Noctua NH-D15S, Premium Dual-Tower CPU Cooler with NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan (Brown)

Noctua has a reputation in the PC enthusiast community as being a manufacturer of some of the best case fans, CPU coolers, and accessories for coolers and fans. As many other reviewers will rightly note, Noctua's SecuFirm 2 system makes mounting rather simple, but you will need to pay attention to what motherboard you have and choose your mounting hardware from the included accessories accordingly. The included installation manuals cover the four currently predominant sockets, and the instructions are fairly easy to follow, provided that you RTFM. The included NT-H1 thermal paste is a good all-around performer. It's not best in any one area, but it's good enough that most anyone would be quite satisfied with its performance by all sensible metrics. There is enough in the tube that one should be able to reapply paste about two or three times after initial installation. Do note that the cooler does not come with paste pre-applied, likely to prevent dryout, and to save a labor step, but it also means that out of the box you have a pristine surface on the cooler, should you choose to use a different compound on your CPU. The screwdriver you get in the box is nothing special, but it does not cam out of the screws, and it is long enough to comfortably reach the mounting screws on the cooler itself. While it would be nice if the tool had a proper handle, space and budget constraints lead to the adequate, if austere, design. The included low-noise adapter (a short length of cable with an included component to reduce the speed of a fan plugged into it) is a nice accessory to have, the average user will never have a need for it; the included NF-A15 fan runs quietly enough that you probably won't notice whatever noise it might make. The included metal Noctua case badge is a nice touch for users who want to show off their taste in hardware. The cooler will fit with millimeters to spare in most cases, and Noctua offers a compatibility list to help buyers determine if a given cooler will fit a given case. With the included NT-H1 thermal paste, and the included fan mounted between the towers, my i7 7700 idles around 30 degrees Celsius, and hits about 60 under a CPU burner load in FurMark 1.24.0.0. This is in a Cooler Master NR600 with three Noctua NF-F12 fans mounted in the front as intake, and a fourth mounted in the rear of the case as exhaust, at an ambient temperature of about 18.3 degrees Celsius. I will absolutely buy an NH-D15 variant again.

Payton · 2021-03-01 · via amazon

I bought this S version in hopes of being able to add another fan onto it as the NH-D15 was sold out almost everywhere. Where it wasn't they were charging 1.5x or double its value. I put this on my new Ryzen 7 3700X and it's done a fantastic job even with one fan. I made sure the GPU and CPU cooler were within specifications for my case. Everything fit as is but I was unable to add a second fan to the cooler which I had ordered with the cooler itself. It provides you with extra mounting clips and everything you need to add a second fan to this cooler. But when I went to add the second fan onto the cooler, it would not fit as my RAM got into the way. My ram isn't high profile in my opinion but if I add the fan, I would not be able to put my PC case side back on. The second fan stuck out maybe a half inch to far to let my side to be put back on. Now I either have an extra fan for replacement or I can return the fan I bought to add. As far as cooling goes, with just this single fan it does a fantastic job. My 10 year old PC with a quad core CPU and its cooler would idle around 40-50C as the area in my room that my desk and PC sit stays a little warmer than the rest of the room. Probably because its where all my electronics are at. ie PC, xbox one x, tv, satellite dish unit and bluray dvd player. This cooler on my Ryzen 7 3700X under a stress test of 100% load via Cinebench only got up to 63C with it being around 24C (70-75 Fahrenheit) ambient temperate in my room. I've read a lot of conflicting claims stating the Ryzen series doesn't get hot enough to warrant the need for the Noctua coolers but I didn't care, I wanted to make sure 100% that I'd be getting boosted speeds as much as possible and not have to worry about CPU throttling or over heating. I believe it will help the lifespan of my CPU keeping it as cool as possible. This does take up a huge amount of space in my case but I ordered a full size tower which had plenty of room for everything and then some. I may down the road try to find smaller profile RAM that will let me install the second fan if I don't decide to send it back for the $20 refund. I did have very little trouble installing the cooler itself. For AMD motherboards you have to take of the stock pretensioner and install the provided one. The back plate fell out a little after I removed the stock screws but was easily put back in place. I was able to install it with my graphics card already installed and the motherboard installed in my case. It was a little tight but doable. It is hard to get the screws started as they have spring tension on them. So you will have to get one screw started, then press down on the cooler and press down on the other screw to get it started. It is a little tricky but doable with one person. This was the hardest part in the whole installation for me. I've never used aftermarket coolers prior to installing this one. If you want maximum airflow and want to keep your CPU the coolest possible with an air flow CPU cooler, this is definitely worth it. I don't have any experience with any other cooler so I can't really compare it to any other aftermarket cooler but I've watched a lot of videos of the comparison and this Noctua is almost always on top of any list.

Curtis · 2020-06-04 · via amazon

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VALUE SCORE

Price

$20

Price

$23.99