A story of two coolers, the Noctua NH-U12S and the NH-D14

[killcomic]

Today I discovered something that surprised the hell out of me and could be of help to those thinking of buying a Noctua cooler.

Back in 2012, when I built my previous 3570K PC, I used the Noctua NH-D14 as the cooler. It served me admirably throughout the years and still serving in my wife's PC.

Recently I did a 7700K build and got the Noctua NH-U12S for it (with dual fan configuration).

As I'm sure you all know, the 7700K is one toasty chip. The NH-U12S only allows me to hit 4.8Ghz before the temperatures migrate to the tropics. Having been bitten by the OC bug, I decided to take the NH-D14 and swap it with my NH-U12S. It's not like she overclocks or anything (she is still figuring out how to print).

Surely the beasty hunk of aluminium that the NH-D14 is would do a better job than the rather compact NH-U12S. 

I was wrong.

The NH-D14 hit 87c degrees on load. The NH-U12S maxes out at 81c.

I reseated and reapplied thermal paste. Nope, it was not going to have any of that. It kept the max temp at a toasty 87c.

Put back my NH-U12S and the temperatures maxed again at 81c. This is with a constant room temperature of 23c.

 

I kind of regretted not getting the NH-D14 again, but after this little adventure that took most of my Sunday afternoon, I'm pretty happy I went with the NH-U12S.

[AlwaysFSX]

Wait, isn't the U12S smaller than the D14?

[killcomic]

Just now, AlwaysFSX said:

Wait, isn't the U12S smaller than the D14?

Yes, yes it is! Which is why I though the D14 would do a better job (being twice the size).

[AlwaysFSX]

Just now, killcomic said:

Yes, yes it is! Which is why I though the D14 would do a better job (being twice the size).

What's the noise difference?

[killcomic]

Just now, AlwaysFSX said:

What's the noise difference?

 

I gotta say the U12S is a bit more quiet, but both being Noctua, they are both damn silent.

[AlwaysFSX]

Just now, killcomic said:

I gotta say the U12S is a bit more quiet, but both being Noctua, they are both damn silent.

Huh, well what do you know. Interesting find.

[killcomic]

Just now, AlwaysFSX said:

Huh, well what do you know. Interesting find.

Ah! I forgot to mention that I have the U12S in dual fan configuration.

[AlwaysFSX]

6 minutes ago, killcomic said:

Ah! I forgot to mention that I have the U12S in dual fan configuration.

And it's still quiet?

[SCHISCHKA]

so they both have 2 fans, identical fans?

[VVoltor]

That is interesting, I really wonder why?

 

Anandtech benchmarks show the same results, with temps being close but the difference gets larger the higher the fanspeed. And not just that, the NH-U12S seems more quiet as well?

 

 

[killcomic]

11 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

so they both have 2 fans, identical fans?

Almost. One is 1,300 RPM as push and the other is 1,200 RPM as pull (a spare one I had lying around). Both Noctua 120mm.

[killcomic]

32 minutes ago, AlwaysFSX said:

And it's still quiet?

Yeah, pretty quiet! Most of the noise comes from Coolermaster case fans, specially the 200mm side fan.

[killcomic]

11 minutes ago, VVoltor said:

That is interesting, I really wonder why?

 

Anandtech benchmarks show the same results, with temps being close but the difference gets larger the higher the fanspeed. And not just that, the NH-U12S seems more quiet as well?

 

 

Wow, there you go! I don't know what they are feeding the boffins at Noctua, but damn! How they've managed to pull this off, I have no idea.

[manikyath]

38 minutes ago, killcomic said:

Ah! I forgot to mention that I have the U12S in dual fan configuration.

could be that lower fin resistance -> higher air speed -> more cooling

[VVoltor]

1 minute ago, killcomic said:

Wow, there you go! I don't know what they are feeding the boffins at Noctua, but damn! How they've managed to pull this off, I have no idea.

The only thing I can think of is maybe the D14 is an older cooler? See if you can find the release date of these coolers maybe? 

If that's the case then the R&D department at Noctua is doing some impressive work improving those cooling results. 

[killcomic]

Just now, manikyath said:

could be that lower fin resistance -> higher air speed -> more cooling

I would say that's definitely a factor. Though the D14 is a dual fan cooler in stock configuration... Maybe If I threw a third fan in there....

[killcomic]

1 minute ago, VVoltor said:

The only thing I can think of is maybe the D14 is an older cooler? See if you can find the release date of these coolers maybe? 

If that's the case then the R&D department at Noctua is doing some impressive work improving those cooling results. 

Yeah, the D14 is older than the U12S by about 4 years. Amazing what they did in that amount of time!

[AlwaysFSX]

10 minutes ago, killcomic said:

Yeah, pretty quiet! Most of the noise comes from Coolermaster case fans, specially the 200mm side fan.

I need to get one of those.

[manikyath]

Just now, killcomic said:

I would say that's definitely a factor. Though the D14 is a dual fan cooler in stock configuration... Maybe If I threw a third fan in there....

there's also more to it than just the fans on the heatsink, case airflow could make a very big difference as well (if you have a bigger tower cooler, you may need to bump case fans a bit to get the same kind of airflow.)

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, killcomic said:

Yeah, the D14 is older than the U12S by about 4 years. Amazing what they did in that amount of time!

shorter heatpipes probably are part of it as well, they're kinda all over the place on the D14.

[killcomic]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

shorter heatpipes probably are part of it as well, they're kinda all over the place on the D14.

Yeah, it's a bit of a heatpipe salad on the D14.

[killcomic]

4 minutes ago, AlwaysFSX said:

I need to get one of those.

I don't know if they are the best air coolers, but they sure haven't let me down yet!

[AlwaysFSX]

3 minutes ago, killcomic said:

I don't know if they are the best air coolers, but they sure haven't let me down yet!

Well it's only about $57 so it's not a lot of money and I doubt I will have any system in the near future that pumps out an absolute ton of heat so it would be perfect for me.

[manikyath]

14 minutes ago, killcomic said:

I don't know if they are the best air coolers, but they sure haven't let me down yet!

i may look into how well a D9L ends up working, i like the D9L

[Bcat00]

Well well well, that is quite the interesting find. 

 

They must have changed some things along their design process like the liquid inside the pipes or linings to allow the fluid to flow back down faster. Either way, Linus should really do a video on cutting open some of these heat pipes to see how they are made and the type of stuff they use inside.