Noctua NH-C14 CPU Cooler
Noctua’s brain trust has unleashed upon the masses, a CPU cooler that looks to appeal to several different user markets. Reshaping the heatpipe orientation into a “C” orientation, and placing the fins parallel to the motherboard… has Noctua caught lightening in a bottle again? Let’s look on and find out.
Sponsor: Noctua
[hr]
Noc who? |
For the uninitiated, the name “Noctua” may not be familiar. Trust me on this though, you will remember it. Noctua has been churning out high end heat eaters at a dizzying clip.
Noctua is dedicated to the high end enthusiast that wants the very best heatsink, *and* has cooling that will rival water coolers, *and* they want their fans silent, *and* they just loooove using lots of heatpipes! ;)
The NH-C14 gets it’s “C” designation from the fact that the 6 heatpipes, when viewed from the side, take on a “C” shape. This puts the fins of the air cooler perpendicular to the board, from an airflow perspective, which means you are going to get a LOT of secondary cooling from this behemoth. The air will intake on the top, travel through the fins, and then exhaust on the area under the heatsink (CPU, voltage regs, caps, etc… If you have a board with finning around the CPU area for heat producing components, this cooler will help that by providing the exhausted air from the fans passing over those surfaces. 
Cooled by two super quiet 140mm fans (yes… I said 2x140mm), the C14 is a good looking heatsink naked… But the C14 brings more than just good looks to the table. The orientation of the fins and the overall height were designed to give maximum installation flexibility. If you have the room, and want max, performance, leave both fans on, and install. If you have tall memory that you have to consider, then drop off the bottom fan, leaving the top most in a “push” mode of air supply. If you have a low profile case, and clearance is an issue with the side or top… yep! You guessed it! Pull the top fan off, install the bottom fan underneath the heat fins, and provide the life giving cool air from a “pull” configuration. The diagram below sums it up nicely.
Options baby! And this heatsink has got them!
|
