News Noctua's next-gen flagship CPU cooler finally arrives — Noctua NH-D15 G2 released at $150

[Nyara]

AIO are not as reliable as standard air only coolers, IMO. Lots of things to fail with an AIO, but big air just works.

They selling big air with better performance than Noctua for $40, in case you prefer air over AIO.

Deepcool & others are not far behind in performance among air options, too, the landscape changed a lot in the last few years, and Noctua is no longer the only good option widely available.

It was a wonderful option to buy their $60 cooler some 10 years ago, but paying $150 now while the rest of the market beats them/roughly equals them and charging $40-60 for it, well, I would definitively make sure I am not cutting budget elsewhere in the build first for it, minimum.

 

[bit_user]

Fans do not last forever, anymore than pumps do.

I've been running Noctua fans for more than 10 years and never had one fail (by which I mean even developing a noisy bearing).

it looks a lot nicer than this 1980's throwback brown monstrosity, imo.

Uh... you lost me with the 1980's reference. In the 80's, PCs didn't even have heatsink fans. Those came into being with the i486, but that launched in 1989. I think heatpipes weren't even a thing you'd find in CPU coolers until the mid-2000's.

 

[thestryker]

I don't think they're relying on this selling a huge volume at the pricing they've got along with the 3 versions. They'll sell to the never liquid crowd and existing Noctua fans, but that's pretty much it.

If one can buy a Thermalright cooler that can do the same thing performance wise but costs 20-25% the price having to potentially replace fans really doesn't matter.

 

[boju]

Fans do not last forever, anymore than pumps do. At the reported $39/fan that's nearly $80 to replace both. As ingtar33 stated, the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360mm is only $99 for the whole kit, and it looks a lot nicer than this 1980's throwback brown monstrosity, imo.

Why have anxiety over liquid cooling? They've been utilizing non-conductive liquids for years.

If a fan kicks the bucket which they very rarely do then at least you have another as backup or' at the very least have some passive cooling but when a pump dies, that's it. This the anxiety part, not only do you not know when this'll happen, it's a matter of when not if. 2~3 maybe 5yrs if lucky? the system is going to suffer and shut down and then you gotta rip the whole thing out and redo everything. No thanks

 

[thestryker]

This the anxiety part, not only do you not know when this'll happen, it's a matter of when not if. 2~3 maybe 5yrs if lucky?

Can we at least stop spreading this nonsense? I get the disadvantages but no company worth buying from sells an AIO with less than a 5 year warranty anymore. They're not going to be selling products that have a high chance of needing to be replaced under warranty.

 

[Amdlova]

If a fan kicks the bucket which they very rarely do then at least you have another as backup or' at the very least have some passive cooling but when a pump dies, that's it. This the anxiety part, not only do you not know when this'll happen, it's a matter of when not if. 2~3 maybe 5yrs if lucky? the system is going to suffer and shut down and then you gotta rip the whole thing out and redo everything. No thanks

Are you living in 1995 when cpus don't have any kind of sensors or IHS?

With out any heat sink my cpu boot windows and shutdown.

The cpu don't die because your AIO FAIL. Just downclock and shutdown. It's easy to degrade your cpu trying to see the score on cinebench than kill it with heat.

 

[bit_user]

when a pump dies, that's it. This the anxiety part, not only do you not know when this'll happen, it's a matter of when not if. 2~3 maybe 5yrs if lucky? the system is going to suffer and shut down

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if there are obvious warning signs? It seems to me like the kind of mechanical wear responsible for most pump failures would probably cause it to become noisy, first. I guess the pump motor could fail somewhat suddenly and without warning, but I wonder if that's at all common.

 

[boju]

Can we at least stop spreading this nonsense? I get the disadvantages but no company worth buying from sells an AIO with less than a 5 year warranty anymore. They're not going to be selling products that have a high chance of needing to be replaced under warranty.

Still the point of, it's not going to last. Search aio pump died tomshardware, results vary depending how it's phrased but just that phrase alone, well think what you want. It's not nonsense imo. If i have the chance to inform someone of the potential risks associated with water then i will, especially when a chosen cpu isn't necessary to be cooled by water.

Are you living in 1995 when cpus don't have any kind of sensors or IHS?

With out any heat sink my cpu boot windows and shutdown.

The cpu don't die because your AIO FAIL. Just downclock and shutdown. It's easy to degrade your cpu trying to see the score on cinebench than kill it with heat.

