# Noctua NH-D14 with Ryzen 3900x



## LpoolTech (Jun 24, 2020)

Hey!
So I've been running my 3900x with stock cooler due to running out of funds when I build this PC last year. Its been fine but so noisy and where I live it gets super hot in the summer (I don't have air conditioning in my office at the present time) so the temperatures are getting pretty high. Anyway I've been researching coolers, my case supports up to 160mm so NH-D15 and be quiet dark pro are out of running due to height of 165mm and 162.8mm respectively but I found this great deal on open new stock on NH-D14 for 50 euro with six-year warranty and all that good stuff. My question is what type of performance could I expect as D14 in an older design and I can't find any numbers on it also I've heard that some coolers from that era perform better with Intel CPUs? What do you think guys? Do you have any other recommendations?

Edit. for more info AM4 bracket for NH-D14 is included


----------



## John Naylor (Jun 24, 2020)

The Scythe Fuma 2 is cheaper, queiter cools better the the DH-14 or DH-15 and it fits

*Overall Dimensions:*
137 x 131 x 154,5 mm  (including fan)

Socket AM2
Socket AM2+
Socket AM3
Socket AM3+
Socket AM4
Socket FM1
Socket FM2
Socket FM2+


----------



## P4-630 (Jun 24, 2020)

John Naylor said:


> The Scythe Fuma 2 is cheaper, queiter cools better the the DH-14 or DH-15 and it fits
> 
> *Overall Dimensions:*
> 137 x 131 x 154,5 mm  (including fan)
> ...


----------



## LpoolTech (Jun 24, 2020)

John Naylor said:


> The Scythe Fuma 2 is cheaper, queiter cools better the the DH-14 or DH-15 and it fits
> 
> *Overall Dimensions:*
> 137 x 131 x 154,5 mm  (including fan)
> ...





P4-630 said:


>


Thanks for the chart and info! Where I live Scythe Fuma 2(71,80 €) was about 32€ more expensive than noctua nh-d14(49.99€) I've decided to go with Noctua due to price to performance ratio


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jun 24, 2020)

I've used the NH-D14 on a handful of 3900X builds.
I used to use Cryorig H7 Ultra for smaller cases before it caught the RGBLED disease and gained €20 whilst getting a worse fan.

Honestly, you'll be getting damn near full PBO+ performance from an NH-D14 at low noise levels, as long as your ambient temps aren't silly. It's the not the last word in air-cooling performance but you'd need to be anal about minutiae to really care about the difference.


----------



## LpoolTech (Jun 24, 2020)

Chrispy_ said:


> I've used the NH-D14 on a handful of 3900X builds.
> I used to use Cryorig H7 Ultra for smaller cases before it caught the RGBLED disease and gained €20 whilst getting a worse fan.
> 
> Honestly, you'll be getting damn near full PBO+ performance from an NH-D14 at low noise levels, as long as your ambient temps aren't silly. It's the not the last word in air-cooling performance but you'd need to be anal about minutiae to really care about the difference.


Thanks for this reply that what I was hoping to hear. My case ventilation is good but ambient temperature can get to up to 28C in my office. In the future, if funds allow aircon installation is on priority list . Anyway, the cooler has been purchased and at 50 euro I think it was a steal


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jun 24, 2020)

Even the NH-U14S is fine.

The 3900X is only a 105W processor and on most boards, PBO+ will push about 140-150W through it. That really isn't difficult to cool and matches the real-world power draw of most "95W" Intels from the 8th and 9th gen.

Everyone will have a different opinion on overclocking but IMO current boost algorithms and PBO+ (motherboard power-delivery awareness) mean that a "stock" Ryzen 3900X is already like 97% of the way there. Throwing a whole bunch more power, heat and noise at it really doesn't achieve much for most people.


----------



## tabascosauz (Jun 25, 2020)

Ryzen doesn't behave like Intel. Soldered Intel chips draw a lot of power, but run surprisingly cool for that power draw. Leave it at idle, and it'll keep behaving like it's at idle.

