CPU Air Cooler Mega Test

Noctua NH-D15S

Price:  £64.55

Technical Specification

 

Up Close

For some strange reason the near flagship Noctua Cooler comes with all it’s fittings and accessories packed into one box.  They’re all immaculately presented of course, we just think it’s odd that coolers further down the model range have theirs in individual boxes.  Talking of boxes, the NH-D15S is another one where it takes a degree in cardboardology (real word, look it up), to get it out of the packaging. 

       

 

The cooler itself is a bit of a beast, weighing in at 1150g and measuring 160x150x135mm (HxWxD).  It also appears that someone at Noctua has cocked up (sort of).  Read on to find out what we’re on about.

       

 

Although symmetrical from front to back, the NH-D15S is slightly off-set from left to right.  This off-set helps to improve motherboard compatibility with regards to infringement on the first PCI slot.  Noctua have also recessed the lower fins to help improve RAM clearance

       

 

So what’s the cock up?  Well take a look at the top of the heat pipes and you’ll see that one doesn’t protrude as far as the other.  The reason for this isn’t that it’s shorter than the others, or that it’s been fitted wrong, it’s actually the same length as the others, but owing to the offset this pipe has further to go.  It’s a little thing we know, and although we’re calling it a cock-up, invariably it was actually a design decision, to us it looks wrong, and deviates from the sort of attention to detail we expect from Noctua. 

       

 

The NH-D15S sure does take up a lot of real estate in the case.  Interestingly, even you happen to fit it the wrong way round as we have, it still doesn’t obstruct the first PCI slot.  It gets close, real close, but doesn’t actually touch it.  As you’d expect, the D15S comes in quite high up the charts, been bettered only by the D14 and the R1 Ultimate.