Noctua NH-D15 G2 Review & Benchmarks, HBC & LBC Comparison, & Best CPU Coolers
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2024
- Sponsor: NZXT C1500 Platinum PSU on Amazon geni.us/KvKlUi
This is our most in-depth CPU cooler review & benchmark yet. We test Noctua's new NH-D15 G2 for thermals (Intel & AMD temperature testing), acoustics, frequency response, flatness, pressure, and more. The benchmarks also cover Noctua's three alternatives for the Noctua NH-D15 G2, including the base model and HBC vs. LBC differences (High Base Convexity & Low Base Convexity). Because Noctua includes washers for a washer mod on the Intel ILM, we also ran benchmarks for that, plus tests of the old vs. new fans. The NH-D15 G2 is Noctua's first major dual-tower release since 2014, and now it faces competition from the Thermalright Peerless Assassin, ID Cooling A720, Arctic Liquid Freezer III, and other cheaper coolers.
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RELATED PRODUCTS [Affiliate Links]
Noctua NH-D15 G2 on Newegg: howl.me/cmANxEu9dM6
Noctua NH-D15 G2 on Amazon: geni.us/XRbD
Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC on Newegg: howl.me/cmANx7zzUaG
Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC on Amazon: geni.us/yC6n
Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC on Newegg: howl.me/cmANywlFmCH
Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC on Amazon: geni.us/r8SXENp
ALTERNATIVES TO NH-D15 G2 [Affiliate Links]
Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE on Amazon: geni.us/l3pXwA
Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE on Newegg: howl.me/cmANBMbp2JI
Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 Black on Amazon: geni.us/5N1BRr9
Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 Black on Newegg: howl.me/cmANC9Ym83T
ID Cooling A720 on Amazon: geni.us/byGjgA
Thermalright Frozen Prism 360 on Amazon: geni.us/NcSvA
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Noctua NH-D15 G2 Review & Benchmarks
02:16 - Price & Basics: NH-D15 G2 vs. LBC, HBC
06:42 - Laser Scanning: HBC, LBC, & G2 Coldplates
08:29 - Thermal Testing Methodology
10:32 - 200W AMD: Noctua-Only at Full Speed
12:33 - 200W AMD: Noctua-Only Noise-Normalized
12:51 - 250W Intel: Noctua-Only Noise-Normalized
14:10 - 250W Intel: Noctua-Only at Full Speed
14:40 - 250W Comparison, Noise Normalized (Intel)
16:13 - 200W Comparison, Full Speed (AMD)
17:54 - 200W Comparison, Noise Normalized (AMD)
18:20 - 250W Comparison, Full Speed (Intel)
19:11 - Core-to-Core Deltas (250W Intel)
20:10 - Pressure Testing (HBC vs. Washer vs. LBC vs. G2)
21:53 - Acoustic Testing
23:12 - Frequency Spectrum (NF-A14 G2 vs. Original)
24:34 - Noise Samples (NH-D15 G2 vs. NH-D15)
26:38 - AMD Installation Instructions (AM4 and AM5 )
28:47 - Intel Installation Instructions (Noctua NH-D15 G2)
30:26 - Intel Washer Mod Instructions
32:15 - Praise & Criticism of Installation
34:21 - Conclusion
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Steve Burke: Host, Test Lead, Writing
Mike Gaglione: Host, Testing
Vitalii Makhnovets: Camera, Video Editing
Tim Phetdara: Camera 
Игры
This is EXPENSIVE testing. To help support our ability to continue bringing high-quality and independent reviews like these, grab something on our store! store.gamersnexus.net/ -- Consider grabbing one of our 3D emblem commemorative pint glasses: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-3d-emblem-glasses
Watch our engineering interview on how the fans are designed: ruclips.net/video/F7ia_FZcthQ/видео.html
Watch our Coldplate Engineering deep-dive: ruclips.net/video/7BMYsMGpyFY/видео.html
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Thanks for the hard work testing!
From what I gathered from this video; Noctua did some impressive engineering again. But I can already tell that they have reached the edge of the limits of air cooling technology. To be frank, as impressive as this is, it's over engineered for the tangible results gained which is a five degree cooler than the original model. Noctua has to start considering new types of cooling methodology in the future, unless CPU's start running cooler at lower nm process in which case, ignore all of the above.
