was produced by a different OEM. This OEM is also reportedly being held responsible for switching to a copper alloy within the channels, rather than copper.

Lastly, the Watercool Heatkiller Rad 120-S. This product was found to not offer the copper channels as originally advertised on its website, and instead used a 65/35 Cu/Zn brass in its place. The cooling fins were advertised as copper and were tested as copper. Igor's Lab notes, however, that the website has since been updated for the Heatkiller Rad, so that the exact wording for this product makes clear that channels are made of brass, not copper, as had previously been stated. Igor's Lab says it has not heard from the company directly.

For the full testing data with plenty of images from some very expensive testing gizmos, I recommend checking out the original story on Igor's Lab.

Igor's Lab chalks up the issues to complacency rather than malevolence. Wassolek notes that he believes "permanent monitoring is actually important and essential". For the few companies with incorrect specs, it also appears as though something is being done to rectify the issue. Though it did take Wallossek's hard work in hacking into them to get things moving, and because of that, he says he will collect another sample of random coolers for the same treatment. Let's hope that next batch gives us less to talk about.

Admittedly, there wasn't a great deal of hope in the first place, as Noctua first announced the white-themed project back in 2019 and the dearth of any significant news of it coming to market showed that Noctua wasn't all that keen on ramping up development. White PC components are a tiny niche compared to the vast ocean of black-painted items, but vendors such as Corsair and Lian Li are more than happy to offer white versions of their regular models.

Noctua is a small firm and its portfolio of fans and coolers is equally petite, so it obviously felt that the project just wasn't worth investing in, as confirmed by the Tweet:

For a long time, if you wanted the very best air cooler for your CPU or the quietest fans in your PC case, Noctua was pretty much the only choice, and one of its heatsink and fan combos still tops our list for the best high-end air solution.

However, Thermaltake and DeepCool also have coolers that match Noctua's best in terms of performance, and in the case of the former, their products are quite a lot cheaper. With the market being really competitive, dropping the development of white-coloured fans and coolers makes sense.

Or does it? I mean, just how hard is it to develop a white version of a fan? While colour pigments do affect the physical characteristics of plastic, it's not by very much and Noctua's designs don't rely on ultra-high rpm to get the cooling right, so the plastic wouldn't be under any significant stress.

The fact that Noctua spent four years reaching this point suggests to me that it wasn't especially interesting in the project to begin with.

In other words, the display of white fans and coolers at the Computex show in 2019 seems to have been a marketing exercise, rather than a serious development. To my eyes, at least. If you've been waiting for a white NH-D15, then it's time to look elsewhere, as I strongly suspect that Noctua won't reboot the development in the near future.

The details of the lawsuit, reported by TechPowerUp, show the companies in question are SilverStone, Enermax, and an OEM company called Apaltek, based in China. It's the latter that's mostly being targeted here, as it supplies the coolers for SilverStone and Enermax (plus a fair few other vendors).

Cooler Master is claiming Apaltek's designs violate three of its patents that cover overall design, water pumps embedded in the radiator, and an ARGB lighting controller. Some or all of these aspects feature in a significant number of SilverStone and Enermax AIO coolers but Apaltek also does the same for the likes of MSI. As to why CM is only targeting two specific vendors, and not all of them, isn't clear but it's probably because they're far smaller companies than MSI, et al.

Naturally, Apaltek isn't happy about this and contacted TechPowerUp with a comment recalling that Cooler Master itself was at the receiving end of an Asetek lawsuit six years ago, though that was a case which ultimately went in CM's favour. Apaltek went as far as to label CM's behaviour as being that of a 'bully' but if its patents have genuinely been violated, you would hardly expect them to sit around and do nothing about it.

Especially since Asetek's designs dominate the AIO cooler market. If your cooler has a pump that's part of the CPU's heatsink block, it's an Asetek one. So trying to come up with a cooler design that won't incur the wrath of its lawyers is quite a challenge, hence why Cooler Master is being pretty vigorous in its claims.

If the lawsuit is successful, then the three defendants will be required to pay damages and legal costs, though it's not clear at this stage just how much relief Cooler Master's lawyers will plead for. I can't imagine that it will be a small amount, but even if CM wins it case, it's unlikely to receive the full amount demanded.

Whatever happens, this certainly won't be the last episode in the seemingly never ending Cooler Wars saga.

The ruse here involves a mostly conventional CPU air cooler, albeit a fairly hefty example of the breed measuring roughly six-by-six-by-five inches and rated as capable of dissipating 260W of heat. It supports a range of Intel CPU sockets, from LGA 1366 through LGA 1700 and LGA 2011, plus AMD AM4 and AM5 sockets.

