It’s been a while since our last review of a Noctua heatsink. Part of that has to do with their patients and dedication to make their products perfect before introducing anything. The other reason it’s been so long is just plain delay on our part. We have actually had one of their heatsinks here in the office for quite a while. In fact, some of our more dedicated readers may recognize this one from our test rig. Noctua’s NH-C14 is a top flow cooler design that both helps cool your ram and motherboard while also being shorter than most high end traditional tower designs. How does that effect cooling? Let’s jump in and take a look.
Product Name: Noctua NH-C14
Review Sample Provided by: Noctua
Review by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
Specifications
Socket compatibility |
Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775,LGA2011 on request & AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1 (backplate required) |
Height (without fan) |
105 mm |
Width (without fan) |
140 mm |
Depth (without fan) |
166 mm |
Height (with fan) |
130 mm |
Width (with fan) |
140 mm |
Depth (with fan) |
166 mm |
Weight (without fan) |
700 g |
Weight (with fan) |
850/1000* g |
Material |
Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminum (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating |
Fan compatibility |
140x140x25mm / 120x120x25mm |
Scope of Delivery |
2x NF-P14 premium fan Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.) Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.) NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound SecuFirm2™ Mounting Kits Noctua Metal Case-Badge |
Warranty |
|
Fan specifications |
|
Model |
|
Bearing |
|
Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) |
1200 RPM |
Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%) |
900 RPM |
Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%) |
750 RPM |
Airflow |
110,3 m³/h |
Airflow with L.N.A. |
|
Airflow with U.L.N.A. |
71,2 m³/h |
Acoustical Noise |
19,6 dB(A) |
Acoustical Noise with L.N.A. |
13,2 dB(A) |
Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A. |
10,1 dB(A) |
Input Power |
1,2 W |
Voltage Range |
12 V |
MTBF |
> 150.000 h |
Packaging
The NH-C14’s packaging is very similar to the NH-D14’s that we tested last from Noctua, but still world apart from what we are used to seeing from Noctua. With an almost all white design the packaging is bright and catches your eye easily. Along the front there is a small photo that gives you a little bit of an idea of what to of the heatsink inside. Up on the top Noctua was nice enough to include a full specification listing. This is great to help you compare if you’re in the store. Around on the side they have a nice diagram showing the different fan configurations and how it effects the NH-C14’s height. Along with that each of the diagrams show all of the dimensions to make sure you won’t have any clearance issues when you get it home.
Inside the heatsink is tucked away in cardboard box along with another white box containing all of the NH-C14’s accessories. Inside we see Noctua’s attention to detail. Everything is divided up in different plastic bags that are labeled. The instruction book is similar with AMD and Intel instructions divided and placed on different sides. They even include a screwdriver to help with the installation, something that I have come to use a lot using the NH-C14 on our test bench. Noctua’s attention to detail is especially apparent in the “Common Parts” bag. Their case badge alone is a world above anything else you will find from any other manufacture. You also get different adapters to adjust the speed on the fans, always a nice touch.
Installation
We have always preferred Noctua’s mounting brackets over most of the competition; installation is always easy and quick. There is a reason we have been using this on our test bench obviously. Installing the NH-C14 onto our 1155 socket bench requires sliding the four studs through the baseplate. Next you Slide the baseplate with studs through the push pin holes on your motherboard.
Next you are going to drop the plastic spacers on the studs. On top of the spacers you mount two small brackets to the studs with thumbscrews. Tightening everything down gives you a base to mount and unmounts the NH-C14 quickly.
After adding thermal paste we are ready to mount the NH-C14 to our motherboard. To make things as easy as possible Noctua has clipped the mounting screws directly to the heatsink mount. This means you don’t have to try to hold them in place or make sure they are lined up. This is especially important on a design like this where you can’t reach the screws other than through the small access holes in the heatsink. To tighten everything down we use the included screwdriver down through each of the two holes and tighten the screws to the mounting base. All in all this is much easier than a lot of other designs. The design also has the added benefit of easy removal and reinstallation when you aren’t changing motherboards because of the two simple mounting points between the bracket and the heatsink. This design is the best we have seen on any heatsink, but it’s not without its faults. I found the last two screws hard to line up at times.
Performance
It almost feels repetitive when we go to talk about the performance of Noctua heatsinks. They always fall near the top in cooling power and noise output is top notch. The NH-C14 is no exception, although its performance is a little less than its BIG brother the NH-D14. Whats more impressive than anything is the NH-C14 actually out performed most of the top heatsinks on the market, not bad for something other than a tower design. The push pull layout helped considerably with these numbers I’m sure.
Beyond the numbers, where Noctua always impresses us is with their noise output. By using high quality fans and implementing small touches like the rubber in between the fans and the heatsink they keep noise close to in audible.
Overall
Noctua always manages to amaze me. Every single one of their products performs on par with the best on the market while still being one of the quietest on the market. The level of detail they go into on every aspect of the design is obvious and the end result is a quality product that anyone can recognize as a “Noctua”, something that most heatsink manufactures don’t come close to doing. The NH-C14 has been on our LGA 1155 test bench for the better part of a year and we don’t have any intention of removing it. Now we just need to get one for our LGA 2011 test bench and we will be set, and the office will be reasonably quiet.