[SOLVED] Will the NH-D15 fit?

Hi all,

I'm not too familiar with buying/using aftermarket air coolers and I'm not sure from where I'm supposed to measure the RAM clearance.

Specs:
B450-F Strix
2x8GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB
Fractal Design Meshify C Dark TG

I'm wondering if the NH-D15 will fit or if should go with the Dark Rock Pro 4 instead. Heck, I don't even know if the Pro 4 will fit either.

My RAM is just over 44mm. On BeQuiet's website, the clearance for the Pro 4 is 40mm, which is weird because the picture of the Pro 4 is installed with a pair of Trident Z RGBs.

I'd appreciate it if any of you have any hands-on experience with these parts.
 
Solution
Yes, it should fit. You may (probably) have to raise the front fan a bit to clear the top of the memory, but there should be room to do that as your case supports coolers up to 172m and the D15 is only 165mm with the fan installed. So you have an additional 7mm you can raise the fan. Plenty of people using the D15 with Trident Z sticks.

You might lose a SMALL amount of cooling performance by doing so though, potentially, since you'll be effectively moving the bottom few rows of fins out of the direct path of the airflow by moving the fan up. Might be better to go with a cooler that is just about as good as the D15 but is highly offset away from the ram for clearance, like the Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT.

What CPU are you going to...
Yes, it should fit. You may (probably) have to raise the front fan a bit to clear the top of the memory, but there should be room to do that as your case supports coolers up to 172m and the D15 is only 165mm with the fan installed. So you have an additional 7mm you can raise the fan. Plenty of people using the D15 with Trident Z sticks.

You might lose a SMALL amount of cooling performance by doing so though, potentially, since you'll be effectively moving the bottom few rows of fins out of the direct path of the airflow by moving the fan up. Might be better to go with a cooler that is just about as good as the D15 but is highly offset away from the ram for clearance, like the Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT.

What CPU are you going to be using this with, the 2700x?
 
Solution
Thanks for clarifying that. Yes, I am using it with the 2700X, I've been using the stock cooler for a while and I'm getting tired of hearing that jet engine fan.

After doing some research. I stumbled upon the NH-D15S. I was thinking of grabbing that instead and verify clearance using the included 1 fan and then either purchase another NF-A15 or a 120mm one. Although that ends up being 20$ more expensive as the D15 and D15S are selling for the same price in my country.
 
I doubt you even need a cooler that size. If you've been using the stock cooler then any good 140mm air cooler will do the job. The one I indicated by Thermalright, or even something like the Thermalright Macho rev.B or rev.C, or Thermalright True spirit direct 140, Noctua NH-U14S, ANY of the single or double finstack 140mm fan coolers will work well.

Below is my list of preferred CPU AIR coolers, also known as Heatsink fans (HSF).

Do not look here for recommendations on water/liquid cooling solutions. There are none to be found.

A good air cooler works just as well for most applications. There are very few instances I can think of where an AIO will work better than a good air cooler, and even fewer where an AIO will outperform an air cooler if you are willing to buy the right air cooler and then level up by adding some even higher end fans to it.

Loops leak. Heatsinks don't. Pumps fail, FAR more often and usually with far worse consequences, than fans do.

And unlike a heatsink fan assembly, when your pump fails for 99% of AIO coolers, you will be replacing the whole thing, for another 100+ dollars, rather than just a 25 dollar investment for the failure of a fan. Especially since I've rarely seen dual fan coolers have both fans fail at the same time, but even if you factor in two fan failures that's still only about fifty bucks compared to the 100+ it will cost to replace an AIO with a failed pump. And you WILL have a failed pump on most AIO coolers within three years of purchase. Seeing one last longer than five years is possible, but it is not particularly common and we often, very often, see them fail at around the 3 year mark. Sometimes much sooner.

Pump quality and longevity is an area that needs GREAT improvement before AIO coolers will become a primary recommendation for me.

I see a lot of AIO coolers leak and damage hardware as well.