Please do another run of the RGB GPU GLITCH shirts.
Great work by your team and the testing.
Sadly.. i think this is going to start the path to the end of Noctua.. They have become so obsessed with perfection and micro details that they are losing performance where it matters. At a cost that is so unbelievably out of touch for the times and for the majority of customers. and no.. I don't think they are over charging.. Its just so overly engineered that its not affordable for them either.. im sorry but using exotic materials on a PC fan.. Its just a fan. No.. Even compared to their own previous offering they are WAY off what this is worth. Sad to watch. I will NOT be buying this cooler for my next build.. Or for the build of friends and family.
Out of touch and overly engineered to death.
I never thought of purchasing items from Tech Tuber. However, Steve has done the research and engineering studies that I have about computer hardware.
Therefore, I have purchased many GN items.
Thanks, Steve.
Now wait 4 years for a chromax black. Revolutionary.
that’s too ambitious, give it 6-7 years at the minimum
I really wish they released a chromax black g2 along with the brown one.
@@iamrubinot42IIRC correctly it’s because of the type of plastic they used. Black is different material and it wasn’t up to their standards (yet).
chromac black will come out 1Q next year
@@Vipersrule Yes, because it's not just as easy as coloring plastic differently. Different dyes change the plastics properties. And when you want to release a product that's optimized for performance, changing the color would not give the same results as the brown/beige versions.
You can hear it in Steve's voice in the intro how excited he is to use all the testing equipment on the new Noctua. "THIS IS WHY I BUILT MY TESTING TEMPLE" ~Steve (Probably)
Just excited to use all this stuff every day! I love this kind of work.
@@GamersNexus Hi Steve, currently watching, PLEASE tell me you tested with a contact frame! Wouldnt you agree that a $5 contact frame is a good idea to replace the ILM which induces permanent curvature to the CPU?
@@GamersNexusit’s awesome and truly valuable work, but I really appreciate hearing your personal opinions and wisdom at the end
BEHOLD, MY STUFF! -metrology nerd
@GamersNexus whatever happened to the fan testing machine?
"We are not here for the basics"
GN in a Nutshell
vs. LTT who will mount it on the wrong CPU, complain that it didn't work right, auction off the prototype and then find a way to hide sexual harassment and assault on an employee who had to self-harm herself to get a day off.
@theduck17 and then investigate themselves and find they did nothing wrong
"We have trouble screwing in stuff" xD
@@fredocuomo5386 Did LTT actually investigate themselves? Or did they just say that to get gamers to shut up?
@sammiller6631 they hired a third party investigator thats ultimately beholden to whoever is paying them
I come here to see clean coolers to help heal my trauma. Thank you for your service.
Is this like eye bleach for you 😂
"The greatest Technician that has ever lived.........................."
This is a 37 minute therapy session for the greatest technician that ever lived
Back to cleaning swamp gouce raccoon boy
I wonder if he can fit his tiny raccoon like fingers between those beautiful pipes
Time for Thermalright to make the Peerless-er Assassin.
Peerless-er Assassin-er?
they have a 140mm version coming at some point LOL
Stop it with the hard -er
They haven't tested the phantom spirit which has one more heat pipe and "different" fans from other reviews it's around 2-3 degrees better then the peerless assassin so it's close the the new gen noctua, please GN would love a review on it especially noise tests!
To be honest the Peerless Assassin still wins on account of normal price and not having the color palette of a toilet paper.
Wake up samurai, the Noctua NH-D15 G2 review is real.
FINALLY. I buggered up my latest AIO install and it's held together with a self tapping screw. I've been waiting for this so, when it spills its guts, I can ruin and bodge another expensive cooler. It's what you get for assembling with an impact driver.
(in all seriousness, I keep AIOs running until they are nearly totally out of liquid... It'll survive).
@@ts757arse looks like you need a self-sealing stem bolt
@@albertcamus6611 I am sure I know a chap with some big ears who has a few "spare".
@@ts757arse Oh, but they warned us about them at the academy! buyer beware
I'm still not convinced. Will wait until tomorrow and to see if video is still up or if this was just but a dream
5:41 Steve beat the urge to say "WOO WOO" lol
Bot 💀
The fact that the Peerless Assassin can get within marginal degrees of temp difference, while keeping equal (or lower) noise levels on a 120mm fan setup vs Noctua's 140mm setup, and then do that at basically 5x lower cost... Noctua is doing some great stuff, but honestly the best thing they're doing, is free marketing for Thermalright lol.
