Applying a significant overclock to the Intel 3930K, the NiC C5 handles it quite well indeed. At low fan speeds the cooler unfortunately slips into close territory to top-flow coolers which are known for struggling with overclocked states but with the fan speeds set to high NiC C5 beats the popular Noctua NH-D14 and Alpenfohn K2. Again, because the fan speed knob is variable results in between low and high can be established – getting a better noise to performance ratio. Noise levels are concerning at high during the overclock state but low settings reveal quiet operation.

Fan Speeds:
Low – 1000RPM during overclock testing
High – 2000RPM during overclock testing