Noctua NH-D14 Heatsink
- Details
- Category: Cooling Hardware
- Published: Wednesday, 07 April 2010 00:00
When it comes to heatsinks little changes but just when you think that it's all been done someone comes along and says they can do better. Sometimes it's with a new design or shape, other times it's using TEC cooling, and then sometimes it's just plain ol' size. Noctua has recently introduced the NH-D14 and D14 apparently means "monster". This has to be the largest heatsink I have ever seen and now it's sitting on our workbench today begging to be tested, let's jump in.
It's rare nowadays to see a company make a case fan attractive without the use of lighting of some sort. That doesn't mean it can't be done. Cooler Master's new 120mm case fan the Excalibur, is proof of that. The simple and sleek design just doesn't get justice behind bezels. Careful not to judge books by their covers today I sit down with the Excalibur to see how it performs.
Gaming PCs have long since reached a point where multiple fans of different sizes and RPM are necessary to adequately cool the hardware it uses. With such a variety comes the potential of tweaking each individual fan to a certain speed, in order to preserve power when not needed and control the airflow of the rig. If you are using standard fans connected to a power supply alone, this is impossible. The solution to all these problems is a fan controller, in this case a 5.25" expansion bay and hardware that, at the very least, controls multiple fans. The interface of a controller, how it controls the speeds, style, and capacity are but a few things that set models apart from one another. NZXT has sent us the Sentry 2 to see how it performs.
Most people don't give the fans in their PC any thought, even most enthusiasts worry about colors and led's not the noise level or performance. Noctua is in the minority when it comes to fan manufactures because they design their fans to be as quite as possible with no concern for LED's or special colors. Today I have the chance to test out their newest fan the NF-12B FLX. Similar to the NF-P12 that we tested before, but with a few updates. Let's take a look to see how their changes effected the fans performance.
With video card technology growing consistently for some time now today’s video cards have grown into large power hungry monsters, some requiring 300w of power. With that amount of power being used they are bound to create a lot of heat in the whole possess. Reference designs from both ATI and Nvidia have heatsinks with fans that are sometimes very loud while not cooling to the extreme that some enthusiasts expect. That’s where Thermalright jumps in with their T-Rad?, designed to cool better than the stock design while (when using the right fans) keeping the noise to a minimum.![IMG_5431 [lr] [lrsm]](http://lanoc.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_5431-lr-lrsm.JPG "IMG_5431 [lr] [lrsm]")
One of the breakout hits this past year at CES was hidden in the sands convention center in a small booth called CoolIt. CoolIt has been known for some of time for some of their water cooling and TEC cooling systems for system builders like Dell and Alienware, but with the introduction of the Domino A.L.C. at CES they got everyone’s attention. In fact they were so inundated with requests I just now received our review sample. So without any more waiting I’m going to jump right into it and see how it works. ![IMG_5541 [lr] [lrsm]](http://lanoc.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IMG_5541-lr-lrsm.JPG "IMG_5541 [lr] [lrsm]")
When it comes to the enthusiast heat sink market there is a short list of manufactures who dominate the industry for the most part. Of course there are many other companies who are fighting for a spot trying to make a name for themselves. Today I have the chance to check out a heat sink from a company called Titan, being in the industry for twenty years has become a competitor in the IT market. Working on the high performance market they recently released a heat sink called the Fenrir. In 
Yesterday I took a look at Cooler Masters Hyper TX-3 entry level heatsink and was surprised considerably by its performance and value. Today I will be following that review by taking a look at what I can only call its older brother the Hyper 212 Plus due to the Hyper 212 Plus being the same design only larger. The Hyper 212 has been around for some time providing great performance in a mid range price. With the updated Hyper 212 Plus they have most likely updated the performance along with the added compatibility for the upcoming Lynnfield or i5 CPU later this year. I plan to put the updated version to the test and find out how it compares to a range of different heatsinks.
