Closest NH-D15 quality competitor?

Melodist · Sep 19, 2023

TFL Replica said:
The SE variants of the PS and PA use plastic backplates for Intel only AFAIK. Moot point for AMD users, and picky Intel users can get the non-SE version which has a metal backplate.

Oh wow so it's the SE version is the plasticy, thank you ❤

I'd be equally picky if I had chosen this for my Athlon 64 FX back in the day, which was then also something of a spaceheater like the 13900k 😵‍💫 I remember paying like 600 bucks for that thing used a few weeks after it launched which was a very lucky pick because it sold at launch for 1000 retail, yup I was mad. Funny thing is I could barely use it during summer 🌞😵‍💫

DesertRat · Sep 19, 2023

Melodist said:
Sup,

I'm about to put a Z790 build together and am an active user of the Noctua NH-U12A (it's still on my 9900KS), which will not suffice running a 13700K I suppose?

I know that the NH-15 is still the reference king when it comes to dissipating heat but are there any smaller, almost equally competitive products? Which is what I liked about the 12A.

Thermalright's Peerless Assassin seems to perform amazingly according to GN but when I see the built quality and price, I would get scared that it could have a change to snap off my nice new CPU and motherboard.

Also something worth noting, is that I would like to have something that has a very reliable tightening mechanism that I can screw all the way down until it stops me, reliably.

Hardware-Canucks has quite an extensively tested list of recent Air Coolers which many options, I just don't know whether I can trust their test methodology.

What bothers me about the Thermalright coolers is the quality of the components, for example the plastic backplate: I don't want to attach a cooler to my motherboard that is expensive as the CPU using a plastic backplate...

Oddly enough, at the time when I put my 9900KS build together, the 12A actually outperformed the 15a I had on before but I don't know what it is about the regular 15 without s.

IIRC, Cooler Master positions the Cooler Master Master Air MA824 in competition with the NH-D15(S).

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooler-master-ma824-stealth

Cooler Master's MA824 Stealth rivals Noctua’s NH-D15S, while running at lower noise levels. That makes it one of the best air coolers on the market.

Personally, I like the aesthetics of the MA824 over the NH-D15(S).
Not sure about the 'value proposition', but it might dimensionally work out for ya.

IMO (At least in the past), it (was)is 'more likely' to find a CM cooler On Sale vs. Noctua, too

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Owterspace · Sep 19, 2023

TFL Replica said:
The SE variants of the PS and PA use plastic backplates for Intel only AFAIK. Moot point for AMD users, and picky Intel users can get the non-SE version which has a metal backplate.

I have those coolers, metal backplates are still in the box..

doyll · Sep 19, 2023

digitalfrost said:
For me, the quality of Noctua also comes from the longevity of the product. I bought mine in 2017 and used it with AM4. Now AM4 was new back then and anybody who had one could get an AM4 upgrade kit for it. I then went Intel LGA1700 sometime in 2021 and I could buy a mounting kit for 8€. And when I move to AM5 with Ryzen 8000, guess what mounting kit is available for cheap.

Not only is the performance good but you simply don't need to buy new CPU coolers anymore.

All cooler have similar longevity. Most changes are mounts.
Sure, Noctua have free mount upgrades but you have to pay 2-3 times more for cooler.
I would rather spend a third to half as much now on a Thermalright and if I change system in 2-3 years buy another Thermalright for a third to half again. Cost of 2 Thermalright coolers spaced out 2-3 years apart totalling same as single Noctua is still cheaper than one time Noctua cost because you have use of half the money for 2-3 years.

Atekk920 · Sep 19, 2023

Quality\performance for dollar....Thermalright and DeepCool are where it's at! Marvelous air coolers at reasonable prices with performance and quality comparable to (sometimes surpassing) Noctua.

I'm big on aesthetics so I feel like DeepCool is the better choice between the 2 given I prefer their designs more. If I was shopping for an air cooler today, I'd have my eye on one of these.
AK620 DIGITAL - DeepCool
ASSASSIN IV - DeepCool

Noctua makes great stuff, don't get me wrong - but its overpriced. I was shopping a D15 all "chromax"ed out with the heatsink covers and the colored vibration dampeners... I was basically at the 200$ mark for an air cooler.... nearly 2x what my DeepCool 360 AIO cost, and is not nearly as cool, literally or aesthetically (in my case anyways).

