Noctua NH-D15 SSO2 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler, NF-A15 x 2 PWM Fans

Pros: Clearance and flexability for fan mounting is exceptional for such a large cooler.

Industry leading quality. I have bought a lot of parts (not just computer parts) and the quality of the Noctua heatsink is one of the best.

Very quiet. If you still have a mechanicle hard drive or a graphics card that is slightly audible at idle, you will not hear this unit. With my CPU clock speed set to stock, I can run the fans at low 500-600rpm with zero noise. When overclocked I have the fans at about 800rpm during idle and its just BARELY audible if you have zero other noise sources in the case (mech hard drive, graphics card, power supply, etc).

Packaging is top notch. The most well packaged product I have ever bought for a computer.

Exceptional warranty. Fans have a 7 year warranty I think.

Performs just as good as entry level custom and closed loop watercoolers. I know because I was running a XSPC 240 kit. Just read the reviews.

Included heatsink paste is top notch

Cons: Fans are supposed to be able to idle down to 300rpm. I have not been able to run them much lower than 500rpm before they turn off. This could be a board issue and not the fan. That being said, the fans are SILENT at 500-600rpm so going lower seems to be redundant and pointless.

Fans at 1200-1500 are not silent. They are quiet, but not silent. The user base for noctua fans likes to talk these fans up. They do move a lot of air at 600-800 rpm and are VERY quiet at those speeds. I rarely see my self going over 1000rpm and if I had to run higher, it would be okay. They are one of the best fans that money can buy.

Not the best cpu cooler money can buy. There are some coolers that can beat this cooler by a few degrees. Those coolers generally cost a little less. This is offset by noctuas exceptional quality, packaging, and customer service.

requires a full tower chassis (I use the Phanteks Pro, $100)


*I am really nitpicking with these cons. This is an exceptional cooler*

Other Thoughts: Customer service is supposedly the best in the industry. They will send you updated hardware to fit future sockets. I have yet to have communication with noctua, however.

For the price I paid ($88 including 3 day shipping), I am very happy. Right now it is back at $100 and I would still call it a value. Sure there are slightly better coolers but a lot of them are louder, cheaper build quality, and lesser customer service.

When it comes to buying parts (computers, cars, sporting goods, etc) I am always willing to pay more to a company that is willing to stand behind their products with exceptional warranty support.

I bought the D15 to replace my customer loop (low end kit) and it performs just as good without the maintenance and reliability concerns that watercooling brings.

It is very hard to talk down on this product, I recommend it to anyone considering a AIO watercooler or other high end heatsink.

Pros: Dissipates heat extremely well
Quiet fans
Mounting kit is amazing

Cons: Second fan will sit higher than middle fan even with small profile memory in place.

Other Thoughts: In a previous review about my ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0, I complained what a poor overclocker that board was. I still stand by that statement. However, now I've thrown this enourmous heat sink on my FX-8320 and right off the bat, it dropped my temperatures from around 60-65 degrees celsius at 3.5GHz/1.375v to about 48 degrees celsius. Not only that, my previously unattainable 4.0GHz overclock which kept throttling my CPU is now stable enough that I was even able to slightly undervolt from my stock 1.275v that the motherboard detected to 1.25v, which bring the temperature on the socket right below 60 degrees celsius + no throttling. So that alone was worth the money. Going further, I was able to get to a stable 4.4GHz @ 1.35v and an additional fan (Cougar Vortex 120mm PWM fan) that I sandwiched between my graphics card and the side of the heat sink in order to blow air over the MOSFET area. Granted all my fans were now running at full force, but the 4.4GHz were stable enough for me to go "Yahay!"

So I'm thinking, that with a better motherboard that's got a solid 8+2 power phase, I might even be able to attain a higher clock speed, since the thermal margin as reported by AMD Overdrive was still well above 20 degrees celsius. So there's still plenty of headroom in the CPU to go further.

For my original goal of attaining just the slightest overclock of 4.0GHz without throttling, I say: mission accomplished.

Also, the fans are pretty quiet. Now I have to save up to replace my Cougar Vortex fans with those awesome Noctua ones (pricey).

NH-D15: recommended!

Pros: It's big, and I dig the fans. Seems to work adequately, temps are typically only 10 degrees above ambient, while some cores are almost at ambient temperature.

Cons: The only con is that I use this on an X99 board, and like I have read on the Noctua website, this cooler puts it'self very very close to the 1st slot on the x99 board, so you might not want this particular model (maybe 1 mm too close) unless you are okay with the cooler/fan clips being to close to the first slot.

Other Thoughts: I will probably end up taking a dremel to one side of the fan to take a mm off so that I don't have contact/rubbage/force on the first card. Other than that, I really like.

