The first words I uttered upon un boxing this beast was something like “Woah, this thing’s huge!”. It really is. At 160mm x 140mm x 158mm and 900g, it’s not your average run of the mill cooler!

In profile you can see how long this cooler is. With the fans in their default orientation, and the cooler positioned blowing air across the motherboard, you’re in danger of blocking components with the far right 120mm fan.

The fin spacing seems pretty consistent with Noctua’s previous coolers, thought a pretty major difference this time is that there are two extra heatpipes for a total of 6 in each radiator.

Another change (presumably to eke out ever last bit of performance) is the serrated edges on every fin. The serrations serve to maximise surface area for air contact, but also to cause some turbulence in the air to allow more of it to come in contact with the fins.

Mounting gear for all the mainstream CPU sockets is included with the NH-D14. Intel LGA775/1156/1366 and AMD AM2/AM3 are all included, so the cooler is very versatile in what you can use it with. You can tell the quality of Noctua products, as you get a screwdriver to install your cooler with (handy if like me you don’t have one long and thin enough to fit between the two radiators of the cooler).

The SecuFirm mounting system would appear to have been updated once more for this cooler, in that the spring tensioned screws are now affixed to the cooler section of the mount, meaning that you no longer have to hold them in place while installing the cooler. This can only lead to a smoother installation, and I commend Noctua for improving an already good mounting system.

The NH-D14 shares the same base finish as the other coolers Noctua makes, in that it is flat, but not mirror smooth. It’s worked for them in the past, so why change it now.

Next Page – Installation and Testing