So you quickly put together a system and that’s it?
No, it’s not that simple. Or you shouldn’t make it that easy if you really want to go for the most passive operation possible. And at this point you really have to praise Noctua, because they really did everything to make it as easy as possible for a potential buyer to put together a passive system. Starting with this how-to video:
Apart from that, there are also three databases on the website, with which you can test the compatibility in advance. The CPU Compatibility Centre makes the beginning:
We continue with the Motherboard Compatibility Centre:
And finally, probably the most important aspect for a passive system besides the processor, the case. There you can check in the Case Compatibility Centre if the cooler fits in at all and if the setup is suitable for passive heat dissipation:
All three lists are constantly revised and updated. At first, my Ryzen 5 3600 used here was not “approved” at all, meanwhile that has changed. In the beginning there was only a short list of recommended cases, but now you can search by manufacturer and find pretty much every case on the market. But you are not quite up to date yet, because I used an Inter-Tech C-702 Diorama for testing. However, Noctua already knows the slightly larger, but narrower version of it, the C-701 Panorama. By the way, this is the case I used in my fan placement test.
There are three ways to go with the power supply. Either completely passive, semi-passive or oversize it so that it never reaches more than the minimum fan speed. In my case, I went with the latter option and used the Fractal Design Ion Gold 750W here. But that was also mainly due to the fact that I actually have the power supply for another project here and so I don’t have to completely disassemble my testbench.
So this time it’s not purely passive, there are also 3x NF-A12x25 LS-PWM fans for semi-passive operation. I set the fan curves as follows:
CPU:
0-50°C = 0% PWM
50-80°C = 0-50% PWM
80-90°C = 50-100% PWM
Case:
0-75°C = 0% PWM
76°C = 50% PWM
Thus, everything remains completely passive in regular desktop use and under light load, and only when higher temperatures are reached at some point do the fans turn on. At the low speed they are absolutely inaudible, but increase the amount of heat that can be dissipated immensely.
And this is how the finished system looks like, for the tests the lateral disc will be hooked in again, of course. The graphics card is in the bottom slot because, for one thing, the backplate collides with the cooler and it would otherwise block most of the cooler. Since you rarely run Prime95 in normal operation, I chose more realistic load scenarios for the following tests. So that it does not become too confusing, I have packed the speeds of the three fans times a temporally equated, but separate graph.
We start with the Asus Realbench with all subtests:
The pure CPU stress test is followed by the rendering in Maxon Cinebench R23 Multicore:
And then I wanted to see how much the warm exhaust of a GPU-only stress test affects the temperature of the processor. To do this, I ran Unigene Valley on a continuous loop:
The fans didn’t start at all during the 20 minute runtime, the passive cooling was actually sufficient.
Noctua NF-A12x25 LS-PWM, 120mm
![]() | Lagernd im Außenlager, Lieferung 2-3 WerktageStand: 01.09.24 01:10 | 31,97 €*Stand: 01.09.24 01:11 |
![]() | Lagernd im Versandlager - Lieferzeit 2-5 Werktage | 31,98 €*Stand: 31.08.24 23:51 |
![]() | ab Lager | 31,99 €*Stand: 31.08.24 20:15 |
Fractal Design Ion Gold 750W ATX 2.52 (FD-P-IA2G-750)
![]() | Lager Lieferant: Sofort lieferbar, 1-3 Werktage | 101,68 €*Stand: 01.09.24 00:52 |
![]() | Lagernd im Außenlager, Lieferung 2-3 WerktageStand: 01.09.24 01:10 | 105,16 €*Stand: 01.09.24 01:11 |
![]() | Verfügbar - 3-5 Werktage Lieferzeit | 105,17 €*Stand: 01.09.24 00:35 |
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