Noctua Announces $150 Flagship NH-D15 G2 CPU Coolers and NF-A14x25r G2 140mm Fans

[Vayra86]

What, you don’t like whatever the hell BQ is pulling here?
View attachment 353999
No, I never wanted to have full user serviceability on my hunk of aluminum fins, why do you ask?

Yeah... lol. I hope Darwin takes care of this bullshit yesterday

 

[Dr. Dro]

Noctua will maintain socket support, some other brands don't, thats one argument that could be made in this direction.


In my opinion, real innovation in this space is selling a dual tower with quality fans for under $50. Thats where Noctua is failing to innovate, while Scythe and Thermalright have achieved this.

I think Noctua has opted to take a different road compared to Scythe and Thermalright. From the moment I got my NH-D15S I knew. Extremely premium package, very well documented with a manual explaining everything to the user, a full-size syringe of NT-H1, and an amazing build quality. Shame that it's really prone to staining, it's a cosmetic issue but only a few months in my D15S is quite stained. I suppose the supremely good after sales with upgrade kits available for free, easy RMA etc. is all included in the price.

 

[Vario]

I think Noctua has opted to take a different road compared to Scythe and Thermalright. From the moment I got my NH-D15S I knew. Extremely premium package, very well documented with a manual explaining everything to the user, a full-size syringe of NT-H1, and an amazing build quality. Shame that it's really prone to staining, it's a cosmetic issue but only a few months in my D15S is quite stained. I suppose the supremely good after sales with upgrade kits available for free, easy RMA etc. is all included in the price.

To be honest, I've had from all brands and the Noctua I currently use isn't much different from Phanteks, Thermalright, Prolimatech, etc, except the box has more expensive Styrofoam and glossier cardboard. They all came with decent thermal paste and instruction manuals. I agree on the forward socket support though, that is the one thing I concede and how I justified buying the NHD15S in the first place, because I plan to use the same heatsink for multiple builds.

 

[Vayra86]

I think Noctua has opted to take a different road compared to Scythe and Thermalright. From the moment I got my NH-D15S I knew. Extremely premium package, very well documented with a manual explaining everything to the user, a full-size syringe of NT-H1, and an amazing build quality. Shame that it's really prone to staining, it's a cosmetic issue but only a few months in my D15S is quite stained. I suppose the supremely good after sales with upgrade kits available for free, easy RMA etc. is all included in the price.

Support kits are provided by various other companies selling cheaper stuff and RMA on this type of product is just lol.

Extremely. Premium. Packaging. Its a cardboard box. Come on.

Also there is a syringe with that gelid tranquillo too. Good paste at that. 25 bucks cooler. They also offer mounting kits. I mean... stop trying to find arguments for ludicrous brand premium and just call it what it is. We are talking about a product here that is brutally simple and hasnt changed much over the course of 20 years.

 

[Onasi]

Extremely. Premium. Packaging. Its a cardboard box. Come on.

I threw away all the packaging from my Noctua fans and my NH-D15S like a week after installing and testing them. Awesome value add, I must say, very poggers.

 

[trsttte]

Those are pretty terrible, outdated, they don't really push much air compared to modern designs.

They use the same design as their other models (like the NF-A14 and NF-A15), same bearing to. They're not pressure optimized like the NF-A12 with more fins but they're still pretty good.

If you look closely there is a minimum fan speed of 800 rpm for the PPC-3000 (450rpm for PPC-2000)
They will shut off if you go lower than 20% .

That's not what the spec says. It's sugested that you should run them above 20% and they're made for high speed, but the what the spec says is that at 20% duty cycle you get 800rpm (+-20%), not that you can't run them bellow that. Also unlike the regular consumer fans they don't advertise fan stop at 0% (though it will likely stop like the majority of fans regardless of what they advertise, mine does well before that). This is pretty standard for any fan, I have the 2000 rpm version and I can start it with no problems at 10% duty cycle (and that's start from 0, not decrease speed), as an example 2 other fans from fractal I have can't go that low without stalling.

The PPC fans aren't made for silent.

Define silent, I have one of these PPCs running just bellow 600rpm and I consider it silent, just like the NF-A15 at the same speed on the D15 tower cooler.

Yeah but thats not how it works. These are optimized for a higher speed curve and/or pressure over volume and made to move air optimally at that higher speed. You simply get less air moved per decibel. There are no one size fits all fans. You get optimized fans for a specific purpose and they'll be meh at the rest. Or you get something generic that'll be suboptimal at everything, but not horrible.

They have the same design as the regular NF-A14 and NF-A15 from the consumer oriented side. If you don't open the throtle they're just as silent

 

[chrcoluk]

N=1... I have a Gelid Tranquillo Rev 2 ($25,-) since 2012 that's been running all the time and the $7,- fan on it still works like it did on day one. No noise or anything.
Similarly, Fractal case fans have all been stellar for a similar amount of time.
I also haven't had a single Bequiet fan fail on me yet.

I did have a fan fail in a LEPA PSU and that was pretty fast too, some 3-4 years of usage.

Honestly, most non overpriced air towers just have standard clips for standard 12cm/14cm fans. Sounds to me like you just bought a shit cooler. Air cooling is a KISS scenario imho. Like most computer parts and computers in general. I'm repeatedly baffled by the complexity people add to it.

