Noctua NH-D14 no fans.

Good day!

Initially I wanted to get the NH-C14 but right now these are out of stock in retailers here in the Philippines.

I am switching now to getting the NH-D14 which costs about the same. I have some issues with the way it looks though. So I am planning a few things.


1. I am planning on not having the fans connected in the cooler itself but in the case. I'll be connecting the fans from the nh-D14 as intake fans on the top of the case and have the stock fractal 140mm fans as exhaust on the front and 1 more 140mm stock fractal fan at the back. I know that is bad airflow as warm air by nature goes up. But I think setting it up this way will be better when it comes to dust accumulation. I'll have a thin cloth rag on top of the case at all times and that will act as a second filter aside from the built in dust filters in the arc midi. In this way I wont have to disconnect the top filter often for cleaning.


2. I'd like to know if there is much difference in the temperatures of the CPU if I have the fans connected directly on the cooler instead of connecting the fans on the case. I'd have the same number of fans as I am not really planning on getting extra fans anyway.

3. What do you guys thing about the NH-D14 in general compared to the C14? I initially had plans on the C14 because I think that is better looking and besides it will blow air downwards to my motherboard as well -- unlike the D14 which the air will pretty much blow just sideways.

4. As you can see in my signature, I have pretty low specs. I'm just using a Core 2 quad Q6600. But I am running my processor at 3.0Ghz when under load and I'd like to keep things cool... just because. So I am thinking.... if I do go for the NH-D14 and removing the fans doesn't make any difference from my temps on stock cooling with a fan... then why bother getting an expensive cooler right? If the only difference in getting an expensive cooler is if the fans are connected ON the cooler itself... then I'll just wait for the C14 and not bother with the D14 as I don't really quite like how the D14 looks with the fans connected.

Share me your thoughts....


Here is a picture of my current stock cooler temps. I believe there was about a 1-2degree difference when I switched from a cheap case to the fractal arc midi. If I get another 1-2degree difference on getting an NH-D14 with the fans connected in the case instead of the cooler then that would be good enough for me.

Those temps are on average load while I'm running an average game. The processor runs at 3.0Ghz only when under load. Goes back to 2.4Ghz on idle and just plain browsing.

No other reason on removing the fans on the D14, I just like it that way. The fans will still be inside the case but on the top side blowing down.

The temps go up to 65C but I've never reached anything higher than 70C.

In that case I'll probably just wait for the C14 to go in stock. There are a few things that bother me with this "one-vs-the-other" choice.

1. With the C14 I get two 140mm fans... which I like for aesthetic purposes. All my fans are 140mm ... the stock fans in the fractal arc midi. But then I don't get the benefit of having more surface to dissipate heat. The D14 I believe is really going to be better because it has more solid metal to conduct heat into.

2. With the D14 the fans blow sideways. I don't get the benefit of the overall cooling that the C14 will provide.

3. They say the C14 will provide more room for ram... I don't really think there's much difference as I checked the pictures of the C14, with the bottom fan installed, the clearance is pretty much the same as the D14.

With regards to what you mentioned about my temps... you confused me a bit. I had opened a thread before regarding overclocking my processor and they mentioned the temps I had was fine. These temps I believe are quite the same when I had the processor on stock frequency all throughout on stock cooler but with an older and cheaper case. I have had this processor for 4 years really without any hiccup. Actually this is the only thing left from the original PC I had four years ago. Everything else from case, psu, all the way to ram had either broken down and had to be replaced... or upgraded by me.

I just had a sudden thought as I am writing down this reply.... maybe the idle temps and the load temps vary from region to region. Location wise I mean. If you live in lets say.... Canada or some other cold country, then your idle temps may be lower by nature. Weather you're on stock cooler or not. I live in a tropical near equator country and I think that contributes very much in the temps I have.