- Review -

31.01.2016 eTeknix.com

Once again, Noctua has absolutely blown us away with their latest cooler. Delivering class-leading performance, this cooler ticks all the right boxes for anyone building a system. Not only is it one of the quietest coolers we’ve ever tested, it managed to stay quiet even when we dialed in some hefty overclocks, meaning your gaming system or workstation should stay whisper quiet, even when you’re putting the heat on your CPU. Cooling performance is amazing in all our testing, and while it does run a little warmer than the Noctua NH-D15, that was to be expected given the switch from two fans to one fan, which is a move to increase compatibility more than anything. However, despite the halved number of fans, the performance is still extremely competitive and that just shows how much of the performance comes from the build quality and cooling tower design of this unit, not just the fans. The D15 model is superior and we highly recommend that if you want a Noctua cooler, that’s the one you invest in, but there’s a clear market for the D15S that we appreciate Noctua providing a product for. If you’re running an X99 system, with large ram modules on both sides of the CPU socket, the added cutaways of this model will allow you to maximize compatibility with your hardware. This does come at the cost of losing the first PCI slot, at least on most motherboards, but turn the cooler 90 degrees and you gain that slot back, albeit at the cost of having to use standard profile RAM; at least you have that option.

"Noctua has once again proved that you really do get what you pay for. The Noctua NH-D15S may be priced in line with many large water coolers, but it can still keep up with them in terms of performance and it outperforms almost everything on the market in terms of acoustics and compatibility. One of the best coolers money can buy." (Peter Donnell, eTeknix.com)