Noctua launches $150 follow-up to its legendary NH-D15 tower cooler

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

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Bottom line: Noctua has launched the follow-up to its legendary NH-D15 tower cooler, and it comes equipped with a pair of the company's cutting-edge 140mm round-frame fans. The original NH-D15 was considered by many to be the gold standard in CPU air cooling for years, and this new second-gen offering looks to build on that legacy.

The NH-D15 G2 combines eight heatpipes with asymmetrical fin stacks that have been tweaked to work with Noctua's new fans. The cooler was also designed with an offset to clear the top PCIe slot on most motherboards, and now utilizes the Torx-based SecuFirm2+ multi-socket mounting system for broader compatibility.

According to Noctua, the new cooler affords 20 percent more surface area than its predecessor.

The heatsink is paired with two speed-offset NF-A14x25r G2 PWM fans and comes bundled with a tube of Noctua thermal paste. Combined, Noctua claims it is their best performing heatsink to date and that on average, users can expect a 2-3 degree Celsius temperature reduction compared to the original.

A third fan can be added to the equation, although Noctua recommends against this due to the small cooling performance it provides versus the added noise. Should you still want to proceed, Noctua will supply you with free fan clips.

When shopping for the NH-D15 G2, you'll notice that Noctua has three variants available. The standard version has a medium base convexity that's described as a solid "all-arounder." The high base convexity variant, meanwhile, is meant for LGA1700 chips used with full ILM pressure or CPUs that have become permanently deformed over time while the low base convexity model is optimized for relatively flat CPUs or those that have been lapped.

If you are unsure which model to get, Noctua's explainer video is worth checking out.

The NH-D15 G2 is available from today priced at $149.95 and comes backed by a six-year warranty. First-gen heatsink owners that simply want to upgrade their fans to the new round-frame variants can do that as well.

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Noctua launches $150 follow-up to its legendary NH-D15 tower cooler

 
I was a big advocate of Noctua for years, but unfortunately the prices have gone off the reservation.

I can see this one will be problematic with high profile Dimms, but otherwise I've no doubt it will be a capable air cooler. It just needs to be at least 60 bucks cheaper.
 
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McMurdeR said:
I was a big advocate of Noctua for years, but unfortunately the prices have gone off the reservation.

I can see this one will be problematic with high profile Dimms, but otherwise I've no doubt it will be a capable air cooler. It just needs to be at least 60 bucks cheaper.
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re. Dimms, you can just place the front fan slightly higher up, right? It shouldn't have too much of an effect.
 
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$150 is crazy. They are pricing Themselves off the market. Maybe They were ahead of the competition two decades ago, but It's just a piece of aluminium and copper with an electric fan attached. Great design 20 years ago can only take You so far, when others picked up and offer similar performance under $50. For power hungry Intel You will choose water anyway. For AMD's X3D You can go with anything with 2x120mm fans from Arctic, Scythe, ThermalRight or even one of them local brands, when reviews are available.
 
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I think Noctua is increasingly finding themselves facing very intense competition in the cooler space. Back in the days, I think the hype was more around AIO water cooling, which kind of left Noctua being very dominant in the air cooling space. But in recent years, there are a lot of air coolers out there, and they are inexpensive and does a good job at cooling. So I am not sure if Noctua is still going to continue their streak as before. But to be fair, Noctua's after sales service tend to be much better, and you can trust their cooling solution quality since the people developing these solutions are passionate about it. Most other brands just slap their brand on a product which they don't design/ develop.
 
Noctua is starting to remind me of Sony and Apple. They think they can charge a massive premium for their products just because of the name. I currently own the NH-D15 which I bought for $99 about four years ago. Even back then at that price it was overpriced. My absolute price limit for any cooler is $100 and that was right at that limit. I don't regret buying it, because it is indeed a great cooler, but I would never pay $149 for the new version and their claimed 2-3C improved cooling performance. In today's market even if they set the price for the new cooler at $99 it would still be too much and $149 is just absurd. Anyway, good luck to them selling this thing.
 
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poshflamingos said:
LMAO

So their response to Thermalright beating them with a $40 cooler is to make their own products even more expensive. Noctua is absolutely delusional.
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Yep. I got the Peerless Assassin 120 SE recently and even though its name is rather silly, it is accurate. This thing is an absolute killer when it comes to value/performance ratio.

Sadly, many people will still buy Noctua's stuff for the brand recognition factor alone.
 
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I have been a long time fan of Noctua, but these prices are insane. I recently upgraded my computer and decided to go with the Peerless Assassin instead. It's more compact and it still has similar performance. It also comes in at under a third of the price of this cooler.
 
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poshflamingos said:
LMAO

So their response to Thermalright beating them with a $40 cooler is to make their own products even more expensive. Noctua is absolutely delusional.
Click to expand...
I was actually thinking along the same lines and my comment is:
:rolleyes: Why would I want to overpay for this thing when I can buy a Thermalright cooler that likely performs better for less than half the cost?

Oh, silly me, the Noctua name, I guess. :rolleyes:
 
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If I got 2 Liquid freezers 360s (the new ones) and the best thermal paste... all for exactly $155... then this new cooler is just DOA.

RIP Noctua, I knew you were trying to be all elite, pro and Apple like, but I didn't expect you to go that far. I mean, the D15 (old 1) never got cheaper than 100 bucks here. That was already overpriced. I literally never wanna see that brand again! You know that 40 bucks aircooler that everyone and their moms love? Yeah, Im sure the D15 part 2 will be close to it. Even if it's better, it's not going to be 3 times better or not 2 times better than the best AIO (Best for AMD at least).

Funny, I was excited to see them return, I was hoping for some actual competition and a fantastic product. Putting this for 150 means 0 competition. It won't sell at all, their 100 bucks coolers already barely sell. People are smart. They laugh at the Noctua prices and colors. I dont mind the colors, but the prices.. LOL. Get off your high horse I say! This could have been worth the purchase if it was 100, and IF it TOTALLY owns the temp/noise charts. Once you go past 100, its water cooling time, with 8 years of warranty. Add 2 for 150 = 16 years. Can you even beat that Noctua?!
 
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I got 6 fans on my case, it's all noctua black industrial. They cost an arm&leg... But I built this rig to last at least 5 years.

(prob going to upgrade when AMD launches Ryzen "11000" or "13000"...)
 
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