HomeHardwareNoctua NH-D15 review

Noctua NH-D15 review

Our Verdict

The Noctua NH-D15 provides supremely low noise for the cooling efficiency it provides, however it comes at a price in your pockets and reminiscence compatibility.

Causes to purchase

  • Wonderful cooling
  • Nice construct high quality
  • Low noise
Causes to keep away from

  • Costly
  • Severely restricts reminiscence selection
  • Very tall

The Noctua NH-D15 is a beefed-up model of the Noctua NH-D14, a cooler that has lengthy been the daddy of 120mm air coolers, providing unbelievable cooling at low noise ranges. The NH-D15 has an identical design however makes use of two bigger 140mm followers and has six warmth pipes.

As you’d anticipate from one of the best CPU coolers, it’s appropriate with each AMD Socket AM5 and Intel LGA1700 out of the field, engaged on any trendy CPU and lots of older ones. Its giant followers and big heatsink enable it to supply nice cooling at decrease noise ranges than smaller heatsinks however it ought to slot in most PC circumstances.

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Noctua NH-D15 specs

Listed here are the Noctua NH-D15 specs:

Intel sockets supported LGA1700, LGA1200, LGA115x, LGA2066, LGA2011
AMD sockets supported Socket AM4, Socket AM5
Dimensions with followers (W x D x H) 150mm x 161mm x 165mm
Followers 2 x 140mm
Said noise 27dBA
RGB lighting No
Extras Fan splitter cable, pace discount cables

Noctua NH-D15 design and dimensions

With a peak of 165mm, the NH-D15 pushes the bounds of many PC circumstances, so examine your case cooler clearance. One different factor you’ll have to examine is the peak of your reminiscence modules. With each followers put in, the outer one will overhang your motherboard’s reminiscence slots and clearance is simply 32mm.

This can rule out many tall reminiscence fashions with RGB lighting or giant heatsinks, although a number of of our present decisions of greatest gaming RAM will work high quality. The fan could be adjusted upwards barely, however this will increase the cooler peak and reduces airflow by the heatsink.

Noctua NH-D15 review image showing a side view of the product. To the top right of the image is a PCGamesN logo.

To chop down on cable muddle, Noctua features a splitter cable to energy each followers from a single header in your motherboard. Low-noise adaptors work to chop the fan pace when you don’t thoughts barely much less airflow for a fair simpler time in your ears.

As regular with Noctua merchandise, the packing, directions, and construct high quality of the NH-D15 are unbelievable, partially justifying its $110 price ticket.

Noctua NH-D15 set up

Set up of the NH-D15 is easy on all sockets with which it’s appropriate. LGA1700, which comes with no customary set up elements, requires the equipped backplate and topside brackets. On AMD techniques you’ll have to take away the 2 plastic brackets across the CPU socket in your motherboard. Then you definately use the AMD backplate out of your motherboard with the cooler’s parts to safe the heatsink.

Noctua NH-D15 review image showing the underside of the product. To the top right corner of the image you can see the PCGamesN logo.

Noctua NH-D15 Intel LGA1700 temperature

With followers at full pace, the common temperature throughout all eight P-cores of our Core i7-13700K was 87°C utilizing Cinebench’s multi-threaded 10-minute stress take a look at to load all cores. You’ll see a lot decrease temperatures in video games and shorter workloads, however the NH-D15 can deal with prolonged multi-threaded workloads even on Intel’s high-end CPUs. Utilizing the included low noise adaptors noticed that temperature rise by two levels, however remember to add one to the top of every fan for the complete noise-reduction impact.

Noctua NH-D15 noise stage

At full pace, the followers are definitely noticeable, and also you received’t need to sit subsequent to your PC for hours below excessive CPU masses. Nonetheless, it’s removed from ear-splitting, and with the ultra-low noise adaptors put in the sound drops noticeably to a gentle thrum. As quickly because the CPU takes its foot off the accelerator, the fan speeds fall to very quiet ranges, and even in video games it’s barely noticeable.

Noctua NH-D15 review image showing the product from the front. To the top right corner, you can see the PCGamesN logo.

Noctua NH-D15 worth

The Noctua NH-D15 worth is $119.95, making it very costly for an air cooler, however if you would like wonderful cooling for low noise with out utilizing liquid cooling it’s the most effective choices.

 

Noctua NH-D15 evaluation conclusion

There are a number of points to pay attention to with the Noctua NH-D15. Its most peak could also be an excessive amount of for smaller circumstances and the second fan will severely prohibit reminiscence selection too. Then there’s the difficulty of its very excessive worth. You might purchase 4 decent-performing air coolers for this money or a similarly-performing and extra versatile AIO liquid cooler.

Nonetheless, its stellar cooling mixed with low noise ranges and the actual fact you don’t want to fret about pump failure or leaks make the Noctua NH-D15 excellent for individuals who additionally desire a well-made, dependable, and maintenance-free cooler

Have you ever opted for an enormous air CPU cooler like this one or do you like the cleaner look of an AIO cooler? Tell us your ideas on the Customized PC Fb web page, by way of Twitter, or be a part of our Customized PC and Gaming Setup Fb group and faucet into the information of our 400,000+ members.

For extra {hardware} suggestions, learn our checklist of one of the best CPU coolers and greatest gaming CPUs – each full of merchandise we’ve gone hands-on with.

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