Launch of Noctua's large fanless CPU cooler designed for high TDP scenarios - more realistically, running premium desktops fanless - has been delayed to Q1 2021, according to a FanlessTech report citing a company roadmap. Noctua has been working on this cooler for some time now, with the early prototypes exhibited back in the 2019 Computex. In May 2020, we reported citing OC3D that the cooler was closer to launch, and expected to come out within 2020. Noctua's product roadmap looks pretty spartan for the remainder of 2020, with Black trims of the NH-D15S and NH-U9S expected in Q3, and Redux variants of various CPU coolers expected in Q4. Several CPU cooler launches have been pushed to Q1 2021, possibly bunched up for CES. Unfortunately, CTA put out some bad news on Tuesday.

Here's the first picture of the Akasa Maxwell Pro fanless HTPC case. This Mini-ITX case features an all-aluminium construction, with diamond-cut edges on matte-gray anodized aluminium panels. The case's body doubles up as passive heatsink for the processor, and the Maxwell Pro is one of Akasa's first few cases to feature a common fanless block design that supports both AMD Socket AM4 and Intel LGA115x/LGA1200. The case extends into heatsink ridges along the sides, while a series of four copper heat pipes links it with a base at the CPU socket. Akasa claims the case is capable of handling CPU TDP of up to 65 W without any fans.

The front-panel features a brushed-aluminium finish, along with a handful USB ports and a power button, although we can't spy an IR receiver port. The case measures 280 mm x 209 mm x 110 mm (WxDxH). An optional 150 W power-brick is included, along with an internal DC-to-DC switch that converts the 2-pin DC input from the brick to various ATX standard connectors. The company didn't reveal availbility or pricing.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is proud to introduce the NA346, a 4-LAN fanless network appliance platform designed in a small form factor. This ultra-small desktop network appliance is powered by the Intel Celeron processor N3350 (code name: Apollo Lake) featuring the lowest Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 6 W to meet the specific configurations of low-power requirement. The reliable NA346 is positioned as an entry-level SD-WAN, VPN and security gateway for industrial IoT security applications.

"The 5G network is foreseeable to transfer data with greater bandwidth, higher speed and boost the edge computing and AIoT application. The cutting-edge NA346 offers two mini-PCIe slots and SIM socket supporting 3G/4G/LTE communications and connectors to 5G modules," said Kiwi Lee, a product manager of Product PM Division at Axiomtek. "Space limitation is one of the constraints in today's industrial environment. Axiomtek's ultra-small NA346 can be easily installed in narrow spaces. Featuring fanless operation, this network security appliance is perfect to be used in noise-sensitive environments."

HDPLEX today introduced the Passive NUC Kit cooling system for H1-series fanless NUC cases by the company, such as the H1 V3 and H1.TODD. Designed for both NUC 7 and NUC 8, the Passive NUC Kit is an assembly that thermally connects the NUC's processor to the body of the H1 case, which doubles up as a heatsink. It consists of an aluminium base-plate, from which six 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes emerge, with three each going to either directions of the base-plate, and making contact with the side body panels of the H1-series case. In combination with your H1-series case, the Passive NUC Kit can dissipate thermal loads of up to 65 W. The Passive NUC Kit supports both the 3-bolt mounting mechanism of the NUC 7 and 4-bolt mechanism of the NUC 8. Available now, it is priced at USD $58.50.

SeaSonic late last week launched three new fanless PSUs under the Prime Fanless series. The company expanded its Prime Fanless TX line of 80 Plus Titanium-certified power supplies with a new 700 W model, the Prime Fanless TX-700. This tops the series which has been led by a 600-Watt model since its debut back in 2017. The TX-700 offers full modular cabling, well over 95% efficiency with 230 VAC input, micro-tolerance load regulation (MTLR), APFC, most common electrical protections, and connectivity that include two 8-pin EPS, four 6+2 pin PCIe, and twelve SATA power connectors.

