- Review -

22.06.2011 thebestcasescenario.com

It was never going to be a fair fight bearing in mind the size of the coolers and fans in this comparison, and there was little doubt that the Noctua would come out the winner, but the sheer scale of the beating the Noctua handed down surprised me. With nearly 7 degrees knocked off of the idle temps and a huge 20+ knocked off of the under-load temps, the Noctua's performance is stunning. The fact that there's only an 8 degree difference between the idle and loaded temps when the cooler is running in full-on high performance mode further compliments the Noctua unit, and I have zero doubt it'd be more than capable running on a CPU with a much higher TDP. It's effective, well built, quiet and Noctua's attention to detail shines through. Not only am I giving this cooler our maximum score of 10/10, I'm also giving it the first Editors Choice award I've ever personally issued.

"I started this review with a question relating to if this cooler can live up to the standards set by the NH-D14 Shane reviewed last year, and I'm ending it with an answer to that question - the answer - oh hell yes - easily! Go, now, and buy one, or two." (Colin M. Ormsby, thebestcasescenario.com)