While water cooling has been especially popular over the last few years, there are still a lot of people who would prefer to not deal with the additional risks and installation complication. On top of that, when you are looking for really high end cooling it actually costs a lot more than you think to go water cooling. This is where companies like Noctua come in. You see cheap water cooling doesn’t always compete with air cooling, especially when it comes to noise. So Noctua continues to innovate in the air cooling market. Their top dog is called the NH-D15. Well they sent one out a while back and being the slackers that we are it ended up pushed back. Today I will finally have the chance to check out their biggest and best to see just how it compares to the completion both on the air and water cooling sides.

Product Name: Noctua NH-D15

Review Sample Provided by: Noctua

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: William and Wes

 

NH-D15 Specifications

Socket compatibility

Intel LGA2011-0 & LGA2011-3 (Square ILM), LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1150 & AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, FM2, FM2+ (backplate required)

Height (without fan)

160 mm

Width (without fan)

150 mm

Depth (without fan)

135 mm

Height (with fan)

165 mm

Width (with fan)

150 mm

Depth (with fan)

161 mm

Weight (without fan)

1000 g

Weight (with fan)

1320 g

Material

Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminum (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating

Max. TDP

LGA2011 -  140W & OC
LGA115x  - 95W & OC
AM3+ - 220W
FM2+ - 100W & OC

Fan compatibility

140x150x25 (with 120mm mounting holes), 140x140x25 (with 120mm mounting holes), 120x120x25

Scope of Delivery

2x NF-A15 PWM premium fan

2x Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)

Y-cable

NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound

SecuFirm2™ Mounting Kit

Noctua Metal Case-Badge

Warranty

6 Years

Fan specifications

Model

2x Noctua NF-A15 PWM

Bearing

SSO2

Max. Rotational Speed (+/- 10%)

1500 RPM

Max. Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%)

1200 RPM

Min. Rotational Speed (PWM, +/-20%)

300 RPM

Max. Airflow

140,2 m³/h

Max. Airflow with L.N.A.

115,5 m³/h

Max. Acoustical Noise

24,6 dB(A)

Max. Acoustical Noise with L.N.A.

19,2 dB(A)

Input Power

1,56 W

Voltage Range

12 V

MTBF

> 150.000 h

 

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #36075 02 Jan 2015 14:33
Its going to take a lot longer than two days before I start remembering to write 2015, lucky for me I never learned to remember to write 2014 so I'm ahead of the game already. That said I did manage to spend a little time with Noctua's flagship heatsink and it is as big and impressive as you would expect, check it out!
trgtprctc's Avatar
trgtprctc replied the topic: #36084 03 Jan 2015 03:12
I have the NH-D14 in my current rig and have been immensely impressed with it. I will certainly keep Noctua air coolers on my short list for future builds.

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