Next up, SeaSonic expanded its Prime Fanless PX line of 80 Plus Platinum certified PSUs with new 500 W and 450 W models. You get largely the same electrical feature-set as the Fanless TX series, but with around 93% efficiency at 230 VAC. You still get two 8-pin EPS connectors, but only up to two 6+2 pin PCIe power, and eight SATA power. SeaSonic is backing both its Prime Fanless TX and PX lines with an industry-leading 12-year product warranty that's probably supported by the fact that these PSUs have no moving parts.

Silverstone at CES 2020 took the opportunity to showcase selections of their portfolio for the media, ranging from PC cases in major form-factors, PSUs, and a range of "ease-of-life" and aesthetic-driven accessories. Accessory-wise, there's a range of SSD-related products, such as the MS09 stick, which allows conversion of an M.2 SSD to what basically amounts to a USB 3.1 pen drive; other products in this category include the MS09-Mini and the MS11, which improves support for the NVMe protocol. The ECM26 is a PCIe adapter for M.2 sticks, while the Silverstone TP02-M2 presents itself as a heatsink for installation on non-passive-cooled M.2 SSDs.

Continuing the SSD accessories galore, there are a number of other solutions, including a tool-less NMVe to PCIe adapter (ECM21-E), an ARGB powered one (ECM24-ARGB, which includes a heatsink), a simpler, non-ARGB one with a heatsink (ECM23), and my personal favorite, a docking station for a barebones M.2 drive you may have around, in the form of the TS16 station. The presence of a Power button very surely means this can't be hot-swapped - the risk of data-loss is real.

MonsterLabo, a team of four people best known for their work on "The First" PC case, are at it again with giant pieces of PC component tech. This time, they took tried and true designs and sizes of CPU and GPU coolers and threw them into an enlargement ray, coming up with what they are calling "The Heart". As it stands, and it stands higher and heavier than all other cooling solutions hitherto, "The Heart" is a cooling solution that extends from your CPU through to your GPU, cooling both with its design of densely stacked fins.

Dimensions is where "The Heart" is bold, with the cooler measuring 200 by 185 mm and 265 mm tall. Adding insult to injury, its weight comes in at 6.6 lbs (3 Kg for us metric system aficionados). MonsterLabo rates the cooler's dissipation capabilities at 100 W CPU load and a 120 W GPU. Adding a 500-RPM 140 mm fan would bump those numbers to 140 W and 160 W, respectively. Mind these numbers apply to cases where "The Heart" is installed into MonsterLabo's own The First case, but differences should be relatively minor in any other case, should you actually be able to install it there. Of course, the combined CPU and GPU design will be very hit or miss - your graphics card will have to be perfectly compatible with the cooler, with its GPU set just right on the PCB for it to be perfectly covered by it. If you want to risk that, you can always drop $200 or €180 for The Heart, in either black or white finishes. Inexpensive for a heart, yes, but extremely expensive as a cooler with expected limited compatibility.

Fanless mini-PC case maker Streacom introduced the UM2 Universal CPU Mount accessory, which lets you use the company's FC5, FC8, FC9 and FC10 cases with some of the newer CPU socket types. Streacom specializes in cases in which the body panels double up as a passive heatsink to cool the CPU, with a base and heatsinks transferring heat to the panels. The UM2 Universal CPU Mount uses oval shaped metal arms that you can orient across square (LGA115x), rectangular (AM4), or even trapezoid socket mount hole patterns, future-proofing these cases. The UM2 replaces the stock upper-mount your case comes with, hence its name. Streacom hasn't revealed pricing or availability.

Each year we look forward to the next big fanless PSU. Seasonic did not disappoint this year, with the new Prime Fanless TX-700. This replaces the Prime Titanium Fanless 600W as the company's most powerful PSU of its kind. Its connectivity is updated to include two 4+4 pin EPS connectors, up to six 6+2 pin PCIe power, and up to twelve SATA power connectors. The best part? It holds onto its >94% 80 Plus Titanium efficiency even at 115VAC. Ripple noise suppression has been tightened to 20 mV, and micro-tolerance load regulation to 0.5%. Seasonic picked the choicest aluminium electrolytic capacitors, and worked on improving the thermals even further. The company backs their design effort with a 12-year warranty.