Certainly there are situations where an AIO is called for, or even preferred, but those are MOSTLY aesthetic considerations, because let's face it, a build with an AIO or custom loop generally "looks" a lot cleaner than one that has a big heatsink taking up half the real estate inside your case. When that is the case, I have recommendations for those as well, but I don't offer them unless somebody is specifically asking to go that route.[/B]

They are basically listed in order of preference, from top to bottom. To some degree that preference is based on known performance on similarly overclocked configurations, but not entirely. There are likely a couple of units that are placed closer to the top not because they offer purely better performance than another cooler which is below it, but potentially due to a variety of reasons.

One model might be placed higher than another with the same or similar performance, but has quieter or higher quality fans. It may have the same performance but a better warranty. Long term quality may be higher. It may be less expensive in some cases. Maybe it performs slightly worse, but has quieter fans and a better "fan pitch". Some fans with equal decibel levels do not "sound" like they are the same as the specific pitch heard from one fan might be less annoying than another.

In any case, these are not "tiered" and are not a 100% be all, end all ranking. They are simply MY preference when looking at coolers for a build or when making recommendations. Often, which HSF gets chosen depends on what is on this list and fits the budget or is priced right at the time due to a sale or rebate. Hopefully it will help you and you can rest assured that every cooler listed here is a model that to some degree or other is generally a quality unit which is a lot more likely to be worth the money spent on it than on many other models out there that might look to be a similarly worthwhile investment.

Certainly there are a great many other very good coolers out there, but these are models which are usually available to most anybody building a system or looking for a cooler, regardless of what part of the world they might live in. As always, professional reviews are usually an absolutely essential part of the process of finding a cooler so if you are looking at a model not listed here, I would highly recommend looking at at least two or three professional reviews first.

If you cannot find two reviews of any given cooler, it is likely either too new to have been reviewed yet or it sucked, and nobody wanted to buy one in order to review it plus the manufacturer refused to send samples out to the sites that perform reviews because they knew it would likely get bad publicity.

IMO, nobody out there is making better fans, overall, than Noctua, followed pretty closely by Thermalright. So if you intend to match case fans to the same brand on your HSF, those are pretty hard to beat. Of course, Corsair has it's Maglev fans, and those are pretty damn good too, but they tend to be more expensive than what are in my opinion better fans by these other two, so while they are good products they don't have the same noise characteristics and are probably better suited for configurations where sheer brute force is preferred over low noise that still gives good performance. Also, as with most fan models out there, don't look at the specifications for the non-RGB Maglev fan models and think that you'll be getting the same specs on any RGB versions, because you won't. Fans with RGB tend to sacrifice both maximum CFM and static pressure for the right to stuff the RGB electronics under the hood.

Units below that are grayed out are not recommended for your configuration unless they are the only choice you have.


Noctua NH-D14 (Replace stock fans with NF-A14 industrialPPC 2000rpm)
Noctua NH-D15/D15 SE-AM4
Noctua NH-D14 (With original fans)
Thermalright Silver arrow IB-E Extreme
Phanteks PH-TC14PE (BK,BL, OR or RD)
Cryorig R1 Ultimate or Universal
Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT
Thermalright Macho X2
Deepcool Assassin III
Thermalright Macho rev. C
Thermalright Macho rev.B
Thermalright ARO-M14G (Ryzen only)
Thermalright Macho direct
Deepcool Assassin II
Be Quiet Dark rock Pro 4
Noctua NH-U14S
Thermalright true spirit 140 Direct
FSP Windale 6
Scythe Ninja 5

Scythe Mugen max
Scythe Mugen 5 rev.B
BeQuiet dark rock (3 or 4)
Thermalright Macho SBM
Cryorig H5
Noctua NH-U12S
Arctic freezer 34 eSports Duo
Phanteks PH-TC14S
Phanteks PH-TC12DX (Any)
Cryorig H7
Deepcool Gammaxx 400

Cooler Master Hyper 212 (EVO, X, RGB. I'd only recommend this cooler if no other good aftermarket models are available to you.)



