Noctua Explores JouleForce Air Cooling for Desktop PCs

Noctua and Forced Physics DCT are looking at a different way to cool desktop PCs: push air through a tightly packed array of tiny channels that pulls heat away from a chip. Their new partnership will test whether Forced Physics’ JouleForce technology can work in desktops and workstations without the noise of the industrial equipment it currently needs.

How JouleForce moves heat

Most PC air coolers use metal fins and a fan. JouleForce uses a micro-channel array designed to keep heat transferring into the air as it moves through each narrow passage. Forced Physics says its broader platform targets heat loads from 500W to more than 2,000W in custom, high-density systems. That range is a target for the platform, not a rating for an announced desktop cooler.

The airflow problem

Those narrow channels are also hard to push air through. Noctua says the pressure drop is more than an order of magnitude beyond the range of conventional axial PC fans. Current setups use industrial blowers, fast centrifugal fans or vacuum pumps. They can move the air, but they are hardly what most people want humming beside a desk.

The companies will investigate whether they can lower the pressure requirement or produce the needed airflow within a PC’s size and noise limits. Preventing air from leaking around the array is another engineering challenge. A cooler that handles more heat would be useful only if the complete system fits and runs quietly enough to live with.

No release date yet

This is a long-term research project, not a product announcement. Noctua has given no model name, price, desktop performance result or launch window. The interesting question now is whether it can turn JouleForce’s high-power cooling approach into something practical for an ordinary PC case.

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