Good review. Excellent cooler I would easily buy if I needed one today, as I tend to use these coolers for 10-20 years, I’m already using my D14 for ~12 years now (with no end in sight), with the excellent service of Noctua this is a no-brainer if I needed another one.
Quality product and a review to match. I bought a D12 back when my CPU was a 920-i7 and it served me well, with Noctua supplying me the adapters needed for free to take it all the way to a Ryzen 3600 and only moving to a 5800X3D had me upgrade (to a new Noctua). Noctua is the go to choice for me, the only exception if I help a friend build a low-budget build where longevity and top performance isn't valued.
I bought the OG Noctua NH-D15 in 2014 I think it was. It is in my system today. Noctua isn't just about quality, but support. They have released an adapter for every major socket, and my first was even sent free of charge.
My time is worth more than the small cost difference with a lower-end brand, which is all of them, so I will never get anything but Noctua. One phone call, one troubleshooting session, one fan replacement, and I have already lost far more time than the difference in cost.
All my builds for friends use them, though usually cheaper models than the D15.
I have a NH-D15S, and most likely will not be buying another cooler any time soon. The D15S is just so very nice, and I suspect it is going to last longer then I am going to.
I just love how easy it is to get conversion adapters for it.
Great review, but can you guys review the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 or one of the variants? It's an incredibly popular cooler, more so than many of the coolers in the comparison chart.
The most important question for me is if this will be enough for the top Intel processors (the XX900k) for an eventual upgrade in the future. As it is now, watercooling is the only way to go for these (this was before this was released).
Water-cooling is an option for people that want to operate recent-gen intel at full-power stock defaults, but it’s not the only option. The chips remain very performant if you tune them down a bit, and the efficiency increases substantially. They will never be as efficient as their Ryzen contemporaries in PPW, but their feature set might still make them worthwhile for a lot of use cases.
Granted, turning down a CPU for efficiency is a decidedly unpopular thing to do, even among enthusiasts. But I think we might see it become a bit more common for them to release with more conservative performance profiles. AMD even seems to have left a good amount of headroom on their 9000 series, perhaps looking to avoid some of intels’ recent pitfalls.
That said the Cooler this round is overpriced. I have the Chromax Black DH15 on an LGA1200 socket. There's very minimal advantage going the G2 route. Also no Chromax edition, no G2 Chromax fans either, the heatsink cover is also not there yet. Skip it.
As for convex/concave designs, Intel LGA1700 is a disaster that must be avoided at all costs due to CPU bending, Socket PCB bending, latest RPL silicon degradation due to poor silicon engineering. There's no reason why anyone should even consider buying this cooler for that platform, not only it will be inadequate for a 13th 14th gen i9 processors but also worthless. The heat density is also higher on 13th and 14th like of 11th gen, too hot for an Aircooler.
The final chart that Anandtech includes is great. But I don't understand why none of the tech sites I read don't plot noise vs temp-over-ambient, maybe additionally colouring or sizing each plotted point to indicate the price.
The issue comes down to temp-over-ambient at what power level. It's a 3 dimensional function, which makes for a very ugly plot.
That's why E opted for noise vs thermal resistance. TR is (mostly) constant, so it allows you to plot noise versus just a single variable on a 2D graph.
Thanks for the review. I love the thermal resistance vs sound pressure graph...but..this is clearly an air cooler designed for much higher loads than 100W. At 100W, I'd throw the U12A and U12S on there as the competition - The U12S is half the price, and at 100W cools just fine and is significantly quieter. I'm guessing the 550rpm @ low speed is at or below your noise floor.
Currently using 2-3 original D15 models.The fact that the older models actually performs better at lower RPM makes upgrading seem bit pointless to me. The CPUs I use (Ryzen 9 7900X etc.) seldom run at maximum power.
Owning a NH-D15, best investment ever in complementary computer parts, it's just doing its job, and will so in my next computer and the next, given noctuas update service for new sockets. i might somewhen in future udpate the fans to a newer pair that is even more silent / efficient, but just to give them back some more money as they deserve it.
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Khanan - Monday, August 12, 2024 - link
Good review. Excellent cooler I would easily buy if I needed one today, as I tend to use these coolers for 10-20 years, I’m already using my D14 for ~12 years now (with no end in sight), with the excellent service of Noctua this is a no-brainer if I needed another one.BZD - Monday, August 12, 2024 - link
Quality product and a review to match.I bought a D12 back when my CPU was a 920-i7 and it served me well, with Noctua supplying me the adapters needed for free to take it all the way to a Ryzen 3600 and only moving to a 5800X3D had me upgrade (to a new Noctua).
Noctua is the go to choice for me, the only exception if I help a friend build a low-budget build where longevity and top performance isn't valued.
Sivar - Monday, August 12, 2024 - link
I bought the OG Noctua NH-D15 in 2014 I think it was. It is in my system today.Noctua isn't just about quality, but support. They have released an adapter for every major socket, and my first was even sent free of charge.
