Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler

Bigger is better, right? Well, if you are talking about CPU coolers that has always been a pretty safe bet. Companies like Thermaltake, Zalman, Artic Cooling and the like have all released huge CPU heatsinks to meet the demands of the most hardcore PC users.

Not to be left behind, Noctua has introduced its own gargantuan CPU cooler – the Noctua NH-D14. It sports six heat pipes, two 140mm fans and a very hefty weight of 900g. How well does it actually perform? We throw it on our AMD rig with an X3 435 processor and also an X4 635 processor to find out. Read on for our results.

Design

The Noctua NH-D14 is the largest CPU cooler I have ever seen or used in a computer to date at about 6.3 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide with a depth of 5.1 inches or 6.25 inches depending on your fan configuration. Yes, you can remove one of the two fans and make the cooler a bit smaller from the front to back measurement inside your PC.

The NH-D14 is a unique two cooling tower design with six heat pipes that radiate from the single cooling block and the two towers of cooling fins. The six heat pipes have a unique design with all six going through the central cooling block that sits on your CPU and each side of the heat pipes having a separate tower of cooling fins.

This means twice the cooling potential if you look at it one way but also twice the size as many CPU coolers but performance will be the deciding factor in this design. If the cooler can perform as well or better than other coolers we may have a winner here with the large design.

What's In the Box	Without Fans	Fans Installed

Specifications

Socket compatibility Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775 & AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3 (backplate required)

Height (without fan) 160 mm

Width (without fan) 140 mm

Depth (without fan) 130 mm

Height (with fan) 160 mm

Width (with fan) 140 mm

Depth (with fan) 158 mm

Weight (without fan) 900 g

Weight (with fan) 1070/1240* g

Material Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating

Fan compatibility 140x140x25 & 120x120x25mm

Scope of Delivery 1x NF-P14 premium fan

1x NF-P12 premium fan

2x Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)

Y-Split Cable

4x Vibration-Compensators (for using NF-P12 as case fan)

4x Fan screws (for using NF-P12 as case fan)

NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound

SecuFirm2™ Mounting Kits

Noctua Metal Case-Badge

Warranty 6 Years

Installation

Installing the NH-D14 means removing your motherboard for both AMD and Intel systems but once this is done you will have an easy time changing the CPU or removing the cooler. This is the best design for a CPU cooler mounting system I have seen with the sturdy screw mounting on the motherboard and the two screws with springs that hold the cooler to the motherboard.

Once the mounts are installed on your motherboard you can return the board back to your case and install the cooler o the board inside the case or before the board goes into the case. I found both methods just as easy but you may decide which is best for your system as well as the fan set up as you can use no fans, the single one outside or between the towers or both.

Using both fans in my system is just not needed so for now I will only use one in the middle to keep my memory slots clear. On my Gigabyte motherboard the fan on the outside covers the memory slots so if you have heat sinks that stick up from memory modules you may want to leave this fan off.

I found further removal and installation once the mount was on the motherboard very easy as you have a screw that uses a spring to hold tension on the cooler against the CPU. This means no reaching almost down to the motherboard to unclip mounts, you simply unscrew the middle screws after removing the middle fan if it's in the way.

I like this install technique so much better than the customary clips that hold the CPU coolers on the AMD systems because there is no messing with the clips and no problems getting the heat sink assembly on the CPU correctly.

Mount End	Bottom View	Motherboard Ready for CPU Cooler

Testing and Performance

My current system just cannot stress this cooler enough to make it flinch - much less run and duck - when I throw stress testing at it. I recently received a new tri- and quad-core processor from AMD, and so I got the chance to test them here as well.

It is important to note that size may be a factor that rules out this cooler, as with other giant coolers. But if you have the room inside your case, such as a mid-tower or full tower the cooler is an attractive option.

Test Setup

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4
• CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 435 and Athlon II X4 635
• Memory: 8GB ADATA & Crucial
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
• Power Supply: Tuniq Ripper 1000W PSU
• Hard drive: Seagate 500 GB SATA 7200RPM

Here are the test results:

Using my previous AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ processor at 3.0 GHz was about the coolest I had the Noctua NH-D14 running at with lows near 18 degrees Celsius. Even the Athlon II X4 635 running overclocked at 3.19 GHz did not stress the cooler much with highs only reaching 29 degrees Celsius.

During all my testing - both when overclocking and when running four processors at stock speeds - I never saw the Noctua NH-D14 with the core temperature at 30 degrees Celsius. This is a great cooler and one that does a fantastic job at keeping your system and processor cool but it does come at a price.

While we did not have an Intel iCore rig to test, other review websites have tested the Noctua NH-D14 against iCore7 processors and got great results. While water cooling will beat out air almost all the time the NH-D14 could hold its own and be used in some very high overclocked systems to keep a stable computer.

Installed	Installed in the Case	Fan Covers the Memory Slots

The Noctua NH-D14 is a top of the line CPU cooler and performs just as well as some water cooling solutions and will perform better than most if not all air cooling heat sink fan assemblies out there.

Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler

If you are looking for the ultimate cooling for you high end system without having to go with a water cooling solution, then we heartily recommend the Noctua NH-D14 as your answer. The two cooling towers and both fans give maximum cooling efficiency, and removing both or one of the fans allows you to configure the cooler for various situations. Along with the cooling performance, the NH-D14 has a straightforward installation and it is as quiet as other coolers that are half its size.

Pros: Excellent cooling results on AMD & Intel systems; Varied configurations for single, two fans or none; Cooling efficiency rivals water cooling solutions; Easy removal and installation once motherboard parts are installed.

Cons: Pricey at $90-$100 or higher; Motherboard removal mandatory for first installation; Very large design may not work with some cases; Outside fan may cover memory slots on some motherboards.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

www.noctua.at