I didn't say die

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if there are obvious warning signs? It seems to me like the kind of mechanical wear responsible for most pump failures would probably cause it to become noisy, first. I guess the pump motor could fail somewhat suddenly and without warning, but I wonder if that's at all common.

Mechanically id imagine would be difficult unless you had 👀 inside.

 

[thestryker]

Still the point of, it's not going to last. Search aio pump died tomshardware, results vary depending how it's phrased but just that phrase alone, well think what you want. It's not nonsense imo. If i have the chance to inform someone of the potential risks associated with water then i will, especially when a chosen cpu isn't necessary to be cooled by water.

Informing people of potential risk is one thing and spreading misinformation is another. You can do one without the other, and lying about failure rates is absolutely nonsense.

 

[thestryker]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if there are obvious warning signs? It seems to me like the kind of mechanical wear responsible for most pump failures would probably cause it to become noisy, first. I guess the pump motor could fail somewhat suddenly and without warning, but I wonder if that's at all common.

I've not heard of a pump just suddenly dying it's mostly clogging and wear failure. I'm pretty sure the only way you'd pickup on a slow failure is if you monitored temperatures and/or pump RPM regularly.

Unless part of the pump physically broke or it clogged to the point of creating air bubbles I'm not sure it would be loud enough to hear.

 

[bit_user]

Informing people of potential risk is one thing and spreading misinformation is another.

True.

You can do one without the other, and lying about failure rates is absolutely nonsense.

Is anyone aware of data on AIO failure rates? That would seem to be what we really need. Sometimes, you see data coming back from system integrators about things like the relative frequency of GPU failures from different board makers.

I wish there were a good way to run a survey...

 

[thestryker]

Is anyone aware of data on AIO failure rates? That would seem to be what we really need.

It's a safe bet that if every reputable company selling AIOs has a minimum warranty of 5 years they expect the majority to last at least that long.

Two notable things regarding warranty I can think of would be Arctic back dating their 6 year warranty and the sub-$60 Thermalright 360mm AIO still carrying a 5 year warranty.

 

[razor512]

For the price they are charging, they should have really made a large version of the NH-D15 G2 for $150, and then go with the standard small size of the current NH-D15 G2 for around $70-$80.

 

[Nyara]

True.


Is anyone aware of data on AIO failure rates? That would seem to be what we really need. Sometimes, you see data coming back from system integrators about things like the relative frequency of GPU failures from different board makers.

I wish there were a good way to run a survey...

AIO damages are related to the liquid losing its chemical uniformity on times of extended unuse, or due poor liquid refill maintenance practice. Moving the case or an earthquake can also produce mechanical damage to the radiators or the connects, getting something loose potentially and boom, or over tightening on the CPU or the inverse. Sun/radiation/magnetic exposition can also produce funny damaging effects on the liquid, and the sun can damage the plastic tubes as well.

For an enthusiast using their setup daily in a fixed case position, and doing basic maintenance, and keeping case outside the sun or funky stuff, the AIO is unlikely to fail, hence the long warranties.

For everyone else, it is a time bomb, really. It is also a lot harder to gift or repurpose later, as its future users or uses will not be enthusiast in nature and will not know how to operate it or merely will not use it or care it in a regular fashion.

Personally I've got enough bad personal experiences with AIOs and problems from others that I just prefer air and will just install air for everyone I work with by default. It is just a lot simpler and universal and user friendly flexible, plus no spam of failures after each earthquke. But if you wanna use AIO for your own rig built by yourself and have no plans for it to have a different owner in the future, AIO is cool, too.

 

[Notton]

Fans do not last forever, anymore than pumps do. At the reported $39/fan that's nearly $80 to replace both. As ingtar33 stated, the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360mm is only $99 for the whole kit, and it looks a lot nicer than this 1980's throwback brown monstrosity, imo.

Why have anxiety over liquid cooling? They've been utilizing non-conductive liquids for years.

The fans on the noctua are rated for 150,000h, which is 17.1 years.
I don't expect cheaper fans to last as long, but even cheaper sleeve bearing fans will last some 5 to 10yrs.

 

[Stealth Pyros]

Aw you gotta give em that NOC-TUA, spit on that thang

 

[bit_user]

if you wanna use AIO for your own rig built by yourself and have no plans for it to have a different owner in the future, AIO is cool, too.

