Just got my first Noctua mid-Feb. Bought from Amazon and nothing funny regarding shipping. It will be fine. Spent $20 on a 120mm case fan. Seems high, but was willing to pay for quiet and efficient. That said, $$ for some of these and seem a little excessive unless you are really pushing your system hard.
Noctua fans are great but they are not for everyone. They are really for a special use case. Many years ago I converted by recently upgraded decent gaming desktop into an HTPC. I got a huge Antec HTPC case and the whole thing was about the size of a receiver. The problem was that consumer devices are quiet and even quiet PCs are not actually all that quiet. I could not watch a movie or a TV show without a hum. I replaced all my fans with Noctua fans, and I even had to replace my video card fan. Afterward, noise was barely audible. I'm glad I did it but it came at a financial cost. So, if you need quiet then this is the way to go. However if you don't need something that's quiet then you might want to save some cash.
Overall, I recommend them for my application. Although now many years later I pretty much use my Nvidia shield for everything, but that's just because the consumer market caught up.
Noctua fans are great but they are not for everyone. They are really for a special use case. Many years ago I converted by recently upgraded decent gaming desktop into an HTPC. I got a huge Antec HTPC case and the whole thing was about the size of a receiver. The problem was that consumer devices are quiet and even quiet PCs are not actually all that quiet. I could not watch a movie or a TV show without a hum. I replaced all my fans with Noctua fans, and I even had to replace my video card fan. Afterward, noise was barely audible. I'm glad I did it but it came at a financial cost. So, if you need quiet then this is the way to go. However if you don't need something that's quiet then you might want to save some cash.
Overall, I recommend them for my application. Although now many years later I pretty much use my Nvidia shield for everything, but that's just because the consumer market caught up.
You don't need a special use case. There are people who use these for silent systems, people who use these because they don't want to water cool, and people who use these for overclocking. ...It's just a really good cpu cooler.
Back in 2013, I ended up slapping Noctua fans on a hyper evo cooler, worked pretty well...silent and cool. I wonder how it would compare to this benchmark-wise. Probably pretty close. Great fans, fancy packaging which probably doesn't help their prices.
Back in 2013, I ended up slapping Noctua fans on a hyper evo cooler, worked pretty well...silent and cool. I wonder how it would compare to this benchmark-wise. Probably pretty close. Great fans, fancy packaging which probably doesn't help their prices.
Would depend on case-by-case use. Are you heavily overclocking or not? If not, the CM Hyper 212 Evo would be the better choice, simply by price.
On the other hand, the D14S will give you a few degrees better cooling with overclocking, hence a little more headroom.
The mount system on the Noctua is superior.
Your money, your choice. Have used both, no longer own the 212, or any Coolermaster prod. or that matter.
For my next build I'd move passed the CM stuff, probably onto these.
Back in 13, I don't remember coming across Noctua coolers, though at that point I was mainly focused on fan noise since I had already hit my temp goals even when OC'd. I had just come from a Zalman that was as heavy as a brick before that.
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from DaleRider
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Would depend on case-by-case use. Are you heavily overclocking or not? If not, the CM Hyper 212 Evo would be the better choice, simply by price.
On the other hand, the D14S will give you a few degrees better cooling with overclocking, hence a little more headroom.
The mount system on the Noctua is superior.
Your money, your choice. Have used both, no longer own the 212, or any Coolermaster prod. or that matter.
Noctua is for those who want exquisite construction, and are willing to pay through the nose for it. The fans in my system alone were about $200 - 6 fans. that's a lot of money for fans when you can buy 140mms for like $3 at times on sale, IIRC. And, to be honest, those $3 will cool your system fine, not well, but fine. BUT - they will be loud, get louder over time, won't be as effective, will break from temperature stress and just regular use, and will likely rattle as well because they sure won't come with silicone mounting solutions.
I'm very happy with my noctuas and I will always use them for future builds. my system has 6 140mms and it is as quiet right now as it was when i first installed them all, more than three years ago. yes, I overclock, but I would use noctuas even if I didn't.
I have the NH-U14S - from Amazon - running on my workstation. It does an outstanding job. I have it paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X running at 4.15 GHz on all cores all the time.
Considering I'm always running a reasonably aggressive overclock, I mostly see temps in the 40 to 50 C range. Under load in benchmarks like Cinebench, she runs at 70 C, and is still whisper quiet.
When I bought my U14S, my research found that the D-15 dual fan ran literally 1 to 2 degrees C cooler at most under load than my setup. But it weights much more, and puts more stress on the motherboard.
I would recommend using the U14S over the D15 unless you have a ridiculously huge case, and usually run your motherboard flat to the ground.
The Noctua HSF also have the best mounting system by far, in my opinion. And they are beautifully built.
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This is a good cooler, but NOT a deal price.
Overall, I recommend them for my application. Although now many years later I pretty much use my Nvidia shield for everything, but that's just because the consumer market caught up.
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Overall, I recommend them for my application. Although now many years later I pretty much use my Nvidia shield for everything, but that's just because the consumer market caught up.
On the other hand, the D14S will give you a few degrees better cooling with overclocking, hence a little more headroom.
The mount system on the Noctua is superior.
Your money, your choice. Have used both, no longer own the 212, or any Coolermaster prod. or that matter.
Back in 13, I don't remember coming across Noctua coolers, though at that point I was mainly focused on fan noise since I had already hit my temp goals even when OC'd. I had just come from a Zalman that was as heavy as a brick before that.
On the other hand, the D14S will give you a few degrees better cooling with overclocking, hence a little more headroom.
The mount system on the Noctua is superior.
Your money, your choice. Have used both, no longer own the 212, or any Coolermaster prod. or that matter.
I'm very happy with my noctuas and I will always use them for future builds. my system has 6 140mms and it is as quiet right now as it was when i first installed them all, more than three years ago. yes, I overclock, but I would use noctuas even if I didn't.
Considering I'm always running a reasonably aggressive overclock, I mostly see temps in the 40 to 50 C range. Under load in benchmarks like Cinebench, she runs at 70 C, and is still whisper quiet.
When I bought my U14S, my research found that the D-15 dual fan ran literally 1 to 2 degrees C cooler at most under load than my setup. But it weights much more, and puts more stress on the motherboard.
I would recommend using the U14S over the D15 unless you have a ridiculously huge case, and usually run your motherboard flat to the ground.
The Noctua HSF also have the best mounting system by far, in my opinion. And they are beautifully built.