Noctua NH-C14 CPU Cooler Review

👤by Sahil Mannick Comments 📅28-11-10
Features & Specifications

Noctua's own overview of the cooler:
The NH-C14 brings top-flow cooling to a new level by offering an exquisite, uniquely flexible 140mm dual fan setup: The two supplied NF-P14 premium fans can be installed on top and underneath the fin-stack to configure the cooler for maximum performance in dual fan mode and either lower profile (105mm) or maximum component clearance in single fan modes. Bundled with the award-winning NT-H1 thermal compound and Noctua’s SecuFirm2™ multi-socket mounting system, the NH-C14 is a highly flexible, premium-class top-flow solution that further boosts the renowned quiet cooling performance of the much acclaimed NH-C12P series.

Specifications



Features



As we have grown accustomed to from Noctua, the specification that the NH-C14 boasts are impressive. The most distinguishing aspect of the specification list is the sheer weight of the heatsink. At 700g, it’s 150g heavier than the NH-C12P SE14 heatsink despite the fin stack being much thinner on the former. Consequently it also means the surface area is less on the NH-C14 so it will be interesting to see how the transition to a smaller heatsink but with two fans instead will impact performance. Similarly, then the fans are attached, the NH-C14 is a beastly 1000g in weight, 270g more than the heatsink it replaces. The aluminium and copper construction has remained the same and the cooler retains the 6 heat piped design. Unlike the old cooler, Noctua have bundled two of their 14cm NF-P14 fans but the NH-C14 will still support 12cm fans should users opt for higher RPM fans. Of course, the latter will sacrifice noise for improved performance but Noctua’s philosophy has always been silence hence the NF-P14 having a rotational speed of 1200 RPM.

Noctua realise that tower heatsinks are inherently better at cooling thanks to the greater surface area available for heat dissipation and their orientation to work with chassis airflow. But in many situations, users demand low profile coolers for their HTPCs or where space is very limited so top down coolers are the ideal choices. Cases such as the Lian Li PC V351 restrict the size of coolers to around 115mm and the NH-C14 caters for those with the low profile mode. In its low profile configuration, the heatsink is a mere 105mm tall and cooling is provided by the fan clipping to the under-side of the fin stack. Another growing complaint with heatsinks is memory compatibility as manufacturers constantly use taller RAM heat spreaders. For an idea of how much clearance is available, have a look at our video here. The flexibility of the Noctua cooler means that users can simply switch to the high clearance mode and have a single fan at the top of the radiator. This increases the height of the cooler to 140mm but there is enough clearance for 65mm tall memory modules. And finally, if space isn’t an issue, the cooler can still be used with both NF-P14 fans attached for a unique push-pull top down cooler configuration. The main advantage of such coolers is their ability to cool motherboard components such as the Northbridge, MOSFETs, RAM and adjacent components. Our tests will see how the NH-C14 compares to the NH-D14 in that regard.



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