Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black, Premium Dual-Tower CPU Cooler with NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan (Black)

Product Information

Upon removing the heatsink covers, you’ll notice a gray fixture on the underside of each cover. If you pull away in the corner, the fixture will come off as you break the connection of the magnets holding it in place. However, even more impressive is our 79° temperature during 100% load! Just as with our idle temperatures, the D15S stayed in range of a high-quality 240mm liquid cooling unit, no pump noise necessary! The front of the box displays the fan’s specs as well as a small picture of the fan outfitted with the different colored anti-vibration pads. It also displays the included pad colors next to the fan. Now attach the mounting bars and install with the four NM-ITS1 thumbscrews, making sure the connection is tight and firm (not too strong). In their long line of CPU coolers, Noctua introduced the NH-D15D coolers, especially made for those that require Noctua's best model cooler yet yearn a little more silence. The Noctua NH-D15S CPU cooler will to deliver both the cooling performance you may expect, yet remains all silent under normal processor conditions. The end result is a cooler that can cope with any CPU released to date cooled including even the most high-end Haswell and Skylake SKUs.

Inside, we find squishable foam – my favorite kind. The foam has some give to it and doesn’t break like Styrofoam. The foam surrounds fully recyclable boxes. But you are not going to recycle perfectly good boxes that were custom built for this heatsink and its accessories. The whole thing goes together too nicely. You will keep your box. Now, let’s pull out this heatsink and take a look. I took this picture upside down, so let’s see the NH-D15S rightside-up. Yup. It is definitely asymmetric.

The next picture shows you how you can fit a 140 mm fan (an NF-A15 in this case) as a push fan and still not interfere with your RAM – as long as you use low profile RAM. Noctua heatsinks have long been revered for their top-tier cooling abilities and quiet operation but their understated design and their brown fans specifically, are occasionally the subject of ridicule among PC builders who value aesthetics above all else.

The Noctua D15S is a most capable heatsink and it shows exactly why AIOs have not replaced traditional CPU cooling solutions. Plus, there is literally no maintenance with the D15S. Yes, AIOs don’t require maintenance but the liquid mixture inside them does eventually breakdown and they have been known to fail and even ruin systems with water going everywhere. These situations are rare but nevertheless do occur. Conclusion In essence, I tried to do all the things you might find logical to try. I used two different mounts to compare the cooling. I mounted the NH-D15S a third time with the fans blowing up – I had recently tested the NH-C14S heatsink and found a 5 degree difference in cooling, depending on how I mounted it. So I tried this vertical mount to see if it made a difference in how well the D15S cooled. The results are presented in different charts to keep the different mounts separate. The customization Noctua now provides with their chromax line further strengthens their already strong lineup of industry leading fans and heatsinks. Noctua NA-HC4 chromax.white Review As usual, slower fans do not cool as well as faster fans, but they work more quietly. But here, running with two NF-A15 fans at 1200 rpm will be very quiet; and if you are willing to remount your heatsink until you get that “golden mount,” you can get very good cooling indeed. Conclusions

Because Noctua provides only a single fan with this heatsink, if you have tall RAM you can use the money you saved and buy a 12cm fan. But really, there is no need for tall RAM in these days of 1.5v and 1.35v memory (even lower with DDR4). Buy low profile or ultra-low profile RAM. Each test run was 60 minutes in duration. The last 50 minutes of each run was measured, and the temperature logs were analyzed in Open Office spreadsheets. An Intel chip reports its temps in one degree increments, so for best accuracy these reports should be averaged in aggregate. Here the core temps were measured once a second, resulting in 3000-line spreadsheets. The digital thermometer measuring air temp reported its measurements in increments of 0.1 °C. The ambient temperature was measured every five seconds, resulting in 600-line spreadsheets. The mean ambient temp was subtracted from the mean core temps, resulting in a net temp for each run. The net temps were then averaged. Finally, slide a cover over each fixture and the magnets do the rest. It’s that easy! You don’t have to detach the fan and can even do this while the heatsink is installed on the motherboard. Amazing! You prefer low noise levels: This cooler is equipped with a quality NF-A15 fan for improved and quieter performance, making it ideal for users who prefer a quieter PC environment.

The NH-D15S is at least as good as its predecessor, the NH-D15. It accomplishes Noctua’s main aims of making more room for a 1 st-slot card, bringing down the cost of the cooler, and making this heatsink truly compatible with tall RAM. You want extra RAM clearance: If you have high-profile RAM modules and need a cooler that provides ample clearance for your RAM slots, the Noctua NH-D15S is an excellent choice due to its asymmetrical design.

Performance

Dual-fan ready –Using the supplied extra fan clips, the NH-D15S can be upgraded with either a second round-frame 140 mm fan with 120 mm mounting holes (such as the NF-A15) . . . or a common 120 mm fan (such as the NF-F12) for improving performance while maintaining compatibility with RAM modules of up to 45 mm height. The picture on the right shows a standard NH-D15. See how close it stands to the network card in the first slot. In the picture on the right, we can see how the NH-D15S stands a centimeter to the left. The Noctua NH-D15S is a fantastic value. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive but it’s well worth the investment. Not only does it rival AIOs in performance, it does so while maintaining a much lower noise profile. Plus, this heatsink can be carried over every time you upgrade or rebuild your computer. Lastly, Noctua brings a level of quality to the table that few manufacturers can match. The NH-D15S is no exception and its 6-year warranty is among the highest in the industry. You have limited space: This cooler, although not exceptionally heavy, is quite large in size. If your PC case has limited space, it may not fit comfortably, so consider the available space in your case before purchasing. Attach the fan to the cooler as previously, making sure it is facing the desired direction ( airflow arrows can be seen on the side of the fan). Connect the fan to the 4-pin PWM connector once it’s been installed.

The box for the Noctua NA-HC4 chromax.white maintains the same aesthetic as other Noctua product boxes and displays the compatible heatsink model numbers on the front. NH-D15S vs NH-D15.The first chart below appears to show that the NH-D15S cools 3 °C better than the NH-D15. Relax. What this chart shows is that when you mount heatsinks, your mounts can vary. In fact, you are well-advised to mount and test your cooling, then remount and retest. Stop only when you have arrived at a really good mount.Those two threaded rods were for the tensioning screws. Noctua provides an L-shaped screwdriver for tightening the tension bolts. However, you would do well to get a 200mm long-shaft #2 Phillips screwdriver. Very helpful for this and for tightening motherboard screw deep in a case. Noctua also sent out a Noctua NA-HC4 chromax.white heatsink cover kit for the D15S. The chromax series of heatsink covers is one of those rare ideas that takes an existing flagship product and without altering it, improves upon it without compromising the products’ greatest qualities. After seeing the chromax heatsink cover in person, I can’t imagine building with it. While most aesthetic add-ons are a waste of money, the NA-HC4 can be seen and enjoyed every day if you are one of the many with a case that has a tempered glass side panel. The sheer quality of the covers and the stark change they have on the looks of your PC is well worth the price. Performance The comparator heatsink was the Noctua NH-D15. Each Heatsink was mounted with a 6 mm blob of NT-H1 TIM. Each time a heatsink was mounted, the TIM was allowed a day to fully spread before the temperature tests were run.