Love The Big Brown Noctua DH-15

Source: Neoseeker Love The Big Brown Noctua DH-15

Cool Over Several Generations

Noctua have retired the NH-D14 with the release of their next generation cooler, the NH-D15.  They’ve kept the dual 140mm NF-A15 PWM fans and the massive size, the NH-D15 weighs in at 1320g and stands 160mm tall, 150mm wide and 135mm deep, slightly larger once you install both fans.  The SecuFirm2 mounting solution is compatible with a wide variety of sockets, both AMD and Intel as far back as LGA1150 and FM1.

There is a six year warranty on the cooler and the fans are rated for an lifetime of 150,000 hours so even after a few years of hard work you can still count on the NH-D15 to cool your system.  As with the previous generations the cooler is designed to provide enough clearance for DIMMs with tall heatsinks so you shouldn’t run into any mounting issues.

Neoseeker took a look at the performance of Noctua’s refreshed cooler, testing it with an Intel i5-9600K running at 4.5GHz on all cores.   Check out the results as well as more detailed pictures in their review.

The Noctua NH-D15 truly is the successor to the venerable NH-D14. The NF-A15 PWM fans operate very quietly, even more so with the low-noise adapters. The heat sink will last you for years to come thanks to the SecuFirm2 mounting kit, with Noctua offering both past and future CPU socket support. A six year warranty paired with a greater than 150,000 hour MTTF on the fans means this CPU cooler should last you a long time!

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About The Author

Jeremy Hellstrom

Call it K7M.com, AMDMB.com, or PC Perspective, Jeremy has been hanging out and then working with the gang here for years. Apart from the front page you might find him on the BOINC Forums or possibly the Fraggin' Frogs if he has the time.

13 Comments

  1. razor512

    I wish Noctua would come out with a new model, e.g., make an NH-D16 that is simply a large version of the NH-D15, thus allowing air cooling to be more viable on CPUs such as the Ryzen 7 5800X (and make functions like PBO viable).

    Reply
    • Submarinesailor

      I’m running a D15 on a Ryzen 9 5900X with PBO enabled. It’s the same TDP as the 5900X.
      No problems at all with cooling.

      Reply
      • Submarinesailor

        Correction: I’ve got a 3900X.

        Reply
  2. BigTed

    I’ve been running a D14 for over 6 years now, starting with the 4790k and ending up on my current Ryzen system. They even sent me the mounting kit for AM4 free of charge when I upgrade last year. The fans are as quiet as the day I bought it. Excellent piece of kit.

    Reply
    • Dr. Vibrato

      This shows that for long-living products such as CPU coolers, not only the product quality itself matters but also the company behind it.
      Many years back, i bought a Prolimatech Genesis cooler (and still use it in a secondary rig). An excellent cooler by all counts. But the company is practically dead for several years now — good luck trying to find an AM4 adapter for that thing…

      Reply
      • BigTed

        So what’s the oldest piece of kit you still use? I have an original Intellimouse Explorer I use at work that’s 14 years old, plus a Dell 1200p monitor that’s about the same age. I love it when things just last and I’m not adding to landfill.

        Reply
        • Dr. Vibrato

          Well, the oldest piece of kit i still occasionally use is a Commodore 64, bought in 1987. That does not include its old original power brick, though. 🙂

          With regard to PC tech, the oldest piece is probably the Athlon Phenom II and/or its motherboard running my home NAS (FreeNAS; no, i haven’t updated to the latest TrueNAS Core, yet). I don’t recall the exact model nor which year exactly i got it, but i guess it was probably 2011. My mice unfortunately don’t last that long, i have violent fingers… 🙂

          Reply
          • BigTed

            Ah, the good old 64. I have a perverse attraction to listening to old SID tunes on youtube. Commando and Last Ninja 2 by Matt Grey take me right back to my childhood.

            Reply
  3. Dr. Vibrato

    There is value in revisiting and re-reviewing long-living products.
    But, did Noctua really retire the D14 in the year 2014, the year i believe the D15 was released? And, if correct, why would this then be “news” 6 years later?

    Reply
    • paul hawkins

      I was rather wondering the same thing…..the only “progress” since 2014, was to make a black version…..air cooling is still viable, however liquid cooling is becoming more acceptable (better leak protection, etc), so a giant flesh toned cooler is not exactly going to be the first choice.

      Reply
      • Jeremy Hellstrom

        Not so much breaking news as a reminder that it still competes well against the AIO coolers.

        Reply
        • Dr. Vibrato

          To be clear, i welcome re-reviews. No complains there.

          What i wondered about what that opener with regard to the D14 being retired with the release of the D15. The D15 has been released about 6 years ago. I don’t know when the D14 has been officially retired (Noctua doesn’t mention any date on the discontinuation notice i found on their web site).

          Either, the D14 was officially discontinued when the D15 had been released — which would have been 6 years ago, and thus it would be very odd to open an article / re-review in a way as if that fact would still be relevant 6 years later.

          Or, the D14 was discontinued only recently. Which would make the statement that the D14 has been discontinued with the release of the D15 simple an inaccurate statement.

          I tend to believe the latter being the case, since i can find plenty of sellers/shops that still sell the D14, i tend to believe the D14 was discontinued only recently.

          Again, nothing wrong with re-reviews. I appreciate them. But linking the D14 retirement with the release of the D15 is a head-scratcher to me…

          Reply
          • Jeremy Hellstrom

            That’s fair, and I guess since you can still buy the D14 it isn’t completely retired. Made a similar mistake with the Logitech C930, since you can still technically buy the C920 if you want.

            Reply

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