Review on Noctua NH-D15S Dual-Tower CPU Cooler with NF-A15 PWM Fan - Premium Brown Edition by Kimberly Elliott

It's not the prettiest, but probably the best air cooler. I've been very happy using the CM Hyper 212 for years, but decided to try something different for my new Ryzen R9 3900X build. So far so good, at 4.2 GHz everything runs smoothly without breaking a sweat. I'll see how far I can take it once I'm confident things will stabilize. My cons relate to installation. On the one hand, the fins are very sharp-edged, which is not uncommon with such heat sinks, the installation requires a rather long screwdriver to get to the fastening screws between the fins. Luckily they include a long screwdriver, but unfortunately not enough for your knuckles to fully clear the ribs when turning the screws. My second installation problem was getting the mounting screws to line up properly so both could get a good initial "bite". If you get stuck on one side but turn too far, it's almost impossible to catch the screw on the other side. You have to alternate each screw a little, too many turns and the screw on the other side pops out of the hole and you have to start over. This, combined with a screwdriver that was too short, resulted in a pair of bloody knuckles. Will I buy again? Hmm, probably not. I'm not looking for crazy overclocking. I've been reasonably happy with the performance of the Hyper 212 and while installation can be a bit tricky, it wasn't nearly as difficult as installing this one. I would recommend anyone buying this to have a long screwdriver (at least 8 inches, without a handle) handy.