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The cooler comes with a more limited 2-year warranty, but even if you end up replacing the fans after a few years it won't be more expensive than buying Noctua's cooler. It's also more compact and has better RAM clearance with 2 fans than the NH-D15 has with one thanks to its shape. At the same RPM it performs similarly to the NH-D15, but its 120mm fans can only reach 1,200 RPM.
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If you aren't into heavy overclocking, you can save good money going with the $60 Scythe Fuma 2. These days, though, you can get the NH-D15's Chromax.Black version for $10 more - or for the same price with one less fan. Historically, the most controversial (and defining) aspect about Noctua's coolers has been their color scheme. If you are concerned about that, you should check out the company's $110 NH-U12A, which uses two 120mm fans and a compact single-tower design, but makes up for that with 7 heat pipes and a max RPM of 2,000. Measuring 160mm x 150mm x 135mm and weighing almost 3 pounds, you’ll need to be careful when moving a PC with this inside. There are some caveats, though: this is one massive, heavy unit. Noctua's SecuFirm 2 mounting system supports most modern sockets and makes installation a breeze, but one of the best features of this cooler is its 6-year manufacturer’s warranty. You can also buy the cooler with only one fan for $10 less. Earning a repeated recommendation from TechSpot for many years, you’ll struggle to find an air cooler that performs as well as the Noctua NH-D15 at its max RPM of 1,500.įor about $100, the NH-D15 uses 6 copper heat pipes, two 140mm fans, and a split-tower design to make sure that less air is lost along the way, especially if you end up removing the external fan for RAM clearance. Noctua has a stellar reputation among CPU cooler makers, and with good reason. Regardless of which type of cooler you need, this guide will cover many great options at every size and price point. On the other hand, a pump is much harder to replace than a fan if it breaks, and while rare, the possibility of leaks within an electronic device can be scary. If your desktop PC needs a lot of power and you travel with it, you're likely to feel safer with a radiator that's attached to your case via 8 or 12 screws than with a huge chunk of metal hanging off your motherboard.Īnother reason to use water cooling is if you have a slim case that doesn't have the space for a larger air cooler, or even for a fan near the CPU. This will vary across architectures depending on how efficient they are, how many cores, and at what frequencies your CPU runs. Generally speaking, the more powerful your CPU is, the bigger and better cooler you'll need.
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For quick work or gaming sessions with long breaks in-between, water coolers are better, but for prolonged workloads air coolers offer a better value. Radiators take longer to heat up than heatsinks, thanks to the additional mass of the water flowing through them, but are also harder to cool once they get hot. How should you keep your CPU cool? The market offers two main alternatives: air coolers using a heatsink and all-in-one liquid coolers with a pump and a radiator.