Ryzen 3000 is constantly giving you near-total single-thread boost on every launch of an application or click of the mouse, on demand, within milliseconds. That, and the thermal density of the process, are where the unpredictable idle behaviour comes from. On light load and idle, your max Tdie temperatures might only be a few degrees, if at all, cooler than your max Tdie temperatures in a heavy stress test. Ryzen 3000 will only ever [safely] draw so much maximum power (either 95W or 142W) and create so much maximum heat, but "idle" just isn't really idle anymore if you come from something older than Kaby Lake.

With air coolers, current boards aren't currently smart enough to tie CPU fan speeds to any sensor other than Tdie, which reflects that unpredictable behaviour. The only real way outside of fixed frequency is to mitigate the noise on air coolers is to move to a large air cooler with a large 120mm/140mm fan that doesn't spin up as much, and moves more air at lower speeds for lower noise. The D14, D15 and DRP4 already represent the best you can already get on air.

If you are very sensitive to noise and find even these coolers unbearable (the Dark Rock Pro 4 that I have is hands down the quietest high end air cooler), then it's time to move to AIO or custom water cooling, which will allows you to tie fan speed to a stable, nearly static reading like water temp that doesn't correlate to constantly fluctuating CPU temperature. Quite honestly, beyond 8 cores, Ryzen belongs under water for full performance and consistent noise.

If you have LNA or VLNA adapters with your Noctua fans, you can use them to reduce max fan speed, but your load temperatures may be affected.


----------



## phill (Jun 25, 2020)

I currently run a D14 on a 3900X sadly without the AM4 clips but it's sat on the top of the CPU behaving itself very well.  After realising and tweaking the CPU voltage in the bios (AMD Master software didn't do a thing for me) I can now run my 3900X @ 4.20GHz around 50C to 65C depending on the air temp around me.  Today its been bloody hot, the temps have spiked a little towards 65C.  I do however use this for WCG Crunching, so it's pegged at 100% load as soon as Windows loads.  It has been rock solid.
The only downside I think, is that when you are running gaming or FAH as an example, the GPUs push up the CPU temp a little due to the heat coming off of it..  Bit of a shame but there's nothing much we can do there really..  I do have fans placed all over the system just to try and remove/push the heat off the system.  









Just for verfication   Oh for power usage with the rest of the hardware in the system, under full load its roughly 160w for the system.  According to MSI Afterburner, the CPU power is around 70w.

I am however, aiming to get this beast under water as soon as I can..  It really needs it!  Even more so in this 31C+ heat we are having in the UK right now!


----------



## LpoolTech (Jun 25, 2020)

phill said:


> I currently run a D14 on a 3900X sadly without the AM4 clips but it's sat on the top of the CPU behaving itself very well.  After realising and tweaking the CPU voltage in the bios (AMD Master software didn't do a thing for me) I can now run my 3900X @ 4.20GHz around 50C to 65C depending on the air temp around me.  Today its been bloody hot, the temps have spiked a little towards 65C.  I do however use this for WCG Crunching, so it's pegged at 100% load as soon as Windows loads.  It has been rock solid.
> The only downside I think, is that when you are running gaming or FAH as an example, the GPUs push up the CPU temp a little due to the heat coming off of it..  Bit of a shame but there's nothing much we can do there really..  I do have fans placed all over the system just to try and remove/push the heat off the system.
> 
> View attachment 160114
> ...


Your build looks great! 2x 1080Ti in SLI, nice! I will be sticking with air cooling for now partly due to funds and to reliability. I'm sure the temps will go up while gaming I just don't want the cooler to sound like a jet taking off . Not sure if you know it but from what I've been reading depending on the situation you can request mounting kit from Noctua for free so that is something you may want to try!



tabascosauz said:


> Ryzen doesn't behave like Intel. Soldered Intel chips draw a lot of power, but run surprisingly cool for that power draw. Leave it at idle, and it'll keep behaving like it's at idle.
> 
> Ryzen 3000 is constantly giving you near-total single-thread boost on every launch of an application or click of the mouse, on demand, within milliseconds. That, and the thermal density of the process, are where the unpredictable idle behaviour comes from. On light load and idle, your max Tdie temperatures might only be a few degrees, if at all, cooler than your max Tdie temperatures in a heavy stress test. Ryzen 3000 will only ever [safely] draw so much maximum power (either 95W or 142W) and create so much maximum heat, but "idle" just isn't really idle anymore if you come from something older than Kaby Lake.
> 
> ...