To be fair yeah fractal case fans are very good.

 

[sLowEnd]

Define silent, I have one of these PPCs running just bellow 600rpm and I consider it silent, just like the NF-A15 at the same speed on the D15 tower cooler.

Per Noctua's own recommendations, their PPC fans exhibit some motor noise below 1000RPM

Are industrialPPC fans as quiet as other Noctua fans?

The industrialPPC (iPPC) models are high-speed fans for industrial heavy duty applications that require enhanced cooling performance. While their outstanding aerodynamic efficiency allows keeping noise levels moderate as against comparable high-s...

faqs.noctua.at

 

[trsttte]

Per Noctua's own recommendations, their PPC fans exhibit some motor noise below 1000RPM

Are industrialPPC fans as quiet as other Noctua fans?

The industrialPPC (iPPC) models are high-speed fans for industrial heavy duty applications that require enhanced cooling performance. While their outstanding aerodynamic efficiency allows keeping noise levels moderate as against comparable high-s...

faqs.noctua.at

Ok I guess, I find some of the language there a bit confusing and can only guess they were talking about using low noise adapters but sure, they do warn of the possibility for that slight extra noise (which I don't experience at all but that's of course a sample of one). I hear the PSU and GPU buzzing before I'm able to hear any motor noise from the PPC fan (my psu specifically has a slightly annoying buzz with low loads), but anyway to each his own. I find them great other than the price

 

[Crackong]

That's not what the spec says. It's sugested that you should run them above 20% and they're made for high speed, but the what the spec says is that at 20% duty cycle you get 800rpm (+-20%), not that you can't run them bellow that. Also unlike the regular consumer fans they don't advertise fan stop at 0% (though it will likely stop like the majority of fans regardless of what they advertise, mine does well before that). This is pretty standard for any fan, I have the 2000 rpm version and I can start it with no problems at 10% duty cycle (and that's start from 0, not decrease speed), as an example 2 other fans from fractal I have can't go that low without stalling.

I had 2 PPC-3000s and that is not what I had experienced.
In my case they had a higher starting % than regular fans and would not start below 20% rpm
but at 20% rpm, the noise is already noticable.
That's why I switched back to regular A14.

I 've experienced the same behaviour on the A20s too
Experience may vary based on different fan controller hardware / software.
But it is just the inherent nature of high speed motor / heavier blade fans to have higher starting resistance.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Support kits are provided by various other companies selling cheaper stuff and RMA on this type of product is just lol.

Extremely. Premium. Packaging. Its a cardboard box. Come on.

Also there is a syringe with that gelid tranquillo too. Good paste at that. 25 bucks cooler. They also offer mounting kits. I mean... stop trying to find arguments for ludicrous brand premium and just call it what it is. We are talking about a product here that is brutally simple and hasnt changed much over the course of 20 years.

All of those neatly, individually packed screws, generous amount of fixtures and dampeners, including extras in case you damage or lose something, the extensive documentation, all of it adds to the cost, man. Noctua's ahead of the competition by a mile if you're looking at a premium segment. It's no wonder that just like Seasonic, they've gotten a cult following who like them so much that even the one-off flop they release is gonna be met with overwhelmingly positive reactions (which are less than honest, but alas)

For most other cases, I'd guess Thermalright can put them out of business though

 

[freeagent]

I only had a D14, my only claim to having a Noctua. The fans were loud, and brittle. The cooler was built well, no better than my Ultra 120 Extreme though. Performance wise.. I sold the Noctua and kept the Thermalright.

I am not sold at all on the premium experience argument.

The PA120 is not their best cooler lol.

Maybe Noctua should retire the D series and move on to a completely fresh design. Poll some customers if need advice..

 

[Dr. Dro]

I only had a D14, my only claim to having a Noctua. The fans were loud, and brittle. The cooler was built well, no better than my Ultra 120 Extreme though. Performance wise.. I sold the Noctua and kept the Thermalright.

I am not sold at all on the premium experience argument.

The PA120 is not their best cooler lol.

Maybe Noctua should retire the D series and move on to a completely fresh design. Poll some customers if need advice..

Not sure about the D14 but promise you that everything about the D15S shows that they genuinely put effort. The included fan is very quiet, although the industrialPPC one I installed on mine is very loud indeed. Then again, any 3000 RPM fan is loud if you put it to run full blast.

I will concede that on a purely performance per dollar argument, Noctua's probably the last place you should be looking

 

[Crackong]

I only had a D14, my only claim to having a Noctua. The fans were loud, and brittle. The cooler was built well, no better than my Ultra 120 Extreme though. Performance wise.. I sold the Noctua and kept the Thermalright.

I am not sold at all on the premium experience argument.

The PA120 is not their best cooler lol.

Maybe Noctua should retire the D series and move on to a completely fresh design. Poll some customers if need advice..

Noctua was founded at 2005
D14 was released in 2009.

On the other hand
Thermalright was founded at 2001
Ultra 120 Extreme released at 2009

So Thermalright had doubled the experience in making coolers at that moment (2009).

I would say the D14 was quite an early product in this company's life cycle and Noctua had improved significantly since then.

 

[freeagent]

I would say the D14 was quite an early product in this company's life cycle

And when was Noctua founded? They had time..