Noctua Revealed a Prototype CPU Cooler with Active Noise-Cancellation

By Tarun Iyer
published

Noctua has demoed a prototype CPU cooler that features active noise-cancellation technology.

Noctua has demonstrated a prototype CPU cooler that features active noise-cancellation that was co-developed with RotoSub that features the same disruptive interference technology found on headphones. The cooler is a D-type (twin-tower) heat sink with a large fan between its two stacks and speakers position along each stack.

According to TechPowerUp, Noctua placed a mic into the test chamber where visitors couldn’t hear a thing or at least anything that was “louder than the morning crowds at Nangang.”

Tarun Iyer
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dishayu
    Holy shit! Damn that is awesome! Why did no one think of this before?
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    Becouse it will make cooler prices jump up, their size will increase, and their performance will be lower, not to mention the added power consumption required.

    It quite simply might not be profitable.
    Reply
  • killeeeeer
    The guy at the booth said that this is possible by omitting sound wave that is the opposite of the one generated by the cooler thus canceling it and if the sound wave misses by little bit it well generate more noise so it requires a lot of testing.
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    Dammit now I'm waiting for this until I do a new build.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Same problem as with noice cancellation headphones. The best are guite good, but even they produce worse sound than real highend headphones because it is so damn hard to cancell just the right sounds. They work wery nicely, but it is not easy task to get it right!
    This is interesting product. What I am waiting is noice cancelling GPU cooler, or cooler block from Nochua. My CPU is allready guite quiet, but the GPU... The turbine airplane would be a shame beside it...
    Reply
  • csf60
    This was announced like 2 weeks ago...
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    that is just cool. Having done some fun noise cancellation tests in college I wonder how/if they managed to make this effective at all. The thing with noise cancellation headphones is that it is canceling the noise at a choke point (your ear canal) which is an environment relatively easy to control. The issue we found with more general noise cancellation is that in an open environment you have to try and match the position of the source of the noise, or place it in a spot where there is a standing wave. If you put it anywhere else then you end up with what is essentially a moire pattern of hot and dead spots in the room.
    The big issue I see is that every case is different, the size and layout of the hardware inside the case is different, the airflow through the case is different, and the room and location in the room that the box sits in is going to be different. Not saying it is impossible... just that it would be very difficult to come up with a design that can negate that many variables, and more difficult to believe that it would silence the CPU block further than what their already nearly silent fans do.
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    10968699 said:
    Holy shit! Damn that is awesome! Why did no one think of this before?

    because its not practical, computers don't need to be silent, it will be expensive, will probably provide less cooling which can be done with a low rpm fan inexpensively, its a low volume market, should I go on?
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    10968968 said:
    10968699 said:
    Holy shit! Damn that is awesome! Why did no one think of this before?

    because its not practical, computers don't need to be silent, it will be expensive, will probably provide less cooling which can be done with a low rpm fan inexpensively, its a low volume market, should I go on?

    Have you ever used a Noctua product before? They are extremely expensive, and typically do not work that much better than other coolers that are 1/4th the cost, and they have a design aesthetic that matches absolutely nothing that is popular... and yet they sell just fine because people are more than willing to spend an arm and a leg to have a powerful machine that is nearly silent, and that is what they do best.
    Personally, I just took a cheap Hyper 212Evo and slapped some high-end quiet fans on it. Looks better, performs better, and it was much cheaper. But to each their own.
    Reply
  • warezme
    There's lots of naysayers but in a practical sense, it would be more efficient to place an array of noise cancelling mics around your entire computer box and an array of speakers to cancel out the sum of your computer noise not just the air cooler. It shouldn't be as elaborate or expensive as noise cancelling headphones since you are only cancelling a very small range of internal sounds as opposed to the full range sounds from outside sources on a headphones. The hardware can be larger and cheaper since it doesn't have to be miniaturized to fit in the example of headphones, the cup of the ear.
    Reply