Seasonic also unveiled the compact 12 cm-long Prime Fanless PX-500 if your requirements aren't too steep. This 500W unit boasts of a respectable 80 Plus Platinum efficiency, the same ripple suppression and and MTLR features as its bigger sibling, and the same electrical/thermal protections. And you still get the 12-year warranty so the PSU outlasts everything else in your rig. The PX-500 has enough juice and straws for HEDT, with two 4+4 pin EPS, and four 6+2 pin PCIe.

While at Computex 2019 we also had a chance to look at Zalman's power supply lineup which has seen some interesting additions in the FPSU800 and ZM-DFP 700 and 800 which are all new designs. The FPSU800 is billed as the worlds first 800-watt fanless power supply and uses DTH (Direct Touch Heat-pipes) and an all aluminium case to keep temperatures in check while also ensuring long term reliability. It is fully modular with RGB edge lighting keeping things neat and tidy with a touch of flair. In regards to the details, it is an 80 Plus Gold unit with capacitors rated at 105°C. When it comes to protection, the FPSU800 offers OPP, OCP, OTP, OVP, UVP, and SCP and has an Active-PFC design. As the name implies, only an 800-watt unit version is available.

Meanwhile, the ZM-DFP is a bit more gamer focused, available in 700-watt and 800-watt versions it features RGB Spectrum 120 mm and 80 mm fans. Much like the FPSU800, it is fully modular, 80-Plus Gold rated, and has the same protection mechanisms including an Active-PFC design.

Akasa Turing is the company's latest fanless cases for Intel "Bean Canyon" NUC family, which embeds 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake" processors. Designed for living rooms or corner offices, the Turing is a carbon-black monolith with its aluminium body doubling up as heatsink for the processor. Fins and ridges of the body panel curve in an almost Art Deco style. You can either orient the case vertically, or sideways. The case can handle SoCs with TDP of up to 28 W without needing fans. Front panel connectivity includes a pair of USB 3.1 type-A, an IR receiver, and headset jack, while the rear panel is designed for most "Bean Canyon" boards. Akasa will reveal pricing very soon.

First announced at Computex, MonsterLabo "The First" case was for sure a surprise in the world of fanless, passive cooling solutions. The original announcement is somewhat different from the final version of the case, which in fact will be available in two successive editions. The first one, B.1, will be a 100 (black only) units edition available on December 15th. The second one, B.2, will have 300 pieces that will be available in black and also white color at the beginning of 2019. The MonsterLabo "The First" will have a price tag of 429 euros.

MonsterLabo promises that its design can passively cool a high-end configuration with a Core i7-8700K (95W TDP) and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (180 W TDP), although proper tests with intensive workloads will have to confirm that. The case includes a Noctua 140 mm fan (NT-A14), and has a steel housing measuring 205 x 215 x 420 mm (L x W x H) which weighs 7 kilograms.

British PC maker Tranquil PC is making its comeback with three new fanless mini PCs based on AMD Ryzen Embedded SoCs. The three are part of the "mini multi display" series, and are its variants, named "Basic," "Advance," and "Advance+." The three feature Tranquil PC's latest octagonal fanless aluminium chassis measuring 180 mm x 157 mm x 54 mm. The body panels of the case double up as heatsink for the sub-25 Watt SoCs. Connectivity is common between the three. On the front-panel, you get two USB 3.0 ports, one of which is type-C; HDA audio jacks, and interestingly an RS232 serial COM port.