So far, so par for the high-end air cooler course. The first hint that the Lamptron ST060 is a bit different is the 299 euro list price on Caseking (via Techspot). Now, that's including circa 20% of VAT. So, call it 250 euros pre-VAT or about $275. Ouch.

The premium, of course, is for the six-inch LCD screen slapped directly on top of the cooler. It's full HD with 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, which will make for very crisp visuals on such a small panel.

No other specs for the screen are available, but it connects via HDMI and USB-A. You get a bundled USB drive with the necessary drivers and software for the screen.

So, yeah, that's the first issue. You going to have cables running in and out of this thing, slightly undermining what must surely be the point of it, namely to look snazzy inside your case.

We're not totally clear on the technicalities, but very likely the screen just runs as a conventional secondary monitor over HDMI, with USB providing the power and what appears to be a bespoke Lamptron app designed to run full-screen on the six-inch panel and thus show various info including temps, frequencies and the rest.?

You should, of course, be able to stick frankly whatever you like on the display, so your options are likely pretty much infinite.

Were we being really picky, for this type of display, a wireless interface might be preferable to minimise cable clutter. After all, latency isn't going to be critical. Maybe the whole thing could have its own Arm chip and OS, touchscreen functionality and run off motherboard header power. Now that would be clever. And even more expensive.

In the meantime, this will still look pretty cool. And if you subscribe to the philosophy that more screens is always a good thing, well, your cooler has arrived.

Reddit user Everynametaken9 took to the platform to show off the rough prototype of their latest creation, and ask for advice as to where to take the design next.?

Currently the card uses a huge copper bar as the primary heatsink, with the plan being to mount it horizontally across the front of the board in contact with the die and the VRAM, and use 10 entire CPU heatsinks strapped to the bar itself for extra cooling capacity.

As things stand the configuration here is very much a work in progress, with the redditor appealing for the Nvidia subreddit's advice as to which components need cooling and how they can improve upon the design, with the proviso that "passive radiation is the point, so let's please skip the inevitable 'just use fans' stuff".?

Fair enough, although for what it's worth, why don't you just use some…nevermind.

Help with passive cooling project 3080 FE from r/nvidia

The thread is worth a read with comments ranging from disbelief to admiration, and with some interesting practical advice in there as well. The top comment from redditor Puzzleheaded-Gas9685 points out that the "massive heat block will be a heat radiator and not a cooler", and while that may well be true, I'd still like to see the results for myself, if only for the entertainment value of seeing a still-powerful GPU boot with the sort of cooler normally reserved for a Blake's 7 prop.

Modern GPUs are usually very good at throttling themselves under thermal load to protect vital components, but this may well be something of an extreme test for any significantly heat-producing chip to undergo.

Yes, there's a real possibility of damaging the card, but it's probably more likely from bodging the application and dropping the thing on the GPU than anything else.

When it comes to science experiments, we can often learn more from failure than we can from success. It is through experimentation that we all shall benefit, and at the very least, if they haven't created a great passively cooled GPU they may well have created that most mysterious of things, an actual art.

Or a monstrosity. Whichever, I guess. Looks cool though, don't it?

Inclusive of radiator, reservoir, fan, and pump, this water cooling kit is intended to keep a Raspberry Pi 5 nice and cool (via Overclock3D.net). According to the product page, it'll get a RPi 5 to around 40°C, or perhaps even 37°C by a later remark, while at full load.

Everything needed to connect up the front and back of a RPi 5 is included with the kit, including flexible hoses, compact cooling plate, and dedicated power supply. This isn't a compact kit, either. It must be more than 10x the size of the Pi.?

At least it comes with RGB lighting included on the fan and pump.

The whole kit costs around $120, $40/$60 more than the Raspberry Pi 5 itself, which is available in either 4GB or 8GB flavours.

I'm not sure what you have to be doing with a Raspberry Pi to require such a significant cooling solution. Overclocking the Arm A76 processor from its pedestrian 2.4GHz perhaps. Though I suppose you can't argue with the expansive upgrades on offer in the Pi ecosystem.

"With its powerful cooling performance, the water cooling kit for Raspberry Pi 5 effectively dissipates heat generated by the Raspberry Pi during intensive tasks or prolonged usage," the product page says. "This helps prevent overheating and ensures stable performance. Efficient water-cooled cooling will allow you to connect multiple Raspberry Pi boards to a set of cooling devices. When using Raspberry Pi in a cluster, you can use a set of water-cooled devices to effectively cool multiple Raspberry Pi boards."

A pretty niche product, this Pi-sized water cooler is a part of a wider trend to stick liquid coolers on otherwise passively or air-cooled components. We've seen air coolers largely give way to liquid coolers in recent years, as power demands have often surged upwards. Most notably liquid coolers have become the norm for CPUs, and even some high-end GPUs. In a more fringe case there are gaming laptops available with removeable liquid cooling loops.?

