Noctua NH-D15S CPU Cooler Review

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Another review of the Noctua NH-D15S CPU cooler has popped up on the internet. This time around it is the crew from ThinkComputers doing the reviewing.

It seems every time we review a Noctua product we are impressed and each product is designed for a specific scenario. This time we have the new NH-D15S, which is much like the NH-D15 that we reviewed about a year ago. The main difference between the two is the NH-D15S has a new offset asymmetrical design that makes more room for memory and PCI-Express card compatibility.
 
I found it too large, I will stick with the 12s, the difference in performance is really not huge
 
I wonder if anyone else noticed that they installed the cooler backwards. The side with the two ends of the heat pipes closer to the center is longer than the other end, if you look at the side profile it's obvious. They specifically used the word offset in their review but then ignored that part of the design. The memory cutouts are not offset, they are the same on both sides. But the heat pipes and fins are offset to allow for video cards if you install it correctly...
 
rhys898 said:
I wonder if anyone else noticed that they installed the cooler backwards. The side with the two ends of the heat pipes closer to the center is longer than the other end, if you look at the side profile it's obvious. They specifically used the word offset in their review but then ignored that part of the design. The memory cutouts are not offset, they are the same on both sides. But the heat pipes and fins are offset to allow for video cards if you install it correctly...
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I think you are correct and they installed it backwards,.
 
I own this, I had to special order it through the states because like no retailers want to carry it

he did install it backwards
 
If reviewer can't even get something as simple as cooler orientation right, I have to wonder about the accurately of test data. ;)
 
doyll said:
If reviewer can't even get something as simple as cooler orientation right, I have to wonder about the accurately of test data. ;)
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I agree with you.

I looked at the instructions from the website and at first I thought well it doesn't really explain that the orientation matters, but then I realized that any idiot can tell the thing isn't symmetrical which means one way is different then the other for a reason.
 
zaniix said:
I agree with you.

I looked at the instructions from the website and at first I thought well it doesn't really explain that the orientation matters, but then I realized that any idiot can tell the thing isn't symmetrical which means one way is different then the other for a reason.
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Honestly, I doubt orientation makes any difference. But the only reason Noctua made the NH-D15S is to give better PCIe socket clearance .. therefore any competent reviewer will mount cooler accordingly.

That said, there are some cases that do not have enough clearance above motherboard for offset coolers like this to fit. These include Silver Arrow IB-E, Athlon IB-E and TRUE Spirit 140 rev.A .. all are approx. 155mm wide with 67-69mm center CPU toward PCIe socket. ;)
 
Orientation does not matter. The cooler was designed this way to allow further pci-e clearance when mounted in a specific way, but it does this at the cost of affecting top clearance in some cases. You may in fact have to mount it as they did in the review if you run into such a scenario.
 
Vittra said:
Orientation does not matter. The cooler was designed this way to allow further pci-e clearance when mounted in a specific way, but it does this at the cost of affecting top clearance in some cases. You may in fact have to mount it as they did in the review if you run into such a scenario.
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It says in the review "I did notice that our top PCI-Express slot was actually blocked by the cooler. This is something you are going to want to keep in mind if you have the cooler in the orientation that we had it in."

it doesn't mention why they mounted it that way, maybe they couldn't mount it the other way bit that would have been good to know. He does mention in the video that one of the uses for this is to not block the PCIe slot, but in the text they say
"On the PCI-Express compatibility side we actually did run into an issues with our setup. If the cooler was installed with the towers in a vertical orientation it would block our top PCI-Express x16 slot."

All they had to do was flip it around, they failed to talk about one of the two major differences about this cooler.
 
Yeah, it's one thing if it didn't fit their case, but the defining feature of that model is the offset in question that's meant precisely to avoid the issue they had (when mounted the opposite way) and they didn't address it at all.
 
Vittra said:
Orientation does not matter. The cooler was designed this way to allow further pci-e clearance when mounted in a specific way, but it does this at the cost of affecting top clearance in some cases. You may in fact have to mount it as they did in the review if you run into such a scenario.
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I hear an echo. :D

zaniix said:
It says in the review "I did notice that our top PCI-Express slot was actually blocked by the cooler. This is something you are going to want to keep in mind if you have the cooler in the orientation that we had it in."

it doesn't mention why they mounted it that way, maybe they couldn't mount it the other way bit that would have been good to know. He does mention in the video that one of the uses for this is to not block the PCIe slot, but in the text they say
"On the PCI-Express compatibility side we actually did run into an issues with our setup. If the cooler was installed with the towers in a vertical orientation it would block our top PCI-Express x16 slot."

All they had to do was flip it around, they failed to talk about one of the two major differences about this cooler.
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I didn't catch that as I only skimmed the review.

They have now edited to say
" I did notice that our top PCI-Express slot was actually blocked by the cooler. This is something you are going to want to keep in mind if you have the cooler in the orientation that we had it in."​
So it appears someone said something. But the statement should include that they mounted the offset the wrong way for PCIe clearance.

If I was Noctua, I would not supply them with any more samples. No second fan on NH-D15, mounting NH-D15S backwards and pointing out their screw-up as a clearance issue of the cooler .. . FUBAR of epic perportion. :eek:

They also state "With the cooler installed we had no clearance issues at all with our memory though." Yet the NH-D15 test was ran with only one fan. :confused:
 
Heh, Noctua actually supplied them the sample? I bet that rep is not happy...
 
Impulse said:
Heh, Noctua actually supplied them the sample? I bet that rep is not happy...
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I am making the assumption Noctua gave them a sample. That's were most of the products come from for reviews .. which is why we see very few products getting a bad review. .. bad as in not a good product. Point out have bad something is generally means no more samples.
 
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