Thanks for all the info, super interesting! Even if some of it went over my head. Anyway, due to founds and some reliability concerns, I won't be switching to water cooling for now and I hope the noise level will improve with the NH-D14 as the stock cooler right now sounds like a jet. Thanks again! DRP4 and NH-D15 weren't an option due to case height restriction of 160mm


----------



## phill (Jun 25, 2020)

LpoolTech said:


> Your build looks great! 2x 1080Ti in SLI, nice! I will be sticking with air cooling for now partly due to funds and to reliability. I'm sure the temps will go up while gaming I just don't want the cooler to sound like a jet taking off . Not sure if you know it but from what I've been reading depending on the situation you can request mounting kit from Noctua for free so that is something you may want to try!
> 
> 
> Thanks for all the info, super interesting! Even if some of it went over my head. Anyway, due to founds and some reliability concerns, I won't be switching to water cooling for now and I hope the noise level will improve with the NH-D14 as the stock cooler right now sounds like a jet. Thanks again! DRP4 and NH-D15 weren't an option due to case height restriction of 160mm


I had the cooler second hand so I'm doubting they'd cover it for free but never hurts to ask 

Well the temps there are some 20C+ lower than me using Ryzen Master and a full 1.1GHz faster as well...  It's amazing when you use the right tool for the job....   Generally the gaming temps are no different as whilst I'm gaming, I'm crunching as well 

It'll hopefully look better when I have it in the case in the pic, water cooled and running with a little less of a worry with fans all over the damn desk!!   I'd like to get it out the way of my little ones fingers..  She's 16 months now, she likes to grab everything  lol


----------



## freeagent (Jun 25, 2020)

If you ever get sick of running the D14, but love the performance, check out Thermalrights True Spirit 140 Power. It has all of the cooling capacity, and its just a skinny cooler that is soo easy to work with in comparison. But its tall at about 170mm. And its only 50 usd.


----------



## phill (Jun 25, 2020)

freeagent said:


> If you ever get sick of running the D14, but love the performance, check out Thermalrights True Spirit 140 Power. It has all of the cooling capacity, and its just a skinny cooler that is soo easy to work with in comparison. But its tall at about 170mm. And its only 50 usd.


I reckon that'll be worth a look then!!   I might consider moving around my Freezer 34 Duo's to another system, as the temps at the moment are getting a bit warm but with 32C heat and 100% load on 16 threads, I'm not surprised!!


----------



## freeagent (Jun 25, 2020)

We should be getting that heat soon.. not looking forward to it!


----------



## John Naylor (Jun 25, 2020)

LpoolTech said:


> Thanks for the chart and info! Where I live Scythe Fuma 2(71,80 €) was about 32€ more expensive than noctua nh-d14(49.99€) I've decided to go with Noctua due to price to performance ratio



If you put your location in your profile and responderss will be able to address costs in your specific location


----------



## arkantos91 (Jun 25, 2020)

tabascosauz said:


> Ryzen doesn't behave like Intel. Soldered Intel chips draw a lot of power, but run surprisingly cool for that power draw. Leave it at idle, and it'll keep behaving like it's at idle.
> 
> Ryzen 3000 is constantly giving you near-total single-thread boost on every launch of an application or click of the mouse, on demand, within milliseconds. That, and the thermal density of the process, are where the unpredictable idle behaviour comes from. On light load and idle, your max Tdie temperatures might only be a few degrees, if at all, cooler than your max Tdie temperatures in a heavy stress test. Ryzen 3000 will only ever [safely] draw so much maximum power (either 95W or 142W) and create so much maximum heat, but "idle" just isn't really idle anymore if you come from something older than Kaby Lake.
> 
> ...



I registered for the single purpose of saying that is one of the most insightful post I've read so far in a forum about how the whole Ryzen 3rd gen behaves.

