Noctua NH-D15S CPU Cooler

The crew at Overclockers Club recently spent some quality time with the Noctua NH-D15S CPU cooler. Without ruining the review for you, I think it is safe to say the staff at OCC liked it.

The performance is on par with the D15, which is really no surprise. The D15S is clearly built to keep the heat of overclocking under control with its massive dual towers and capable (and quiet) NF-A15 fan. Noctua's well-known SecuFirm2™ multi-socket mounting system makes the installation a breeze. If you have ever installed a Noctua cooler with the SecuFirm2™, you know what I mean.

The data seems odd, how is it 8 degrees hotter than the D15 at stock load, but has the identical temps at Overclock load?

I hate anomalies like that, the coolers are similar I would expect no more than 3 degrees variance.
Either way it seems like a good cooler.

A buddy has one of these for his 5930k. It's fine for stock, but overclocking it just doesn't have the thermal capacity to keep up.

Stick to quad cores with this heatsink.

NH-D15 and NH-D15S cool the same with same fans. Only difference is the shape of the heatpipes .. bent to move finpack 8mm off center of base.

That said, a single fan at idle will often move much less air than 2x stacked fans, especially at idle.. Reason is the P-Q curve. Stacked fans create more pressure to overcome resistance. A fan at idle has very low airflow and pressure with both increasing as the fan speed increases. While fins have less resistance to low airflow / air speed, it is at a much higher ratio to idling fans that at higher speed .. meaning 1x fan at idle moves much less air than 2x fans at idle.because it's pressure rating is too close to resistance.

Confusing, itn't it.

Think of it as tractors (fans) pulling a huge load (airflow). In low gear both can move at 3mph (CFM). With only one pulling the load it tends not to have enough traction (resistance to airflow) and moves slower (slower airflow) or spin out and not move at all (Static Pressure). But with two tractors pulling they have twice the traction (more pressure / airflow) and they keep moving at 3mph (CFM).

Would the weight of this really damage the motherboard once installed and not moved aside from occasional bump to the case?
Looking at this as well as cryorig R1 ultimate for my new skylake build.

Nonpareil said:

Would the weight of this really damage the motherboard once installed and not moved aside from occasional bump to the case?
Looking at this as well as cryorig R1 ultimate for my new skylake build.

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no because the back plate distributes the weight so it isn't just pulling on the screws that mount it.

I have only heard people voice concerns that heavy coolers could warp a board I have never seen a single instance of that ever happening.

What Zaniix said.

Only damaged boards I've ever seen were because of abuse, never because of a heavy cooler.

Sure, if system falls off of desk or rolls down the stairs it can get damaged. And a big cooler might do more damage than a small one. But I don't do things like that with my systems and nether do most people.

I could see it happening with a low quality board that has a flimsy PCB, but it's hard to find those in the $50+ range.

pheonix991 said:

A buddy has one of these for his 5930k. It's fine for stock, but overclocking it just doesn't have the thermal capacity to keep up.

Stick to quad cores with this heatsink.

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Keeps my 5920K at 4.5Ghz a cool 75C at 100% load

ShamisOMally said:

Keeps my 5920K at 4.5Ghz a cool 75C at 100% load

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It is one of the best air coolers you can get. I have no idea what issue pheonix991's buddy with that 5930k was doing that it wasn't enough.

Maybe he didn't install it correctly or his overclock was extreme.

Like zaniix said the problem isn't the NH-D15S

It's amazing how often peps blame or praise their coolers when it's the case airflow that deserves the blame or praise.

NH-D15 & D15S are a couple of the best coolers made. If they can't keep your cpu cool either your cpu is clocked too high or your case is not supplying the cooler with room temperature air.

doyll said:

Like zaniix said the problem isn't the NH-D15S

It's amazing how often peps blame or praise their coolers when it's the case airflow that deserves the blame or praise.

NH-D15 & D15S are a couple of the best coolers made. If they can't keep your cpu cool either your cpu is clocked too high or your case is not supplying the cooler with room temperature air.

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It beat out my Corsair H110 by 7C, that was hitting 82C full load

ShamisOMally said:

It beat out my Corsair H110 by 7C, that was hitting 82C full load

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well you have to consider that the conditions of your case and their test are different. I would expect your H110 to be close to the temps they got from the CM Nepton 280l

assuming that would be the case the Noctua is still 4 - 6 degrees warmer which may or may not be significant depending on your OC

Hell I can't even read the damn article due to all of the intrusive adds on the site which my iPad can't block. There must have been over two dozen adds on that page and tons of in text adds as well.
Edit: Ad-block Plus really does a great job of cleaning this up in Firefox on the desktop.

zaniix said:

well you have to consider that the conditions of your case and their test are different. I would expect your H110 to be close to the temps they got from the CM Nepton 280l

assuming that would be the case the Noctua is still 4 - 6 degrees warmer which may or may not be significant depending on your OC

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My case reports 29c ambient all the time given its got 8 HD's in it + GTX980, still CPU only hits 75C max load

ShamisOMally said:

My case reports 29c ambient all the time given its got 8 HD's in it + GTX980, still CPU only hits 75C max load

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Air temperature inside of case is not the same in all places.
Where is this 29c reading sensor located inside of case.?

29c all the time?
It doesn't change if your room ambient changes?
Because if it is always 29c it is probably not functioning properly. At the very least it will change the same as room temperature changes.

The ideal places to monitor airflow temperature are int airflow to CPU cooler and to GPU cooler .. although I often check other places like around mobo hot spots, especially if they are running warmer than I would like.