clessers :
120mm fan = 94CMH vs 140mm = 115CMH... This cooler works much better in a push format - and if your ram is too tall to accomplish a push format, you might as well move to a 120 on RAM side. Now regarding a smaller cooling unit - if you know of 1 that provides equal cooling to the D15 please tell me, because my second PC would love it since a D15 will not fit.
you cant bloody compare a a fan on a heatsink by CMH alone,
first off the NH-d15 sports a 150mm fan which is max 140,2 m³/h not 115
secondly it has a "mere" 1,51 mm H₂O vs the 120mm 1,68 mm H₂O, one might think the 120mm wins
BUT and here comes the important part specially regarding radiator/heatsink cooling
the 150mm does it over a much larger area, key factor,
the second you remove it and switch it for the 120mm fan you lose effectivity on the heatsink itself, sure you got a great quality heatsink, and alot better than some other standard heatsinks, but you remove a great part of the efficiency by placing a 120mm fan on it
and as such you simply can not compare a smaller 120mm cooling unit with the beastly NH.D15 exactly because its bigger, even if its a top quality 120mm cooler, it will be great sure, but ofc it wont be as great as the larger
and the point that makes the NH-D15 so great compared to regular 120mm units, IS because it uses 2x150mm fans
and should you remove those you effectively negate the point of buying the unit in teh first place and as such might aswell just settle for a smaller unit to begin with
same reason you simply cannot compare something like the corsair h80 with a NZXT Kraken x61... apples and oranges mate, just like you would lose effectiveness placing a 120mm fan on the Kraken vs its standard 140mm
your idea ofc works, but better to see if cant rearrange the 150mm fans, and if not possible, one might aswell just have considered a smaller cooler that would actually fit ones build and thus perform optimally,
an NH-D15 wont perform as specified or optimally when replaced with tiny 120mm fan, and thus might aswell settle for a regular 140mm/120mm top quality cooler anyway
(neither ofc would cool to the same degree as a NH-d15 but thats because they are smaller per definition,
just like a NH-d15 wont cool as an NH-D15 any longer when replaced with 120mm fans)
Thats why i use the NH-D14 because it would fit vs the NH-D15, and i wouldnt have to replace/or move any fans and thus no longer getting the NH-D15 cooling anyway, so not to waste the NH-D15.
smaller coolers that would cool superb:
Noctua NH-U14S uses 1 150mm fan (same big fan as NH-d15 but smaller heatsink)
Cryorig h5 universal uses 140mm fan
Cryorig h7 uses 120mm fan
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo uses 120mm fan
all would cool greatly, but ofc not as a NH-d15 or even NH-d14 because they are bigger
but one could double up on the fans and mount 2 instead of their standard 1, thus increase performance even further,
but you simply cannot compare 150mm vs 120mm (with respective heatsink sizes) in terms of cooling performance, because size does matters
and one must then either accept teh drawbacks size incurs or accept lesser cooling performance
(and then why spend top dollar on cooling when you modify it and it would no longer perform to those top dollar cost? just buy a cheaper smaller unit)
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