And also because I find out all of this by myself the hard way upgrading from a 2700X to a 3900X.

Adding my info here since I've been using for less than  a week now so I can share some thoughts, and of course because my cooler is indeed the NH-D14.

The temp/voltage spikes are indeed very aggressive, more than they were with the 2700X.

At the beginning I was scared because I don't think I've never heard before the D14 fans making noticeable noise... in almost 10 years I own it they've never probably reached over 1000 rpm, unless maybe in some Cinebench.

I'm still finding the optimal configuration here because I haven't had much time cause work, but with a Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 I experienced very high peak temperature (78° was the highest I've seen) and core voltage (highest so far was 1.487 V). And all of this with a big ass case (Thermaltake X5 TG with a 200mm Noctua fan as intake and a Cooler Master 140mm as rear exhaust) .

PBO on (unlike auto or off) gave me better results. A little over 7000 score in Cinebench R20 with 71° as peak temp and 1.369 V as peak voltage. Some cores did boost to 4.525 which was the highest I've seen during that test.

I still haven't touched the voltages, so far all of these were auto. But I still have to figure out which I should touch and which I shouldn't because there is a crap ton of them, with similar names too. Some people say it's best to leave the voltage on auto and let the cpu do its thing, however I'm afraid it may draw too much voltage, hence the high temps.

Also hw info reports Power Reporting Deviation at 76% which seems to be bad, meaning the cpu is drawing more power than it needs, again hence the high temps.

I need to figure out if PBO is best on or not.

The first tests I did really scared me to the point I was thinking that air cooling it's not enough...especially while having to deal with fan revving up (even if are Noctuas) considering my case sits on the desk next to me. However setting PBO on (and not auto, as it was at default BIOS settings) already showed much more acceptable temps/voltages.


----------



## phill (Jun 26, 2020)

arkantos91 said:


> I registered for the single purpose of saying that is one of the most insightful post I've read so far in a forum about how the whole Ryzen 3rd gen behaves.
> 
> And also because I find out all of this by myself the hard way upgrading from a 2700X to a 3900X.
> 
> ...


Welcome to the forum  

This is why I run my 3900X with just 1.0vcore and it still boosts to 4.20GHz even under 100% load   It's an amazing CPU


----------



## HTC (Jun 26, 2020)

phill said:


> *I had the cooler second hand so I'm doubting they'd cover it for free but never hurts to ask*
> 
> Well the temps there are some 20C+ lower than me using Ryzen Master and a full 1.1GHz faster as well...  It's amazing when you use the right tool for the job....  Generally the gaming temps are no different as whilst I'm gaming, I'm crunching as well
> 
> It'll hopefully look better when I have it in the case in the pic, water cooled and running with a little less of a worry with fans all over the damn desk!!  I'd like to get it out the way of my little ones fingers.. She's 16 months now, she likes to grab everything  lol



From their AM4 mounting kit request page:



> We strictly require a valid proof of purchase (electronic version or scan/photo of the invoice) of both a Noctua CPU cooler and either an AM4 motherboard or AM4 CPU in order to process your request. *In case you've lost the invoice of your Noctua CPU cooler, please write your full name and the current date on a piece of paper, take a photo of the paper next to your CPU cooler and upload it as proof of purchase.* Please note that your name has to be clearly readable and that we can't process requests without proper proof of purchase.



How i asked for mine:



I covered in white my full name and my e-mail address (required).

NOTE: mine isn't 2nd hand so i had no problems. Because your cooler is 2nd hand, dunno.


----------



## phill (Jun 26, 2020)

I've no box with my cooler so, it's what it is sadly..  I'm not that bummed about it..  Works fine without   

@LpoolTech Did you need anything further info/help??


----------



## HTC (Jun 26, 2020)

phill said:


> I've no box with my cooler so, it's what it is sadly..  I'm not that bummed about it..  Works fine without



You don't need the box: the cooler alone should suffice. I had the cooler's box, so i used it.


