Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler Review

Mid-Speed Fan Performance Results

2.6GHz


These results are very surprising as we didn’t have very high hopes for the 1200rpm P14-FLX; heck those results are VERY close to what the dual stock cooling results are! Conversely, one NF-P12 fan just can’t cut the mustard at this heat load on this cooler. To be fair we are starting to feel that this cooler is the problem and not the fan and if the low speed results are similar it will be a done deal. To us this is not necessarily a bad thing as it would be a crying shame to run this monster of a cooler at stock speeds and not over clock the heck out of your CPU.


3.42GHz


Once again the single fan results stink, and this does explain why Noctua does include two fans with this cooler. To our way of thinking very few if any buyers of the D14 are ever going to run this CPU cooling solution in single fan mode so it doesn’t really matter.


3.8GHz


It really is becoming apparent that this cooler CAN handle being run in single fan mode as long as the heat is turned way, way up. Furthermore, it appears that this cooler doesn’t need high static pressure fans as the fin structure has been designed to be as free flowing as possible (as the downright low static pressure D14 does an admirable job at cooling it). This certainly is interesting and really does show that Noctua and Prolimatech are onto something as numbers don’t lie and these coolers kick some major tail when the heat loads are high. Hopefully, even more manufacturers will follow suit and get away from high density, high static pressure fin designs and go with this obviously better alternative!