There are lots of very good choices for cooling around that 150$ price point of the D15. My best suggestions are as follows

1. Be patient with your research, dont rush off to buy the high-end names just because of the name.
2. a "300w TDP" advertised cooler is basically pure marketing - there are so many variables to take into account that there is no way they could guarantee that you will actually get 300 watts cooling out of it. I went through a bunch of "300 watt TDP" coolers before I found the one that worked best with my setup and I was only pulling in 250 watts.
3. With air cooling case airflow plays a major part in how effective that cooler is. So, when they test these things on their open-air bench it does impact the numbers.
4. Buy only what you need to hit target temperatures for your worst-case scenarios (this of course is subject to personal preference) For example - when I overclock I don't mind if Cinebench throttles a bit near the end of a 10 minute loop because I'm never going to put the system through what Cinebench does as I am 85% gamer, 10% media consumer\student, 5% streaming\creating.

doyll · Sep 19, 2023

I like using coolers that are over-kill. Running a cooler rated 250-300 watt on a 150 watt CPU gives me a hard working system that runs quieter than system with a 150-200 watt cooler.

stargate125645 · Sep 19, 2023

Ichirou said:
The Noctua is a relic of the past. It's not nearly good enough for modern Intel cooling needs. Everyone who says otherwise is just lying or running things on the low.
Now's the time to move onto AIOs or you'll forever be throttled. Even if you use a 13700K, you might get mixed results at best unless your ambient temps are in the 10's.

Back when I was heavily involved in this forum, AIO were no better than high-end air coolers and you had to deal with water problems. Is performance that much better?

Owterspace · Sep 19, 2023

stargate125645 said:
Is performance that much better?

From what I have seen on other forums, their hardware is warmer than mine, not reaching the same clocks as mine, can’t handle the same power limits as mine.. can’t see how it’s better.

Always Counterclockwise · Sep 19, 2023

Owterspace said:
Some of these arguments are pretty weak, and out of touch.

I think the oddest one so far is the bit about Frost Spirit and Commander fans. Got a 100% return rate on post-acquisition TL-C12 Pros and a failing TL-C12 coming due for replacement here.

Owterspace said:
Picture a Noctua mount, but with Thermalright logos on them.

FWIW, the mount on the NH-U12A I got is way worse than either of the (pre-acquisition) Frost Spirits or any of the three (earlier production) Phantom Spirit 120 SEs.

stargate125645 said:
Is performance that much better?

Some of the more recent 360 AIOs are potentially 10+ °C cooler, noise-normalized. A few are viable alternatives to premium dual tower air in terms of pricing and likely to offer a few degrees' advantage.

Atekk920 · Sep 19, 2023

doyll said:
I like using coolers that are over-kill. Running a cooler rated 250-300 watt on a 150 watt CPU gives me a hard working system that runs quieter than system with a 150-200 watt cooler.

I'll give it to you there - overpowering your cooler will for sure keep help noise levels really low.... solid advice.
I never think about noise levels because I've always kept a really high ambient noise level in my office by default...so it's just never something that bothered me. I have low ceilings in my office and can't hang a ceiling fan, so I have an oscillating tower fan that's always running in the corner of the room to keep the air moving or it just turns into an oven (thanks 3090ti, I swear that thing pumps out some HEAT at load!)...it's been a fixture in my office for a long time and between the sound it makes, the fact that my PC is about 4 feet from where I sit, and the volume the speakers need to be at to hear over said tower fan - it all just drowns the PC right out. Only with all 9 of my fans running 100% PWM will I begin to be able to distinguish the sound of my PC above the other ambient noise...the 140mm at the rear has a god-awful pitch to it at 100% that I can't help but make out.

Roboyto · Sep 22, 2023

stargate125645 said:
Back when I was heavily involved in this forum, AIO were no better than high-end air coolers and you had to deal with water problems. Is performance that much better?

Only if you must push the bleeding edge with all that unnecessary extra wattage that is rammed through the chip by default.

I’m cooling my 13700K with the NH-D15S with a constant fan speed profile of ~800RPM that is literally inaudible. I capped the all core wattage to 185W, applied a simple negative offset and was still able to get a mild OC out of the chip.

That’s a reduction of 68W off default. -.100V offset for V/F points 7-11, with OC configured as follows:

5.8 GHz on 2C/4T
5.7 GHz on 4C/8T
5.6 GHz on 6C/12T
5.5 GHz on 8C/16T

Efficiency cores at 4.4GHz (+200); no other tuning done here.

It will still hit ~90C on the hotter/hottest core(s) if I run a synthetic all-core stress test…but that is now how I use my system, so I don’t really care lol.

This is utilizing the IC diamond graphite sheet on the IHS which is realistically costing me a few degrees compared to good paste. But those few degrees aren’t going to change performance at all, so I just left it.

This was my first stab at tuning/OC Intel since my 4790K. It turned out to be completely stable, so I haven’t messed with it since April. I also used to be very active here some time ago, when I also spent much more time tweaking/tuning/benchmarking etc…now I’m more keen to have a quiet & stable system that just works.

