STILL EXEMPLARY or OUTDATED? — Noctua NH-D15(S) chromax.black

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Today I'll not exactly be looking at the latest CPU coolers out there, but more so living legends. In fact, two of them.
What I'm mainly interested in in today's test is to determine whether an NH-D15 or NH-D15S, for that matter, is still to be considered exemplary or if this legendary air cooler perhaps is already a bit outdated.
As a matter of fact, I can tell you right off the bat that I have mixed feelings about this. A healthy mix of both "exemplary" and "outdated" applies here.
But why? You'll find out in the course of this video and will be able to tell with your own eyes.

[NicolasxEnglish]

What's your all-time favorite Noctua cooler? Have you ever used the legendary NH-D15? 😁
Would you consider it "outdated" in terms of design for today's standards? 🤔

[MohondhaY]

Been using my D15 since 2015. 😁 So almost 9yrs. I don't think an AIO would last that long.

[electrosaurus]

I have one in my recent 14700k build. Used a contact frame and Kryosheet. Idles at around 30c. It may saturate under tests but it's great under normal use and for the games I play. GPU is way louder.

[ahmadzahid]

Noctua was and still the king of air coolers, it may make an option if I build my future pc, I have NH-D12L the only high end air cooler can fit in 150mm width case the performance is excellent and low fan noise and I didn’t even use low noise adapter

[MrSamadolfo]

🙂 pretty impressive, all it still needs for the next revision is Bent Slanted Back Heat Pipes like Scythe does, theres only a handful of air coolers with slanted heat pipes still, theres some from Uphere, some from Thermalright, one from Dark Rock, etc

[torukmahtomahto]

I have Nh-14s from 2013, free kit from s775..How many under 50 bucks are running over 10 years ? AIO is out of this question...

[garyrichards]

You could always slap a 120mm fan on the front of the D15 if you don't like the over hang on the front fan with higher ram sticks !! ...
Which I've done with my D15 S ...

[blabla]

I have a noctua nhd14 and I bought it in 2017. It was used every day since then. I took a aida 64 extreme stability test, and my 7800x3d is sitting at 91 degrees at full load and full system stress test. :)

[solidus]

Great cooler but overpriced the Thermalright Peerless Assassin has the same performance for about €35

[ELCrisler]

I really think the NH-D15 is a great cooler but in the current ecosystem just not a good buy. There are GREAT coolers you can buy that has similar performance for $50 and sometimes even less. Your paying a huge tax for Noctua products. They make a great product but there is just no reason to pay this much for a cooler.