Included Accessories
Included Accessories
Noctua includes all mounting hardware and accessories needed to install the NH-D15 cooler in your system, including fans, motherboard and fan mounting hardware, bracket install tool, and thermal compound.
For cooler to board mounting, Noctua includes kits with detailed instructions for both Intel and AMD type sockets. For Intel LGA 115X sockets, you use the included backplate with integrated uprights in conjunction with the included plastic spacers, metal brackets, and thumbscrews to build the board mount. The backplate is not used for LGA2011 sockets. Instead, the included metal stand-offs are screwed directly into the socket. For AMD sockets, you fix the C-shaped brackets in place over the white plastic spacers with the included screws going into the stock AMD back plate.
The Intel cross brackets have three mounting holes to accommodate LGA775, LGA115X, and LGA2011 socket types. The outer set of holes line up with uprights mounted on an LGA2011 board. The middle set of holes align with the uprights mounted to the LGA115X backplate. The inner set of holes align with uprights mounted to the LGA775 backplate.
Unlike other kits, Noctua chose to permanently fix the uprights into the LGA115X backplate. This eliminates the possibility of the uprights spinning in place while attempting to set the cross brackets in place. It also makes for much easier construction of the LGA115X mounting cage on the board.
For the LGA115X mounting cage, the black plastic spaces slip over the threaded uprights in the base plate with the metal cross brackets sitting on top of them. The brackets are held in place via thumbscrews screwed into the uprights. The nuts fixed to the cooler's mounting bracket screw into the threaded uprights located on the top center of the board mount brackets.
The Intel mounting cage is designed to allow for mounting the cooler in a vertical (front-to-rear) or horizontal (bottom-to-top) orientation, depending on the orientation of the mounting cage's cross brackets. Whether or not the cooler can be mounted in a horizontal orientation depends on the board design.
On an Intel LGA115X board, the base plate bottom rests on the socket bottom plate, eliminating direct board contact except for the arms housing the threaded uprights. This design minimizes the potential for contact or crushing of any components in close proximity to the socket base plate.
Noctua includes two sets of fan mounts for use with the included dual-fan configuration. Also included are 4 rubber vibration compensators, 4 fan screws, two low noise adapters, a 2-to-1 Y power cable adapter, an L-shaped long shafted Phillips screwdriver for mounting the cooler to the mounting brackets, a tube of Noctua's NT-H1 thermal paste, and a Noctua metal case badge. The low noise adapter contains an in-line resistor to reduce the voltage supplied to the fan motor, effectively reducing the fan speed to 1200 RPM (revolutions per minute). The included fan screws and vibration compensators can be used to mount the rear cooler fan above the rear panel assembly (in the case) if desired.
The fan mounts are held to the fan via the front upper and lower holes on the fan. The hooks on the inside of the mount go into the holes on the front face of the fan so that the mount sits vertically on either side of the fan. The body of the mount is then snapped in place into the hooked sections on the sides of the radiator to hold the fan in place.
For heat dispersal, Noctua includes one of their NF-A15 140mm fans. The NF-A15 is rated for a maximum speed of 1500 RPM with a rated maximum airflow potential of 82.5 CFM (cubic feet per minute). The brown colored fan body sits in a tan colored housing with a total of seven large fan blades. The fan blades have shaped fins along the inside top of the blade to assist in directing airflow into the radiator and minimize the airflow dead spot in the fan's center caused by the motor. The fan cables are sleeved in a dense, black colored plastic sleeving and ending in a 4-pin PWM-style power connector. The fans is rated to run at 12V, drawing 0.13 amps of power during full speed operation.
Haswell results are
Haswell results are suprising; the D15 is (slightly) outperformed by the U14, which is basically half of D14. Maybe some kind of mounting issue?
Pricing is not really much of a weakness when it outperforms more expensive AIOs.
I would like to see how it performs with a higher power CPU like LGA2011 or AMD.
The following is probably
The following is probably splitting hairs, but for a cooler on the upper end of performance and price, every detail is worth consideration. For example, there is some evidence that shows heat pipes work more efficiently in vertical versus horizontal orientations. For this cooler, I like that (when used with an Intel CPU, not sure about AMD) the orientation of the heat pipes allow the length of the actual CPU core located beneath the IHS to sit perpendicular to the axis of the heat pipes that pass through the base plate while also directing air flow in the typical front to back pattern. The IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader), lid, cap, slug, or w/e you want to call it is pretty much square, but the actual Intel CPU package hiding underneath it is an elongated rectangle. This relative perpendicular arrangement allows the CPU core to conduct heat more directly and evenly to all 6 of those heat pipes instead of mainly just the middle 2.
The Hyper212 EVO is not in the same league, but is a solid performer because it has direct contact heat pipes which also span most of the width of it’s base. However, it unfortunately has the heat pipes aligned parallel to the actual CPU core when installed in the typical front to back air flow orientation. This is why I eventually rotated mine 90 degrees so now the CPU core spans under all 4 heat pipes. The tradeoff is that it moves air vertically like a chimney and exhausts out of the top of my tower case.
Of course relative performance all depends on the particular case, fans, installed cards, and their orientations. Anecdotally, I can say it performs maybe a degree better like this despite a hot GPU being uncomfortably close to the Hyper212’s intake. But hey, it is essentially a chance for free performance. I should also add that my case has bottom and front intake fans with top and rear exhaust fans so there is a fairly coherent vertical component to air flow in my case already.