Heck, I saw one MSI PCIe 5.0 SSD out at CES 2024 with a compact liquid cooling solution. Truly absurd, that one.?

This all sounds well and good, but given the lack of adoption of the original AirJet and a distinct lack of global testing, is there something we're missing??

Back in December 2022 we covered a collaboration between Intel and Frore Systems to integrate the AirJet into the Intel Evo platform. It was shown alongside a potentially exciting case study where a single AirJet Pro was used to cool down the APU in what looked like a Steam Deck, and that made a whole lot of sense. Intel's Evo laptops were designed to be small and slim, and the original Steam Deck produced a fair amount of noise when running at heavy load.?

A thin and powerful cooling solution, which runs quietly and efficiently would be a perfect solution for either, and yet both the release versions of these devices and subsequent refreshes remain conventionally cooled.

A quick look at Frore's website reveals a page that directs you as to where to buy AirJet enabled products, and it's a list with a grand total of, err, one. One device, the Zotac Zbox Pico P1430AJ, a system that labels itself as the world's smallest Mini PC. Two AirJet Minis are said to remove "an additional 10+ watts of heat", which does seem to suggest that the Zotac unit may well be keeping itself cool primarily by efficient thermal throttling and passive heat venting, with the AirJets helping out when necessary.

Herein may lie a possible issue. While the AirJet might be remarkable in the sense that it delivers any cooling at all in such a slim frame, the cooling requirements of a modern device can become substantial, and a mere five watts of cooling per unit may simply not be enough.?

The devices are stackable and can be used in conjunction with each other to deliver more cooling performance, as it has demonstrated to great effect, however once you need multiple units to adequately cool a device it seems easy to imagine the virtues of such a small form factor are quickly negated by the need to fit several of them in one chassis.

More than that, there's the unfortunate problem of noise. It's difficult to find video or audio clips of an AirJet running in a quiet environment in such a way that the noise levels can be judged, but when Linus Tech Tips released a video last year of a hands-on with the tech it was mentioned that the noise output, while not particularly loud overall, did reach a higher pitch than a conventional fan set up.

This was theorised as being due to the laminar flow of air created by its vent, and while it was suggested that this could be mitigated by redesigning the chassis ventilation of the devices using it so as not to create noisy turbulence, it does seem like manufacturers might be reluctant to pour R&D resources into vent design simply to accommodate a smaller cooler.

Fan noise can be annoying in multiple ways, but a high-pitched whine will certainly strike one as more irritating to the eardrums than a regular whoosh of air created by a conventional fan. If this is the case, then it wouldn't be a surprise if manufacturers weren't too keen to make a name for themselves as purveyors of the first mosquito-cooled laptop.

Regardless, taking these potential factors into account may provide some answers to why we haven't seen a huge uptake of this new cooling method. While the Frore AirJet may be an innovative and creative solution to the ever-present problems created by heat in our electronic devices, it may well be the case that the technology has a long way to go before companies are prepared to take the leap and adopt it wholeheartedly.

OK, that's rather facetious; there have been numerous studies into such an endeavour, with Microsoft running a similar setup for two years near the Orkney Islands just off Scotland with some ecological success. But China has reportedly begun construction on what's claimed to be the world's first undersea data center. Allegedly, once complete the facility will have the computing power of "six million conventional personal computers."

It's unclear exactly what that means or what the hardware involved comprises. But it will be made of of no fewer than 100 of the huge looking "nodes" pictured above, each of which weighs an incredible 1,300 tons. However, you slice it, then, it's a lot of kit being submerged 35m under water off the coast of Sanya, Hainan province, China.

Central to the entire premise is using sea water as the primary coolant. It's said that this will save a hefty 122 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually on cooling compared with a conventional on-land data center.

It would be interesting to know how the net warming footprint compares between this approach and electrically powered air-cooling solutions of existing data centers. The thermal impact of a single server farm would just be a drop in the ocean, if you'll pardon the pun. Though if there were thousands of such nodes that might be a different matter.?

This isn't the first time we've heard of computer servers being dumped in the sea for cooling purposes. But this Chinese installation does seem to be on a rather unprecedented and epic scale.

Exactly how practical all this is, well, that's an open question. Swapping out dead CPUs, SSDs or whole servers would, we assume, be off the cards with this kind of installation. In the Microsoft experiment which finished in 2020 it sealed the undersea chamber, filling it with dry nitrogen which made for a far less corrosive atmosphere than an oxygen-rich one, improving reliability over a land-based equivalent.?

There's no indication here that the new server farm is doing the same thing, but the nodes or modules are apparently each designed to run for 25 years and perhaps the very long term idea is they can be individually recovered and serviced.

