- Review -

25.04.2011 TechPowerUp.com

Whoosh. The NH-C14 shatters the myth that top-flow coolers are fundamentally inferior to side-flow ones. Aside from being the best performing cooler thus far on our new cooler bench, the NH-C14 should be the best performing top-flow coolers out there in the market. The air flow of top flow coolers provides some cooling for components around the CPU area, and that is good for voltage-assisted overclocking. When overclocked, the CPU barely appears to be running hot, given that Bloomfield poses a very heavy thermal load. There should be a lot of overclocking headroom left.

"I couldn't have imagined any other cooler manufacturer take up top-flow design at this market segment, and then go on to win big time in terms of performance. Not only is this top-flow cooler very much in the league of high-end side-flow tower-type coolers, but it can also compete with entry-level water-cooling in-a-box solutions. [...] Overall, the Noctua NH-C14 is wonderful piece of engineering. It's as if its designers wanted to do some mythbusting, and disprove that top-flow design coolers are passé." (B. Rajeev Raju, TechPowerUp.com)