- Review -

29.10.2013 hardCOREware.net

And this is right about where my head exploded. Even in single fan mode, the NH-U14S outperforms every cooler we tested, including the NH-D14 and the SUPER loud AMD dual fan liquid cooler made by Asetek. I double and triple performed the measurements, and they were consistent. [...] I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect the NH-U14S to perform the way it did. Whatever techniques Noctua have utilized to get this kind of performance out of this single tower cooler were totally worth it, and that is not even considering the extremely high quality features you normally get with their products. The NH-U14S is well suited for silent PC builds as well as high end overclocking on air, depending on configuration. Adding an extra fan improves performance, but at the cost of noise. Depending on your particular setup, you may be able to get away with one fan.

"The best air cooler we’ve seen yet: The NH-U14S replaces the NH-D14 as our top recommendation for air based CPU cooling. While the latter has come down in price since we reviewed it (currently around $80), the NH-U14S retails for as low as $70 right now. So not only is it cheaper, it’s smaller, and it performs better. Noctua have exceeded my expectations, and have earned an Editor’s Choice award from us this time." (Carl Nelson, hardCOREware.net)