First Noctua NH-D14 review is up!

[mishima]

Noctua's new CPU cooler: http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=p...s_id=34&lng=en

First Review:
http://bit.ly/3ZB4DA



What do you guys think?

[LuckyNV]

oh come on why no TRUE included in the test results

[Biscuit]

im still on my ultima i have had for like nearly 2 years now, i probs wont change until i get a full new system but that does look impressive.

[Zhaoman]

Yep looks good but I won't need a new CPU cooler till I upgrade my Q6600 which I don't see happening anytime soon

[crazyfool]

Looks alright but the tuniq tower is still doing the business for me

[jim]

Sorry, but I'm just not at all impressed by that to be frank.

They've created the hugest CPU cooling tower I've seen in it's class, and then rammed a high quality 120mm and 140mm fan onto it. It's not as if they've done something amazing, they've just made a bigger cooler and put more/bigger fans onto it. Wow, it performs 2.5 degress better than the old one!

If I made a heatsink the size of a house with a pair of fans designed for mine shafts I imagine it would keep the CPU fairly cool.

I can't help feeling that this market is one of self-promotion - they have to keep coming up with new designs or else nobody will buy the new ones. Metal and heatpipe gas both have their thermal limits, and that's what will prevent CPU coolers getting better unless someone comes up with somethine revolutionary and cheap in my opinion.

[Helios1234]

Sorry, but I'm just not at all impressed by that to be frank.

They've created the hugest CPU cooling tower I've seen in it's class, and then rammed a high quality 120mm and 140mm fan onto it. It's not as if they've done something amazing, they've just made a bigger cooler and put more/bigger fans onto it. Wow, it performs 2.5 degress better than the old one!

If I made a heatsink the size of a house with a pair of fans designed for mine shafts I imagine it would keep the CPU fairly cool.

I can't help feeling that this market is one of self-promotion - they have to keep coming up with new designs or else nobody will buy the new ones. Metal and heatpipe gas both have their thermal limits, and that's what will prevent CPU coolers getting better unless someone comes up with somethine revolutionary and cheap in my opinion.

2.5 degrees?

Look again.

It's a good 9 degrees better at 4ghz under load. For £10-£15 more than the normal NH-U12P, I'm not sure why you're complaining.

[Phage]

I still think I'd a new case. If I get a 5970 as well, then I'm going to need to sit somewhere else.

[jim]

2.5 degrees?

Look again.

It's a good 9 degrees better at 4ghz under load. For £10-£15 more than the normal NH-U12P, I'm not sure why you're complaining.

Sorry, just realised that number came from the stock clock temperatures. Still, my opinion hasn't changed.

I'm not complaining, just unimpressed, because I'd expect something the size of a Friesian to do fairly well.

[mishima]

I've heard this argument before about the size of coolers. They are the experts, and I'm sure they haven't designed this overnight. In fact I know they haven't because this particular product has been in development since the U12P was first seen. Big cooler = big cool. Small cooler = small cool. It's a bit like 1+1=2.

[Pob255]

2.5 degrees?

Look again.

It's a good 9 degrees better at 4ghz under load. For £10-£15 more than the normal NH-U12P, I'm not sure why you're complaining.

Well you know what's really intresting, the performance of the cm hyper 212 plus
It's on a couple of degrees behind at stock and 10 degrees behind at 4ghz, sounds alot? That's only 65c on there test which is fine for a cpu under stress testing.

Now why have I picked on the hyper212+ ?? well you can get it for under £20 vs noctua £67 (78.90 euro = £67)
3 times the price for 55c at full load instead of 65c ??
I think not.

It did well, but I'm not surprised just looking at it, but that cost means it's just not worth it.

[Helios1234]

The Coolermaster I admit was extremely good for what it was but the temps you are looking at are delta temps, meaning the actual ones are much higher.

10 degrees is still a lot for many people, and could well be the difference between a 4ghz OC and a 4.2-4.4ghz OC.

Looking at the stock clock temperatures won't really show much because the coolers can all sustain the heat output easily. At higher clocks and voltages, it really does make a tremendous difference and that is why the Coolermaster starts losing its lead at 4ghz. The difference might be even more if someone wants to achieve a higher OC.

However, you can't take away Coolermaster's brilliant effort at a very reasonable product that puts a lot of others to shame for its price. Similarly, you have to hand it to Noctua for creating such a good product, which also comes with their brilliant support.

Arguing about the price is a bit pointless because people can spend way more on water cooling while achieving less.

[Pob255]

Opps I stand corrected I looked at the absolute for the stock numbers but the delta for the overclock.
personally 87c is way too high for confort, and the noctua getting 75.5c is better but still a little too high for my confort.

It's still that price that's holding me back, for that same price you could get a corsair h5o
With correct mounting you can get the load temps aroung 65c
http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/s...ambirnth50.jpg

[LuckyNV]

You can't directly compare cooling results from other users, there are so many other factors that can determine final temperature.

[spac3d]

Wouldn't want to drop that on my foot. :/

[Helios1234]

You can't directly compare cooling results from other users, there are so many other factors that can determine final temperature.

Exactly! That's the whole point of using delta temperatures for a fair comparison.

The voltage I use to achieve 4ghz is higher than the one posted in that screenshot above so of course my temperature will be higher. And you also have to consider the ambient temperature of the room etc.