My time is worth more than the small cost difference with a lower-end brand, which is all of them, so I will never get anything but Noctua. One phone call, one troubleshooting session, one fan
replacement, and I have already lost far more time than the difference in cost.
All my builds for friends use them, though usually cheaper models than the D15.
Byte - Monday, August 12, 2024 - link
Lol thought this was an article from 1990 that got mistakenly frontpaged.SanX - Sunday, August 25, 2024 - link
yea, color style is terribleLeeea - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
Looks very nice.I have a NH-D15S, and most likely will not be buying another cooler any time soon. The D15S is just so very nice, and I suspect it is going to last longer then I am going to.
I just love how easy it is to get conversion adapters for it.
Samus - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
Great review, but can you guys review the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 or one of the variants? It's an incredibly popular cooler, more so than many of the coolers in the comparison chart.Magnus101 - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
The most important question for me is if this will be enough for the top Intel processors (the XX900k) for an eventual upgrade in the future.As it is now, watercooling is the only way to go for these (this was before this was released).
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
I won't make any definitive claims here since I don't have the necessary data.But if you look at the 250W load core temperature chart, the delta is only 20C. That's worse than a good 360mm AIO cooler, but only by 5C or so.
Khanan - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
Just don’t buy inferior / inefficient tech and you don’t even go into this problem. Inefficiency is just bad, for multiple reasons.Hresna - Sunday, August 18, 2024 - link
Water-cooling is an option for people that want to operate recent-gen intel at full-power stock defaults, but it’s not the only option. The chips remain very performant if you tune them down a bit, and the efficiency increases substantially. They will never be as efficient as their Ryzen contemporaries in PPW, but their feature set might still make them worthwhile for a lot of use cases.Granted, turning down a CPU for efficiency is a decidedly unpopular thing to do, even among enthusiasts. But I think we might see it become a bit more common for them to release with more conservative performance profiles. AMD even seems to have left a good amount of headroom on their 9000 series, perhaps looking to avoid some of intels’ recent pitfalls.
Some data on 13th gen power scaling:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/10bna5r...
Silver5urfer - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
Wasn't there a factory defect on these ? Noctua did not announce any recall but it was under investigation.https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cooling...
That said the Cooler this round is overpriced. I have the Chromax Black DH15 on an LGA1200 socket. There's very minimal advantage going the G2 route. Also no Chromax edition, no G2 Chromax fans either, the heatsink cover is also not there yet. Skip it.
As for convex/concave designs, Intel LGA1700 is a disaster that must be avoided at all costs due to CPU bending, Socket PCB bending, latest RPL silicon degradation due to poor silicon engineering. There's no reason why anyone should even consider buying this cooler for that platform, not only it will be inadequate for a 13th 14th gen i9 processors but also worthless. The heat density is also higher on 13th and 14th like of 11th gen, too hot for an Aircooler.
Khanan - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
It was a small problem with the first batch and was fixed quickly by Noctua / not even all were affected (afaik).rpg1966 - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
The final chart that Anandtech includes is great. But I don't understand why none of the tech sites I read don't plot noise vs temp-over-ambient, maybe additionally colouring or sizing each plotted point to indicate the price.Ryan Smith - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
The issue comes down to temp-over-ambient at what power level. It's a 3 dimensional function, which makes for a very ugly plot.That's why E opted for noise vs thermal resistance. TR is (mostly) constant, so it allows you to plot noise versus just a single variable on a 2D graph.
rpg1966 - Wednesday, August 14, 2024 - link
Understood. It might take a couple of charts, e.g. one at 100W, one at 200W (or whatever)? Anyway, good job with the last chart, great info.casteve - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
Thanks for the review. I love the thermal resistance vs sound pressure graph...but..this is clearly an air cooler designed for much higher loads than 100W. At 100W, I'd throw the U12A and U12S on there as the competition - The U12S is half the price, and at 100W cools just fine and is significantly quieter. I'm guessing the 550rpm @ low speed is at or below your noise floor.Add the 200W results, please.
NorthRocks - Monday, August 19, 2024 - link
Currently using 2-3 original D15 models.The fact that the older models actually performs better at lower RPM makes upgrading seem bit pointless to me. The CPUs I use (Ryzen 9 7900X etc.) seldom run at maximum power.dqniel - Monday, August 19, 2024 - link
Absolutely insane price. The performance and support is good, but so is the performance and support of other companies... without the insane price.Oxford Guy - Thursday, August 22, 2024 - link
Considering how long these last and inflation, $150 is hardly insane.Snail2000 - Tuesday, August 20, 2024 - link
Owning a NH-D15, best investment ever in complementary computer parts, it's just doing its job, and will so in my next computer and the next, given noctuas update service for new sockets.i might somewhen in future udpate the fans to a newer pair that is even more silent / efficient, but just to give them back some more money as they deserve it.
SanX - Sunday, August 25, 2024 - link
Dont waste your time, just take water coolers