- Review -

23.06.2013 NinjaLane.com

When reviewing silent cooling solutions we are often forced to recognize that silent cooling doesn't always translate into good overclocking performance yet, there are a few notable exceptions like self contained watercoolers and the Noctua NH-U14S. Thermal performance comes from a variety of factors such as the 140mm radiator, six large heatpipes and 150mm cooling fan(s). The position of the heatpipes is also key in making sure heat is evenly distributed across the radiator and takes advantage of the primary airflow across the fins. As our benchmarks showed the NH-U14S could easily handle a 4.6Ghz overclock on the LGA2011 and actually posted a lower C/W rating meaning that it could still handle more abuse either from higher ambient temps or more GHz. Heatsink installation went incredibly smooth and was actually quite simple thanks to the Noctua universal mounting system. Despite having two basic levels there is only a single set of screws holding the main retention clips in place which allows you to use this heatsink on any number of systems. Both heatsinks in this review offer a thinner radiator profile allowing the heatsink to be used on system with taller memory modules and come with hardware so a second fan can be installed at any time.

"Either heatsink would be a welcome addition in any high performance PC especially when overall noise is a deciding factor." (Dennis Garcia, NinjaLane.com)