Then there's the Thermalright phantom spirit evo which clearly beats the peerless assassin at the same price. It'd have matched or beat this cooler too if GN had tested it. If someone wants a new cooler they should get the PS EVO or wait for the Royal Preytor Ultra.
_But then_ how will the cheaper one be doing in ~8 years time? My 2015 NH-D15 didn't get more than a handful of days time off until I replaced that machine entirely 6 months ago, and those fans just kept on silently spinnin'.
@@johnnypopstar Do air coolers really detoeriorate like that to need to be replaced? At wost you just replace the fans, and it would still costs less in total than one of these Noctuas.
@@johnnypopstar Most air coolers will work just fine for that long, and by the 10 year mark there's likely gonna be fair improvements to the available coolers on the market if you wanna upgrade.
I haven't had any air cooler perform much worse over time, at worst a fan dies (which is still very rare) so you just get a spare one for 10 bucks. The entire selling point of air coolers in general is how bulletproof they are in general, not just Noctua.
@@_RIL_ sure, but also, CBA constantly replacing fans or checking for noise. To my lazy ass it's worth the extra for the peace of mind aspect
Can't wait for the G3 in 20 years!
The year is 2044. Steve exits retirement for one last review.
wait, how old is Steve? 20 years in retirement? I would have believed mid 30, if he told me. Even with the few gray hairs, some ppl get grey hairs early.
and the "Thanks Steve" comment will reappear
@@GamersNexus Same for Linus, he returns for 1 final tech drop.
@@GamersNexus **a figure clothed only in holograms flys out of the forest on his downhill hover bike. He brushes his long white hair out of his face** “today we’re reviewing…”
Already saved this video knowing I might need this in 10 years
I am curious whether the original fans on my NH-D15, which I have been using daily for the past 10 years, will need replacing when the G3 version comes out, or if they will hold up until the G4 or even G5 models...
Less than 1mm between the edge of the fan and the frame is wild.
NH-D15 G3 will have 0 clearance with self-ablation
@@Petr75661ha!
@@Petr75661 honestly it wouldn’t be that awful of an idea, you would just need to settle on running it at a certain speed (because dimensions change based on speed) and let it wear in. I wonder if anyone will switch to metal or composite fans at some point for even higher stiffness and therefore lower gap.
Geez man, I don't know if people can really appreciate the depth of testing expertise displayed in this video. 9 passes for a single mount?! 13 dBA noise floor?! 3 different cold plates, fan swaps, two test benches. Easily over $100K in time and equipment. Well done guys. I bet Noctua are pleased to have their best tested by the best.
Expensive testing that we get to see for free, thanks Steve and Gamers Nexus
28:06 I love how you guys skip applying thermal paste, just to avoid the flamewar 😆
at the same time though, it'd be good for the algo
Secretly, it is also to save on wasting paste!
@@GamersNexus
"Millions for Noise-testing, but not one Penny for Paste"!
Do what Action Retro does and just blur it like if it were japanese erotica.
@@Fay7666 there's a youtube channel called tronicsfix that has some fun with it. the host (i think his name is steve, no relation to this steve) always says "time to apply the PERFECT amount of thermal paste" and plays angelic chorus on it
@@Fay7666 there's a youtube channel, tronicsfix, that has some fun with it
the host, I believe his name's steve (seems like there's quite a few of those in this industry) says "time to apply the PERFECT amount of thermal paste" and will play an angelic chorus for it
Don't think I've ever mentioned it, but I sure have meant to.... That sound chamber looks really good with your colors on the sound absorbing tiles/peak/mountains/whateverthehellthey are called!
Thank you!
I was tickled by that Snoop bit
This will possibly be family heirloom.
"Your father's CPU cooler. This is the weapon of a true tech nerd. Not as clumsy or random as an AIO. An elegant weapon, for a more... civilized age."
@@c99kfm and we will look like old farts with grey/no hair^^
Definitely a mantle show piece
"You never actually own a Noctua. You merely look after it for the next generation."
Steve being able to show off so many GN toys in 1 video obviously makes him happy. The growth of this channel is astounding and well deserved.
