Reviews - Noctua NH-D15

[HEXUS]

Has Noctua's flagship cooler been worth the wait?

Read more.

[Roobubba]

Argh, I just bought the NH-D14! How annoying!

I would have been interested to see how this compares to the NH-D14 as it's the direct successor. Also I've seen a lot of buzz around the Thermalright Macho (rofl at the name), as a cheap but stellar performing cooler.

In case anyone is wondering: installation of the NH-D14 in a Xigmatek Aquila microATX case is a breeze, despite the initial worry when you unpack everything and look at it as though to say 'nope, no way that's going to fit in thar.'

[Plasmastorm]

Personally I'll stick with my H100.
The only down side of the Noctua is that I'd be worrying about damage to the board when moving the case around as there is so much weight on that small area. Where as the H100 is not as good on the cooling it's a fair trade off imo.

[AndyM95]

No thanks. I'll stick with my BLACK Phanteks PH-TC14PE that performs about the same, costs less and produces less noise.

[zaph0d]

Me I'll stick to my custom liquid loop, Running with Ethanol instead of water and with a 2-litre resevoir it stays cold. 40C under load with a i7 920 C0 @ 3.8GHz HT Enabled. Even with the pump switched off (by accident the first time) full load was 65C.

Tempted to get my hands on some 3M Novec 7000 and put that in the loop and see what happens

[Kanoe]

As Roobubba says it would have been nice to see the NH-14 figures in the tests to see if / how much of an improvement the NH-15 is over it.

Any chance of you adding them Hexus?

Had the NH-14 for a few years now atop my CPU and can't complain. I know RAM spacing was a concern but as I was buying the RAM and cooler at the same time I took that into consideration and got some Artic White 1.35v DDR3 that has a small profile heatspreader.

[Bagpuss]

Personally, I could never put something in my PC case that is beige, the only beige thing I've ever bought is a carpet.

[LeetyMcLeet]

Can't wait to get my hands on one. Like many others here, I'm sure, I've always found Noctua products to be very good.

[pompeypaul]

I just built a PC with an NH-D14 and would be interested to see how the 'new' model compares as well. Very pleased with the NH-D14 on an i7-4770K (not overclocked) super cool 23C and quiet.

[Judge888]

Does this prevent use of the top most pci slot on the motherboard?

[Roobubba]

The NH-D14 doesn't block anything on my microATX gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 motherboard (in a small case as I mentioned above). I bought 'normal' profile RAM, but the new version even has you covered there by the looks of it.
Overclocked i5 4670K at 4.4GHz 1.26V, idle temps 27-29 and max temps during CPU intensive games are 60 degrees. Hits 89 in IntelBurnTest.
They may be beige, but they are superb fans.

[YoloSwag]

Hmm it does beat a liquid cooling solution but my hypothesis is related to consistency.
I think If the ambient temperatures are pretty low probably about maybe 25-35 degrees celsius, the performance would be good but if it was any higher than that I think a liquid cooling solution will be a bit more consistent with the performance even with varying room temperatures.

I think a different kind of test would be cool

[MrJim]

Also I've seen a lot of buzz around the Thermalright Macho (rofl at the name), as a cheap but stellar performing cooler.'

I've got the original 'Macho' rather than the Rev. A which is currently available. The only differences I can see are a slightly different fan, & the inclusion of a long screwdriver (needed for installation). You certainly get a lot of cooler for your money with the Macho! It was originally designed as a passive heat-sink I believe, & could still be used that way for a non-overclocked system (with good case airflow). The only downsides are the height of the cooler, and the fact that it can obscure standard profile RAM.

[crossy]

As Roobubba says it would have been nice to see the NH-14 figures in the tests to see if / how much of an improvement the NH-15 is over it. Any chance of you adding them Hexus?

Had the NH-14 for a few years now atop my CPU and can't complain. I know RAM spacing was a concern but as I was buying the RAM and cooler at the same time I took that into consideration and got some Artic White 1.35v DDR3 that has a small profile heatspreader.

+1 on the "please compare with NH-D14" request - actually it's such an obvious step given that the article itself says that the D15 is "this year's upgrade".

Yes, the size of the cooler does cause issues with RAM installation - but this is very much motherboard/RAM dependent. On my old Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 I had to strip off the large heatsinks from my Vengeance RAM to get it to fit. However the Asus Sabertooth 990FX that I've got now probably would have just about been able to accommodate the Vengeance RAM, but I've upgraded to Crucial Tracer and those units fit fine with no "surgery" needed. Actually tried the Tracer in the M4A89 and those fitted too - so maybe the Vengeance's just have overly larger heatsinks?

Personally, I could never put something in my PC case that is beige, the only beige thing I've ever bought is a carpet.

Don't know about you, but unless you've got a big side window in your case then you won't notice the fan colour. Oh and I'd call it more "coffee coloured" than "beige".

You'll also find a token Noctua case badge and a spare set of screws in case you decide to mount the second fan to your chassis instead.

Going to slightly disagree here - don't think the Noctua badge is a "token" effort. If it's anything like the NH-D14's then it's a proper chunky plastic badge, rather than the foil sticker you might otherwise be expecting. The provision of a spare set of screws in case you want to reuse the second fan is also an example of Noctua thinking ahead.

I'm quite happy with my NH-D14 at the moment, so not in the market for a D15. On the other hand if I was building a new tower PC, then I guess a D15 would be high up my list of components.

[Frankenfurter]

Does this new one coming out mean the old one is likely to drop in price?
I was looking at getting one sometime soon to replace my stock cooler.


Also:

Personally, I could never put something in my PC case that is beige, the only beige thing I've ever bought is a carpet.

I'd totally agree if it wasn't such a well renowned cooler for the price. No idea why they don't just sell a black version and double their sales overnight. >.<

[nepenthes]

Deciding whether to go for this or one of the cheaper cpu coolers- it's a very competitive price bracket. I'm happy that it compares well with my old Silver Arrow, although it would be nice to get something lighter in one of my builds