With the NH-D15 Noctua shows its latest high-end CPU cooler. This monster comes boxed with one 140 x 140 x 25 millimeter fan as well as 140 x 150 x 25 millimeter fan. Putting the cooler on a scale reveals it weighs a massive 1320g. Overall this leaves us rather curious how this thing is going to perform.
Today we are taking a look at Noctua's latest tower CPU cooler, the Noctua NH-D15.
This particular model is based on a twin-tower design. Other than that there is a
nickel-plated copper base connected to the heat-sinks via six 6mm cooper-heatpipes.
Fresh air comes from one 140 x 140 x 25 millimeter as well as a 140 x 150 x 25
millimeter PWM fan. With the NH-D15, like the old version
NH-D14 cooler, Noctua makes use of a sandwich construction which means that one
of the two fans is located between the two cooling tower heatsinks.
Both the base and the heatpipes on the Noctua NH-D15
are made from nickel-plated copper. It features six heatpipes which are not in direct contact with the CPU but have been routed through a copper base.
The Noctua NH-D15 features dual-tower heatsink design in order to have more surface area
which in the end usually means better heat dissipation and of course higher airflow efficiency.
There are two large PWM fans where the one inbetween the two towers measures 140
x 150 x 25 millimeter and the other 140 x 140 x 25 millimeter. When it comes to
rotation speeds, max RPM is 1500. Both heatsinks are made
out of aluminum and as
you can see, it is clear that this is quite a big CPU cooler with dimensions of 165x150x161mm.
The manufacturing quality is definitely on a high level and we honestly did not
expect anything less from Noctua.
Specifications |
Model |
Noctua |
Type |
Dual-tower |
Provided Fan(s) |
1 x 140 x 150 x 25mm PWM,
1500 rpm
1 x 140 x 140 x 25 mm PWM, 1500 rpm |
Supported Fan(s) |
2 x 140 x 150 x 25 mm
2 x 140 x 140 x 25 mm
2 x 120 x 120 x 25 mm |
Base Material |
Nickel
plated copper |
Fins Material |
Aluminum |
Socket Support |
AMD AM2(+), AM3(+), FM1,
FM2(+), FM3(+) (backplate required)
Intel LGA 1150, 1155, 1156, 2011 |
Thermal compound |
Noctua NT-H1 3.5g Tube |
Product Page |
Noctua |
The box is made out of solid cardboard and although it is only
protected by a plastic shroud our sample arrived without a single dent or any
damage whatsoever. One of the bundled fans have been attached in between the towers
while the second one is in a very nice looking small box. The rest of the mounting components are placed in three separate small boxes. The bundle includes all installation manuals for different sockets signed by Noctua's CEO, AMD mounting kit and
the Intel mounting kit,
four fan clips (two already mounted), a 3.5g tube of thermal compound enough for 15 applications, two fans (one installed) and of course the tower heatsink itself.
[pagebreak]
Photo Gallery
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Installation
Installation of the Noctua NH-D15 is quite simple and easy. Noctua kept everything nice
and simple while the mounting procedure is explained clearly in the manuals you find in the bundle. The thermal paste is not
pre-applied and comes in a 3.5g tube and its enough for more than 15 applications, in case you decide to clean
the fans or unmount the cooler in future, there will be enough thermal paste
left. The overall pressure on the CPU is quite good as this cooler, with its
1320g is definitely a heavy weight. The bundle includes two mounting kits, one for AMD sockets and one for Intel
sockets. This cooler supports AMD AM2(+), AM3(+), FM1,
FM2(+) as well as
Intel LGA 1150, 1155, 1156 and 2011. Unfortunately, there is no
compatibility with AMD FM3 and Intel LGA 775 and 1366 sockets.
Since this cooler is a dual-tower cooler with big dimensions we can't expect compatibility with all
memory modules, but there is a nice cut in both sides of the heatsinks which
provides enough room to install taller DIMMs but there is still problem with X79 setup
which has DIMMs in both part of the CPU socket. When using the cooler in the dual-fan mode, with a single fan
sandwiched between the heatsninks you should not have any issue to with taller DIMM
memory modules.