It's been a few days since it's become available. A day later, no other channels or websites have released any reviews. Just goes to show how much dedication Steve and the GN team to cover this so quickly.
I dont think it's honestly possible to convince me its $115 better than a peerless assassin. I definitely prefer air coolers to AIOs in general though. Pump noise I find super aggravating for whatever reason, and they have many more points of failure.
Some people just don't mind paying a lot more for marginally better perf, even if they don't want to go water. I personally went on full custom, but if i were not, i'd probably think about upgrading to this. (My previous air cooler was a dark rock pro4)
@@TheHighborn Oh I have no issues with people buying Noctua stuff. I get the draw. Im also biased as I have a PA. The hill I'll die on though is that air coolers suffice for 90% of builds. Only thing Id use an AIO on is 13/14th gen Intel and I'd never buy that in the first place. :D
Agree with you. Also, if the fans fail on your PA, you can buy better fans like Phanteks T30 and get even better performance. For my current system (13700k), I'm using an AIO. I cannot understand who will buy this D15 G2.
I'm happy and probably will continue to be happy with my Noctua NH-D15
@@spell105I 'm happy and probably will continue to be happy with my Noctua NH-D14😀
Thanks Steve. I'm torn on whether to change my drinking game from "Hemi Anechoic Chamber" to "Laser Scanner."
I think laser scanner would get you there faster. You can see him glowing everytime they use it.
'why not both'
I bought the Thermalright Phantom Spirit and couldn't be happier. Costs 35 bucks and it cools close to a 280mm aio
Yes Steve, we’re getting old 😉
Not if AI can help it!
@@GamersNexusI think we just cracked Jensen’s latest business strategy: Sell more GPU’s to support machine learning, to keep people living longer, to generate more demand for GPU’s. How did no one figure this out sooner 🤦♂️
@@GamersNexus haha
"...It's hard being Steve D O double G; but I, somehow, someway..."
With so much drama over LBC
It's kinda hard bein' S to the E-V-E
But I
Somehow someway
Keep turnin' out standardized tests like every single day
Could you
kick a lil somethin'
for the GN
Store now'at we test
in a sound proof, 250k booth
an' the channel still jumpin' cuz Snowflake izzat home
I got coolers with the washer mod mountin' 'em on, yet
They get jenky so we want a update
So what you wanna do? Bet
Noctua pocket full of SKU's to make the cold plate fit you
So give up the lights, embrace the tan
But (But what?) you don't love them fans Yeahhhhhh...
But we gon' drop a lot on this
G up, N down while you liquid simps shrug at us
ROLLIN' DOWN THE STREET, REPPIN' BROWN FANS
D15 G AND 2
laaaaiiiid baaaaaack
GOT NO MIND FOR MY MONEY CUZ NOCTUA ON MY MIND
ROLLIN' DOWN THE STREET, REPPIN' BROWN FANS
D15 G AND 2
laaaaiiiid baaaaaack
GOT NO MIND FOR MY MONEY CUZ NOCTUA ON MY MIND
Thanks for that! 😂
You guys do really good work. You test things that others do not. There are plenty of other good RUclips channels out there. They all do good work, but you guys have set a standard that other channels can use as a benchmark. Over the years you have really taken it to another level.
0:47 Your audio is always great, but the difference between 0:47 and 0:50 is surprisingly noticeable when one immediately changes to the other. That hemi anechoic chamber is amazing!
4:20 I'm from SoCal so I appreciated your LBC reference, and it was even more amazing that you started it at 4:20!🚬🚬🚬
Hahaha. Some things work out!
Been absolutely loving the new testing methodology from you guys!
A four degree delta between the new NH-D15 and the Peerless Assassin? Talk about $ diminishing returns $.
Thank you GN for the extremely comprehensive review
and they are coming up with something even better, so Noctua aint looking too hot right now.
Diminishing returns at the very top end? I'm shocked
I dont understand why anyone would lay $150 for an air cooler over an aio.
@@maxv9872 reliability and less potential points of failure
@@maxv9872 air coolers have less points of failure and the only maintenance required is dust cleaning and fan replacement when the bearings give out. They make more sense for most unless you're looking at heat loads above 200W.
I'm impressed that you guys got the review out so early!
