Noctua Chromax Coolers Review – No More Brown!

Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black

First up, we have the mighty Noctua NH-D15. Personally, I prefer the revised D15S design, as it has better compatibility with some motherboards, but otherwise, it is the same cooler. I mean, I reviewed this cooler 6 years ago! In that time, it’s still the king of cool and quiet performance too, which is pretty incredible. Some new black paint, some new black fans and fittings. Honestly, the more things change, the more you realise they’ve stayed the same.

Features

• Proven premium heatsink (more than 300 awards and recommendations from international hardware websites), now available in an all-black design that goes great with many colour schemes and RGB LEDs
• Extra-wide 140mm dual-tower design with 6 heatpipes and dual fans provides maximum quiet cooling efficiency on a par with many all-in-one watercoolers, ideal for overclockers and silent-enthusiasts!
• Dual-fan design with renowned, award-winning NF-A15 140mm fans with Low-Noise Adaptors and PWM for automatic speed control: Full cooling performance under load, whisper quiet at idle!
• Includes high-end NT-H1 thermal paste and SecuFirm2 mounting system for easy installation on Intel LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA2011, LGA2066 and AMD AM4, AM3(+), AM2(+), FM1, FM2(+)
• Renowned Noctua quality backed up by 6-year manufacturer’s warranty, deluxe choice for Intel Core i9, i7, i5, i3 (e.g. 9900K, 9700K, 8700K, 9980XE) and AMD Ryzen (e.g. 3900X, 3700X, 2700X, 2600X)

As with any Noctua product, it comes meticulously packaged and organised. All the thermal paste, tools, fittings and brackets you could ever need are all included.

The cooler looks absolutely stunning though. Compare it to the bright finish of the old one, it’s pretty drastic!

The paint/colour Noctua use seems a lot more subtle than some of their rivals. I’ve seen black CPU coolers where the black coating is so thick, it may as well have been dipped in paint. This is ultra-sleek, it’s just black metal and it looks gorgeous.

Even the little details, such as the fan clips, the anti-vibration mounts, and the springs are all jet black.

The only non-black surface you’ll find is that beautifully polished contact plate.

It’s got a mirror finish on it, which really stands out against the black finish.

Of course, being a D15, you get two of their massive 140×150 fans for massive airflow at low RPM.

They lovely new black mounting kit.

Can you say beast mode?