Advertisement:

Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler

Join the community - in the OCAU Forums! Date  10th February 2011 Author  DiGiTaL MoNkEY Editor  James "Agg" Rolfe Manufacturer  Noctua Testing and Conclusions Testing: For today's tests we'll be using AMD's Phenom II X6 Black Edition which will be overclocked to 4.0GHz at 1.45v. Each cooler will be load tested with LinX for a period of 20 minutes, idle temperatures will be taken over a period of 20 minutes as well, with the lowest and highest temperatures being recorded. The ambient temperatures are monitored throughout the testing. The coolers in today's comparison will include AMD's retail quad heatpipe cooler, Thermalright's Ultra 120 Extreme with Thermalright TR-FDB-1600 63.7 CFM fan, and of course the Noctua NH-D14. Each cooler's fan(s) with be connectedly directly to a 12V 3pin to Molex converter for more consistent power. We ran the Noctua's fans in the default configuration, with the external fan blowing through the centre fan which is also blowing out through the second cooling tower. The fans can be mounted in the other orientation, or you can mount the entire cooler rotated 180 degrees if that suits your setup better. Noise measurements were taken with a digital sound meter approximately 5cm away from the heatsink fan(s), reducing the ability of other components such as power supply fans or other environmental noises to interfere with the final results. Conclusions: Some may feel the Noctua NH-D14 is a costly investment, at about $110 - but that includes the fans and RPM-changing adapters, and with many high-end coolers not including fans it's not too bad a price for the whole package. I tend not to change my CPU coolers for years unless there's a new socket, or something better has come along and money is burning a hole in my pocket. So while there may be a higher initial price point with this cooler, you'll end up with one of the best air cooling solutions on the market today, quality design and materials, with great customer support backed by a 6 year warranty. Also, judging by previous announcements, you'll most likely get free socket upgrade kits when a new Intel or AMD socket processor arrives, removing the need to buy another cooler. The Noctua NH-D14 will handle any processor on the market and offers mainstream and enthusiast users ample overclocking headroom and fantastic heat dissipation, and without the need to move to a watercooling solution for the majority. With the inclusion of two Noctua fans that are both silent and push a lot of air, a generous set of accessories and easy to install instructions, it really is a solid package and at the top of my list when it comes to air cooling. However, if the price and size are a deterrent, it might be worth considering the equally well designed Noctua NH-U12P SE2 or NH-U9B SE2 CPU coolers. Feel free to comment on this review in this thread. << Back OCAU Main Page Select Page Page 1 - Page 2 -

All original content copyright James Rolfe.
All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without written permission.
Interested in advertising on OCAU? Contact us for info.