7:40 damn steve
bars
@@GamersNexusi want to buy a new pc with ryzen 7800x3d and rtx 4080S. Should i pick the old nh-d15 or the new g2?
@@Troynex Get what you want they both will cool it incredibly well and be quiet. The G2 will be a bit better though
@@GamersNexusSteve /GN team, how hard would it be to implement a short noise sample for each of your noise tests. I personally would prefer having the option to compare the way something sounds.
@@Troynex When you spend that much money on your PC, are you really going to go for less than the best air cooler over less than $50?
While the improvement over the Gen 1 cooler probably isn't enough to matter for most people at this price, I cannot overstate how refreshing it is to have a company in 2024 actually dump the vast majority of their resources into making the best product they possibly can.
I have zero doubt these G2 coolers will be in regular use in 2040 without even needing a fan swap, assuming standard ATX platforms are still being regularly made by then. For a lot of people, this is an endgame cooler for their PC as anything above the heat dissipation capability of this cooler is either monstrously inefficient or very niche enterprise hardware.
Literally anything in its price bracket, or even 120 usd below that, can perform the same task as it.
Dump their resources into making "the best product they can"? They arnt dumping shit, they're going to recoup their costs by selling their name to people like you.
At Computex Noctua showed prototype of a two-phase thermosiphon liquid cooler running without a pump and there was also an air cooler using a vapour chamber made by Deepcool so I doubt this is the "endgame" cooler...
@@veduci22 In terms of what's available right now it is. I have 2 Noctua's that are in the 5-8yr old range and I wouldn't doubt Noctua is going to sell a good number of these.
@@veduci22 Practically speaking, I'd argue it is in your average mid or full tower case. Obviously these types of coolers are impossible to fit in SFF cases and their thermosiphon concept would have a better shot at fitting in those platforms.
There's definitely still innovations that are yet to be made, but I don't think there's much room left for improvement on tower coolers. Noctua and Arctic both had to engineer solutions to address Intel's CPU concavity in their latest flagship coolers, which is something you'd never normally see outside of extreme overclocking.
I just dont get how they can take 10 years to give us a 3 times more expensive phantom spirit. Maybe it will matter in a few years when Intel has 400w CPUs but now? Why bother
4:27 I didn't know I needed Steve rapping about PC Hardware in my life but this moment opened my eyes
As a guy from Southern California, I appreciate the multiple mentioning of the LBC my G. Stay up Steve
I would really appreciate you checking out the Phantom Spirit 120. It's essentially an upgraded peerless assasin but for a very similar price.
@@el1f0 or any their 140mm that clearly better than PS120
HELL YEAH I have been waiting for this !!!!
HELL YEAH
Thanks for the review of this product. Looking forward to more reviews with all the test equipment you have these days.
Very happy with my Thermalright Assasin 120 Se for 3x less price
Yeah, I couldn't justify this price for an air cooler.
What an exciting day. I’ve read so many articles about this fan over the years, it’s so cool to see it finally released!
I still can't fathom that you guys are capable of making talking about an air cooler for half an hour that interesting. You are incredible! ❤
Wonderful review! I was REALLY waiting for this review to come out! Stellar job, as always!
can always count on steve and the team to give me deep dives into products that does not leave me searching for more information after i watched their tests.
gg boyos, ur format kick ass!
I'm still running an NH-D15 after who knows how many years. The quality and longevity of the brand are prime reasons I'd buy Noctua again for this class of air cooler.
Yes, Noctua is a High Class! ❤❤❤
I'm still running my Noctua NH-D14 I bought in June of 2012 - and have no desire to upgrade at this point. $88 for a fan in 2012 seemed insane, but Noctua continues to support their older fans by selling adapter plates each time a new CPU is introduced, and currently I'm running an AMD 5900X and it has no issues keeping it cool. I'll probably upgrade that to the next AMD chip that comes out, and I bet you this fan will continue to work just fine for another 12 years.
Basically same experience here with NH-D14. "Side-graded" it to NH-U12A last month, though. It performs about ~7c better on 5800X at full load. Fans are a bit louder on it, but it's also more impressive because it's a single tower cooler and there's zero issues with any kind of RAM.
The fans are the spinning part with the motor and what you are talking is the tower cooler not the fans you clip on it, the fans and the cooler are not the same thing
Similar experience with mine that I got in 2010, it still works great in my home server and was in my gaming PC until I went with a AIO in 2019.
