Temperature Testing
The following tests were run in our Fractal Design Define R3. The closed case temps are to indicate what the average person could expect with a closed case, running low case fans for quiet running. The open case temps are to indicate what a test bench might achieve or what a high airflow case could achieve. To be clear, we removed the left hand side panel to ‘open’ the case – as illustrated by the photo from the build log.
FAN SPEEDS
Stock 12v is relevant only to the NH-D14 running at full tilt. The other case fans remain at the same levels for all tests. Likewise for the Reduced Voltage temps. This configuration is using the 2 voltage reduction adapters that come with the NH-D14.
TEMPERATURE RECORDING
When determining the CPU/Core temperature to reference, we recorded readings for all of the 4 cores but took an average for comparison.
The idle temperatures are the readings just before we started the Prime95 torture test. An average maximum temperature is attained after an hour of the Prime 95 torture test. Temperatures were recorded using Core Temp, the system was left idle for at least 30 minutes between test cycles.
OVERCLOCK
We went with a conservative overclock of 4.5Ghz @ 1.288 volts which we felt would be fine for 24/7 running.
RESULTS
DELTA TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES
These results show the differences in the delta (core temperature – ambient room temperature) for the tests we conducted.
The idle temperatures were much of a muchness and the load temperatures followed the pattern we expected but it was nice to see that the difference between 12v and Low Noise Adapters (L.N.A) wasn’t much in our testing.
Higher volts and overclocking may have widened the gap here but we were testing in line with what we considered to be normal use.
VALUE
The NH-D14 comes in at around $85 so it isn’t “cheap” but when you look at what you get in the package, you are probably not on a tight budget if you’re looking at this cooler and Noctua have cheaper alternatives. There are a lot of options between the $30 and %70 dollar mark but not many (if any) with dual fans or dual sets of fins like this.
Please note that we bought this unit with our own cash (i.e. it was not provided by Noctua) and we felt that it was a good purchase so there was no buyers’ remorse to be seen here.