Running a expensive high end heatsink like the v10 or even the v8 is not feasible for everyone due to space or financial reasons. Also as crazy as it seems to me most people aren't looking for the most extreme cooling solution, some are only looking for an improvement over stock cooling. Cooler Master has recognizes this and has recently released the TX-3 CPU cooler for that market. Today I will be taking a closer look at the TX-3 to see how well it compares to other heatsinks that we have tested in the past along with if it fits the needs of the entry level market that it is designed for. 
When you pay hundreds of dollars or even thousands for a gaming pc, you expect quality. That includes not having your machine sound like a sad excuse for a vacuum cleaner. Fans are a critical component in any machine, cooling your vital components and allowing for optimal performance. Unfortunately, typical stock fans or any fan short of the expensive ones often sound noisy at full power. This is the point where you pick up a fan controller, a device that in truth, controls the amount of power your fans get. Using one of these gadgets allows for minute adjustments in fan speed, allowing for a perfect balance of noise as well as cooling. Now, fan controllers are an age old pc accessory, but that doesn't stop manufacturers from trying to perfect the technology. 
With the Socket 1366 platform becoming more and more popular many gamers have been looking for quality heatsinks to keep their rigs cool. This has been even more important with the overclockability of the i7 920. Our friends in Austria, of course, were on top of their game right away giving out free clips to owners of their heatsinks to anyone who wanted to upgrade to an i7 (
Thermalright is the top dog in the heatsink world. Their TRUE heatsink is still outperforming most efforts from their competition long after it was released. When you are on top it's sometimes hard to figure out where to go next. Apparently they saw room for growth in the market for HTPC heatsinks. Because of that I'm here today ready to test their newest heatsink the AXP-140. Similar in looks to the 
The big news from Cooler Master at CES this year was the upcoming release of the long awaited V10 heatsink. Last year they showed off the V10 design at CES similar to what eventually released but without the TEC cooling that was included in the final product. Speaking of the TEC cooling, the idea of a hybrid cooling solution isn't new, but has been far from perfected. Cooler Master believes they have the top dog in cooling performance with the V10. Today we will be comparing the V10 to Cooler Master's V8 to see how much of an improvement the step up in price and size gets you. 
Today we are looking at the Noctua NH-U9B. This of course is far from the first product from Noctua that we have tested; in fact, we have looked at just about everything from their current product lineup. The NH-U9B is similar to the NH-U12p but smaller. Replacing the 120mm fan with a 92mm the NH-U9B is the perfect size for smaller more compact setups. If it's anything like my past experiences I'm sure I won't be disappointed.
Getting the best performance out of your heatsink depends on the perfect application of thermal paste. If there is old thermal paste left over or to much is used you can decrease the performance of even the best heatsinks. In the past I've just wiped thermal paste off with a towel, if it gets really tough I used rubbing alcohol. Tuniq realized that there is an issue where most people don't clean their CPU off properly. They developed TR-1 as a reaction to that problem. Considering how often I am swapping heatsinks I am excited to see how this will perform. Read on to find out!
With our trip to CES this year I had a rare opportunity to get a closer look at Coolermaster’s current and upcoming heatsinks. They showed off their “Top Dog” the v10 mostly, and because of that coverage and enthusiasm the new Hyper N520 was slightly overshadowed. Targeted at the budget crowd who is looking to get the best performance for their money I don’t expect it to break any records. But we have been surprised before, will the Hyper N520 out perform its competitors?
The other day I looked at the Xilence Xilent Blade Pro heatsink. Xilence produces a long list of cooling products. A good example of their wide selection is their Dual Heatpipe RAM Cooler. Designed to give great ram cooling for overclocking it's a perfect match for dedicated gamers and overclocking geeks.
A few weeks ago I took a look at the NH-U12P from Noctua. I was very impressed with the performance of the NH-U12P. In fact it was one of our best performing heatsinks to date. Noctua also makes a different design that is a little more low profile called the NH-C12P. Today we are going to see how the NH-C12P compares to the NH-U12P along with other heatsinks we have tested. In the past we have had trouble finding problems with Noctua; will the NH-C12P perform the same? 