Performance Analysis

Although a first here on bit-tech, the NH-P1 failing our normal test suite isn't a bad thing - it was expected in fact. Our stock systems put out a lot of heat and while Noctua has said that it supports CPUs up until around the 65W TDP range,  we see a very hand wavey figure. Disregarding that and heading on to the tests devised for what this CPU is designed for, using the 65W TDP 3400G shows this cooler can perform well.

On the APU tests, the NH-P1 managed to keep the Delta T under 57°C while hitting a steady-state of around 55°C and the processor boosting to 3.8GHz all-core during the intensive Prime 95 Small FFT load. You can see how as we did more runs of the benchmark, the temperature tended to jump quicker but all tests ended at that 55°C ad 3.8GHz steady-state. This shows that the heatsink still had some thermal energy left from the previous runs but that we had truly hit the saturation point as far as heat goes. 

Next, we head on to the two tests run using the new NF-A12x25 LS-PWM as well as the NH-P1. Although designed primarily for passive cooling, the heatsink does come with holes and mounting hardware so we've put the shiny, new fan to good use. As far as fan speeds go, we left the default motherboard fan profile and even at 100% load the fan was as close to silent as you can get.

First in the temperature graph we can see that after the dip around 170 seconds in the temperature then flat-lines around 41°C. Looking at the frequency graph and output CSV, we can also see a slight clock-speed increase of about 50MHz. Not much but measurable and at a lower temperate for essentially no trade-off. Adding a slight clock-speed bump to get to a locked 4GHz again proves no worry for the cooler with us hitting a steady delta of around 44°C above ambient. This is once again a great temperature and proves we could probably push it further with some more tuning.

Conclusion

The NH-P1 is hard to summarise. While it failed our standardised tests, when used for its designed purpose it's an excellent bit of kit that the silent-enthusiast crowd have been calling out for for ages. It shows just how much thought Noctua puts into not only its fans but the whole package. Paired with the low-speed variant it's able to keep modest CPUs in check when under full load and would be perfect for either a low-power eSports or media centre PC. 

Combining the excellent out-of-the-box cooling, the historic great service and the reviewers' dream of a mounting system it's hard not to give the Noctua NH-P1 a recommended award here. That award does come with the caveat of being for the processors the cooler is designed for, but if you're in the market for a top-of-the range passive or silent cooler, then for not just £100, but pretty much anywhere, I can't see where you could do better.