Same old story with my Thermalright Macho. It just does what it has to do, quietly and efficiently. (And I think it was around 50 bucks 11 years ago...)
I have a NH-D14 and NH-U9 that are about that old and recently the U9SP3. The fact that I could contact Noctua for mounting kit upgrades over the years has been a nice plus.
it's been a while, I love this type of testing videos from you guys. 👌
yooo yall had this review READY. thank you! thank you!
I just want to say from past experience Noctua's customer support is tip top, probably the best and most pleasant I've been through.
for the prices they charge they better send you a new replacement whenever you want (up to like 3 times), no questions asked
@@Violet-ui Chinese sweatshop prices have spoiled you. No wonder Chinese companies had to install suicide fences on their factories.
The best customer support is the one you never need.
@@masterluckylukeLet's get real, at some point you will have issues with any company you buy enough products from. Customer support is one key area that any company has to figure out, but of course it's not the only one and they need reliable products as well. Thankfully, Noctua is quite reliable as well.
@@Violet-ui Fan died after oh so many years and they've sent a replacement no question asked. Just like that.
I'm using the original D15.
I find this test amazingly helpful.
I could see the difference in the base plate.
This reads like a haiku
it has 3 too many words though lol
i always love the difference in sound when steve steps into "the chamber"
7:42 Steve spitting flames 🔥🔥🔥 " With so much drama in the LBC,
we can see what is actually the flattest cold plate that can be,
its impressive how flat Noctua got this plate,
to the extent that it caused us problems while we were trying to contemplate,
when trying to remove it from AM4 CPU's,
since it basically suctioned itself to the CPU"
Uncle snoop would be proud
Instantly liked. You guys make it easy to learn how products stack up against each other with all of the product testing that you do for us. I wouldn't and couldn't spend this much on a cpu cooler, but I know plently of people will. And we all appreciate the work you put in to give us the information we need and want to make our buying decisions.
My cat went crazy when you showed us the noise samples. xD Great job on this review, thanks Steve!
Hug the cat, pet it and tell it that this is just a brown owl! 😊😊😊
Thanks so much for including real sound samples of the product in this review! Hope to see the same when the U12A Gen2 drops
Absolute killer review. As always, you guys are doing the best work by any reviewer I've seen. Keep it up!!
Steve, you and your team is awesome!
Thx for your tests. Today i got my GN, AM5 and Intel 1700 Case Batches. I like that. they looks really good and they are so massive and really good quality. Greetings from Germany 😇
That's awesome! Thank you so much for buying them!
@@GamersNexus No problem 😇
Man you guys are next level with the sound testing! Keep it up
I like that you put the old D15 fans on the new D15 G2, I think it would also be interesting to see how old D15 fares with the new D15 G2 fans on it. Great work as usual!
Cant wait to see how this competes with upcoming coolers.
can't even compete with phantom spirit. lmfao
Maybe I missed it but I am surprised the new fans weren't put on the old cooler since the old fans got put on the new cooler. It showed a decline in performance that virtually matched the og cooler. It almost paints a picture that the cooler change didn't make much of a difference and that the fans provided the majority of the cooling improvement. If you own the og do you get the same or at least very similar performance just by buying the new fans and potentially saving a decent chunk of change?
That´s assuming we get the chance. The only 1500rpm replacement for old-gen A15 in existence is Chromax A15, because standard standalone A15 fan is only 1200rpm...
@@Morpheus-pt3wq It certainly seems like a sneaky tactic that I wouldn't put past Noctua. They do love to find ways to make the most basic things as expensive as possible. There seems to be more markup on the cooler package than just their fans so why not make people think they need the entire thing for better performance.
The only things that are different in G2 are 8 heat pipes and higher fin density. Essentially the same thing which companies like Thermalright and Deepcool have been doing for years now. I'm sure Thermalright will make a 140 mm dual tower cooler which will match G2 for a fraction of the price.
And in a few years, they'll introduce vapour chamber coolers which make G2 fully obsolete.
@@Chopper153 Yes, that will and always has happened. As far as changes, they aren't exactly minor. There's only so many parts and every one of them has been altered in some way. The question is does it matter? Noctua states those changes don't really start to show benefit until 250 watts is exceeded. That wasn't really tested and neither was new fan on old cooler.
