Cooling an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processor without using watercooling or a fan tray? Yes, it's possible, but if it's not as simple as that.
When AMD released its Ryzen 9 9950X processor over the summer - at the same time as the entire Ryzen 9000X range - it probably didn't imagine that a "passive" cooling system would be used to lower its temperature. With 16 cores/24 threads and a TDP of 170 watts, this is pretty much the most powerful processor you'll find on a home market, but its heat output is inevitably relatively high, and you'll need a pretty hefty cooling system to keep it cool: a large ventirad or a relatively imposing watercooling kit.
ASUS/Noctua
ASUS and Noctua have decided to prove that it's possible to do without these "accessories" in a video published on the Chinese website BiliBili and relayed by VideoCardz. We can't, however, speak of a truly passive solution - hence the quotation marks used so far - as the operation exploits first and foremost an ASUS PA401 case equipped with powerful fans, three to be exact: two 160-mm diameter fans at the front and one 120-mm fan at the rear. Gentle ventilation, because these large fans don't need to turn quickly to move a large volume of air, and gentle ventilation means very discreet ventilation.
ASUS/Noctua
The airflow generated by these fans is important because it enables ASUS and Noctua to make do with a passive heatsink to be applied to the processor. In this case, it's Noctua's NH-P1, an 1180-gram block combining copper and aluminum for maximum efficiency. The fact is, this heatsink on the processor and the whole thing mounted inside the case is enough to keep the Ryzen 9 9950X under the 100°C mark and prevent it from overheating. Oh, we can't say it's really cool, but at 95.2°C under full load, it's sufficiently cooled, and all this with a minimum of noise. Not bad.
