Noctua NH-D15

[LinusTech]

NCIX: http://bit.ly/1o9Ix5C

Amazon: http://georiot.co/3Je2

 

I'm not John Lennon, so I'll refrain from comparing this heatsink to Jesus in any way... But I will say that it walks on water... cooling solutions, so interpret that however you will...

 

[Dredgy]

Honestly surprised you didn't pull some sort of time travel trick to get your hands on this earlier.

[Lays]

Ooo, always cool to see new stuff

[iNothing]

OOOOOOOOHHH Linus dreams of this at night

[qwertywarrior]

rocking my thermalright ultra 120 for 8 years baby

[Jvagle875]

A little late there... Also, Luke mentioned that these are the same fans as the ones you guys standardize with... I thought you guys always ran nf-f12 with coolers?

[roberto++]

The heat sink finish looks like the NH-D14, is this true?

 

I etched mine with my fingerprints....

[LinusTech]

A little late there... Also, Luke mentioned that these are the same fans as the ones you guys standardize with... I thought you guys always ran nf-f12 with coolers?

 

We use noctua's 140mm fans on coolers that accept a 140mm fan.

 

For 120mm coolers we use NF-F12s.

[rektengle]

Ooooh, Shiny.

[stpoci]

A little late there... Also, Luke mentioned that these are the same fans as the ones you guys standardize with... I thought you guys always ran nf-f12 with coolers?

 

I think it depends on what size fans they need. They aren't using nf-f12's when they need 140mm fans

 

edit: Linus beat me to responding.

[WoodenMarker]

The heat sink finish looks like the NH-D14, is this true?

I etched mine with my fingerprints....

Looks similar from Noctua's video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-nutyHONWM

[spexiono]

So shiny... must have..

[Pokahontas]

i guess the noctua heatsink bench removed heat from case, cool cpu/heatsink much quicker

 

so if you are looking into liquid VS heatsink, you must know what kind of case / airflow / fans you have.

 

for example with stock h100 fans on max, it would beat noctua d15 performance ( ofcourse you would have jet engine )

so fan choice is also important, also check other reviews because this is one for specific use scenario

[Riddler356]

Amazon is sold out and they don't know when its going to be back in stock.

[LOLPhilips]

Yarrrr,

 

I'd still be rocking a good AIO before this cooler I be.

In most other reviews the AIO's come out better at almost if not all voltages.

Besides, the water be a better mistress then air.

Ay wind can be bitter wench when she leaves me still on the deep blue she does.

[GlassBomb]

Yarrrr,

I'd still be rocking a good AIO before this cooler I be.

In most other reviews the AIO's come out better at almost if not all voltages.

Besides, the water be a better mistress then air.

Ay wind can be bitter wench when she leaves me still on the deep blue she does.

It's likely that other reviewers are showing different results because of the fans and voltage of them.

If I remember right, then all coolers that LTT test (apart from Zalman's AIO) are using Noctua fans that are undervolted. They are doing this to remove as many variables as possible.

[Bsmith]

got to admit, the performance is stunning. underload it does better then the AIO coolers, wich is just amazing for a heatsink.

[VSG]

I didn't listen to the video so excuse me if this was covered in there but I would take any temperature measurements within 1-2 C of each other with a grain of salt. Heck, I am going to let Corsair George do the explaining for me.
 

Haha, all these reviewers should be using Delta T. It can make a big difference seasonally. Especially since a lot of these reviewers are young dudes doing this part time and getting paid in free hardware, there aren't a lot of guys out there with access to thermally controlled chambers and whatnot.

Heck, even our oven has a +/- 1C variance, so margin of error is around there for us. Anytime you see a review where they start talking about the benefit being less than 1C you should take it with a grain of salt. It may be repeatable but that difference can be accounted for in a number of ways - TIM application, mounting pressure, room ambient, a BIOS update - all kinds of things can cause that level of swing.

How was the 20 C ambient recorded? Was it held constant across all tests? What about the TIM application etc? I hope everyone sees where I am going here. This is a great cooler no doubt, but just be aware of the possibilities before proclaiming one cooler better than the other if they appear close in performance for one person.

[MetEishYa]

I didn't listen to the video so excuse me if this was covered in there but I would take any temperature measurements within 1-2 C of each other with a grain of salt. Heck, I am going to let Corsair George do the explaining for me.

 

How was the 20 C ambient recorded? Was it held constant across all tests? What about the TIM application etc? I hope everyone sees where I am going here. This is a great cooler no doubt, but just be aware of the possibilities before proclaiming one cooler better than the other if they appear close in performance for one person.

All test results are changed by adding the Delta T (measued) to an ambient of 20C instead of what there actual ambient is, this is to compare on even ground. I think they use the same TIM for all there coolers (IC Diamond TIM). Agreed they cant say the D15 is better than the H110 or H105 (They all about the same) but they can say that it is better than the H100i (7 C different much larger than margin of error).

[VSG]

Thanks, that does help things out. Why bother representing data as T over 20 C if delta T was itself measured? You guys (LTT) have good data and things seem to be in accordance.

[Osmium]

I don't understand how it performs so well, it should be > the performance of dual 140mm radiator (my reasoning why it does not perform as well is air from the first fin array are being blown into the second array) with somewhat dense fins (I noticed the fins on the D15 were very dense) but still I was very surprised when it pulled ahead of the all the AIOs (some of which were dial 140mm). Does this mean that heatsink contains more copper than we are used to seeing?

[MetEishYa]

I don't understand how it performs so well, it should be > the performance of dual 140mm radiator (my reasoning why it does not perform as well is air from the first fin array are being blown into the second array) with somewhat dense fins (I noticed the fins on the D15 were very dense) but still I was very surprised when it pulled ahead of the all the AIOs (some of which were dial 140mm). Does this mean that heatsink contains more copper than we are used to seeing?

It has more surface area i think due to more dense fin array and each tower is quite thick. As for the air coming from the first to the second tower, the air is mixed with cooler air (pulled in from the top and bottom by the middle fan) and the air probably doesn't heat up as it passes threw one tower. 

[Osmium]

It has more surface area i think due to more dense fin array and each tower is quite thick. As for the air coming from the first to the second tower, the air is mixed with cooler air (pulled in from the top and bottom by the middle fan) and the air probably doesn't heat up as it passes threw one tower. 

 

Actually thinking through it the air heating up probably does not makes as much of a difference since the air just moves the heat around. But one of the corsair AIOs has dual dense 140mm rads (forgot which one) and that one should in theory have more surface area than the noctua. I think it means the tower is just made of better materials.

[Marvzl1357]

I'm surprised because really? it performs better than all the aio's you tested? even the 280mm ones? 

What black magic did noctua do to make this happen?

[StareX]

I'm surprised because really? it performs better than all the aio's you tested? even the 280mm ones? 

What black magic did noctua do to make this happen?

 

A magician NEVER REVEALS his secrets!