Four New Closed-Loop Liquid Coolers Versus Noctua's NH-D14

[clonazepam]

For any closed loop cooler mounted to the rear exhaust, you can probably expect it to block off being able to have a side mounted fan on the case lid. This is especially true for any case using the 240mm fans. The Noctua air cooler also has a tendency to block off the installation of these fans as well.

I think the best situation would be a case where you can install the closed loop on the roof or even in the drive bay as opposed to the rear exhaust. Choose a case carefully that will include some sort of side panel fan configuration. These fans on the case lids are almost always raised up somewhat to include the top GPU and the area around the CPU socket. That might be the best all around config to help cool every component.

 

[BigMack70]

@7amood

The D14 is still the superior cooler to the U14S, the U14S is just more impressive for its size. The U14S is also much newer, and there are just not as many on the market - hence, it is less popular.

Just go take a look at how many reviews there are on newegg.... 6 for the u14s and almost 1000 combined for the D14/D14 SE2011...... the D14 is still the go-to big air cooler for most.

 

[Narcissistic_Martyr]

Am I the only one who would have drilled some new mounting and ventilation holes to get the best out of my cooler if I bought it and it didn't quite fit right?

 

[slomo4sho]

Am I the only one who would have drilled some new mounting and ventilation holes to get the best out of my cooler if I bought it and it didn't quite fit right?

Or you could have planned ahead and purchased a case that accommodates such a cooler...

 

[Honis]

Can you make a noise comparison using the same fans? I understand this suggestion would greatly increase the time needed to run the benchmarks but knowing which radiator is the loudest would help people pick. I switched the fans on some version I got from Best Buy and had a massive drop in noise with no thermal increase.

 

[will1220]

Have never understood why db matter to gamers. I could be in a wind tunnel gaming and I still couldn't hear any noise besides my game with just using cheap over the ear headphones.

 

[slomo4sho]

Have never understood why db matter to gamers. I could be in a wind tunnel gaming and I still couldn't hear any noise besides my game with just using cheap over the ear headphones.

Consider the scenario of playing on your TV with a dualshock 4 controller in your hand. Not everyone plays the way you do. In fact, some use speakers in lieu of headsets...

 

[JamesSneed]

Have never understood why db matter to gamers. I could be in a wind tunnel gaming and I still couldn't hear any noise besides my game with just using cheap over the ear headphones.

Consider the scenario of playing on your TV with a dualshock 4 controller in your hand. Not everyone plays the way you do. In fact, some use speakers in lieu of headsets...

Some of us use our PC's for lots of other things as well. Sitting in my office working for 8 hours listening to my PC fan whirling away would drive me nuts.

 

[bigcyco1]

this is very bad testing, it only works for out of the box comparison. most of the watercoolers can be tweaked into lower speed of fans and even pump like they do on silentpcreview. this test i was hoping to answer my question if i could buy a dual fan watercooler instead of the air cooler to cool a i7 powerhouse with oc and still tweak it so its nearly silent. instead the fans are in the thousands of rpm when only 1000 is needed to cool efficiently......

I disagree.The testing was done fair.The fact of the matter is If you change the fans that would cost extra money to the cost of these already over priced closed loops.

 

[Amdlova]

my h-50 go empaty after 3 months Closed! yes Puts some 125w tdp and dry it up!

 

[jurassic512]

I was impressed with the Nepton in cooling performance until I saw the pump speed. 3600rpm to my H100I's 2100rpm and only 3 degrees cooler? Ouch.

 

[crooked windows]

lmao about the measurement units, I was scrolling down to do just that. So yes please can we have just metric or just imperial so you don't irritate all of us at the same time.

 

[ChromeTusk]

After reading more of the comments, I agree with several people about using the same fan for testing. Is it possible to show results for both situations?
1) Stock, out of the box set-up
2) Using the same fan(s) on each cooler to demonstrate its potential/efficiency

It also be nice if everything was in metric (or imperial) units.

 

[nukemaster]

I agree, I did not loose that much on an H80i by swapping to NH P12's(I already had them and prefer the sound they make compared to the Corsairs at the same speed[the corsairs have a light grinding noise or something. You would not hear it from even a few feet away].)