Pros: - 2 x Fans on a big heatsink!!
- Runs very cool in my buddies system.

Cons: - Big, didn't quite fit in my midsize tower, and I mean by 1/8 of an inch.

Other Thoughts: A friend of mine with my same EXACT setup (except his is a full tower, and mine is a mid) it shaved 10C off of his cpu heat under full load. I had to return mine because it just BARELY didn't fit in my midsize case :( But I know it's an excellent product. I'll have to upgrade tower first, if I can muster the will to rip my computer apart.

Pros: Brilliant cooler. Dropped my temp at full processor usage down over 20°C. Quite too. You get what you pay for and man, you get a lot.

Cons: Its big, so you need to make sure your case and ram will fit. My HAF XB fits it with a few cm to spare.

Pros: I had the old 14 inches model and it was reliable and silent, though I had to swap the memory with good heat spreaders to lower hight one - fact that killed the overclockability. But it was reliable, though the colour was odd (beige? really? from all pigments available?).
I don't really know about the one I bought, but I would assume (read over to see where assumptions get you) that it will be silent and reliable.

Cons: Surprise !!
I can not install this heavily advertised (and also heavyweight , nearly 1.5 kg) cooler on the motherboard I bought at the same time - a X99 model (ASUS ROG).
That package it's missing the proper size backplate mount , the 2011 v3 that fits the new generation of processors.
This expensive big cooler comes with just the 115x adapter for intel they SecuFirm 115X and one for AMD processors.
They advertise this model as compatible with the 2011 sockets. Well, only if you get lucky and get the part in the box, because apparently I am not the only one that is missing the part.
I planned the weekend and the Monday holiday (Thanksgiving here in Canada) to assemble the workstations. I now look at premium priced high end equipment that I can not use because of decreased QA (Quality Assurance).

Another con it's ecological. The size and quantity of cardboard they use in packaging the cooler is enough to make a small city for kids. Please be more eco-responsible.

Other Thoughts: Newell is one of the best places to shop for your needs.
They offered immediately to send me another one (though they said it may also be the same problem, they do not control what's in the package). I will try to contact the manufacturer, document the case, take pictures (read = waste time after paying an expensive item) and see how it goes.
I was recommending Noctua to all the clients and colleagues (I teach informatics). I will have to pick another one. BUT which one?? - nobody is proud in their engineering and QA - just the marketing and packaging guys flooding the advertisement spaces and the biased reviews based on freebies sent by companies.
On the form over content part. Though I am in Canada and we still have many trees, I still hate seeing trees waisted for no good reason, but just marketing (which is not a good reason unless you are a shallow corporation) .

Pros: Excellent quality product. All CPU coolers should be this built quality. Super easy to install without any issues. Instructions very straight forward. Did not have to fight to aline or force to connect. Not like other manufactures. I had the Antec KUHLER H2O 950 Water/Liquid CPU Cooler 120MM which did ok until the liquid evaporated. Now with this the CPU is running at 28C deg.

Cons: Will not fit in med tower PC cases. More designed for full tower cases. Other than that it is perfect

Other Thoughts: Can not go wrong with this air cool cpu cooler.

Pros: This is a high quality CPU cooler, everything was boxed nicely and tagged accordingly. It is very easy to install and the performance is great. I have a 5939K OC to 4.0 , room temp. 25 C the CPU temps are about 30C idle and up to 60C under prime 95.

Cons: I have a ASUS Rampage V X99 and the cooler touches the back of the GPU on first X16 slot. If the GPU has a back plate things get even worst.

Other Thoughts: I cut the end of the cooler"s fins on the GPU side and thing are great now. ( I ruined my first cooler so I and got a second one)

Pros: After taking twenty minutes to install this on an AMD FX-8350 Black Edition, which came with a very loud fan, I was up and running with a whisper quiet machine. That time included trimming down the heat spreaders on two memory modules with a Dremel cutter, so the secondary fan would clear. It's a very quiet and well built cooler.



Haven't had time to study the core temperatures yet, but a preliminary check shows quite a drop in temperatures, ~25cto 30c while idle.

Oh yes, it's a very quiet cooler.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: This system consists of:
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 AM3+
AMD FX-8350 Black Edition
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Case is an old "XBLADE" full tower
with just enough width for the cooler.

I have bought Noctua fans in the past and
now the NH-D15 cooler. I can't say
enough about that company.

Pros: None

Cons: The mounting brackets that came with this cooler are defective. There are still pieces of metal attached which make them not sit properly on the screws. While you can force the mounting brackets down, this make attaching the actual cooler impossible. Completely unusable.

Other Thoughts: Seriously, for $100 this is completely unacceptable. I have been hearing so much about how great Noctua products are but this is totally unacceptable. Will not be buying any Noctua products in the future.