Final Thoughts
After seeing how well Noctua’s NH-C14 performed I had really high expectations for the NH-D14 and they were exceeded! The NH-D14 performed even better than the NH-C14! If we compare it to the stock AMD cooler it was 14 degrees cooler during idle and 18 degrees cooler during load at stock speeds. When we overclocked the CPU to 3.8GHz it was 11 degrees cooler during idle and 20 degrees cooler during load. Those are very impressive numbers! Just like the NH-C14 the NH-D14 was very quiet in operation.
The cooler is a very large cooler, one of the largest we have reviewed so you might want to check out the dimensions before you get it. The large size does mean it will cover your memory slots, so if you have memory with large heatspreaders you might run in to some issues. Even with the large size installation was not that hard at all and most people will only be installing this cooler once so you really do not need to worry about it.
Right now the NH-D14 sells for $89.99 at my favorite online retailer, which makes it a little more expensive than other coolers out there, but you are getting what you pay for. It is the best performing air CPU cooler we have tested so far this year, you will not be disappointed if you purchase the NH-D14. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler a 9 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award.
Pros:
– Great performance
– Simple installation
– Quiet operation
Cons:
– Very large, might run in to clearance issues
– More expensive than many other CPU coolers
