Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Overview
Taking a first look at the NH-P1 one thing is for sure, it is huge! With official dimensions of 158 mm x 154 mm x 152 (HxWxD) it is one of the largest coolers that we’ve ever reviewed.
This is a completely passive CPU cooler so there are no fans. The bulk of the cooler is made up of the heatsink, which hope to be large enough to dissipate all of the heat from your CPU. Taking a closer look we can see that is it designed a bit differently than typical CPU coolers. On typical CPU coolers the heatsink fins are extremely thin and stacked quite close. Here on the NH-P1 we have thirteen 1.5mm-thick aluminum fins that are spaced out quite a bit.
The heatsink fins also have large holes in them. These plus the spacing of the fins allows for the minimal airflow resistance that is required in order to excel in natural convection cooling.
Coming up from the base of the cooler we have six nickel-plated copper heatpipes. These go up in from one side of the cooler and pass through the individual fins.
Flipping the cooler over we can get a closer look at the base. One thing you notice is that the base is off-center, which allows for 100% RAM compatibility on LGA1200, LGA115x, and AM4 motherboards. The base of the cooler is made of copper and have one of the best finishes we’ve seen lately on a CPU cooler.
