Review on 🌙 Noctua NH-D14: Deluxe CPU Cooler with Dual NF-P14 PWM and NF-P12 PWM Fans (Brown) by Rick Vidaurri

UPDATE - November 13, 2016 - So this cooler has been installed on my system since I wrote this review and I haven't had any issues with it. I even forget he's there. It's just peace of mind. And that's exactly what I wanted. ------------- ORIGINAL REVIEW This device is installed and running on this system. Case - NZXT Source 210 (Side panel is REALLY airtight. Will scratch heatpipes and may stick out a bit) Motherboard - Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X (FM2+). The standard backplate is great for this cooler. APU - AMD A10 7860kRAM - Kingston HyperX Fury 2 X 4GB 1866. This cooler erases that RAM, but barely. If you have four sticks, you may need to remove the cooler to remove it. 1 x 140mm Noctua top exhaust fan. There is about an inch clearance. ------------------------------ Good. I have to say right away that my needs were a little different than almost everyone who buys such a cool box. I'm not a gamer and I don't usually use my computer for heavy stuff like video editing or anything like that. So it goes without saying that I didn't buy this with the idea of overclocking my machine. So if you're looking for a full review from someone who bought this for this purpose, you probably won't find much useful information in this review (this is just to put you off reading if you don't want to). I bought this because the PWM fan speed controls in my BIOS for my motherboard are not working properly on the CPU fan header. I can't trust them to keep the fan speed fast enough to constantly monitor my CPU temp with a regular CPU cooler. I can't get accurate temperature readings on my AMD APU either, so this has always bothered me. That's why I bought this special cooler. Since it's almost impossible to use PWM the way my fan header does, my options were limited. I could buy a smart fan controller but it's not cheap, it adds complexity, cables and other things I didn't want to deal with. I wanted a simple solution. The solution I chose was to just buy a giant heatsink with (relatively) quiet, reliable fans running at the same speed all the time. No PWM nonsense. No guesses. The only important thing was that my computer couldn't handle the temperature situation, which this cooler can't handle so easily at standard clock speeds. Anyway, installing this Noctua cooler on my FM2+ socket motherboard with factory backplate was surprisingly easy (this kit doesn't come with an AMD backplate at all, but I assume if you have an AMD motherboard you already have one Backplate. much easier than I expected. I don't know why I expected it to be confusing and annoying but that's not a problem. The factory backplate for the FM2 is VERY solid and going nowhere. I had an installation problem.In my case the NZXT Source 210 tips of some heatpipes barely touched/scratched the side plate when I fitted them After a while I noticed a faint, low hum.When I investigated I found that the contact was metal too Metal between the tubes and the sidewall was causing that awkward resonance, yes, long story short, this cooler should technically fit in my case, but mine is just REALLY tight for some reason. I knew the sizing was tight when I ordered it, so I don't blame Noctua for that. At first I didn't quite understand how to fix this. The noise wasn't very loud, but it was enough to be really annoying after a while. In the end, I decided to tape a piece of Gorilla Tape (thick enough to be soft and provide some noise reduction) to the inside of the side panel where the tubes met. Surprisingly, it actually worked. While the heat pipes are still in contact, they don't vibrate on bare metal and it's much quieter. So beware. If you have this case it will fit but can be EXTREMELY tight and the heat pipes can touch the case. The sidebar is sufficient, but it seems to require a bit of effort in my case. The resulting noise (if it does) isn't pleasant, so it's up to you to decide whether you should mute it. If you have a case that is very close to my size, you may have the same problem. All I care about is functionality and a cooler that is quiet, efficient and just works. I also use a Noctua 140mm fan on the top of the case. Long story short, it works and I don't have to worry about overheating at all as my system and clock speeds are all standard. Conclusion - I know this is an old cooler and the fans aren't PWM and there are probably (slightly) better air coolers out there, but this thing was worth every penny for my needs. In any case, PWM would not be useful for me. So again, for my needs I think the price was reasonable. There are a number of ways I could try to solve my particular problem, but I really wouldn't save much money using any other method, and this cooler seemed like the easiest way to ensure my system had a cooling problem despite nothing. if I monitor the temperature.