Ignoring Noctua being crooks, we really didn't learn how true the claim from Noctua is. Given how thorough GN normally is I would have thought that test with the old fans would have raised some questions. I would imagine all the extra mass the G2 has would make a difference under high wattage loads but it didn't seem to make a difference when fans were the same for both.
It could just be that all heat loads tested didn’t output enough heat to make the differences really show.
It would be good to see if Steve can test noctua’s own claims which are tested not using CPUs but heaters. Noctua claim that the original NH-D15 can hold a 460 W heat load at 60 C whilst the new version can handle 620 W. You won’t get near that with CPUs because of how the heat is distributed though. Steve can only test it on current CPUs where the difference just might not be that high and it puts a cap on how high he can set the heat load. Obviously Steve’s testing is real world testing with components that people will actually use, not just heaters, so his testing will be more valuable for most people. What will be interesting to see is how the new version holds up as CPUs use more and more power.
What makes you think that noctua are crooks or are being shady?
Awesome, being with my d15 so long I recognize wich sound was which blind test
Nice to see new things at air cooler market. I'm happy with my Thermalright Phantom Spirit with Arctic P12 Coolers.
Thermalright Peerless Assassin's value has just gone up even more with the introduction of NH-D15 G2. No point in spending more money on these expensive coolers which only provide slight improvement.
yeah wtf did noctua do in 7 years instead of making aios or cheap coolers
It would also be cool to see how the old NH-D15 performs when using the NF-A14x25r G2 🙂
Great review, was still hoping to see how the new fans would perform on the old D15. (For my old D15s to consider getting one of those fans ^^) Thank you for the great content and integrity you continue to show us, greetings from Austria ^^
You guys are incredible. I don't know even 1 tech channel that tests producs like you do. the only other one that comes to mind is project farm which is not a tech channel, but his testings of products are so in depth and incredible. Those 2 channels are just essentials on youtube!
Considering the price of this Noctua I think I'll wait for the vapor chamber air coolers from other companies if they are even better at similar noise levels.
Seems a bit strange not to include AM5 test data at this point, especially since you even updated Intel's thermal results to the 14900K. Not a huge deal but considering the notable IHS changes and that more people will move to AM5 going forward, it would be nice to see.
Overall it's nice to see Noctua back on top and including decent accessories for that price tag. I am a bit disappointed the new 140mm we've been waiting for is still limited up to 1500 RPM, even now that they've shifted to LCP. I'm hoping we at least get a version capable of ~1800 or so, since I assume the bearings can handle that. At this price, integrating a speed switch like their competitors would be a nice touch for those with a need to max out performance at the cost of noise.
Thank you Steve and your team, for just being the best in the industry! Love from Sweden!
Very impressive testing work. Thank you
I've been using Noctua fans in every PC I've built. A part of me wants to buy a G2 for my next build, though it is extremely difficult to justify it based on the performance alone, no matter how well their previous models served me, and no matter how much I enjoyed their engineers' interviews with Steve.
Buy a Thermalright cooler and use Noctua fans. Or an AIO with Noctua fans if you want the best noise normalised performance.
There's lots of good choices out there, but I will always put Noctua first, even if they are cheaper options available due to the company's reputation of outstanding support for the long-term.
@@jamesm568 that's Stockholm syndrome
@@v0ldy54 No, It's called a brand having an outstanding reputation unlike a many of other brands out there.
@@jamesm568noctua got their reputation because of how far ahead their air coolers were back then. But the market's vastly different now and noctua no longer holds the edge performance wise, especially considering the price.
Shoutout SPCR crew.
At least with Noctua, you're not just buying the name, you're actually also buying the support, quality and performance. Unlike some fruitbased hardware.
There's going to be a non-zero chance that through assembly line snafu, or otherwise (like restocking), that HBC coolers will be mixed up with LBC coolers. Good luck everyone!
It’s good that Steve can have chats with Noctua and then not completely gush over their new cooler.
The review I have been waiting for more than any other review for the past 3 years?
Two super flat steel surfaces touching one another can cold weld together when left too long in that state. That happened to me with some parallel gauge blocks. Adhesive power is strong. Don't know if anyone saw the commercial from the 90's in which two tractor puller weren't able to pull apart two huge blocks of steel because of glue or some shit. That wasn't a trick. They actually did that, but it only worked because there wasn't any glue between the two super polished sides of the blocks, only pure adhesive power.