Test Setup |
Mainboard |
ASUS Z87-Deluxe (BIOS 1602) |
CPU |
Intel Core i7-4770K Stock (Turbo On / HT On) |
Memory |
ADATA XPG V2 2x4GB DDR3-2800 CL12 1.65V |
Video |
Intel HD Graphics 4600 |
Software |
Windows 7 x64
wPrime Benchmark v2.10
CPUID HWMonitor 1.24.0 |
PSU |
Seasonic Platinum SS-660XP2 |
Fan Controller |
Lamptron FC5 V3 |
Thermal Compound |
Pre-applied |
[pagebreak]
Absolute Performance
Temperatures
7V |
Idle |
Load |
Enermax Liqtech
120X |
32 °C |
50 °C |
Corsair H75 Single
Fan |
32 °C |
51 °C |
Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan |
33 °C |
51 °C |
Noctua NH-U12S
Dual Fan |
33 °C |
53 °C |
Noctua NH-D15 Single Fan |
34 °C |
53 °C |
Raijintek Nemesis Dual Fan |
34 °C |
54 °C |
Enermax ETS-T40
White Claster |
35 °C |
56 °C |
Raijintek Nemesis Single Fan |
35 °C |
56 °C |
Noctua NH-U12S
Single Fan |
34 °C |
57 °C |
Raijintek Themis
EVO |
34 °C |
57 °C |
Raijintek Pallas |
37 °C |
59 °C |
Cooler
Master Hyper 103 |
36 °C |
60 °C |
Alpenföhn
Matterhorn Pure |
36 °C |
61 °C |
Prolimatech Lynx |
35 °C |
63 °C |
Thermolab Bada
2010 |
39 °C |
64 °C |
Scythe IORI
Scior-1000 |
39 °C |
65 °C |
Thermolab ITX30 |
38 °C |
75 °C |
Intel Stock |
39 °C |
83 °C |
To measure
the cooling capacity we took temperatures in idle and load
with the fans at 7 and 12 V. The idle temperature represents the lowest
temperature hit by the processor package after 10 minutes in idle. The load temperature is
the highest temperature hit by the processor after one pass of wPrime v2.10. The
wPrime test takes 4 minutes and puts load on all 8 threads.
Room temperature is
at 25°C.
12V |
Idle |
Load |
Enermax Liqtech
120X |
31 °C |
44 °C |
Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan |
32 °C |
50 °C |
Corsair H75 Single
Fan |
32 °C |
51 °C |
Noctua NH-U12S
Dual Fan |
33 °C |
51 °C |
Noctua NH-U12S
Single Fan |
33 °C |
53 °C |
Raijintek Nemesis Dual Fan |
33 °C |
54 °C |
Raijintek Themis
EVO |
33 °C |
54 °C |
Enermax ETS-T40
White Claster |
34 °C |
54 °C |
Noctua NH-D15 Single Fan |
33 °C |
55 °C |
Raijintek Nemesis Single Fan |
34 °C |
55 °C |
Prolimatech Lynx |
34 °C |
55 °C |
Raijintek Pallas |
36 °C |
56 °C |
Alpenföhn
Matterhorn Pure |
34 °C |
57 °C |
Cooler
Master Hyper 103 |
36 °C |
58 °C |
Scythe IORI
Scior-1000 |
37 °C |
60 °C |
Thermolab Bada
2010 |
39 °C |
64 °C |
Thermolab ITX30 |
36 °C |
69 °C |
Intel Stock |
35 °C |
70 °C |
Fan Speeds
|
7 Volt |
12 Volt |
Raijintek Nemesis
Single Fan |
840 rpm |
1'180 rpm |
Raijintek Pallas |
960 rpm |
1'440 rpm |
Raijintek Nemesis
Dual Fan |
780 rpm |
1'200 rpm |
Noctua NH-U12S
Dual Fan |
900 rpm |
1'500 rpm |
Noctua NH-U12S
Single Fan |
900 rpm |
1'500 rpm |
Raijintek Themis
EVO |
960 rpm |
1'500 rpm |
Alpenföhn
Matterhorn Pure |
660 rpm |
1'530 rpm |
Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan |
960 rpm |
1'560 rpm |
Noctua NH-D15 Single Fan |
1'020 rpm |
1'560 rpm |
Enermax ETS-T40
White Claster |
1'260 rpm |
1'860 rpm |
Prolimatech Lynx |
600 rpm |
1'740 rpm |
Corsair H75 Single
Fan |
1'200 rpm |
1'980 rpm |
Thermolab Bada
2010 |
1'140 rpm |
1'980 rpm |
Intel Stock |
1'260 rpm |
2'040 rpm |
Enermax Liqtech
120X |
1'270 rpm |
2'050 rpm |
Scythe IORI
Scior-1000 |
280 rpm |
2'220 rpm |
Cooler
Master Hyper 103 |
1'580 rpm |
2'400 rpm |
Thermolab ITX30 |
1'620 rpm |
2'580 rpm |
Fan speeds (RPM) at 7 and 12 V.
