The 👑 Is Back Where it Belongs - Noctua NH-D15 G2 Review

After 10 years of waiting, it is finally here. The Noctua NH-D15 G2 is supposed to be the (new) best Air cooler featuring 8x Heat Pipes, a giant Dual Tower Heatsink, and one of the biggest bases ever seen. But one of the most important updates are the fans! Let's see if the new Noctua NF-A14x25r can get Noctua back to the top of benchmark charts!

-- Noctua NH-D15 G2 on Amazon (Affiliate)

-- Noctua NH-D15 G2 Manufacturer

00:00 Intro Noctua NH-D15 G2
00:20 Versions & What's In The Box?
02:25 Size & Ram Compatibility
03:45 Heatsink, Heat Pipes & Base
06:19 Noctua NF-A14x25r G2 PWM Sx2-PP
09:05 Noise Samples NH-D15 G2 vs NH-D15
09:45 How To Install
12:10 Intel Benchmark - 120W
13:50 Intel Benchmark - 250W
15:33 Intel Benchmark - 320W
17:20 AMD Benchmark Explanation
18:58 7950X3D Benchmark
21:17 Thoughts On The NH-D15 G2 Performance
22:12 Fins Vibration Issue
24:40 Intel LGA1700 Washers
25:00 Fan PWM Cable
25:58 Naming Scheme
27:50 Ending Thoughts & Price
30:10 Bye

#noctua #d15 #cpu #cpucooler #aircooler

[CorporalHudson]

Not worth it. For the "normal" cpus you can get AK620 or Peerless Assassin for third of that price and be 1-2c above. For OC and extreme OC on 14900k or 7950 cpus you probably wont be looking at air cooler anyway. So in my opinion buying this Noctua is not justified in any way, except loyalty to the brand, being a fan, stuff like that.

[greenbow]

It puzzles me what Noctua have done. ... LGA 1700 CPUs are bending in the sockets. Adding a cooler with a baseplate that is more convex than the CPU is concave, will bend the CPU more.

[Maltder]

So the Thermalright Peerless Assassin and the Phantom Spirit are the Bang for the Buck Coolers at 1/4 to 1/3 of the Price?

[michalsvihla]

The crown really goes to Thermalright for keeping such low prices on such damn good coolers.

[wolniacha_tv]

I will just wait for new Thermalright cooler, for 1/3 of the price with identical performance 😶

[Henrique-wvxq]

I can't see this ever being a justifiable purchase, it's just way too expensive

[flokayseven]

Oh man, so much development and money for minimal performance improvement including quality problems on the heatsink, I really hope that the new Thermalright coolers top the G2, Noctua is just becoming more and more unpleasant

[zackw]

The price will be hard to justify for people looking at 'good enough' solutions for half the price or less. But at the higher end of the spectrum where this is intended to perform, you're deciding between the D-15 G2 and an AIO. At that point, yes, there are some cheaper AIOs that will perform better, but there's also draw backs with those solutions. Namely, reliability. AIOs have a life span of five to six years and that's it. Plus they can simply go bad and fail. Worst that can happen here, is a fan dies. Mount a D15 G2 with PTM 7950 and you can bet good money it'll still be running fine in ten years, provided you keep the system clean. If you pass your system down to someone else, or keep the cooler through multiple upgrades, then you need to double the cost of any AIO to match an HSF's life span. Going with a lesser cooler also doesn't make as much sense when you consider the cost over that time span, or the possibility a lesser cooler won't meet future demand.

[MrEricmopar]

If Noctua really wanted to impress me, they would have made the new fans in something less gaudy than the old colors. Something tastefully neutral....
I wouldn't be picky about the fan colors, if it wasn't damn near impossible to find a good case without transparent sides...

[seamon]

Yeah, no, the Phantom Spirit 120 is still king at very low noises/silent, which is where I adjust all my computer fans.
I'll be looking forward to the upcoming Thermalright releases, they'll probably skin the G2 alive.

[maxdave]

Nobody should buy this Fawking overpriced CPU cooler, Noctua & Nvidia are on the same Greedy boat, their objectives is to bleed out Gamers to death, why should i ever pay 150€ for this, unless you're Mad, there are way cheaper CPU cooler that can handle 160W

[lflyr]

STS : the problem is :

Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 = 39, 90 EUROS = 1-2 degrees °C worse temps
Noctua NH-D15 G2 = 149, 90 EUROS = 1-2 degrees °C better temps

Noctura has price hiked their products twice in the past 2 years since the lockdown....the Noctua NH-D15 v1 used to cost 93 EUROS and it costs now 146 EUROS. Noctua isn't worth it because it doesn't even offer any higher build quality than Thermalright, not in the cooler material used nor does it offer better fan life span or performance (maybe around 5 % overall better build quality, but that's it).

[greenbow]

Rotate the fan 180' the cable will come out at the top on the side where the fan headers are. Not rocket science is it?

[teethashaquan]

It's rubbish at $150. Basically an IQ test XD

[kasarnfla]

Who is paying $150 for an air cooler, HAHAHA

[Noah-wvxm]

The Noctua website says the G2 is compatible with ram up to 32mm in height in dual fan mode. Where are you getting the 25mm figure?

[iyeenv]

They did a great job, but the price was too high. Additionally, the height has been changed to 168mm, which troubles me.

[Violet-ui]

The new cooler sounds a lot more high pitched than the old one, which I personally find a lot more pleasant.
According to your measurements the Phantom Spirit 120 is still better on Intel (250W) at medium to low noise levels (what most people run). That's absolutely crazy considering the 4x lower price.

[maxzoRHD]

I need a chromax version to be interested.

[andyyy]

I personally would buy the Dark Rock Elite instead. It performes just as well as the G2 but definetly looks a lot better and costs 33%/50€ less