- Review -

25.01.2012 HiTechLegion.com

Noctua's NH-D14 has proven once again why it is regarded as the king of heatsinks in most enthusiast circles. Even without the low-noise adapter attached, the NF-P12 and NF-P14 premium PWM fans were extremely quiet and inaudible over the CM Storm Trooper's case fans which were already set at their lowest fan speed. These fans normally rotate at a very low fan speed so your motherboard might give you false-flag CPU fan speed errors on boot-up (like it did on mine) so you most likely have to set the low fan speed detection at a lower rate. In ASUS motherboards, the low-speed detection is set to 600rpm by default so I suggest lowering it to 300rpm and 200rpm if you are going to use low-noise adapters. The new PWM fans are quieter and consume less power than non-PWM versions and compared to other PWM fans. Some PWM fans running at low fan speeds produce 'clicking' noises brought on by sudden torque impulses but the NF-P12 and NF-P14 PWM fans use a new fan driver IC complimented by Noctua's SSO bearings to produce superior performance. [...] As for the performance, the graphs speaks for itself and the Noctua fights tooth and nail against the high-end Corsair H100 water cooler. Current MSRP listing for high-end self-contained water-cooling systems such as the Corsair H100 is at 119 USD, 30USD more than the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011. The Corsair H100 edges out overall when set to the highest setting and produced better overall idle temperatures when overclocked but considering the fan noise and the price, the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 comes out ahead by a clear margin. Self-contained water coolers are not quieter than the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 just for the simple fact that the fan speeds have to run at higher RPM to produce numbers close to the NH-D14 at stock settings. Although the idle overclocked temperatures are higher in the NH-D14, the loaded performance tuned temperatures more than make up the difference.

"Overall, the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 continues to shock and awe ever since it was introduced by continuing a high level of performance while operating at relatively whisper-quiet modes. The build quality is top notch just as enthusiasts have come to expect from Noctua and comes conveniently packed with all the tools needed so you can install it right out of the box, including a screwdriver and a full tube of Noctua NT-H1 thermal interface material. Whether you are building an X79 system from scratch or re-using your older Noctua NH-D14 heatsink, you will have no problems running your performance tuned Sandy Bridge-E processors at manageable temperatures." (Ron Perillo, HiTechLegion.com)