That was my contribution of useless knowledge for the day. Have a good one ^^
These are not gauge blocks, bro.
So what you're saying here is, if I polished my CPU and this cooler enough, and I had them lapped nearly flat, I could potentially get rid of the need for thermal interface material entirely.
@@Its-Just-Zip ruclips.net/video/sQw20rHvpRw/видео.html
@@Its-Just-Zip Probably. Gauge blocks can be "wrung" together where they basically act as one piece down the the atomic level.
@@Its-Just-Zip What he's also saying is that you lose the AM4/AM5 advantage. You will be upgrading the CPU along with the cooler 😂
If I still were in to air cooling I'd get one of these. That review was astoundingly well-made.
Awesome... nice to see a youtuber actually follow threw with this type of stress testing
So for 99.99% of people just buy a peerless assassin if you are air cooling. Got it. Thermalright engineers being able to create a cooler that basically hangs right there with noctua for pennies on the dollar is pretty wild.
Steve flexing their new "QUIET" room! 👍🏼
Awesome review!
For the acoustics part, since you are boosting your recordings up to similar levels to the vocals, that's likely adding audible noise floor to the recordings. It would be nice to hear a recording of your post-boost noise floor for reference so that we can try to ignore that sound, as I'm pretty sure the fan recordings heard here are a combination of the fan as well as some audible noise floor. What I mean is just record your microphone(s) in your chamber and the apply the same boost.
If the boosted recordings are in-fact all fan noise and not noise floor at all, then I stand corrected!
This channel.....I want one of these but I bought the Arctic Freezer III because of your review already. Its great to have an informed view of what is a good product.
I was really hoping you'd include at least one of Phantom Spirit coolers in you charts.
And I just wanted to post a smirky comment worrying about how lately Steve seemed to have forgotten the phrase "hemi anechoic". Glad you restored your memory!
As always, I appreciate the effort you've put into the review
amazing work man
Considering you guys are comparing it to the TR Peerless Assassin, I would like y’all to compare it with the TR Phantom Spirit. A great cooler too at a great price with an extra heat pipe
Looking forward to seeing some comparisons between the NH-D15 G2 and some of Thermalright's new products! The gap between the G2 and the old Assassin 120 is so small it seems likely that the larger coolers from TR will match the G2 in most aspects and they'll probably do it at one third of the price or lower.
Woo been waiting for this review to come out as the cooler is available where I am (as of yesterday). :D
Seeing the difference the new fans make on the NH-D15 G2... I'd love to see how the new fans perform on an older NH-D15 to see if there's value in upgrading only the fans on my current setup
Great coverage as always! Thanks
I honestly expected a bit more from noctua, after that much time.
Insanely priced. I know it's quality but this is ridiculous when we have so many much cheaper but very comparable alternatives
Wow... amazing content as always. Thank you.
Top Review! How the new fans preforme with the old tower would have been interesting as well.
GNHipHop - new channel? Legend!
Just bought the G2 LBC for my AM4
Great review as usual. Thanks
I still have a Noctua NH-U9F, bought in 2008. Fan is still going strong, and Noctua providing me with a kit to fit it to an AM4 motherboard. Excellent customer service.
I got my NH-D15 for nearly 9 years in 3 different systems and it aged like fine wine. Was totally worth the price. Hope I can get a worthy replacement now.
That’s why price is not that important for, what I’d imagine, is lots of people. Noctua makes great products and lots of people have had the g1 in their build for 10 years, this should achieve the same thing and perform better
@@albinohopper45 Except the Thermalright PA can support 3 different generations and keep your CPU at the same temp all for the same price in the end.
Why even replace it?
Unless you run a highly inefficient i9 or some balls to the wall threadripper setup, I think the NHD15 will continue to do its job well into the future.
I plan to use mine until they stop making mounting kits for new sockets.
@@albinohopper45 This is especially true if you consider the longevity and the support for new sockets. I just had to replace a 360 AIO in a system I built for friend 3 years ago, because it was totally "rotted".
I am still using NH-U12P from 2008, still like new, only thing that did not turn to dust and goes always to upgrade