It may not be obvious, but is probably worth mentioning, that not all cooler models will fit all CPU sockets as aftermarket coolers generally require an adapter intended for use with that socket. Some coolers that fit an AMD platform might not fit a later AMD platform, or an Intel platform. Often these coolers come with adapters for multiple types of platforms but be sure to verify that a specific cooler WILL work with your platform before purchasing one and finding out later that it will not.
 
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Thanks for the clarification on AIOs. Although, I wasn't planning on purchasing one. I'm actually using the stock cooler because my old AIO stopped functioning as intended.

I wanted to pick up the NH-D15/S or Dark Rock Pro 4 because I was planning of upgrading to one of Zen 3's 8-core (or more) CPUs upon release. The reason is that I am soon upgrading to a 4k camera and I'm currently getting some slow workflows on separate occasions.

I will have a look through your list and see where that takes me. Many thanks.
 
Thanks for the clarification on AIOs. Although, I wasn't planning on purchasing one. I'm actually using the stock cooler because my old AIO stopped functioning as intended.

I wanted to pick up the NH-D15/S or Dark Rock Pro 4 because I was planning of upgrading to one of Zen 3's 8-core (or more) CPUs upon release. The reason is that I am soon upgrading to a 4k camera and I'm currently getting some slow workflows on separate occasions.

I will have a look through your list and see where that takes me. Many thanks.

What country are you actually in?

In middle and eastern Europe there are some really good coolers by Silentium pc that aren't available in the States, these often get overlooked by USA members.

Case in point.

https://www.amazon.de/SilentiumPC-F...child=1&keywords=He1425&qid=1594540948&sr=8-1

My ryzen 1700@3.7ghz refuses to go over 50c even under stress testing.

Bang for buck (in Europe at least) its the best cooler by an absolute mile.
 
Yeah, that's a nice cooler. It shares a lot of similarities, but also some differences, with the Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT in the size and design style of the heatsink. I might have to add that to my list.

I'd consider it a direct competitor to the macho, same zero ram interference off set, very similar performance (in my experience), same sub 160mm height which is a massive boon for a 140mm tower.

Availaibilty is its issue really, at half the price of its competitors when it is available though its an absolute standout in my opinion.

I did honestly half expect to have to replace the fan at that pricepoint but no, at 1200rpm it's absolutely silent.
 
I live in Indonesia.

We don't really have official retailers like in Europe such as Mediamarkt, FNAC and so worth. Nor Anything close to a Best Buy or a NewEgg. Quite unfortunately I'd say.

They're mostly small-time retailers with small shops and very limited stock. Most of it is done by orders made through suppliers.

On top of that, availability is quite poor due to the current pandemic. I spent all day looking into it and this is what I've found.

Available units (I will go for one of these):
  • NH-D15S
  • NH D14
  • NH U14S
  • Dark Rock 4
  • Deepcool Assassin III
Available with a very limited 1-year warranty (due to the brand not having an official distributor in the country):
  • Phanteks PH-TC14PE (quite unfortunate I was leaning towards this one)
  • Any Thermalright stuff
  • Any Cryorig stuff
I prefer steering clear of these as the RMA process for these types of warranties are very complicated and can often take months.

Out of stock:
  • NH-D15 / SE-AM4
  • Dark Rock Pro 4
  • Deepcool Assassin II
Unavailable:
  • FSP Windale 5 & 6
  • Any Silentium stuff
  • Any Scythe stuff
One day... I will open up a Fry's here. I swear...
 
In truth, warranty considerations for coolers is a minimal one. Fans usually don't fail for years and heatsinks usually don't fail, period, unless you've been foolish enough to cut the tops off the heatsink pipes and if you did that it wouldn't be covered by warranty anyhow. So warranty isn't a big deal in this case. I've seen maybe three heatsink fans fail prematurely in about 30 years of doing this, and fortunately, if a fan does fail, replacing the fan itself is usually not terribly expensive anyhow. Worth the chance in my opinion to open up your list to other options.

The TC14PE is a good cooler, but the Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT is a much BETTER one. Of the items on the in stock list, the D15S, U14S or Assassin III would be my choices. If you are going to upgrade to a Ryzen 9 CPU, I would think twice about the U14S as it might not be enough, but then again, it might. It's a pretty capable cooler for single finstack model.
 