The rear panel gives you access to four DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, which can each drive a 4K UHD display; two additional type-A USB 3.0 ports, two 1 GbE interfaces, and hardpoints for the WLAN antennae (802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1). SoC variant and storage is what differentiates the three. The Basic trim gives you a Ryzen Embedded V1202B (2-core/4-thread, up to 3.20 GHz) chip, 8 GB of DDR4 memory, and 256 GB of SSD storage. The Advance trim gets you the faster 4-core/8-thread Ryzen Embedded V1605B (up to 3.60 GHz); 16 GB of memory, and 256 GB SSD storage. The Advance+ trim steps that up with 32 GB of memory, and 1 TB of SSD storage. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ASUS rolled out the Tinker Fanless Aluminium case, a custom-design case for the Tinker Board and Tinker Board S hobby-kits by ASUS that rival Raspberry Pi. The case is built from a block of aluminium with brushed-metal finish; which opens from one side (rear), held together by a single thumb-screw. It has cutouts for all of the Tinker Board's ports and connectors - four USB, an HDMI output, Ethernet, DC-in, two card slots, and slots for the optional WLAN module. The case has enough room to let you mount the SoC heatsink that's included with Tinker Boards. The case measures 90 mm x 67 mm x 36 mm (WxDxH).

Akasa at Computex, unveiled a wide range of fan-less aluminium cases for the 7th generation "Dawson Canyon" NUC boards. The company had alreadly launched the Pascal MD late-2017. Among the new cases are the Newton S7D, Newton D3, and the Plato X7D. The Plato X7D is the largest of the three, and is characterized by a lattice of aluminium ridges that work like heatsinks for the SoC and chipset of the NUC, and diamond-cut edges along the front panel. Front-panel connectivity includes two each of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports. Besides rear I/O holes for "Dawson Canyon" series NUC boards, the case offers a stub for an RS232 (COM) port at the back. All three cases feature VESA mounts, so you can strap the NUCs behind your monitor and reduce clutter on your desk.

The Newton D3 is the most compact case of the three, and supports fewer NUC board models, namely the NUC7i3DNBE, NUC7i3DNKE, and NUC7i3DNHE (all of which have are low-TDP SoCs and fewer connectors). You still get a 2.5-inch drive bay, mount holes for your WLAN card's antennae, two USB 3.0 front panel connectors, an IR window, and an RS232 serial port provision at the back. The Newton S7D is its larger sibling, with more metal to the bone, to cope with higher TDP SoCs, and hence supports NUC boards based on Core i5 and Core i7 SoCs.

Compulab has taken to Kickstarter as a way to subsidize the development and production of its Airtop2 Inferno Mini-PC. This aims to be a be-all, end-all Mini-PC that enables high-quality gaming in a fanless, noiseless design. Its insides are positively bursting with top notch hardware: it'll be powered by an Intel i7-7700K (95 W TDP) and the desktop version of Nvidia's GTX 1080 (180 W TDP). If it ever begins actual production, that is; nothing against Compulab, but Kickstarter itself seems to have one too many of these cases popping out.

Compulab's solutions use their metal side panels as "immense" radiators to dissipate the heat buildup inside the chassis. A number of heatpipes and air channels are built into these side panels' structure, so as to allow for better heat dissipation and usage of natural warm air convection. Besides the top of the line CPU and GPU, the Airtop2 Inferno packs a C236 chipset motherboard (a Z170 equivalent). It's possible to install up to 4x DIMMs, 4x 2.5" HDD or SSD solutions, and 2x NVMe SSDs.

Want a fanless aluminium case for a reasonably powerful machine, but not a fan of brutalist aluminium ridges (fins) sticking out? Impactics DMono could be your choice. This case looks heavily inspired from the Mac Mini, but unlike the tiny air cooler Apple sneaked in, the DMono is completely fanless. Its body, made of a 5 mm-thick block of aluminium, acts as heatsink, powerful enough to handle 35W TDP Intel LGA115x processors. There's 2.65 kg of aluminium to go around. The DMono comes in four variants, two based on color (brushed aluminium and matte-black), and sub-variants based on the positioning of the power button (front or top). Thin mini ITX motherboards from GIGABYTE are supported. Available exclusively from Caseking.de, the DMono is priced at 200€ a piece.

