Noctua NH-D15 Review

The NH-D15 is the best performing air cooler and blows most air coolers out of the water. We also observed that the cooler is almost inaudible outside the case. Although expensive as per air cooler standards, with an excellent build quality and a performance that’s as good as AIO liquid coolers, the Noctua NH-D15 is a recommended choice and justifies its price to a large extent.

We’ve always been a fan of CPU air coolers that are low on noise even under taxing conditions and Noctua has kept our excitement alive in this regard with its impressive line-up of air coolers till date. Seeing how big the size of the older NH-D14 was, we weren’t surprised to find that the NH-D15 was even bigger. By principle, more the surface area, better the heat dissipation, so high end air coolers tend to be huge and bulky. The NH-D15 with its size tends to block out the first PCIe slot on certain motherboards but you can make sure of the clearance that it provides by referring to Noctua’s website.

Noctua includes a wealth of useful accessories inside the box including two of their NF-A15 fans, two low noise adapters, a fan splitting Y-cable, a tube of Noctua’s NT-H1 thermal paste, a screw driver, extra fan clamps and a case badge. At an ambient room temperature of 28°C, we saw an average idle temperature of 29°C while the load temperature never crossed 48°C.

And so, the NH-D15 stands out as the best performer among air coolers for a performance that blew most air coolers out of the water. We also observed that the cooler is almost inaudible outside the case. Although expensive as per air cooler standards, with excellent build quality and a performance that’s as good as AIO liquid coolers, the Noctua NH-D15 is a recommended choice and justifies its price to a large extent.

Specifications

CPU Support: Intel Socket LGA 2011 / 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 1150 / 775, AMD Socket FM1 / AM3+ / AM3 / AM2+ / AM2
Dimensions: 160(H) x 135(D) x 165(W) mm
Weight: 1320 grams (with fans)
Base: Copper
Fan Speed: 300 (PWM) ± 20% - 1500 RPM (PWM) ± 10%
Power Consumption: 1.56 Watts