Yeah, I'm aware that Air Coolers are typically very robust products and I'm sure the warranty considerations are minimal, but they still exist.
I'm concerned about shipping and storage conditions as they can often deliver products in bad shape here. I've had a lot of negative experiences through my job where I've had to deal with these limited-warranty type products, so it's become a habit I've picked up through the years.

This is usually the reason why they come so cheap too. The Le Grand Macho and Phanteks coolers are selling for 60-65$ (USD), which after comparing to US and EU prices seems like a good deal. It's usually what companies like to do to check whether a certain country has a market for its products. Then they come in a few years later with an official product chain.

Anywho, before I start to rant about the local product & supply chain, I've already ordered the component. I'll have to wait and see what Zen 3 will offer... and at what price especially.

I've also noticed your enthusiasm for the Thermalright products so I will be sure to look more into them and be more aware of their product lineup in the future.

Moreover, I appreciate the list you've posted because it is difficult to find good recommendations online. It all seemed to point to a BeQuiet! vs Noctua fight for the top tier lineup, and I found that hard to believe. So I'm glad that I've got a list to work with as I'll be keeping an eye on these brands in the future.
 
Yes, Thermalright are right up there with Noctua, and in some cases might actually be the better option especially if you need a high end cooler in a case that doesn't support something tall. But there is love to spread around. Deepcool makes good coolers as well. Obviously Noctua does. I'm not a fan, at all, of Zalman, but they have a new cooler that gives the D15 a run for it's money I guess. Cryorig has mostly shunned the US market now so I don't often recommend their products anymore.

Scythe products, CAN be ok, but I recommend overkill when going with a Scythe product because they just never seem to perform as well in real world use as they seem to in reviews. Plus, most, maybe all of their coolers are 120mm models, so they don't really compete against the larger units sold by the big boys.

Arctic also makes some decent coolers, but again, like Scythe, they are mainly resolved to sell only the smaller 120mm heatsink fans. For the most part I like Noctua, Thermalright, Deepcool, Be Quiet, Phanteks and Cryorig.
 
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There are arguments to both sides of the question, but in general I recommend against it. I'm sure, as always, somebody will come in here and argue about it, but the fact remains that heatsinks are designed by engineers to precisely transport heat away from the CPU using convection, conduction and radiation. Painting the heatsink puts an extra layer on the heatsink, much like when you put on a coat on a hot day. Your body is not able to cool itself as easily because the heat is trapped under an additional layer, say, a windbreaker jacket for example. Sure, there doesn't seem like there's that much to it, but put a windbreaker on when it's 90 degrees out, and see how much difference that thin covering makes in trying to stay cool.

Not much different for a heatsink. Some say, well, many heatsinks are anodized or colored, and they are, but they are DESIGNED to be that way by an engineer who has tested it and determined that it doesn't adversely affect performance to a degree that is significant enough to disallow it. Plus, anodizing is much less likely to trap heat than paint is. Paint is an insulator. This is exactly why paint that isn't designed for high temperatures will blister and burn away on an engine block or barbecue grill. It's trapping heat that would normally have been shed. (And, it also isn't designed to remain bonded at that temperature.)

The difference may not be incredible or earth shattering, but even a few degrees is a few degrees I'd rather not see go the wrong direction. And that's just for the fins of the heatsink. The pipes themselves, should definitely not be painted or you'll risk disrupting the thermal conductivity and phase transition that is happening inside the pipes. Again, it's not like painting them will STOP the process, but the delicate balance that was engineered into the device is going to be altered in the wrong direction for optimal cooling.

I'd advise against it. Coloring fans on the other hand, is a different story, but you don't want to use paint to do that.
 
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Yeah, I figured as much. I wasn't too hopeful about it, to begin with, but I thought I might as well ask the question.

Thanks for all your help BTW. Many people just clear out of the thread once the Best Answer is nominated. Appreciate you sticking around until the end, even long after I've technically already got what I came for.