Return of the King - Noctua NH-D15 G2 Review

Just a small note to add to this which didn't make it into the edit: none of our three samples from Noctua, nor a Standard version we bought at retail exhibited any of the "rattling" some people have experienced.

I think I'm sticking with my Phantom Spirit SE but it is good to see Noctua doing so well since it costs so much. Noctua quality and sound is very tough to beat. Thumbs up!

I wish they made a Threadripper version of this. And that Arctic made a Threadripper version of their Liquid Freezer coolers.

Your comparative graphs are the easiest to read.

Running my D15 since my 4790K up uittil my 7800X3D cooling everything like a boss. Even did cool my i9 10900K like a champ. And it is silent as hell most of the time. Fans are being cleaned once in a while and ofc the cooling block. I always cool all my systems with Noctua. Although I also have a water cooled system. Great video!

Mike could you test the old heatsink with the G2 fans? And even with just one. For example D15S with one G2 fan. Thanks!!

Whilst I won't buy this cooler, I have infinite respect for its engineering. It reminds me of Baldur's Gate 3 in an odd way: made by people who love their job (and are extremely good at it).

When the new fans out, I’m gonna build a fully air cooled system with the G2 and new fans

I've been waiting for your review of this cooler, and you delivered! Great vid

Great review! Could you do a review on newer Scythe fans, Wonder Snail for example?

I WAITED 10 YEARS FOR YOU TO MAKE THIS VIDEO MIKE 💞🎉

Good review. Are you gonna make video of Noctua NH-L12Sx77?

I will be interested how Royal Pretor performs against this, 3 times more expensive, chunk of metal called D15 G2. Just can't wait for those new TR coolers. PS: just checked the price of standard G2 here.. 183€ lol (eastern Europe). Long live the PS120!

This is the video I've been waiting for... Thanks, G. You're the man!

Well well.....the King is truly back. I'm shocked at the gap between the G2 and the other air coolers at high heat loads, looking at your graphs. And as far as the price and the brown and beige look goes, I love how the colours look in my current build. It stands out in an all-black build and draws attention to itself as though it's the star of the show. My only regret is that I didn't go with ultra-low profile RAM sticks so the front fan is not on the same level as the centre fan. I like symmetry.

I think between all the “good” cooling options out there, for the most part, we’re talking about 1-6 degrees difference. Other than the small minority of people who have the mindset of performance > absolutely everything, I think most people consider a lot of other factors when deciding on their cooling option. Some people might prioritize price, some esthetics, some brand loyalty, some noise etc but when it comes to performance they don’t need it to be the “best” they just don’t want it to be bad. It’s a reviewers job to hyper focus on performance as they provide us with an important data point to help us avoid choosing a bad product but as consumers I think we sometimes put too much weight on that single data point.

Awesome review! Thanks.

Well, I just finished a build with the Nh d9l, For the Mood case, I'll keep this one in mind for a next build.

What a review, you built the exact reports with the data us stakeholders need to review to understand the impact on our builds with trade offs for our use cases and an elegant summary. The only thing missing would be sanity test with a couple high airflow builds, a few different fan profiles and workloads so we wouldn’t have to do any graph math and just have and example of how much quieter our rooms could be. Like in the real world would that money make our girlfriends happier when they’re sitting next to us when we fire up a game or trying to have a conversation listening to music while it’s idling. But no fluff and concise, love it!

For the money I'd rather go with a liquid cooler and replace that once, twice if i'm unlucky for the lifespan of a PC (8-10 years) and meanwhile enjoy 10 degree cooler temps the whole while. For now I'm good with Thermalright 1/5 -1/3 of the price that performs 1 degree worse at best, at least while Thermalrights pricing strategy lasts.