FWIW, I've only run air and would only consider running air. I would have to encounter some as-yet unforeseen need, for me to seriously consider liquid cooling.

BTW, I find it interesting that external radiators aren't more common. I'm also surprised we haven't seen dual-chambered cases, where the radiator's airflow is segregated from the rest of the case. Either one would put to bed the argument of whether to put the radiator at the intake or the exhaust!

 

[Phaaze88]

Heatsink – Thermalright

www.thermalright.com

Hydro Cooling – Thermalright

www.thermalright.com

I take a look see through their website every now and then, and holy... this has become too much.
It's nice to have multiple, as well as affordable options, but having so many versions of the same cooler(at least in name) is maddening.
Currently:
14 versions of Frozen Magic AIO - not separating by size.
6 versions of Frozen Warframe 360mm.
There's 13 Peerless Assassins - 10 of those are the 120mm, and those split into 4 SEs, 2 Minis, and 4 regular Assassin.

Can we at least stop spreading this nonsense? I get the disadvantages but no company worth buying from sells an AIO with less than a 5 year warranty anymore. They're not going to be selling products that have a high chance of needing to be replaced under warranty.

Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora is 3 years.
The Eiswolf 2s are 2 years.
Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360: I've been using one since the end of Oct, 2020, and it has a 2 year warranty.

I suppose it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it, but if someone never has/gets to use it anyway... /shrug
By the way, who gets use out of the 10-12 year warranties on power supplies?

 

[thestryker]

Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora is 3 years.
The Eiswolf 2s are 2 years.
Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360: I've been using one since the end of Oct, 2020, and it has a 2 year warranty.

I'm think they must do this to match their custom loop equipment. EKWB did the same thing with their first few AIOs before they changed with the rest of the industry (their custom loop stuff is all still 2/3 years, but AIO is 5).

I suppose it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it, but if someone never has/gets to use it anyway... /shrug

It's more of a buyer confidence thing as a lot of the earlier AIOs did die relatively early deaths (they of course also had much shorter warranty periods).

 

[Zerk2012]

4. Noctua coolers have consistently had top of the line cooling performance for the last decade or so, I have yet to see proof that they have been beaten.

https://tpucdn.com/review/thermalri...-cpu-air-cooler/images/maximum-heat-intel.png

 

[COLGeek]

I have been using Noctuas coolers and fans for many years. Never have they let me down. Never.

I suspect the price will drop shortly after the initial release.

As stated by many, these things last seemingly forever and the do the job better than most.

 

[Dr D00p]

Lol, ì still picture buyers of the Noctua coolers in this colour scheme as pipe smoking, cardigan & slipper wearing Volvo drivers..

 

[Silas Sanchez]

I couldn't buy this due to the horrible color scheme, give us all black for crying out loud.
I dont think it will make a big noticeable diff over the current air coolers, unless I see a proper review showing otherwise. Not worth the hassle.

AIO pros:

- Better looks (subjective).
- Allows big nvme heatsink (better looks). I have tested 4 gen 5 nvme and they dont go over 80C with stock mobo heatsink.
- May very well prolong the life of the cpu and motherboard as a good AIO usually lowers the cpu temp by 8-12 degrees C under heavy loads. So for people who do alot of editing and gaming and want long lifespan that might be the better path, of course you will have to maintain the AIO, but if longevity of the system is critical, AIO is certainly attractive. ATM I just have a spare cpu and mobo on hand. But an AIO is looking more and more attractive. Lower temps may mean less frequent reapplication of thermal paste, dunno about these new cpus, but my stock i7 870 is still on its original arctic air cooler and paste and performs exactly the same (temps & scores) as when new based on benchmarks.
- Going by all the reviews AIO give roughly 10% more perf in bencmarks vs the best air cooler, that might be important, I mean the zen 5 is only 16% uplift as it is.

So what I have concluded is the so called simplicity and longevity of air coolers is problematic and questionable. My case isnt well setup for radiators due to other strange oddball things I have done to it using up that dead space. That is why I still use air, but if I had the space id go AIO.

 

[Dr3ams]

That is a ridiculous price for an air cooler. I refuse to pay anything over 80 Euros.

 

[triplex1]

companies like this that raise prices and make the rest follow without any reason.
for the last 25 years I've only been dealing with Thermalright and I've never paid more than 80 euros, which I think is the highest price for any air cooler.
I have the fc140 I bought for 72 euros and today the same one from taiwan reaches 100 euros