The 13700K paired with MSI 4070 Ventus 3X, blow through heatsink design for 3rd fan, makes for a system that is totally silent regardless of what load is on it.

zzztopzzz · Sep 22, 2023

Roboyto said:
Only if you must push the bleeding edge with all that unnecessary extra wattage that is rammed through the chip by default.

I’m cooling my 13700K with the NH-D15S with a constant fan speed profile of ~800RPM that is literally inaudible. I capped the all core wattage to 185W, applied a simple negative offset and was still able to get a mild OC out of the chip.

That’s a reduction of 68W off default. -.100V offset for V/F points 7-11, with OC configured as follows:

5.8 GHz on 2C/4T
5.7 GHz on 4C/8T
5.6 GHz on 6C/12T
5.5 GHz on 8C/16T

Efficiency cores at 4.4GHz (+200); no other tuning done here.

It will still hit ~90C on the hotter/hottest core(s) if I run a synthetic all-core stress test…but that is now how I use my system, so I don’t really care lol.

This is utilizing the IC diamond graphite sheet on the IHS which is realistically costing me a few degrees compared to good paste. But those few degrees aren’t going to change performance at all, so I just left it.

This was my first stab at tuning/OC Intel since my 4790K. It turned out to be completely stable, so I haven’t messed with it since April. I also used to be very active here some time ago, when I also spent much more time tweaking/tuning/benchmarking etc…now I’m more keen to have a quiet & stable system that just works.

The 13700K paired with MSI 4070 Ventus 3X, blow through heatsink design for 3rd fan, makes for a system that is totally silent regardless of what load is on it.

The NH-D15 is my cooler of choice. Why even shop for the number 2?

doyll · Sep 22, 2023

zzztopzzz said:
The NH-D15 is my cooler of choice. Why even shop for the number 2?

Because there are many other coolers on the market (Thermalright has several) that cool as well or better, are as quiet or quieter and cost 1/4 to 1/2 as much money.

zzztopzzz · Sep 22, 2023

None cools any better or I would have it. Also, there is no fan noise from my box.

Booshki · Sep 23, 2023

zzztopzzz said:
None cools any better or I would have it. Also, there is no fan noise from my box.

Not sure if serious.

Just checking posts here shows that there's a bunch of coolers better then the D15.

Checking YouTube (Gamersnexus, Hardware Canucks, etc) shows the same.

doyll · Sep 23, 2023

zzztopzzz said:
None cools any better or I would have it. Also, there is no fan noise from my box.

What Booshki said.

Booshki said:
Not sure if serious.

Just checking posts here shows that there's a bunch of coolers better then the D15.

Checking YouTube (Gamersnexus, Hardware Canucks, etc) shows the same.

A bunch score better than D15. we are talking only a couple degrees difference. A couple degrees is with margin of error for slight differences in mating of base flatness to IHS flatness, actual air temp entering different coolers vs room ambient, varience in airflow thru coolers, etc.

And with this margin of error figured in, the number of coolers cooling in same or better league as D15 doubles.

Owterspace · Sep 23, 2023

FC140 is a beast. Even more so when you swap fans.

zzztopzzz · Sep 23, 2023

doyll said:
What Booshki said.

A bunch score better than D15. we are talking only a couple degrees difference. A couple degrees is with margin of error for slight differences in mating of base flatness to IHS flatness, actual air temp entering different coolers vs room ambient, varience in airflow thru coolers, etc.

And with this margin of error figured in, the number of coolers cooling in same or better league as D15 doubles.
[/QUOT

Owterspace said:

FC140 is a beast. Even more so when you swap fans.

Click to expand...

Look at its design, it's an obvious rip off. The thing is only $45 at Amazon. Does that tekk you anything about the quality?
E]

Owterspace · Sep 23, 2023

zzztopzzz said:
Look at its design, it's an obvious rip off. The thing is only $45 at Amazon. Does that tekk you anything about the quality?
E]

A ripoff of what?

Lol

You do know that Thermalright was making highend coolers before Noctua right? And you do know that Noctua took many of their design cues from Thermalright back when Noctua was getting started.. right?

Get out of here with your nonsense kid

zzztopzzz · Sep 24, 2023

Owterspace said:
Thermalright

Owterspace said:
A ripoff of what?

Lol

You do know that Thermalright was making highend coolers before Noctua right? And you do know that Noctua took many of their design cues from Thermalright back when Noctua was getting started.. right?

Get out of here with your nonsense kid

Kid? I've been building these things since the late 70's. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?

Closest NH-D15 quality competitor?

Melodist

DesertRat

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