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NAUTILUS II FlowDrive 2S Pump Explained

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Modern processors from both Intel and AMD are pushing the boundaries of performance. When you're trying to tame the thermals of high-end, heat-dense chips like the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D or the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, your liquid cooler needs to operate at peak efficiency.

To keep these modern behemoths running at their maximum boost clocks, we didn't just make a few minor tweaks to our new NAUTILUS II AIO - we completely overhauled the internal pump architecture.

Flow Rate

With the NAUTILUS II, we achieved a massive 40% higher flow rate compared to its predecessor - pulling heat away from your CPU at a much quicker speed so there isn't any chance of thermal throttle and provides a bettter consistency for lower temperatures. We accomplished this through two major physical upgrades to the impeller:

  • Upgraded Blade Design: FlowDrive 2S introduces a high-efficiency 7-blade impeller (vs. standard 6-blade design on previous NAUTILUS), moving more liquid per rotation while maintaining a quiet acoustic profile.
  • Larger Diameter: We scaled up the impeller diameter from 33.4mm to 37.9mm, generating significantly higher head pressure and ensuring that coolant rushes through the micro-skived fins of the cold plate with minimal resistance.

Cold Plate Design

Moving the liquid faster is only half the battle. The other half is ensuring the heat from the CPU actually transfers into that liquid as efficiently as possible before it gets whisked away.

  • Thinner Profile, Lower Thermal Resistance: We precision-machined the copper cold plate to be significantly thinner. By reducing the physical thickness of the material sitting between the CPU heat spreader and the liquid coolant, we've lowered the thermal resistance, allowing heat to dissipate into the loop much faster. Another attribution to making sure you're able to hit prolonged boost speeds on your CPU, as well as reduce noise from your fans ramping up to accommodate the sudden temperature spike.
  • Optimized AM5 Surface Profile: With the unique IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) design of modern AM5 processors, perfectly flat isn't always perfectly optimal. We specifically designed the surface profile of our new cold plate to seamlessly match the subtle contours of AMD's AM5 processors. This ensures maximum metal-to-metal contact exactly where the CCDs (Core Complex Dies) are located beneath the IHS.
  • Even Pressure Distribution: A great cold plate is useless if it doesn't mount evenly. Our mounting mechanism and internal cold plate structure ensure highly uniform pressure distribution across the entire CPU surface. This eliminates localized hot spots and ensures your thermal paste spreads perfectly even for optimal heat transfer.

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