Featured

Noctua NH-U14S DX-3647 (LGA3647) CPU Cooler Review

Final Thoughts

What about the Costs?

A big cooler requires a little more material, which only makes it logical that it should cost a little more than a smaller version. In the UK, you can find the NH-U14S DX-3647 at Amazon for £122.95 and in the US you can find it for $89.90 at the time of this review.

Overview

The NH-U14S DX-3647 is a superb cooler which delivers the best cooling performance. It has a solid build-quality which comes as no surprise from Noctua. The large size does come with one disadvantage which is when it comes to dual-socket motherboards. Depending on which way the sockets are oriented, you might have clearance issues. But single-socket systems will love the NH-U14S and heat won’t be an issue.

Build Quality

The overall built-quality doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We have reviewed a lot of Noctua’s coolers here at eTeknix and it’s always the same. That’s a fact which Noctua cements in with their impressive 6-year warranty. When a company puts that kind of confidence into their product, you know it will be awesome. This is a go-to cooler for systems which have the necessary clearance.

Fans and Heatsink

The result figures speak for themselves when it comes to the performance. Beyond the cooler design itself, which can only do so much, the fans are what moves the heat away from the entire contraption. The 140mm fan does this very well without getting noisy. And there’s still a lot of headroom for the fans to spin faster should it be needed. For the fans to work properly, the heat has to be transferred away from the baseplate and upwards into the fins. Noctua’s NH-U14S DX-3647 clearly does this well with the results we got in our tests.

Should I Buy One?

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is, hold on a second. Get that ruler out and make sure you have the necessary clearance for this beast. A 140mm-based cooler requires a bit of space. But if it’ll fit, it’ll do a great job whether you’re using it in a server or workstation! It will keep your chips well within optimal operating temperature, even when they’re taxed to the maximum.