Noctua NH-D15 Chromax black Review

Introduction

When it comes to PC Cooling equipment, Noctua is definitely one of the most known and most important companies. With their biggest and most powerful Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Black, they managed to outperform anything else while even competing with big AIOs. Let's take a closer look at their NH-D15 and see how good it really is!

What's in the Box?

Noctua's NH-D15 Chromax Black comes in the usual clean Noctua-styled packaging. Inside the Black box featuring some Imagery and key features, we will find a couple of smaller boxes containing the mounting hardware, the cooler itself, and the fans.

Once everything is unboxed, we will find ourselves with the following items:

• Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.Black
• 2x Noctua NF-A15 HS
• Intel Mounting Hardware
• AMD Mounting Hardware
• 2x Low Noise Adapters
• NT-H1 Thermal Paste
• Noctua Badge
• Screwdriver
• 2-1 PWM Splitter

On one of the Boxes sides, we will also find a short spec sheet which we summarized down below:

Compatibility

Noctua's NH-D15 is compatible with most of today's still relevant sockets. Down below you'll find the complete list:

Individual Components

Heatsink

At the heart of Noctua's top-of-the-line cooler, we'll find the impressive black coated dual tower heatsink. At slightly less than a full kilogram, this impressive 165mm high cooler is nothing even close to a compact mid-tower cooler. Please make sure that your Case actually supports coolers this high before making any purchases.

At the bottom of the massive piece of Aluminum, Copper, and Nickel, we can find 6 copper black color heat pipes that transport the heat up the tower.

Fan

In order to get that heat out, Noctua includes two of their 140mm Noctua NF-A15 High-Speed Fans. These 1500RPM quick fans are yelling at slightly over 24 dB and pushing around 85CFM.

Although did absolutely not get the impression that these fans are loud, Noctua included 2 low-noise adapters. These PWM extensions are not to be mistaken with actual extensions. Instead of just providing you with a longer cable, these special adapters are limiting the maximum Fan speed to 1200RPM. We do understand that the usage of such an adapter might be interesting with extremely loud fans, or fans that do not come with a PWM connection, but we do not understand why this might be useful for the biggest and best cooler that Noctua offers.

Installation

On some big-tower coolers, the installation process can be quite the challenge. Not so on the Noctua NH-D15, which despite its massive size, is still relatively easy to install.

AMD

If you are planning to use the NH-D15 on an AMD Plattform motherboard, we first need to remove the pre-installed black retention brackets.

Now we need to position the AMD spacers on the treads protruding through the motherboard.

Please note that there are 2 sets of Spacers, the grey ones for AM4 Motherboards, while the white ones are meant for any other AMD socket.

Then we can proceed by placing the AMD brackets on the spacers in an inwards leaning curve and screw it down.

After applying some thermal paste on the CPU, we can place the cooler on top of the CPU and screw it down.  

Intel

On Intel Plattform Motherboards, Noctua makes use of their "SecureFirm2" mounting system.

For every Socket, without a backplate (LGA 1200,1150...) we need to use the backplate included by Noctua. After placing the Intel screws into the appropriate holes according to your Socket, secure them with the black screw-washer on the other side.

Once the backplate is positioned, we need to screw it in using the provided double-sided Spacers. Please make sure to have the Philips-X on the upper side.

If your socket does come with a Backplate, you simply need to screw in Noctua's provided screws.

Now we can install the mounting bracket. Simply position the Intel bracket in an out-sticking orientation and screw it down.

Then we can proceed by placing the AMD brackets on the spacers in an inwards leaning curve and screw it down.

After applying some thermal paste on the CPU, we can place the cooler on top of the CPU and screw it down.  

The last step would be to install the Fans.

For this, Noctua includes a couple of fan Clips. Simply place the clip-hooks into the Fan's Screw holes, position one fan in between the Heatsinks and one on the right side (or left if you really want to), and clip the Fan in.

Benchmark

We tested the Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Black on our usual Ryzen 3900x locked at 4.36 GHZ and 1.4vCore.

While letting the Noctua NF-A15 Fans spin at 100% of their Fan speed, the D15 managed to keep the CPU at an astonishing 48°C.

Slowly lowering the Fan speed in 10% decrements did not change anything for Noctua's top-of-the-line Cooler. The D15 managed to keep it's strong position all across the spectrum.

While the raw performance was already impressive, we checked its Noise-to-performance ratio.

After starting off a bit louder at around 45db, it quickly became in-auditable while still performing surprisingly well.

Overall, there is nothing negative to be said about Noctua's NH-D15. It might not be quite as silent as Be Quiet's Dark Rock Pro 4, but the D-15's performance completely blows the Dark Rock away.

But do not mistake the D-15's slightly higher noise level as "loud". At full blast, the NH-D15 is still relatively silent compared to other big-tower coolers such as the Arctic Freezer 50.

The most surprising part for us was the NH-D15's capability of competing with our top-of-line 360mm AIOs. While not being as good, the NH-D15 managed to stay 1°C behind the Phanteks Glacier One 360MP. A surprising result.

Conclusion

Overall, we were extremely shocked about the Noctua NH-D15. Not only did it outperform any other of our Air Coolers, but it also managed to do so while staying surprisingly quiet. To make it even more shocking, its performance even managed to outperform some of our entry-performing 360mm AIOs, and come close to the level of coolness of our really good 360mm AIOs like a Phanteks Glacier One 360.

This level of performance paired with the excellent build quality and a surprisingly easy-to-install approach left us speechless.

On the price side, the Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Black is available for around 110€/110$. Compared to some of our more affordable CPU coolers, this may seem a bit high. But we have to mention that the D15 manages to outperform some of our 360mm AIOs. And once you reach this level of performance, the only possibility still available for more cooling power is a high-end 360/480mm AIO or an entire custom-created Water loop, both of which will cost much more. Therefore, we think the NH-D15's price is absolutely justified.

All in all, there is absolutely no reason not to recommend the Noctua NH-D15. Its performance is best-in-class, the Noise is very good, and the installation procedure is the best we've seen so far with a cooler this big.