Noctua has announced a partnership with Forced Physics, the company behind JouleForce technology. Simply put, it’s a system of microchannels that are so thin and closely spaced that they significantly increase the heat transfer surface area in a cooling system. But the downside of this system is that it requires such powerful ventilation that systems using this technology are particularly noisy—too noisy to be suitable for a desktop PC. The goal of this collaboration is to bring the technology to the average consumer’s computer.
Noctua and Forced Physics: a collaboration to bring professional-grade technology to the consumer market!
A Long-Term Partnership:
The first thing to note about this partnership is that it’s a long-term collaboration that isn’t constrained by a release date or a specific product. So, if adapting the technology isn’t possible, there’s no need to release a new, subpar product anyway…. This is actually a good thing for the brand image of both companies.
Next, we’re talking about a specific field—industrial cooling—that needs to be adapted for a PC that will be placed in an office, living room, or bedroom. When you look at how JouleForce blocks are designed, you quickly understand the scale of the challenge. In fact, the fin array they feature is so dense that you can fit four of their fins between two fins of a standard mass-produced CPU cooler. It’s immediately clear that the ventilation requirements are enormous—especially for fans that generate immense static pressure to push air through the system. On the other hand, these fans are very loud, which isn’t a major issue in an industrial setting or a data center, for example. Nevertheless, this high density also allows for a very large heat exchange surface area within a very confined space and potentially very high cooling capacity.
In short, we’re curious to see what will come of this partnership, as the challenge is a significant one. For this venture to succeed, the resulting product must offer a practical benefit for end users.