Noctua NH-D15 - 140mm

My new Noctua NH-D15 arrived last Friday and I just finished installing it yesterday.Prior to using this I had a Cooler Master Evo 212.To start with, the packaging is top quality. On opening the container, you find 3 well presented small boxes - one is for AMD, one is for Intel and the other consists of the tools required to fit the cooler (including the thermal paste, extension, etc).The heatsink is quite large and the 2 fans that come with it are 140mm fans.Prior to purchasing the NH-D15, I went to Noctua’s site to check compatibility for both my RAM (Kingston HyperX Fury) and my Motherboard (Asus Sabretooth 990fx R2.0).Both were list as compatible.Thus it is a good idea to check against your own components before purchasing –http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_gen&products_id=68&lng=enSome pro’s –1. The mounting of the Cooler was very easy and straightforward. It’s as simple as putting two secure mounts on the motherboard, placing the Heatsink onto the CPU and screwing 2 screws into place.One thing I would say is practice screwing in the heatsink a couple of times before applying your thermal paste and doing it for real. However easy it is, I did a few trial runs as I wasn’t initially able to get the screw to go into place. Just wasn’t applying enough pressure.2. The whole unit is very silent. I haven’t oc’d my CPU yet so its running at stock (4.0GHz) and even when running PRIME95 blend test, the fan’s didn’t go over 700-800rpm.3. Saw a really good drop in temps. On stock, running Prime95 for an hour, my CPU didn’t go over 45. Obviously the real test will be when I start to overclock but initial impressions are positive.4. The quality is really good. From the presentation, to the Heatsink and Fans to the components that come with it, all top-notch.Negative –1. Apparently the Heatsink covers the 1st PCI slot on some motherboards.I can confirm that this is “NOT” the case with my ASUS Sabretooth 990FX R2.0. There is a good amount of space left between the heatsink and 1st PCI Slot.I was able to fit in my GTX 660TI into slot one and there is still space between the 2 so no issues there.All-in-all, very happy with the Noctua NH-D15 – it’s silent, provides great cooling and is future proof against DDR4 Motherboards and CPUs coming down the line (as advised by Noctua Customer Support).Finally, I have a HAF 932 Advanced Case and there was no issues fitting the Noctua NH-D15 into it. Plenty of space for it.

Emilio | Geschreven op: 12-08-2014