Passive cooling is a dream of many silence-enthusiasts, but it's so hard to do without a ridiculous amount of expensive metal. While Noctua's new NH-P1 doesn't reinvent the wheel on that front, it does create a cooler that isn't quite as ludicrous as some options we've seen in the past. Better yet, it's powerful enough to cool even a super hot 11900K at its 125w TDP.
Noctua has been the gold standard of PC air cooling for some time now, offering some of the most effective cooling solutions money can buy. Even if you do have to spend a lot for it. Its coolers offer fantastic performance that can outpace even some of the better watercooling AIOs out there. Though the new NH-P1 won't manage quite such performance, with Noctua making it clear that many CPUs won't be able to run at their base clock with this cooler in play.
Still, it is supremely powerful and looks fantastic, so if you're building a passive system with an Intel core i5 11600, or one of the new Ryzen 4000 or 5000 APUs. The latter are especially strong contenders, since they offer functional GPU power for entry-level gaming too.
The NH-P1 is now available on Amazon and via other retailers, starting at $110. The low speed fan which can be added for a little extra cooling power, is a further $30.