Review on Noctua NH-D15: Premium CPU Cooler with Dual NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fans (Brown) - Unmatched Cooling Performance by Darnell Nahabet

I have two D15 and one D15S for reference. I compare it here to alternatives like the Silver Arrow IB-E Extreme, NH-U14S, D15S, Cryorig R1 Ultimate and Dark Rock Pro 3. The D15 deserves its reputation. It is without a doubt the most powerful cooler for the real world. While the Reeven Okeanos could keep up, and the Silver Arrow IB-E Extreme might even top it, in the real world, owners won't put up with such noisy coolers. The two use high speed fans to compensate for the low efficiency and as a result most owners will limit fan speeds and end up with lower performing coolers. The D15 is so quiet, even under full load, that it can be silent in a case. This means that its full range of services is available in the real world. If you're ok with noisy heatsinks, I have to imagine using two Noctua NF-A14 iPPC 3000's will still win everyone over. Not sure how well these fans would fit given the odd NF-A15 frame (standard fan). Okeanos and Silver Arrow aren't serious competition in my opinion because of the way they perform. Much more interesting is the direct competitor Be Quiet! and Cryorig, namely Dark Rock Pro 3 and R1 Ultimate. The R1 Universal is in my opinion a direct competitor to the D15S, so I won't go into detail here. D15. In addition, they are more difficult to install and from a practical point of view both are practically silent. In any case, the DRP3 has more in common with the previous D14, with its different front and center memory fans. R1 Ultimate presents a much greater challenge to the D15. It's a little behind the D15 and a little louder, but in some ways more and in some ways less compatible. R1 is significantly higher than D15, excluding individuals with certain physical limitations. However, it's also narrower than the D15, meaning it's not only more convenient for the adjacent PCI-E slot, but it's also easier to reach and unlock the GPU from the motherboard. It also overhangs the storage less, although it can still have less clearance than the D15 due to the way the fans are mounted. Perhaps the biggest drawback of the R1 Ultimate compared to the D15 are the fans. The XF140s look great and are actually decent fans, but they still use modified sleeve bearings, which have a negative impact on noise and durability, and severely limit orientation (not a problem for most builds). While the D15 is probably the best and most powerful air cooler ever made, at least in terms of noise levels that normal people would find tolerable, it does have some downsides. On the one hand, there is its extreme breadth, which I have already mentioned. On some tight-spaced motherboards, like my new Crosshair VI Hero, I actually have to remove the center fan to get to the GPU lock. The other unfortunately has to do with quality control. I used to have a lot of Noctua and never had a noticeable scratch. But I had two D15s and one D15S and all three had minor flaws. The first D15 had a small but deep scratch on the top plate/fin. The second had other, smaller scratches, but they are not very noticeable. Worst of all was the D15S which had a small but easily noticeable spot of corrosion and is now being brought back. I can only speculate that the increased surface area, probably around twice that of Noctua's next largest current-gen cooler, the U14S, makes it much more likely to get scratched. However, I expected more from Noctua. However, you simply won't find an air cooler that delivers this performance for this volume. There is almost no reason to use anything else in general. That's why it gets 5 stars. Although it may be the strongest, is it the best? Probably not. I would say it is better to choose D15S or U14S according to your needs. The D15S only comes with a fan, but it moves the heatsink away from the GPU, making it easier to work on the computer and clean the GPU on smaller motherboards. The U14S has unlimited RAM compatibility on both sides, making your computer easier to use and allowing you to use whatever RAM you want. Depending on which compatibility issue worries you more, I would go with D15S or U14S. Each delivers 1 to 2 degrees Celsius almost exclusively under overclocking load since it is a heatsink with a fan. If you want the performance of the D15, just add a second fan to the D15S and the dual-fan U14S comes very, very close to the D15. In many tests, I've seen the dual-fan D15Se outperform the D15, although it's not clear why that is. Perhaps they are better aligned with the intake and exhaust fans in the case. Perhaps they are less affected by the heat coming from the GPU. I'm not entirely sure, but suffice it to say you can get the performance of the D15 without some of the D15's issues. I've added photos of the D15 (non-S) with and without the front fan to give you an idea. memory overflow idea. For reasons of compatibility, some people can do without the front fan entirely, which also works great.