Here are some of the first pictures of HDPlex H3 V2 fan-less HTPC chassis. The H3 sits between the tiny H1 and deck-sized H5. It has the height of the H5 and the width of the H1. The case measures 270 mm x 264 mm x 93 mm (WxDxH), weighing in at 5.5 kg. Its main chamber can house mini-ITX motherboards, and a half-height add-on card that's no more than 1-slot thick. As with most fan-less cases, the chunky, ridged aluminium body of the H3 V2 doubles up as heatsink for the CPU/SoC, and can handle thermal loads of up to 80W. The CPU block uses eight 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes to transport heat to the body. The case also has room for up to four 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch drives. Available now, it is priced at USD $240.

Compulab is introducing Airtop2 - a high-performance ruggedized fanless PC for edge computing and industrial applications that require deployment in harsh conditions. Based on Intel Xeon Processor E3-1275 v6 with an optional NVIDIA Quadro P4000 - both passively cooled using Compulab proprietary Natural Airflow technology and with a volume of just 7.5 liter - Airtop2 redefines the performance level of compact fanless PCs.

Other remarkable features of Airtop2 are up to 64 GB DDR4, high-performance storage sub-system with 2x NVMe + 4x 2.5" SATA SSDs / HDDs, tool-free service and a broad selection of FACE Module extensions. Airtop2 is available at an industrial temperature range of -40°C to 70°C and ships with 5 year warranty.

The ML350 features a low profile fanless enclosure and a motherboard developed from the ground up to enable a range of customization options including expansion, connectivity and advanced Consumer Electronics Control (CEC).

With an eye toward the evolving needs of today's industrial computer users, Logic Supply has unveiled the small form factor, fanless ML350. Powered by Intel Apollo Lake processing, the ML350 is a highly customizable computing platform, purpose-built from board to chassis for applications ranging from digital signage and machine automation, to industrial IoT and edge computing.

Axiomtek, one of the world's leading design and manufacturing companies of innovative, high performance and reliable PC-based industrial computer products, is proud to announce the launch of the eBOX560-512-FL, an embedded system powered by Intel Core i5-7300U or Celeron 3965U processors. The ultra-compact computer is packed with features in its small IP40 aluminum and steel enclosure. It offers scalable computing performance; rich graphical capabilities that support dual independent display of up to 4K resolution; flexible communication options; and thoughtful design that offers versatility and values for Industrial Internet of Things use. The system is made for smart factory automation, digital signage and smart retail applications or any applications that require a good balance of a high performance industrial-grade computer and a good price point - with space-serving design and rich features.

The eBOX560-512-FL comes with many communications options such as four USB 3.0 ports, two RS-232/422/485 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one PCI Express Mini Card slot and two antenna. This tiny embedded PC offers two HDMI ports, a lockable 12 VDC power input with power protection feature and a user-friendly AT/ATX DIP switch for adjustments between automatic and manual operation control. The eBOX560-512-FL has 2.5" SATA HDD and one mSATA for data storage, and one 260-pin DDR4-2133 SO-DIMM socket with up to 16 GB system memory. It is compatible with Windows 10 IoT and supports Axiomtek's exclusive AXView 2.0 software for smart device monitoring and remote management for IoT applications. For flexible mounting options, this fanless rugged embedded platform is compatible with a wall mount, a VESA mount and a DIN-rail mount.

Compulab announces immediate availability of fitlet2. Based on Intel Atom x7-E3950 Processor (Apollo-Lake) with up to 16 GB RAM and storage options ranging from eMMC to 2.5" SSD, fitlet2 is one of the most versatile miniature PCs for IoT. fitlet2 functionality can be further extended with Compulab 2nd generation Function and Connectivity Extension T-Cards (FACET Cards). Like all other Compulab mini-PCs, fitlet2 is completely fanless, available at wide temperature range and is sold with 5 year warranty.

Miniature fanless design
fitlet2 measures only 112 mm by 84 mm, making it one of the smallest full-featured PCs on the market. An all-metal die-cast housing is used for fanless passive heat dissipation. There are several optional versions of the housing including low-profile 25mm and an industrial top cover for direct-mounting.