Anyway, the full 100 nodes are slated to have been installed by 2025, so if you pop out for a dip around then and find it's a little warmer than you expected, well, you'll know why.

According to Videocardz, the product manual for these two coolers specifies that not only are they compatible with the LGA 1851 socket but also that they will use the same spacers and bracket mountings as the LGA 1700. This is likely to be good news for those of you with cooling solutions built for the older socket type, as a platform upgrade can be an expensive enough proposition as it is without forking out for a new cooler to boot.

This isn't the first time we've seen a cooling manufacturer suggest that cross-compatibility exists between these different socket types. A package spotted in a Japanese electronics retailer earlier this year for Noctua's NH-U12A lists LGA-1851 support on the side, and a closer look at the manual revealed that it also suggests its mounting bars and spacers are shared between both the existing and the upcoming platform.

It's worth mentioning that cooler compatibility between generations is far from unheard of. AMD also managed to maintain support between AM4 and AM5 sockets while Intel managed to keep a similar level of compatibility between LGA 1200 to LGA 1700.

All that being said, while the release of the new Arrow Lake CPUs isn't expected until 2024, it might be worth bearing in mind that the switch over to this new socket type might be less of a headache than expected if you're already running a decent cooler on an LGA 1700 system. Platform jumps can be something of a complicated undertaking if you're looking to keep up with the cutting edge of CPU technology, so any compatibility crossover is a nice little bonus for those of you planning to make the leap next year.

If you're Youtuber der8auer though, you might consider doing something drastic. While his channel covers all sorts of hardware breakdowns and analysis he often focuses on cooling solutions. One of the ultimate cooling solutions, and something of a dark art to the majority of us, remains the rather invasive process of "delidding".?

Delidding involves removing the factory fitted heat spreader fitted to the top of modern CPUs in order to gain direct access to the silicon die within, with the aim to either make direct cooler contact with the chip or to modify the heat spreader itself.

In the case of the Core i9 14900K, der8auer managed to achieve an impressive core temperature drop of up to 10?C by removing the heat spreader, cleaning off the surfaces, and replacing the solder with a liquid metal alternative before popping the lid back on and running some tests. Later in the video he manages to increase the drop even further, shedding an extra 2?C with the addition of a contact frame that distributes pressure more evenly across the surface of the modified IHS.

There's no doubt that these drops are impressive, but it's worth giving the full video a watch to see exactly how he achieves this result. While this method may actually be on the easier end of the scale when it comes to delidding, it's difficult not to grit your teeth as you watch a man put a high-end piece of silicon in something resembling a modern-day CPU torture device and literally tighten the screws until it yields.?

It's certainly interesting to watch him simplify the process, but it's difficult to think of delidding without flashbacks to the bad old days, where horrifying things could happen to the foolhardy and the poorly researched. Like this poor soul, who managed to rip an older chip clean off the die by forgetting to melt the solder first.

If you're thinking of perhaps giving the delidding process a go yourself, may we kindly suggest that you, y'know, not. Unless you're a professional like de8auer, in which case you already laugh in the face of fear, tweak the nose of terror, and are probably scoffing at this article as we speak. His website actually sells tools to supposedly make the process more foolproof, but I'm still not entirely convinced that this is a good idea for anyone but the most extreme overclockers with money to burn.

Zotac has just released its ZBOX Pico PI430AJ mini PC. I recall seeing it at Computex in late May. It's an otherwise mostly unremarkable mini PC, with a Core i3 N300 processor, 8GB of LPDDR5 memory, NVMe SSD support and Zotac's typically good complement of connectivity options. Oh, and it's just 0.21L in size, which isn't much larger than an external SSD. But it's the cooling system that sets it apart.

It's the first mini PC to feature solid state active cooling. It incorporates a technology developed by Frore Systems called AirJet. AirJet is a module that sits atop the processor. It features tiny membranes that vibrate at ultrasonic frequencies, which produces pulsating jets of airflow. It's basically an active cooler, without the fans.

A single AirJet module can dissipate 5W of heat. That's not a lot, but vendors can scale that up by adding more than one module.

This technology delivers some obvious benefits. Bye-bye fans! They can get very noisy in ultrathin devices, and they are particularly susceptible to failures. Also, the AirJet module is very thin, at just 2.8mm thick, while weighing only nine grams. That makes it ideally suited to thin and light devices.?

But CPU cooling isn't AirJet's only potential application. Alongside all manner of devices including handhelds, cameras, IoT and networking, it's well suited to NVMe SSD cooling, which to me is particularly interesting. Frore Systems demonstrated a Phison PCIe 5.0 SSD with AirJet modules at the Flash Memory Summit earlier this year (H/T Techradar). Anything that helps to tame the scary heat and resulting throttling of high performance SSDs—particularly in laptops—is very welcome.