Noise Levels
|
7 Volt |
12 Volt |
Intel Stock |
33.3 dBA |
37.1 dBA |
Noctua NH-U12S
Single Fan |
32.3 dBA |
37.4 dBA |
Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan |
32.2 dBA |
37.4 dBA |
Alpenföhn
Matterhorn Pure |
32.3 dBA |
38.4 dBA |
Noctua NH-D15 Single Fan |
33.7 dBA |
38.9 dBA |
Thermolab ITX30 |
33.4 dBA |
38.9 dBA |
Raijintek Pallas |
34.7 dBA |
39.3 dBA |
Cooler
Master Hyper 103 |
34.2 dBA |
39.5 dBA |
Noctua NH-U12S
Dual Fan |
33.4 dBA |
39.6 dBA |
Raijintek Themis
EVO |
33.9 dBA |
40.1 dBA |
Scythe IORI
Scior-1000 |
32.8 dBA |
40.3 dBA |
Prolimatech Lynx |
33.0 dBA |
40.3 dBA |
Thermolab Bada
2010 |
32.3 dBA |
40.4 dBA |
Enermax Liqtech
120X |
33.4 dBA |
40.6 dBA |
Raijintek Nemesis Dual Fan |
36.1 dBA |
43.6 dBA |
Raijintek Nemesis
Dual Fan |
36.1 dBA |
43.6 dBA |
Enermax ETS-T40
White Claster |
33.3 dBA |
40.7 dBA |
Corsair H75 Single
Fan |
34.5 dBA |
41.7 dBA |
Decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) has been placed 1 meter away from the
cooler. Measurements are conducted in a quiet room, where there are no other noise source. 32 dBA is the lowest
we can get in our room. Also here
the measurements are conducted at 7 and 12 V.
[pagebreak]
PWM Performance
Temperatures
|
Idle |
Load |
Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan |
33 °C |
53 °C |
Enermax Liqtech
120X |
34°C |
54 °C |
Raijintek Nemesis
Dual Fan |
33 °C |
54 °C |
Noctua NH-D15 Single Fan |
34 °C |
54 °C |
Noctua NH-U12S
Dual Fan |
33 °C |
55 °C |
Raijintek Nemesis
Single Fan |
34 °C |
55 °C |
Corsair H75 Single
Fan |
35 °C |
55 °C |
Raijintek Themis
EVO |
35 °C |
56 °C |
Prolimatech Lynx |
34 °C |
57 °C |
Enermax ETS-T40
White Claster |
35 °C |
57 °C |
Noctua NH-U12S
Single Fan |
36 °C |
57 °C |
Raijintek Pallas |
37 °C |
58 °C |
Alpenföhn
Matterhorn Pure |
35 °C |
59 °C |
Cooler
Master Hyper 103 |
36 °C |
60 °C |
Thermolab Bada
2010 |
39 °C |
64 °C |
Scythe IORI
Scior-1000 |
42 °C |
66 °C |
Thermolab ITX30 |
39 °C |
70 °C |
Intel Stock |
39 °C |
75 °C |
At this point we plugged the fan(s) to the motherboard CPU fan header and let the
motherboard take care of fan speeds. In other words the motherboard will
adjust the fan speed via PWM signal according to CPU temperature. The idle
temperature is the lowest temperature hit by the processor after 10
minutes
in idle. The load temperature is the highest temperature hit by the
processor after one pass of wPrime v2.10. The
wPrime test takes 4 minutes puts load on all 8 threads.
Room temperature is 25°C.
Fan Speeds
|
Idle |
Load |
Noctua NH-U12S
Dual Fan |
380 rpm |
687 rpm |
Noctua NH-U12S
Single Fan |
450 rpm |
740 rpm |
Alpenföhn
Matterhorn Pure |
471 rpm |
770 rpm |
Noctua NH-D15 Single Fan |
466 rpm |
860 rpm |
Scythe IORI
Scior-1000 |
424 rpm |
880 rpm |
Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan |
560 rpm |
955 rpm |
Corsair H75 Single
Fan |
800 rpm |
969 rpm |
Enermax Liqtech
120X |
580 rpm |
970 rpm |
Prolimatech Lynx |
765 rpm |
1'077 rpm |
Raijintek Themis
EVO |
990 rpm |
1'115 rpm |
Enermax ETS-T40
White Claster |
920 rpm |
1'170 rpm |
Raijintek Nemesis
Dual Fan |
1'120 rpm |
1'190 rpm |
Raijintek Nemesis
Single Fan |
1'120 rpm |
1'270 rpm |
Raijintek Pallas |
952 rpm |
1'170 rpm |
Cooler
Master Hyper 103 |
950 rpm |
1'465 rpm |
Thermolab Bada
2010 |
1'250 rpm |
1'500 rpm |
Intel Stock |
1'230 rpm |
1'630 rpm |
Thermolab ITX30 |
1'475 rpm |
2'253 rpm |
Values are in RPM, we took the lowest speed hit by the fan(s) in idle and the
highest under load.
