Noctua NH-D15 G2

[crazyeyesreaper]

Noctua's much-anticipated replacement for the venerable NH-D15 has arrived. Dubbed the NH-D15 G2, it’s not just a simple refresh. While the name remains familiar, the design has been completely re-engineered, resulting in top-tier performance—at a hefty price.

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[Chaitanya]

It certainly is an interesting product for enthusiasts while most will be better served with Deepcool and Thermalright.

 

[Dristun]

So it's indeed the best on performance for air and the crown goes back to brown! Very interesting to see if others will beat it at half the price in a year or two, even though I'm still set on buying Noctua.

Will the review for fans separately go live soon or we're waiting for the square frame variant in September?

 

[tetrapak]

You can buy THREE Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO or TWO Liquid Freezer III 240. 120 evo is slightly behind while LF III 240 is better. What is the exact point of this chunk of metal that costs 149€ beside that you can say : i have best air cooler on the market ?

 

[bonehead123]

y.U.k.....Not down with da brown...NOR dat price

But at least it performs well, so there's that !

 

[sethmatrix7]

Dominated by the FX360 PRO which is $60 right now https://www.amazon.com/ID-COOLING-FX360-Liquid-Cooler-Desktop/dp/B0CZMPHCPG

 

[Dristun]

You can buy THREE Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO or TWO Liquid Freezer III 240. 120 evo is slightly behind while LF III 240 is better. What is the exact point of this chunk of metal that costs 149€ beside that you can say : i have best air cooler on the market ?

It's brown!

 

[mx62]

150€ for a piece of metal with 2 fans
others costing 1/3 of the price with "same" performance
im guessing it will be quite difficult to sell it to informed users

 

[#22]

It's for ones willing to pay for what Noctua does better than competition - simple as that. The only question is, if it's upgrades over predecessor man finds worth premium to spend. I personally found it worth and just can't complain with my D15 G2 Standard, but I could be considered as cooling enthusiast, one liking the best things which are never value. On the other hand the biggest value in Noctua's heavyweight offer I see in D15S - secound fan doesn't change much, it's even cheaper and lacks PITA or I should say P(C)I(e)TA clearance issue original D15 has.

 

[colossusrageblack]

I got a Thermalright Frozen Notte 360MM AIO for $60, upgrading from a Peerless Assassin 120SE I got for $35. Combined they're still only 2/3 the cost of this one air cooler that just barely outperforms the Peerless Assassin.

 

[BigMack70]

I love Noctua's stuff and have used them for every air cooled build I've done in the past 13 years. Nice to see them continuing to push the envelope. I decided years ago that I prefer the aesthetics of an AIO to a big tower in my main build, but if I were buying a big dual tower, I wouldn't think twice about getting this one. The fact that you can buy a cooler from Noctua and know that it will work on all your future builds, cool any future CPUs as well as any air cooler can, and never need to be replaced until you get tired of it is a big deal.

I kind of look at this like a power supply purchase - buy for quality and not value, but reap the benefits long term across multiple builds.

 

[HTC]

I love Noctua's stuff and have used them for every air cooled build I've done in the past 13 years. Nice to see them continuing to push the envelope. I decided years ago that I prefer the aesthetics of an AIO to a big tower in my main build, but if I were buying a big dual tower, I wouldn't think twice about getting this one. The fact that you can buy a cooler from Noctua and know that it will work on all your future builds, cool any future CPUs as well as any air cooler can, and never need to be replaced until you get tired of it is a big deal.

I kind of look at this like a power supply purchase - buy for quality and not value, but reap the benefits long term across multiple builds.

I have supported Noctua since i 1st learned about their coolers (a simple TPU history search with "noctua" and my username will prove it) and i'm currently using a NH-C14 cooler, but this cooler is simply TOO expensive.

If this cooler were ... say ... 110€ and i were looking for a replacement, it would DEFINITELY be a contender.

@ this price, DEFINITELY NOT.

 

[Upgrayedd]

The new is a decent bit better than the old here.
Around 10% higher heat capacity.

I'd like to see a test with the old d15 fans on the new G2 and the new fans on the old d15 just to see where exactly the most improvement was made. I'd also love to see a 3000rpm ippc fan test with the cooler.

 

[Zareek]

I still don't understand the ugly brown motif. Until they started doing the alternate colored fans, I just couldn't buy their products. I'm not an aesthetics guy, but the brown is hideous.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

Definitely getting this for my future build.

I don't like water-cooling; it takes too long for temperatures to normalise and I always have to reconfigure custom fan settings depending on the seasons ambient temperatures (to keep temp/noise in check)

 

[rv8000]

Sort of disappointing results for the price, but that is down to the limitations of air and using expensive materials for the fan. There appear to already be reports of manufacturing defects in the heatsink fins causing rattling noises.

I can’t remember which other review I was looking at, maybe GN, but most of the improvement is down to the newer fans. Better off getting a much cheaper competing cooler and replacing the fans with something more reliable.

 

[Dragokar]

Thanks for the review, also the rattling is also under investigation and Noctua suspects the top cooling fin to maybe become loose during transport.

x.com

x.com

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Meanwhile. Down at Thermalright HQ:

 

[Tomgang]

Good cooling capacity for an aircooler, but to exspensive for what it is. I am no fan of the brown either. Yet i have two noctua coolers in my pc. NH-D15 and Noctua NH-L9x65 SE-AM4a. NH-D15 is a chromax.black version so everythin is black on it. Fans and cooler it self. It actually look desent and the other cooler i replaced the brown fan with the same fan but in there chromax.black series as well.
That solve all the brown look.

But you know what they say: Join the brown side, we have brown fans...

 

[Philaphlous]

i was hoping for 32 heatpipes..... disappointed

 

[bug]

Holy cow, at 1.5kg it must come with some sticks to prop it up.

 

[damric]

Looking at the fan frames, they look quite flexible. So I can see why they could rattle if they are barely flexed such that the blades will hit the frame. Arctic BIONIX fans have that problem.

Price is high but I'm sure eventually it will come down to $100 which would make it somewhat more appealing.

 

[rv8000]

Looking at the fan frames, they look quite flexible. So I can see why they could rattle if they are barely flexed such that the blades will hit the frame. Arctic BIONIX fans have that problem.

Price is high but I'm sure eventually it will come down to $100 which would make it somewhat more appealing.

It’s not the fans rattling, it’s air movement through the top fins that have become loose.

 

[efikkan]

I'm glad to see there are still advancements in air cooling.
And while it's certainly true that much cheaper coolers can compete in some areas, what you're paying for here is build quality, ease of mounting, longevity and noise profile.

But for those who don't do OC and want an overall good cooler which is much smaller, while still retaining the other advantages of a premium cooler, I still want to bring up the often forgotten NH-U14S as an alternative to the cheap (mostly low quality) high performance coolers, like various from Thermalright and the like.
I'm hoping Noctua eventually will replace this with basically a single-tower version of NH-D15 G2.

 

[damric]

It’s not the fans rattling, it’s air movement through the top fins that are becoming loose.

well then that is even more of a problem