Also 1 fan on the H80i seems to be only 3-5c hotter.

 

[kulmnar]

Most closed loop liquid coolers are more hype than substance. The NH-D14 air cooler outperforms them in terms of cooling and in terms of noise. Also, an air cooler cannot leak, a closed liquid cooler can. The only reason to have these liquid coolers is for weight considerations and to make your PC look good (so you can see more of it inside instead of having the RAM slots covered by the gigantic NH-D14).

 

[nukemaster]

Most closed loop liquid coolers are more hype than substance. The NH-D14 air cooler outperforms them in terms of cooling and in terms of noise. Also, an air cooler cannot leak, a closed liquid cooler can. The only reason to have these liquid coolers is for weight considerations and to make your PC look good (so you can see more of it inside instead of having the RAM slots covered by the gigantic NH-D14).

And even with a fan failure the NH-D14 can passive many cpus under light to medium loads

I still kind of want to do the closed loop cooler on a video card mod just because that is one place that it can work quite well.

 

[Calculatron]

Sometimes, I love posts that stir the pot - not necessarily trolling, but definitely the ones that make you think. The one about how the Noctua NH-D14 is over-engineered really caught my attention before I left for work, and I thought for a time about it. Even though the comment may be right out, it is closer to its mark than one would like to admit; the NH-U14S does hold its ground fairly well.

 

[boulbox]

Very nice review. Loved it. You also should have put in Price to performance too and maybe add the H220.

 

[adiposity]

Nice article. I notice in the conclusions you reference the Thermaltake Water 2.0. But in the article, you only tested the Thermaltake Water 3.0. Typo?

 

[06yfz450ridr]

Seems they reduced their old BS claim of handling 400 watts of heat on the Reserator 3 MAX, it is now 350 watts, but even that seems unrealistic.

Tomshardware should place some of these coolers on a resistive load of 300-400 watts and see if these coolers can actually handle the heat, or will the fluid boil and build up enough pressure to pop.

I highly doubt they could handle that much heat . I know at my current settings im at about 228watts at full load and I had to add a second rad to drop the temps, even at my even higher overclocks I was at about 246 watts which there was no way a single 220mm that I was using could keep cool at full load even though I have a restrictive second block slowing the flow down a hair(testing with it out the window to see if it keeps my computer cooler during the winter)

 

[will1220]

Have never understood why db matter to gamers. I could be in a wind tunnel gaming and I still couldn't hear any noise besides my game with just using cheap over the ear headphones.

Consider the scenario of playing on your TV with a dualshock 4 controller in your hand. Not everyone plays the way you do. In fact, some use speakers in lieu of headsets...

Some of us use our PC's for lots of other things as well. Sitting in my office working for 8 hours listening to my PC fan whirling away would drive me nuts.

Tip for you slomo4sho: Buy a fan controller and run the fans at 50% - 75%, they will be near silent.

JamesSneed: Then whats the point of having a overclocked machine? You could just use a stock heatsink.

 

[Crashman]

Nice article. I notice in the conclusions you reference the Thermaltake Water 2.0. But in the article, you only tested the Thermaltake Water 3.0. Typo?

Did you ask that without even looking at the product names on the charts? If that list doesn't make sense, jump back to page 11 where the article says "Since we used the same hardware configuration as last winter’s round-up, we thought a comparison of these four coolers to the previous eight would be informative. The two Enermax coolers are still unavailable unfortunately, leaving six former models to compete with today’s four. The new coolers sit atop all charts, while the perennial air cooler takes the bottom."

 

[grant barker]

I love my NH-D14. I'll be picking up another in my next rig soon. I can't imagine using anything less now.

 

[crooked windows]

Nice review. For me , CM Seidon 240M was my pick due to price and it being the biggest improvement over what I had, it is 10x better and it's nice to see it out performed the Air and also the Zalmal 3 max which I nearly fell for. there is something missing in all this though, How much heat is Added to the case with air cooling ? surely water cooling takes the heat away from inside the case and then blows it away, keeping the space at a lower temp. Air cooling just blows heated air thru the case. Just what we want, not !.

 

[Furry_VintageGamer]

The Thermaltake system looks good.