O-Sense
CONCLUSION
The brand new NH-D15S is basically a slightly modified NH-D15 (for use in small PC cases) without a second NF-A15 fan so our results were not unexpected in any way. Actually i did expect worse results but it seems that the “tweaks” Noctua placed improved the cooling efficiency of the heatsink even if just by a small amount. The NH-D15S should also be much better for use with the smaller mATX/mITX mainboards (always compared to the NH-D15) since even in our test rig there was more room from the top PCie slot and the lack of a 2nd fan obviously allows for more room at the front of the cooler. Also although Noctua used a single NF-A15 with the NH-D15S it produced roughly the same noise levels as the two used with the NH-D15 but fans always have a +/- percentage so that wasn’t something really unexpected.
While I type these lines the NH-D15S CPU Cooler by Noctua retails for USD99.65 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 86.53Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag that lands it right next to the NH-D15. That’s also one of the drawbacks of this model since Noctua may have “tweaked” the original design a bit and it may be brand new but the NH-D15 also has a 2nd NF-A15 fan in the bundle thus we feel that there should be a larger price gap between these two models. In the end that will not matter much to most potential buyers since the NH-D15S is a better solution for small PC cases and that along with the fact that once again Noctua released a high quality product with excellent performance levels gets it our Platinum Award.
PROS
- Excellent Build Quality
- New Design (Zero Clearance Issues)
- Superior Cooling Efficiency (One Of The Top CPU Air Coolers In Our Charts)
- Tri-Fan Solution
- Noise Levels
CONS
- Price (For Some)
