- Review -

12.10.2015 Modders-Inc.com

In terms of performance, the NH-D15 and NH-D15S are pretty much identical with the exception of having one fan. This is important because in most scenarios, the single middle fan can handle most of the work and even when pushed to higher OC where all other heatsinks throttle, the single fan NH-D15 was very close. Most would think that to get more always means adding things but Noctua stepped back and evaluated that the value to the consumer is much greater if the second NF-A15 fan was removed. Aside from being known for their quality and silent coolers, Noctua is also known for very high priced products and thus is out of reach for many consumers. Since each of these Noctua NF-A15 fans cost $25-30 when purchased in retail, removing one from the NH-D15 bundle lowers the price to a much more affordable $74.90 (MSRP) which makes the NH-D15S very competitive against many other high-end coolers value-wise. The shift of the heatpipe balance also fixed the single nagging clearance issue that the original NH-D15 had and that is mini-ITX and micro-ATX compatibility. With the PCI-E x16 slot sitting close to the CPU socket keep-out zone, the large NH-D15 prevented graphics card installation on many motherboards but the NH-D15 has no such problem (unless the user is an idiot and did not read the manual, resulting in an opposite installation).

"Just like the change from the NH-D14 to the NH-D15 seemed minor physically, closer inspection and testing revealed bigger changes than what can be observed by merely unboxing. It feels like Deja Vu with the NH-D15S but the improvements are surprisingly even more profound." (Ron Perillo, Modders-Inc.com)