The potential is there to scale the technology. Frore says four AirJet Minis can cool a 20W processor, which is enough for more than a few laptop chips. The dream is to see solid state cooling scale up to chips around the 45-65W range which is what you'll find in the realm of high performance laptops (burst power modes excepted). Should that happen, we really would be looking at a new era of cooling.?

I think it'll be a while before we can ditch the fans in our gaming PCs though. A 300W+ i9 14900K stresses even a 360mm AIO cooler at full tilt, so we'll have to wait a long time before solid state cooling is capable of that kind of performance.

Still, I'm very excited to see where solid state cooling goes from here.

Highlighted by PC Watch, SilverStone's IceMyst closed-loop CPU coolers, first unveiled at Computex this year, are now on sale. Nothing special about that, you may think, but the IceMyst line has one stand-out feature. The integrated CPU plate and pump can be separated from the rest of the loop and additional fans, bought separately, can then be slotted in between.

The idea behind it is to provide additional cooling for the system RAM, motherboard VRMs, and other components. But just look at the example on the bottom right of this picture:

Ignore the fact that you'll never realistically fit that into most cases, seven extra fans will shift so much air that you'll feel a constant breeze around your ankles. And then there's the noise: The extra fans are 70mm in diameter and can spin up to 2800rpm. The phrase 'angry bees' comes to mind.

My biggest concern about it all is that everything just clips together and there doesn't seem to be any locking mechanisms to prevent the components from separating. Hopefully, I'm very wrong on this point, but if I'm not then the whole thing is just adding multiple failure points in your cooling system.

At around ?184 in the UK for the 420mm version, this setup is not cheap. And that's without any extra fans to play with, and I can't find a price on those. I guess the full range is going to take a little while to come to market, and I can't find hide nor hair of it in the US yet.?

To be fair to SilverStone, it all looks pretty cool (pardon the pun) and there is some merit to the idea. I'm just not sold on how safe it all is.

Fingers crossed we'll be able to get one in for testing soon, and you can be sure we're going to load that bad boy up with as many fans as we can squeeze onboard before it topples over. At the very least, nothing in the test rig will ever catch fire if it springs a leak!

I was skeptical at first, thinking: "Surely it can't make that much of a difference?" But I've never been so happy to be wrong in my life. Here's how one quick tweak helped me game for at least twice as long without suffering from the heat.

So yes, cooling gel earpads really do make a difference to gaming. I wouldn't be writing this article if they didn't. No, seriously, I begged the Editors to let me write about this. I can't understate the difference it made to me having a comfier headset that kept my head cool, rather than the usual sticky, cheap junk we usually have to suffer under.?

With my old ear pads, I'd get too warm and uncomfortable after an hour or two of gaming, and change over to my trusty Shure in-ear monitors. After switching out to cooling gel pads, the difference is like night and day or moist and dry.

Like many, I've been spending (maybe too much of) my time playing Baldur's Gate 3, and this Sunday I managed six hours straight before putting them down—and that was only because I had to make food, otherwise I would've kept on going.

That's more than double the time I would normally be able to stand gaming with my headset, and that was without putting the pads in the fridge for additional cooling. Because yeah, that's a thing you can do with them.

How do cooling gel ear pads work?

Most ear pads are cheaply made with a sponge ring wrapped in thin, perishable polyurethane (PU). Over time they start to degrade, sweat gets trapped in the sponge and they begin to irritate your skin.?

With cooling ear pads, you get a layer of gel between a memory foam core and a breathable outer layer (sometimes fabric, sometimes perforated PU). This prevents your head from overheating and allows moisture to escape and evaporate.

The end result: you can game in comfort for much longer, and you can use them to cool down in the warm weather, too!

With higher-quality pads, you'll get multiple layers of gel and foam wrapped in a mix of PU and breathable fabric for better comfort and cooling. Some premium brands will also offer wider and thicker pads for better cushioning and noise cancellation, so be sure to check the size of your replacement and see how it'll fit.

I've had my own pads for a few weeks now, and they're just as effective, comfy, and pristine as when I bought them. That's not too bad, considering I use them every day—sneaking them into my work calls and busting them out for the Discord server when the squad's booted.

How do I replace my gaming headset ear pads?

This will depend entirely on the headset you own. For me and my Arctis Pro, it was just a case of pulling off the old pads, placing my thumb inside the new one, and running it along the overhang to secure it in place on the Arctis' frame.?

Don't be afraid to use a little coercion to get them into position, but if you find yourself trying to force the fit, it's worth taking a step back and double-checking you're not about to break something.

It only took me two minutes to switch my ear pads out, and some pads are even easier to replace. For example, the Audeze Maxwell ear pads clip on and off with a simple twist.

If in doubt, check the website for your chosen pads. Most reputable brands will have videos on how to replace the pads on your specific headset.