----------



## ibace (Jun 29, 2020)

I have received several Noctua mounting kits; for when I changed format...and going to Ryzen just last week, am in the process of doing it again...all that was necessary was; proof of ownership of the motherboard/CPU and Noctua as well as proof of identity and address...I achieved it by a couple of photos; 1st of my tower with the side off, and my Driver's Licence sitting on top of the PSU...that showed my I.D. + address and the Noctua NH-D14 as well as the mobo. Also sent them  a scanned copy of the receipt for my new CPU and motherboard...their shipping is very slow; but that may be just simply because of the 'Rona rubbish we are all dealing with! But the kits arrived...well the 2011 one did [twice] still waiting on the AM4...shipping now 31 working days...but I'm hopeful!


----------



## Chrispy_ (Jun 29, 2020)

ibace said:


> I have received several Noctua mounting kits; for when I changed format...and going to Ryzen just last week, am in the process of doing it again...all that was necessary was; proof of ownership of the motherboard/CPU and Noctua as well as proof of identity and address...I achieved it by a couple of photos; 1st of my tower with the side off, and my Driver's Licence sitting on top of the PSU...that showed my I.D. + address and the Noctua NH-D14 as well as the mobo. Also sent them  a scanned copy of the receipt for my new CPU and motherboard...their shipping is very slow; but that may be just simply because of the 'Rona rubbish we are all dealing with! But the kits arrived...well the 2011 one did [twice] still waiting on the AM4...shipping now 31 working days...but I'm hopeful!


That sounds like COVID delays. I've never had to wait more than a week for mine.
If you're in a hurry you can usually buy the Noctua mounting kit you need on Amazon next-day for about €10-15 but obviously then it's not free anymore!


----------



## ibace (Jun 30, 2020)

The first time around it took several months...and was last year before any of this CoVid19 crap...default setting is them sending without tracking...after 7 weeks with no show; they resent the kit via Courier with tracking...arrived within 10 days...


----------



## gasolin (Jul 20, 2020)

freeagent said:


> If you ever get sick of running the D14, but love the performance, check out Thermalrights True Spirit 140 Power. It has all of the cooling capacity, and its just a skinny cooler that is soo easy to work with in comparison. But its tall at about 170mm. And its only 50 usd.



Look at the graph in #2 + 4c and in #3 6c hotter than a Scythe Fuma 2, that's not good performance when it matters (when it get's hot)


----------



## purecain (Jul 24, 2020)

i run a Noctua U12A with my 3900x. my cpu sits at 3766 -4265mhz @ 50c idle and 83c under prime95.


----------



## Antrax360 (Aug 26, 2020)

Guys i need help asap. I juat bought a new ryzen 9 3900x and asus gaming tuf x570. Am running a Noctua d15 no oc nothing. Everything is stock. The computer at idle and even on the bios is almost 70c. I ran cinebench and it went up to 95c. Also my internet speeds went from 1gb to 80mb when i swapped to this motherboard. Had a 1700x with asus b350 plus.


----------



## gasolin (Aug 26, 2020)

Update bios


----------



## Antrax360 (Aug 26, 2020)

am on the latest bios. everything is exactly the same


----------



## AsRock (Aug 26, 2020)

Leaving it auto will ramp temps up, if you can find your lowest boosting core and take 100mhz of it(HWnfo64) and run all core should give nice results and in turn should be able to lower the cpu voltage too.

Idle and 70c sounds like cpu cooler is not on correctly or even bad ventilation.


----------



## phill (Aug 26, 2020)

Antrax360 said:


> Guys i need help asap. I juat bought a new ryzen 9 3900x and asus gaming tuf x570. Am running a Noctua d15 no oc nothing. Everything is stock. The computer at idle and even on the bios is almost 70c. I ran cinebench and it went up to 95c. Also my internet speeds went from 1gb to 80mb when i swapped to this motherboard. Had a 1700x with asus b350 plus.


Hi @Antrax360 

I'd make a new thread rather than post it in someone elses if I'm honest, but I'm with @AsRock , check your mounting and case air flow.  It's too high a temp for sure


----------



## purecain (Sep 1, 2020)

@Antrax360 - I would reinstall your CPU cooler just to be sure everything is right. I'm getting 49c with this Noctua air cooler. 76c max just browsing.


----------

