Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black

[HEXUS]

High-end air vs. 360mm liquid cooling on Ryzen 9 3950X. Who wins?

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[Tunnah]

15 quid for a splash of paint is taking the mickey a bit. Feels very Razer'ish.

[Output]

Having bought this myself at the start of the year, and also having to move one fan's positioning due to my RAM's height, I was interested to read this review.

I would point out that it is actually available cheaper than £95 though, namely for £89.99 from Noctua's own store presence on Amazon. Although I can see it certainly is £94.99 on Scan currently. I believe it was Noctua's Amazon store-exclusive initially though, as Scan didn't stock it at the time I bought it.

From what I understood from comments on the Amazon page at the time, upon its original release in October, there was also a limited run of a Linus Tech Tips edition (which had seemingly long gone by the time I ordered though, as mine was the normal edition).

I'm happy to see that my choice was vindicated in HEXUS' testing too (I haven't properly tested my own's capabilities yet), as I'd always preferred the idea of staying with air cooling anyway due to the obvious extra maintenance required for liquid (admittedly less so for AIO than custom loop, but I wasn't a fan of the leak risk either anyway).

[Terbinator]

Installed one last week in a Fractal Define Nano S - tight squeeze and I have to run it with 1 fan, but it is excellent.

[Bagpuss]

15 quid for a splash of paint is taking the mickey a bit. Feels very Razer'ish.

Yeah, but Noctua stuff tends to go to the 'Apple' buyers of the air cooling world.

[Output]

15 quid for a splash of paint is taking the mickey a bit. Feels very Razer'ish.

Yeah, but Noctua stuff tends to go to the 'Apple' buyers of the air cooling world.

For what it's worth, I certainly wasn't aiming for looks over function.

Personally I saw the extra £10 over the normal cost to be the "new version premium" at the time, and as Noctua have a reputation of making quality air coolers that are great at their job (and reviews for the NH-D15 in particular placing it amongst the bset coolers you can buy), I was happy to pay the extra for the colour change (and it obviously wouldn't be the first type of product that has a price difference for different colours).

Given the fact that it is still much cheaper than an AIO but still beats it, I am happy to consider my colour choice worth the extra. Plus given Noctua's practice of offering free mounting kits for sockets that come out after purchasing, it's possible that it could still be just as capable to be used in any successive build in future.

[MLyons]

Yeah, but Noctua stuff tends to go to the 'Apple' buyers of the air cooling world.

Not really. Noctua make the best air cooling for normally the most money although not outlandish prices. It also slaps most AIOs. there's no time I don't recommend a noctua for cooling. No other companies are supporting 10+ year old coolers

[Ryhl]

This is an interesting test but completely contradicts the recent tests by Gamers Nexus. It doesn't even beat the H100i Pro there and as they point out, air cooling is good but it can't beat the laws of physics.

Also, I think I remember the H150i defaults to quiet mode which is going to run the pump and fans at minimum speeds. Just switching to balanced mode makes a huge difference to performance while still being quiet.

[Zak33]

Yeah, but Noctua stuff tends to go to the 'Apple' buyers of the air cooling world.

I despise Apple products - I Love Noctua - go figure.

Apple is like Audi... over marketed, under developed tat that breaks in 3 years

But Noctua is like the Toyota Hilux of coolers... that'll not let you down and you'll still be using it in 10 years.

[Bagpuss]

Yeah, but Noctua stuff tends to go to the 'Apple' buyers of the air cooling world.

Not really. Noctua make the best air cooling for normally the most money although not outlandish prices. It also slaps most AIOs. there's no time I don't recommend a noctua for cooling. No other companies are supporting 10+ year old coolers

Well, my 9900K @5ghz 1.34vlts, is kept perfectly under control with a £50 (all black) BeQuiet Dark Rock 4.

..so you dont need to spend nearly twice as much to get similar results.

[Zak33]

Well, my 9900K @5ghz 1.34vlts, is kept perfectly under control with a £50 (all black) BeQuiet Dark Rock 4.

..so you dont need to spend nearly twice as much to get similar results.

ive got one of those too... great cooler

But I don't think my Dark Rock 4 could deal with the 3950X with all those extra volts tbh

It's a 105W TDP CPU 16 core 32 threadchip and overclocked like that puts about another 100W through it I think, so maybe 200W?

I guess your 9900K is running about what - 150W ? It's a 95w tdp 8 core 16 thread cpu so it's quite a different slice of pie

great chip mind and a great cooler choice on top

[Bagpuss]

I guess your 9900K is running about what - 150W ? It's a 95w tdp 8 core 16 thread cpu so it's quite a different slice of pie

A ten minute Cinebench 20 run can hit 175W - 185W peak, and the cooler will keep temps below 85c across all cores, so its in 3950X territory.

..and I would argue the BeQuiet is far more aesthically pleasing to look at in the case than that big lump Noctua

[philehidiot]

The "lick of paint" is a little harsh. I think they had to put this through several extra processes (due to how the heatpipes are soldered on) and went through a lot of R&D to get a coating that didn't drop performance. There's a reason they didn't do this to start with.

These coolers being better than AIOs has been known for a while. It's nothing to do with the chiplet layout, it's just that the air coolers at this price are way better than standard AIOs, no matter how big the radiator is. I think the problems tend to be in the radiators as they're aluminium and not copper, unless you go to far more expensive AIOs. I'd be interested to see a comparison between this and a copper radiator AIO as really, this is a proper test. You're testing one class of product against another but you're using the mid range AIOs against the top end, money no object air coolers.

At the price, it's a no brainer to go for air cooling. It saves money, it lasts longer, the parts that fail (fans) are easily replaced, if the mechanical parts fail you don't lose all cooling suddenly as the passive cooling will still work with the airflow in your case and on top of that it is far better. The only advantage to an AIO may be noise but they're close and there's 20% manufacturing tolerance in the RPM of the fans, so really, measuring that depends on your sample.

[Xlucine]

I suspect the corsair AIO is not a good example - in the 3950X review an NZXT AIO was able to outperform a single fan D15, and prevent throttling at a higher OC level than used in this review (1.375 V, 4.4 GHz). Any chance Hexus towers could have a look at the Scythe Fuma 2? Other reviewers are finding it comparable to the D15/U12A, and it's a whole lot cheaper and easier to fit in a case (when you can find stock).

The "lick of paint" is a little harsh. I think they had to put this through several extra processes (due to how the heatpipes are soldered on) and went through a lot of R&D to get a coating that didn't drop performance. There's a reason they didn't do this to start with.

Painting a heatsink isn't super hard - the very low heat flux through the fins means you can get away with some not great thermal conductivity

[DevDrake]

I am really supprised by the performance of the cooler. Thanks for the review

[Ryhl]

I am really supprised by the performance of the cooler. Thanks for the review

The cooler performance is very good, but in this test it is being compared against a Corsair AIO that is running on the MINIMUM speed pump/fan settings. Don't believe this outperforms AIO's in general, because it doesn't.