Noctua NH-D15 1 fan vs 2 fans

[fordongreeman]

How does having tow fans for then Noctua NH-D15 affect cooling performance compared to having just one?

Are there any benchmarks?

 

[oriol.delavega]

Look for reviews of the NH-D15S. It's an NH-D15 with only one fan. A bit cheaper, too, so if you are thinking about mounting only one fan it's worth a shot.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Last post on this page - http://www.overclock.net/forum/246-air-cooling/1559721-noctua-nh-d15-how-much-performance-do-i-lose-if-i-use-one-fan.html

 

[Sedivy]

http://www.ocdrift.com/review-noctua-nh-d15-cpu-cooler/
shows the comparison

 

[Karadjgne]

The center fan on either of those towers does all the work. It's draw is through the front heatsink, it's exhaust is through the rear heatsink. Both those towers can also mount a fan in front and rear, so possibly 3x fans total. In the big scheme of things, the additional fans don't do all that much work, their only real job is to direct air to/from the center fan, streamlining efficiency. This will lower temps on the cpu, at the expense of bleed across the motherboard. Is that worth the extra few °C? Not really. A cpu could honestly care less if it's running 45°C or 65°C. That's only relevant to benchmark chasers or idiots who believe that cpus need to be as cold running as possible, bragging rights.

 

[fordongreeman]

If I'm using an NH-D15S with only one fan in the center, what kind of temperatures should I get under heavy gaming loads with an 8700K at stock speeds?

 

[oriol.delavega]

The NH-D15S is overkill fot a 7700k at stock speeds. I wouldn't risk any temp, but rest assured the processor will be comfortably cool.

 

[fordongreeman]

The NH-D15S is overkill fot a 7700k at stock speeds. I wouldn't risk any temp, but rest assured the processor will be comfortably cool.

What about an 8700K?

 

[oriol.delavega]

The NH-D15S is overkill fot a 7700k at stock speeds. I wouldn't risk any temp, but rest assured the processor will be comfortably cool.

What about an 8700K?

Sorry, I meant 8700K. In fact, is overkill for any current processor at stock speeds.

 

[Karadjgne]

Honestly, you can never over cool a cpu. If the TDP on the cooler is that much over the cpus, all it means is that no matter how hard you might push it, the cpu won't get hot enough to warrant the fans ramping up. Nice an quiet.

 

[fordongreeman]

Honestly, you can never over cool a cpu. If the TDP on the cooler is that much over the cpus, all it means is that no matter how hard you might push it, the cpu won't get hot enough to warrant the fans ramping up. Nice an quiet.

Is it absolutely necessary to have a 2nd fan on the NH-D15S?

 

[Karadjgne]

At stock values, not even close to necessary. That's a 250w+ cooler. TDP (heat value taken at loads on commercially available software) of the cpu is just under 100w. Peak power is @1.5x TDP, or @150w. Peak power is basically 100% loads on all threads, meaning even running Prime95 torture tests you should be less than @70°C. And that's at stock voltages on 12 threads. AVX will change that, you should be set to drop 2 (200MHz) in the event that a program runs high AVX instructions.

 

[fordongreeman]

At stock values, not even close to necessary. That's a 250w+ cooler. TDP (heat value taken at loads on commercially available software) of the cpu is just under 100w. Peak power is @1.5x TDP, or @150w. Peak power is basically 100% loads on all threads, meaning even running Prime95 torture tests you should be less than @70°C. And that's at stock voltages on 12 threads. AVX will change that, you should be set to drop 2 (200MHz) in the event that a program runs high AVX instructions.

What about gaming loads?

 

[Karadjgne]

Gaming loads are @70% or less of ability. My i7-3770K and gtx970 very rarely go over @55/65% although if I enable 4k DSR I can push the gpu to 99%, but cpu never goes over 55% unless I stress/torture test.

You'd have to be running an extremely weak/slow/low core cpu with impossible settings to get much higher, which still equates to not even close to using the full ability of a NH-D15S.