Noctua NH-D15 Review: Retaking The Cooling Performance Crown

[Cookie Monster]

Don't beat on a dead horse... a good AIO with good fans can be pretty silent. 

Most don't come with quiet fans though. An h100i with stock fans can beat a NH-D14 at the price of sounding like a jet engine.

 

If you have to replace an AIO with better fans it adds to the already relatively high cost of the them significantly.

[One Who Craves Souls]

Most don't come with quiet fans though. An h100i with stock fans can beat a NH-D14 at the price of sounding like a jet engine.

 

If you have to replace an AIO with better fans it adds to the already relatively high cost of the them significantly.

Fair enough bro, just pointing out that not all AIO are noisy, I myself used air cooling for 14 years lol 

[Sky Daddy]

You guys should really watch TTL's overview.

 

he explains exactly  how the NH-D15 may interfere with your gfx card.

 

He also mentions in another video how it will not work on this board -  Gigabyte Z97 SOC Force ATX mainboard

 

has nothing to do with mobo form factor, it has to do with where the mobo manufacturer has placed the 1st x16 slot.

 

1-2C improvement, meh slight improvement or margin of error

 

the included 140mm fans are baller but I almost prefer the 120mm fan above the mem chips.

 

obviously the biggest improvement was memory compatibility, at the expensive of mainboard compatibility lol

 don't think there'd be a performance difference when placing a gpu in another slot since it's pci 3 

[Sky Daddy]

Pretty happy with my enermax t40 cluster and added a second fan

 

can get pretty noisy when temps get high, but i don't hear the fans since i play with headphones

 

oc'd my fx 8320 to 4.4ghz (superior and cheaper than fx 8350)

[Kamina]

Looks like it would snap a weak motherboard in half.

[VSG]

don't think there'd be a performance difference when placing a gpu in another slot since it's pci 3

In most cases, you have no option but to use the first PCI-E x16 slot for your GPU. The board won't boot if you have it in another slot.

[4960X]

Most don't come with quiet fans though. An h100i with stock fans can beat a NH-D14 at the price of sounding like a jet engine.

 

If you have to replace an AIO with better fans it adds to the already relatively high cost of the them significantly.

From what I have seen, an H100i with stock fans is on par with the NH-D14 (maybe 1c cooler) when it comes to cooling but not so much at noise levels.

[GlassBomb]

I actually read up some more when it comes to the spacing issues that the NH-D15 comes with.

 

If your first PCI-e slot is right up against your RAM dimms, then the D15 wont fit. However, if there is a PCI-e x1 at the top, and a x16 below that, then you'll be safe.

 

Also to note, if there is a small gap, then it will fit. Even if it is just barely. Here is my Asus X79 Deluxe and my NH-U14S, which has the same width as the D15 as an example.

 

The gap is minimal, but it's serviceable. Though, if your graphics card has a backplate, then the spacing becomes even tighter, you might have to watch out for that.

 

[4960X]

Noctua has a motherboard compatibility page for the NH-D15. They have all the motherboards listed there and you can see if the NH-D15 could block the first PCIE slot of your mobo.

 

http://noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_gen&products_id=68&lng=en

[DJHoro]

Although the Noctua NH-D15 does keep cpu temps cooler than some AIO liquid coolers, wont case ambient tempreatures be higher since the air is just beeing blown into it? I think I would rather trade off a few degrees for cooler case temps.

[GlassBomb]

Although the Noctua NH-D15 does keep cpu temps cooler than some AIO liquid coolers, wont case ambient tempreatures be higher since the air is just beeing blown into it? I think I would rather trade off a few degrees for cooler case temps.

Generally, no. As long as you have sufficient airflow into the case then case ambient shouldn't be a problem.

And remember, AIO coolers face the same problem, really. Only that I see negative pressure being a problem when you're using AIO's

[Humbug]

I thought liquid cooling was less noisy...

The corsair H110 is pretty quiet because the fans are 140mm and don't need to spin that fast.

 

However I don't think the 240mm ones like the h100 are quiet.

[creativename]

The corsair H110 is pretty quiet because the fans are 140mm and don't need to spin that fast.

 

However I don't think the 240mm ones like the h100 are quiet.

It's not that, its just that corsair's fans are garbage along with all the other AIO coolers. Put a noctua fan on it and you get silence, HOWEVER there is the pump noise. the h100i and h80i have annoyingly loud pump noises, the h105 is slightly better, but the pump noise is still audible.

 

I've owned an h100i and a h105, I've posted a couple times trying to ask if the pump noise is just a defect or not. I've RMA'd it about 8 times. The pump noise is always there. That's what makes them loud.

[4960X]

It's not that, its just that corsair's fans are garbage along with all the other AIO coolers. Put a noctua fan on it and you get silence, HOWEVER there is the pump noise. the h100i and h80i have annoyingly loud pump noises, the h105 is slightly better, but the pump noise is still audible.

 

I've owned an h100i and a h105, I've posted a couple times trying to ask if the pump noise is just a defect or not. I've RMA'd it about 8 times. The pump noise is always there. That's what makes them loud.

I agree with this gentleman. The stock fans that come with the H100i are sheer garbage and I don't understand why some people praise them as the best thing since sliced bread. You can see the noise level of the H100i and H80i in this review and even the reviewer says they sound like a jet engine.

 

http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15/8