What pads should I use?

There are plenty of cooling gel ear pads on Amazon, but a few brands stand out above the rest:

• Brainwavz
• Defean
• GEEKRIA
• GVOEARS
• Krone Kalpasmos
• SoloWIT/SOULWIT
• Wicked Cushions

One problem you'll run into early on is that most of the replacement pads are black. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you want to add a bit of flair to your headset, and make it more unique while upping the cooling factor, it's slim pickings.

What headsets will they fit?

You'll find pads available for most headsets, and Brainwavz even does universal replacements if you can't find a dedicated pair. Personally, I find Wicked Cushions offers the best quality and variety, and I've listed all of the models available at the time of writing below:

• Astro Gaming: A40 TR and A50 Gen 4.
• Audeze: Maxwell and Penrose.
• Audio Technica: ATH m50x, m50xbt, m50xbt2, m50, m40x, and m40.
• Beats by Dre: Studio 2, Studio 3, B0500, B0501, Solo 2, and Solo 3.
• Beyerdynamic: DT770, 770 PRO, 880, 880 PRO, 990, 990 PRO, TYGR 300R, MMX300, and 1770 PRO.
• Bose: 700, QuietComfort (2, AE2, 15, 25, 35, 35II, and 45), OE2 and OE2i.
• Corsair: Virtuoso, HS80, HS60, and ?Void.
• HyperX: Cloud (1, 2, and 3), Core, Flight, Flight S, Alpha, and Alpha S.
• Logitech: G PRO X.
• Razer Blackshark: V2 and V2 Pro (doesn't fit the 2023 model).
• Sennheiser: EPOS H6 PRO, GSP 500, GSP 550, GSP 600, GSP670, PC38X, PC37X, HD 559, HD 595, HD 598, and HD 599.
• Skullcandy: Crusher (Wireless, ANC, Evo, and 360), Hesh (1, 2, 3, Evo, and ANC), and Venue.
• Sony: WH1000XM3, WH1000XM4, WH1000XM5, MDR 7506, PS5 Pulse 3D, InZone H9 and H7.
• SteelSeries Arctis: 1, 1 Wireless, 3, 5, 7, 7+, 7P, 7P+, 7X, 7X+, 9, 9X, Pro, Pro Wireless, Prime, and Nova (1, 1X, 1P, 3, 7,7P, Pro Wired, and Pro Wireless).
• Turtle Beach: Stealth 300, 420X, 450, 600 (Gen 1 and 2), 700 Gen 1, Tango, Recon 50P, 50X, 70, 150, 200 Spark, and X12.

Gaze upon the wonders of the Stealth Tubing CPU water block, designed and built by custom PC builder ModdingCafe, the design makes it so you can hide your custom water loop tubing behind your motherboard. It even works with your standard mobo, so there's no need to buy an entirely new one just for the privilege.?

Though, fair warning, there is a little tinkering involved.

ModdingCafe designed this stealthy approach to water cooling with two things in mind—ease of use, and minimal aesthetic. And it looks like it's hit those marks rather elegantly, or so it seems watching the first person to get their hands on the prototype, Der8auer, as he fits the block (via WCCF Tech).?

Rather than forcing you to display your tubing around the front and have it get in the way of all your other fancy components, this water block uses four thin tubes that you simply slip through the mounting holes to reroute the liquid through the back of your motherboard.

To get to that point, you do have to remove the CPU mounting latch and replace it with the included custom one, before sandwiching your CPU between the two gorgeous acrylic blocks on either side.?

While you don't necessarily need to get yourself a new motherboard, you are going to need to check the spacing for your particular motherboard for this one. As Der8auer realised half way through... their M.2 cooling block was in the way when they tried to pop the custom block in for the first time.

So yeah, just something to keep in mind.

You'll also want to find a PC case with enough clearance around the back to allow you to hide your water tubes as well as the inevitable mass of power and connectivity cabling. And then of course a transparent panel to show your work on the back side, as long as you don't get complacent with your stealthy pipes.

Right now the Stealth Tubing CPU water block is still in its conceptual stages, so it could well change between now and its final form. Still, it looks like a pretty well thought out design and I'm now kinda flabbergasted that it's not already a thing.

In a similar vein, we've seen Asus popping in with cable-free RTX 4070 that feeds the cables through the back of the motherboard. Combine the two and you've got yourself a really snazzy minimal build. Who knows the kind of price you'll be looking at for the lot, though, as for the latter you do need a special motherboard.

Oh, the things we do for a clean system build. Maybe we should just ditch the glass side panels altogether and hide everything away again?

The reality? Sure, it's a much cleaner experience and less cable heavy, but the stresses of DIY are still very much present.

