NH-P1 Passive Cooler
Contents
The Noctua NH-P1 is a passive cooler which is ideal for fanless enclosures relying on natural convection of airflow. This makes the NH-P1 completely silent cooling solution since there are no active cooling components and less prone to dust. For other enclosures, the optimal fans setup is a must to achieve the target performance from this cooler. Depending upon the design, some enclosures may be a better fit for this type of cooler than the others in terms of the airflow. Noctua has provided their own recommended list of enclosures for the NH-P1.
Intel and AMD use different ways of describing the TDP (Thermal Design Power) on their CPUs which can be confusing. This further complexes as the TDP rating of the given CPU holds for base clock whereas the CPU is designed to operate at its turbo clock resulting in higher TDP than the specified one. Noctua has designed their own classification to describe the heat load rating for their coolers which is described in terms of NSPR which stands for Noctua Standardised Performance Rating. This rating is provided in the form of a number and generally the higher the number, the better the cooling solution or equivalent to say higher numbered coolers have adequate overclocking headroom. Please keep in mind that the term NSPR applies only for the Noctua coolers as it is not a universal standard. The NSPR of the Noctua NH-P1 is 42. This rating goes to 89 with the NF-A12x25 LS PWM fan. What does this number tell us?
To better understand the NSRP, we need to take into consideration the coolers’ classification provided by the Noctua since the performance varies from CPU to CPU based on its silicon characteristics. The NSRP helps the Notua’s users to identify the given cooler in terms of various headlines like best/medium/low turbo/overclocking headroom and so on. This way the user is better able to tailor their cooling solution as per the requirement. Click here to read more about NSRP and how it is calculated.
Noctua rating for NH-P1 for Intel i7 10700k
Noctua provides symbolic figure against each of their cooler on the list of CPUs on their website. Since we are testing the cooler on the Intel i7 10700K, we checked the Noctua’s recommendation on NH-P1 for this cooler.
The Noctua NH-P1 is compatible with the Intel i7 10700k with certain restrictions which are the CPU might operate below the base clock under full continuous load. However, adding the NF-A12x25 LS PWM fan eases the situation as we now sit in the category of low/turbo overclocking headroom. This would also depend on the type of load on the CPU (single-threaded vs multi-threaded, low to high load, gaming, rendering etc). These factors need to be kept in mind to identify the best possible cooling solution.
Similarly, there are other components which play their role in the type of cooling solution. The motherboard and PC cases are among the most critical ones.
Noctua has provided a comprehensive list of the supported motherboards on their website. We checked if our motherboard MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK is listed there or not. The Motherboard is compatible with the NH-P1
As mentioned earlier, the NH-P1 is ideal for the fanless enclosures relying on the natural convection or in case it is to be used in the non-passive enclosure, the optimal airflow in the case needs to be ensured. Noctua has provided a list on their website mentioning which case is best suited for NH-P1 and which might not. The Fractal Design Meshify 2 is among the compatible enclosures.
