Noctua NH-C14S Review

Introduction

With the C14S, Noctua tried to push the boundaries of what a C-Style CPU Air Cooler could do. Paired with one of their well-established NF-A14 Fans, the C14S promises to deliver outstanding performance with whisper-quiet noise in a special form factor.

What's in the Box?

Noctua's oversized C-Style Air Cooler NH-C14S comes in the usual Brown Noctua-Styled packaging containing some imagery paired with the usual Spec-Sheet. Inside the box, we will not only find the cooler itself but also the mandatory Noctua-Box filled with installation material and additional goodies.

Once everything is unpacked, we will find the following items:

• NH-C14S Heatsink
• Noctua NF-A14 Fan
• Low Noise Adapter
• Thermal Paste
• Installation Material Intel
• Installation Material AMD
• Screwdriver
• 2x Sets of Fan Clips

Below you will also find a summarized version of the spec sheet:

Compatibility

As it's usually the case for Noctua Coolers, the NH-C14S comes with mounting hardware for a variety of sockets. Down below you will find the complete list with every compatible socket.

Individual Components

Fan

The Fan that comes included with the C14S is one of Noctua's own NF-A14 PWM fans. This 140mm diagonal fan is capable of spinning at up to 1500RPM whilst pushing around 82CFM at 2.08mm/H20.

As this is not one of Noctua's Chromax.Black line of products, the fan will be painted in the usual Noctua Brown & Dark-Brown color scheme.

An important aspect to keep in mind whilst installing the cooler is that there are multiple locations in which the fan can be installed. Although the cooler is mostly depicted with the Fan installed on top of the heatsink, we can also install the Fan between the top heatsink and the base of the cooler. Ignoring any mili-degrees of temperature difference that this could potentially create, the main advantage of doing so is the won height difference. While the cooler measures 142mm in height by default, this lower installation method allows to push down the height 115mm. A change worth considering depending on the build that you are planning to do.

Heatsink

As the C- in C14S stands for C-Style form factor, this is also precisely what we get.

From the appropriately sized copper nickel-plated base, we have 6 heat pipes that are traveling up performing two 90° bends until they dive into a massive single tower heatsink.

Although these C-Style shapes are a coming thing nowadays, seeing one that has been built in these proportions does look quite impressive and imposing, to say the least.

Having a C-Style design does come with some potential obstructions though. If you would decide to install the fan underneath the heatsink, you will end up with a maximum ram clearance of 39.5mm. Although this sounds like a big obstruction, you need to keep in mind that 39.5mm is still plenty enough for most "standard" Ram modules out there. The only ones that will pose an issue are the bigger RGB Ram-infused FPS machines.

Installing the Fan on top of the heatsink also does create a sort of "obstruction". Though good luck finding ram that extends the now 66.5mm high clearance restriction.

Appearance

Going for a C-Shaped cooler is a decision that you either want to make or need to make depending on if you are doing it for the looks or for the necessity due to a small case.

If however, you are about to decide due to the looks, rest assured that the NH-C14S looks very impressive. The massive heatsink paired with the enormous heat pipes that are peaking out above (or underneath depending on the orientation) look just stunning.

The design of your finished work will however depend on your decision if you want to have the fan installed underneath or below the heatsink. Naturally, you will either end up with a massive heatsink, or a massive A14 Fan. Both are very esthetically pleasing designs.

Benchmark

We tested the NH-C14S on top of our usual Benchmark suite. While cooling down the 3900x, Noctua's C-Style cooler managed to keep the CPU at 57°C above ambient, 6°C below the smaller L12S.

On the Noise-to-Performance end, the C14S managed to score exceptionally well in Noise-to-Performance compared to its smaller L12S counterpart.

Positioning itself in between the L12S and the much bigger be quiet! Dark Rock TF 2, the C14S scored surprisingly well considering the single tower and single fan.

Conclusion

C-Style-shaped coolers are kind of a niche thing. Not only do they have a harder time cooling down the system due to the limited amount of space available for heatsink real estate, but once the heatsink reaches a certain size, ram compatibility can become an issue.

Noctua tried to solve this issue by making the heatsink stick out far away from the base while allowing the fan to be installed at the top. Although this might have solved one issue, it created a new one in which the whole cooler now reaches beyond 140mm in height.

This might not be an issue in most cases, but the C-Style design, and thus the position of the fan may create clearance issues for the fan itself if the case doesn't provide an inlet on the side panel which sits opposite to the fan.

But for cases that allow for such high coolers with an appropriate inlet, or for builds that favor the low-profile fan mounting paired with sub 40mm high ram, the C14S can deliver quite the performance for its size.

Therefore, we can absolutely recommend the C14s for low-profile focused builds. However, do keep in mind that you need to pair the cooler with a case whose air path was tailor-made to favor c-shaped coolers.