Noise Levels
|
Idle |
Load |
Noctua NH-U12S
Single Fan |
32.0 dBA |
32.0 dBA |
Noctua NH-D15 Dual Fan |
32.1 dBA |
32.3 dBA |
Noctua NH-U12S
Dual Fan |
32.0 dBA |
32.4 dBA |
Noctua NH-D15 Single Fan |
32.1 dBA |
32.6 dBA |
Alpenföhn
Matterhorn Pure |
32.0 dBA |
32.7 dBA |
Enermax Liqtech
120X |
32.1 dBA |
32.8 dBA |
Corsair H75 Single
Fan |
32.2 dBA |
33.2 dBA |
Enermax ETS-T40
White Claster |
33.0 dBA |
33.2 dBA |
Cooler
Master Hyper 103 |
32.0 dBA |
33.6 dBA |
Prolimatech Lynx |
33.3 dBA |
33.9 dBA |
Raijintek Nemesis
Single Fan |
33.5 dBA |
34.2 dBA |
Thermolab Bada
2010 |
33.8 dBA |
34.2 dBA |
Intel Stock |
33.3 dBA |
34.4 dBA |
Scythe IORI
Scior-1000 |
33.2 dBA |
34.6 dBA |
Raijintek Nemesis
Dual Fan |
33.7 dBA |
34.6 dBA |
Raijintek Themis
EVO |
34.8 dBA |
35.3 dBA |
Thermolab ITX30 |
34.1 dBA |
37.6 dBA |
Raijintek Pallas |
35.9 dBA |
41.4 dBA |
Decibel meter (Voltcraft SL-200) has been placed 1 meter away from the
cooler. Measurements are conducted in a quiet room, where there are no other noise source. 32 dBA is the lowest
we can get in our room. Also here
the measurements are conducted at lowest and highest fan speeds in idle and
under load respectively.
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
General |
|
+ |
- |
With the NH-D15, Noctua has definitely created a
one powerful CPU
cooler, which also features good looks and high quality finish. The overall build quality
is definitely good and on expected high level, as for instance, the nickel plated
finish leaves an excellent impression. Apart from that, it brings an
impressive cooling performance that has been combined with decent fans, which, when
set to run at 7 Volt, are very silent. It also features a decent socket compatibility
although we would prefer that it also supports older sockets as well. |
|
- Performance
- Noise levels
- Quality
- PWM
- Mouting
|
- Price
- Socket compatibility
|
|
Installation |
|
+ |
- |
Mounting this cooler is easy and it can be done
quickly on any socket as everything is clearly explained in the manuals. As we already mentioned, we disliked the socket compatibility
that could have been a bit wider. When it comes to putting fans in place we
definitely like the rubber grommets placed in the corner of the fans as
well as the fact that Noctua's clips are designed in the best possible way. |
|
- Easy and practical
- Thermal compound (Tube) |
- AMD FM3 and LGA 775, 1366 compatibility |
|
Performance |
|
+ |
- |
When it comes to cooling capacity we definitely can
not complain. The NH-D15 belongs with the most powerful aircoolers in our tests
and it is even better than some AIO liquid cooling systems, under
certain conditions. It is certainly what we have expected from it, since this is one rather big
cooler with exceptional performance, despite the fact that memory compatibility
has been reduced to certain level. |
|
- Cooling performances |
|
|
Noise
Levels |
|
+ |
- |
When it comes to noise levels with the Noctua NH-D15
there is nothing to complain about. If the fans are driven at 7 volt
they are almost inaudible and at 12 volt they're still silent. |
|
- Very Silent
|
|
|
Recommendation / Price |
|
+ |
- |
The Noctua NH-D15 is a powerful twin tower cooler that comes with a
decent looking finish and a price of 88 Euro. Therefore, it is very expensive for an air cooler
and with that amount of money you can actually get some AIO liquid
coolers but those are not nearly good looking as the NH-D15. It offers great
performance and, overall, this is definitely a product worth buying if you need a real nice
high-end air cooler. |
|
- Gaming
- Overclocking |
- Price |
|
Rating |
We gave the NH-D15 from Noctua 4.5 out of 5 stars. |
|