In the early days at least, Noctua wasn't a huge amount more expensive than competing products.Noctua have never been about value. This is the best air cooler you can buy and the graphs confirm it. You can't use more than 1 cooler on a CPU, so the amount of coolers you can get for this is somewhat irrelevant. This cooler was never going to be about value, it was about Noctua engineering the very best air cooler, and they achieved that.
You're paying for the engineering that has gone into making this the best air cooler you can buy(R&D isn't cheap). You're also paying for top notch customer support, and if the past is anything to go by, future socket support at no-cost. That being said, this costs a bit too much with how close to the competition it is. I think a more reasonable price would be $100-130, and I think it'll get down to that ~$130 within the year.
Processor | Ryzen 7 7700X |
---|---|
Motherboard | ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi |
Cooling | Noctua NH-D15 |
Memory | Kingston Fury Beast 32GB 5600 MHz CL36 @ 6200 MHz |
Video Card(s) | AMD Radeon RX 6600 |
Case | Fractal Design Define R5 |
Power Supply | Corsair RM550x |
The cooler is pretty small, but you could feasibly use standard 120mm fans on an NH-L12S. If you don't mind 140mm fans, the NH-C14S is 115mm tall if you mount the fan on the underside.If I had to get an all new cooling setup, I'd go for the ID-Cooling SE-207 XT SLIM and see if it's possible to mate it with the round frame A12x25r... it's only 135mm tall that way, great for SFF builds, and from the reviews I've seen it trades blows with the U12A which is insane. Noctua has no 135mm max height offering that uses 120mm fans...
Comparing Apples to Apples(Deepcool tower cooler) and not Apples to Oranges(AIOs)What exactly do you like in Deepcool, so that you didn't mention Arctic, for instance?
I'm aware of those options, thanks, but they are all for lower profiles, they are all top-down coolers, and they all have significantly weaker performance. At 135mm max, Noctua only has "tower coolers" that use 90mm fans. Their smallest profile tower cooler with 120mm fans is the D12L and that's already 145mm, won't fit in cases where the maximum size is 135mm.The cooler is pretty small, but you could feasibly use standard 120mm fans on an NH-L12S. If you don't mind 140mm fans, the NH-C14S is 115mm tall if you mount the fan on the underside.
System Name | Favourite toy(s) |
---|---|
Processor | Ryzen 5 7600X lapped @ Custom PBO boost & Ryzen 7 7700 @ stock |
Motherboard | Asrock X670E Steel Legend / Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite |
Cooling | Deep Cool AK620 / Stock cooler |
Memory | G.Skill F5-5600J3036D16GX2-FX5 / Corsair Vengeance CMH32GX5M2B5600C36 |
Video Card(s) | Asus TUF gaming RX 7900 XTX OC edition / iGPU |
Storage | 1 + 2TB T-Force Cardea A440 pro / 2 x Kingston KC3000 1TB |
Display(s) | Asus TUF Gaming VG34VQL3A / Samsung C32G55TQWE |
Case | MSI MPG Sekira 100R / Silverstone Redline mATX |
Audio Device(s) | Asus Xonar AE 7.1 + Audio Technica -AD500X / Onboard + Creative 2.1 soundbar |
Power Supply | Corsair RM1000x V2 / Corsair RM750x V2 |
Mouse | MSI Clutch GM20 Elite / CM Reaper |
Keyboard | Logitech G512 Carbon / MSI G30 Vigor |
Yes, I see space problems with certain motherboards & their VRM heatsinks getting in the way. I know my Asrock X670E Steel Legend could have issues with this cooler.It certainly is an interesting product for enthusiasts while most will be better served with Deepcool and Thermalright.
Comparing Apples to Apples(Deepcool tower cooler) and not Apples to Oranges(AIOs)