Opening the box for the System Hub up—the so-called brain of the iCue Link—I was met with a QR code with a very prominent STOP sign, bidding me check the instructions online before setting everything up. Because I've been previewing the kit ahead of launch the final version of the iCue Link instructions weren't available when I was testing it out. Sure I had the reviewer's guide to go off, but if I know anything about DIY PC builders I'd say going instructionless felt like a truer experience—we can be a little gung-ho when it comes to these things.

I set about getting everything set in place in the lovely NZXT H9 Elite chassis we reviewed recently. This fish tank-looking beastie is the perfect exhibit for the iCue Link, since you can see everything going on from both front and side.

It sounded simple enough going in. The iCue Link System Hub comes with a short 6-pin PCIe cable, and USB 2.0 data cable to plug into the motherboard. On each side, there's a single iCue Link channel port for connecting the rest of the ecosystem together. That means none of the other components would need power or data routed to them. It's an exciting concept, to say the least, especially when you consider the sheer number of cables connecting to your average RGB control hub.

I was sent the chonky iCue Link H150i RGB AIO CPU cooler. Rather than having a power connector on the pump head, the power is deftly routed through the outside of the liquid tube sleeves and into the 397mm x 120mm radiator, with its three, preinstalled QX120 RGB 120mm fans.

I'd have to get that connected up to the System Hub using one of the many ports on the sides and bottom of the radiator, along with the collection of iCue Link QX RGB PWM fans I'd been sent with the starter kit. Each fan has a port on either side, to be snapped together with other fans, or chained to other components with Corsair's nifty proprietary power cables.

The initial installation wasn't too bad. Starting with the AIO cooler for the CPU, that screwed in with no issues, and luckily there was already a bracket installed behind the motherboard so I didn't have to sort that out. It does come with both an AMD and Intel bracket, though, so no worries there if you don't have one already. Oh, and it comes with thermal paste pre-applied too, so that was nice.

The fan screws on the other hand were a little difficult to twist. Really, I needed three hands: one to hold the fan in place, and two to grasp and deathroll on the screwdriver like some RGB-fuelled alligator. At first I put it down to sweaty hands, but I've genuinely never had such trouble trying to fix fans into place.

Because of this, though, the triple fan intake on the side had a little give so it could slide up and down during the building process—something that frankly saved me when I had to unplug everything three bloody times.

Once everything was vaguely screwed in, it was a matter of figuring out where I could afford to place the Hub. I wanted to display it in the front of the case, because it's a cute little block, all things considered. Besides, not only does it take up just 2 inches of space, it's even magnetic. No screwing involved here.

I settled on popping it near the bottom right of the motherboard, and luckily I had a spare PCIe power cable so I could route power to it, circumventing the NZXT H9 Elite's weird PSU placement issue. Just something to keep in mind if your chassis has a non-standard PSU placement or you want to put the hub somewhere else, as you only get a teeny weeny 10cm power and header cable with it.

That said, the fact you only have to plug a single USB header cable into the motherboard's USB 2.0 slot is an absolute marvel. Seriously, you should have seen the state of the case before I swapped the hubs over… fan header cables everywhere. The hack who reviewed the H9 Elite is decidedly not good at cable management either.

While the lack of cables is very much appreciated, the trouble came in figuring out how to chain everything together. I imagined I could attach the powered System Hub to one of the AIO cooler's many ports, then octopus out from there into the rest of the components. I thought that should work, but it simply did not do the thing.

I ended up creating a chained loop of cables from one side of the System Hub, into the triple fan intake, up into the top-mounted AIO radiator, and then back down to feed into the other side of the System Hub. I then simply attached the single QX120 exhaust fan to the other end of the AIO radiator.

When I look at it now, it seems so simple. Not at the time, though.

My saving grace at this point was the extra Cable Kit. It meant I had some leeway to swap different length cables in and out while trying to figure out how to make the fans go brrr. All the components come with one or two cables, at least, including some 90° ones that really saved me when it came to the tighter spaces.?

The true hero of the hour, though, is the fact the cables connect whichever way up you try and jam them in. That meant I had a lot of options as to which direction to tackle my problems from.

My biggest regret of this whole ordeal was screwing the three side fans in before I figured out how the cables worked. Because trying to jam my hand in between some parts to get the connector situated was a nightmare even in a case that's super easy to build in.

Once you get the new version of the iCue software installed, there's a plethora of effects to pick from. Each with literal layers of potential and individual zones on every piece of kit, so you can highlight individual LEDs to get things just right. There's 34 RGB LED per fan, in fact, so lots of leeway for silliness, like my attempts to make an old Microsoft background look alike. The LEDs didn't handle the green rolling hills of the XP background well, but the AIO looks great in the old Windows logo colours.

