They say silence is golden, and that’s never been more true than when air cooling a PC. We believe your rig should be seen, not heard: so we were very pleased when Noctua finally released the highly anticipated follow up to the spectacular NH-D15. The original version had been around for over a decade and to this day is still one of the best performing air coolers you can get your hands on. Not everyone loves the brown and cream aesthetic which Noctua are known for, but you can’t deny that their products have always been engineered to outlast and outperform the competition! We have the Noctua NH-D15 G2 range in the studio this week to have a look at, we have high hopes!
Cooler Overview
Unboxing the G2 was a familiar experience, everything looked about the same as the last generation. At first glance, the cooler is also very reminiscent of its predecessor: a large copper baseplate with heatpipes running up to 2 large sets of aluminium cooling fins, with 2 fans attached. There are some differences in measurements, the new variant is (with fans) (h)168mm x (w)150mm x (d)152mm. It’s beefy for sure and we need to select a case big enough to handle it’s heft! The upgrades are less about appearance, it’s all about performance, the improvements include:
A fan speed offset of ~25rpm to allow for optimised acoustic performance and lower noise.
8 heat pipes running to asymmetrical cooling fins with 20% more surface area.
Redesigned NF-A14x25r G2 fans with improved max airflow of 155.6m³/h.
The NH-D15 G2 is available in 3 versions, standard, LBC and HBC. We used the standard version in our build as Noctua list compatibility between the standard version and AM5 as ‘excellent’.
Parts List
Why Did We Choose This Hardware?
This time we wanted a more mature build. It had to be something that could handle gaming, but also would look at home as a productivity setup in the studio long term. To reach our goal of a productivity setup with gaming capabilities we went with the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X 3D paired with the ASUS x Noctua GeForce RTX 4080. It should give us all the performance we need to edit video but also game and tie in well with the Noctua aesthetic. To bring these components together, we opted for the ProArt ProArt X670E-Creator motherboard, the colour palette and professional focused design looked like it should work well.
We needed a case to both handle the girth of the cooler and provide enough airflow. We chose the NZXT H7 Flow for the task, its minimalist design is a good match for the no nonsense aesthetic of Noctua fans! Now we’ve mentioned fans, we went for 5 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14 PWM and 3 x 120mm Noctua NF-F12 PWM, they should provide immense airflow and be whisper quiet!
To aid with easy and aesthetic cable management we once again chose a TUF Gaming 850w Gold power supply. The TUF Gaming PSU’s have become one our go-to choices for power supplies: they’re well priced, they offer a range of wattages to suit but the main reason why we love them so much is the quality and flex of the cables.
How Was The Build?
Assembling the motherboard felt pretty standard, everything dropping in without issue. The mounts used for the cooler had a 7mm offset for AM5 to ensure the contact place was positioned perfectly. Once it was installed the size of the unit really hit home! It’s as much of a beast as its predecessor.
The H7 Flow is a super easy case to build in, tons of space and it will support almost any hardware you throw at it! The completed motherboard dropped in without issue. We fitted all eight fans and routed the cables to the Noctua NA-FH1 fan hub using Noctua fan extensions. We appreciate the cables on Noctua fans and extensions, the cable sleeving keeps cable straight and makes organising simple as they stay where you put them. Used alongside the TUF Gaming PSU it made cable management a breeze!
There is only one downside to this build, weight! We don’t have any scales in to measure the weight but carting it around the studio was a challenge! If you decide to copy this one, make sure to do so on a sturdy desk!
Airflow
The case has flow in its name and is full of Noctua fans, but did it meet expectations? Of course it did! This was one of the simplest airflow visualisations I’ve seen! The Noctua fans both on the front and bottom of the case made short work of the smoke entering the case. The front fans fed the CPU cooler more air than it would ever need. The bottom fans blasted air up to the graphics card and the exhaust fans did what you’d expect! The PSU in this case is responsible for its own airflow as needed but has plenty of ventilation so we have no worries about that.
Performance
Lets keep it simple, the build is CPU cooler focused, instead of the norm of looking at performance at different settings let’s max everything out! We were not disappointed! The results:
Ambient Room Temperature: 23.8°C
Spider-Man Remastered
3440x1440 Very high
102-131 fps
62°C CPU
56°C GPU
Forza Horizon 5
3440x1440 Extreme
117-136 fps
62°C CPU
61°C GPU
CPU-Z
Max Temp 57°C at approx 364 RPM
Max Temp 52°C at approx 1525 RPM
Furmark2
3440x1440
Avg fps 248
Max temp 66°C
Hotspot 88°C
The performance of the NH-D15 G2 is admirable, the heat dissipation is similar to what we might expect of a 360 AIO. Using the CPU-Z stress test the CPU is staying cool while the fans are only spinning slightly faster than their minimum. When ramped up to near max RPM the difference is apparent, but not by as wide a margin as you might expect. We did manage to get the CPU around 5°C warmer while gaming, we were using a lower fan curve, with the fans running at around 400 RPM, the rig stayed quiet and performed well!
Roundup
We accomplished that which we set out to do, we built a PC with a more mature theme that can handle pretty much anything you can throw at it while remaining quiet. It fits in well at the studio, keeping to the general black and wood theme we’ve got going on in here. We hope to be using this build for general tasks going forwards. That intention is one we’ve had many times before and the build ends up superseded after a few months! For the time I have with this build in the studio I will enjoy it’s design, power and silence!
This was an enjoyable build, we love building with Noctua products, their quality and performance remains top notch. You may not like the coffee and cream aesthetic of their fans, but we do! If you’re in that camp we hope to see a Chromax.Black version in the future.
As we mentioned earlier the NH-D15 G2 is available in 3 variants, standard, LBC and HBC. For more information on their differences and which one might be right for your setup click here.
What are you thoughts on the build? Is there anything you'd change? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Check out the build video below:
Blog post Written by Sam Thwaytes