Noctua NH-C14 CPU Cooler Review

Different users have various preferences with components like this, and the NH-C14 caters for them perfectly by having three variations on how the fan system can be setup. Most users will continue to use the NH-C14 as it was intended straight out of the box with both fans connected for maximum cooling and increased airflow.

Other users may have clerance issues with their memory, thus permitting them to install just the top fan. This would be a situation where you have the choice of changing the memory or removing the bottom fan. By doing so, airflow will decrease and cooling will be sacrificed.

The final option is going to be suitable for users with major clearance issues due to their case, which would mainly be found in HTPC’s due to the shallow height of the chassis. Therfore the user can remove the top fan and use the cooler in low profile mode.

There is another option which involves losing the fans completely by removing both. Obviously this option depends solely on the CPU used and the airflow that the rest of your case caters for. This will leave the CPU cooler to be 100% passive and is only advised if you have a CPU with a low TDP (thermal design power) as running the cooler without fans will leave the CPU to generate more heat. We feel that if you are going to use the cooler in this configuration, then you may be better off with a cheaper cooler, but obviously the choice is a preference that only you can make.

This cooler uses two NF-P14 FLX fans which we looked at last monthand decided that whilst they didn’t push as much air flow as the competitors they did remain stupidly quiet and were a good buy in our books. By this cooler incorporating two of these, it should give sufficient airflow whilst maintaining a quiet level of noise.

The heatsink itself incorporates 6 heatpipes (3 either side) to channel the heat from the base plate. Thehink of computers as the other west possible heat dissipation can occur and are made solely from copper which as we know has fantastic thermal properties and is widely used on CPU coolers.

The heatpipes flow directly into the base which also is made from copper with a nickel plating, much like the heatpipes themselves. For a bit of eye candy the base is also polished and unlike other CPU coolers on the market, it doesn’t incorporate a direct-touch base design. Whether this will aid in making the Noctua NH-C14 better or worse when it comes to performance, we will see a little bit later on.

The base also features a small passive heatsink design which makes up part of the mounting system. Here we see two screws with springs to give flexability when mounting the cooler on various sockets using the supplied brackets for AMD and Intel systems..

The two fans both use 3-pin fan connectors which can be installed onto your motherboard directly or more sensibly can be plugged in to the fan connector adapters which are supplied. The black ones are for low noise and operate at 900 RPM @ 13.2 dB/A whilst the blue ones are for ultra low noise and operate the fans at 750RPM @ 10.1 dB/A. There is also the adapter in the form of a y-split cable for connecting the two fans to one header.