The software actually detects everything automatically, though you do have to rearrange them into the right order, and make sure all the fans are up the right way for your RGB customisation session. It does helpfully display a single RGB colour you can relate to each fan on screen, which also helps you figure out orientation. The orange is very easy to mistake for a creamy white, but otherwise it's a pretty helpful system.

All in all, I'd say the final visage is pretty rad. Even if you decide not to install any software, the pastel "Watercolour" take on the RGB is refreshing. And hot damn, the satisfaction from finally getting everything working without having looked at any instructions is immense. Go me.

You'd hope this fan would be unbeatable after cooking in the oven for so long, and Noctua has already posted impressive improvements in static pressure and pure airflow performance. That's all well and good, but if it's not in my machine it's no benefit to me. So I've also been over to visit Noctua at Computex and (politely) inquired when this fan might actually see the light of day.

"We're looking at Q1 next year," Noctua's Dan Carter tells me. "Hopefully by the end of the year we'll be able to start production and then early next year we'll be able to launch. That's the current plan."

"We're still waiting on these final steps again, you'd never know for sure, of course, but at the moment it is looking very promising."

That would make a fan that's been in development for loosely nine years or so by the time anyone can buy one. So what's been happening all those years?

"Basically, the first five years from 2015 to 2020, we're basically trying out different designs, searching for one which is really going to give us the performance that we want.

"The development phase two, all the way to 2022, we actually came up with this impeller that we were really happy with. And so it then actually wasn't until almost the end of 2021 that we could enter that tooling phase and start gearing up."

From there, it was until around 2022 when it started to look like this fan was nearing mass production. But that didn't happen. Noctua's currently having to re-run the final stages of validation for this fan because of a couple of issues discovered towards the end of development.

"The first one was that we discovered when the impeller was removed from the mould, it was placed into the cooling liquid which was actually slightly too cold," Carter says. "... this meant that it was able to actually expand very slightly over those years of use."

"So we went back. We had to change the temperature that it was cooled at and hope that would fix the problem. It looks like it did."

That single issue would be enough to send the fan back through the lengthy validation process, which Noctua has laid out step-by-step at its Computex booth. It's a lot of steps, and even a single re-run of the test process can add a year or so onto the release date. But there was also another concern.

"The second one was… essentially, we found that with some fan clips, or screws if they're tightened too tight, it can create too much force, which can warp the frame very slightly… and you don't have much wiggle room."

The next-gen 140mm fan has a gap between the fan blades and the outer fan frame of just 0.7mm. I tried to capture this on camera, and it's extremely tough. It's really a very small amount of space, and it has potential to actually shrink over time with forces on the fan (impeller creep) or frame. It's so close even a "10th of a millimetre is too much."

"Which is why we, again, reevaluated things."

To prevent this creep due to forces on the fan, a material was required that was "very dense, very hard, and very good at not expanding." That's a pricey material known as liquid crystal polymer (LCP).

Originally intended only for the fan blades, Noctua swapped out the ABS/PBT material it was planning to use for the frame to the same LCP material. This, it hopes, will halt any of the potential warping that could shorten the lifespan of the fan. You can tell the difference immediately between the older prototype and the newer LCP one. LCP has a sort of marbled effect to its surface due to it being so dense.

This LCP material comes with its own challenges, however, as Noctua's planning a black Chromax version of this fan which could end up being more grey than anything due to the material's density. Similarly, it's very expensive.

"The LCP almost completely eliminates any warping at all. It will unfortunately increase the price more because LCP is much more expensive."?

A single 140mm will cost $40/40 or more, which makes me sweat a little. This fan needs to last if it's to justify that sort of price point. That's not a final price, as the fan won't hit mass production until the end of the year, but it's a rough idea of what you can expect to pay for one.

What you get in return might be the most exciting fan I've personally ever seen from a performance standpoint. It's a real all-rounder, with a big leap in static pressure and airflow over the NF-A14. The new design is also able to drop temperature by around 3°C versus the current design in a graph that shows the performance of the two fans when normalised to an identical noise level.

Even the central hub on this fan has been redesigned to turn it from a deadzone to a useful cooling component. Rather than a flat surface, bevelled areas aid in pushing air away from this central area and into the blades for greater dispersion.

I'm told "a lot of R&D has gone into this to make it perfect," and looking at the list of development steps, tweaks, and various fan prototypes, I believe it'll get pretty darn close. It's tough to say just how much I'd be willing to pay for this fan—if it's too pricey I'd maybe take the cheaper option and live with the couple of degrees. Yet if it can deliver what it promises and isn't too far in excess of $40, a handful of these could be a decade's worth of cooling sorted in one fell swoop.

Noctua also plans to roll a pair of these fans on the next-gen NH-D15 air cooler.

Here's hoping this project hasn't been too ambitious and by next year we're looking at the real deal available to buy on the shelves.