Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black – Premium cooler in a new coat

Conclusion and summary

Noctua NH-D15S has been at the forefront of coolers for many years. However, the typically beige color of Noctua fans is usually not very popular. But a new version of this cooler with the chromax.black attribute has recently been released. This version has a black finish from the fan to the last screw. In addition, it should not affect the efficiency of the heatsink, but all that remains is to verify it on a hot processor.

Key features of the cooler

In terms of build quality, the NH-D15S chromax.black is of course identical to the original version of the cooler, which has been on the market for six years. It is a dual-tower cooler, where both fin bundles are connected by six copper heatpipes. In addition, the joints between the fins and heatpipes are soldered, which ensures better heat transfer. The heatpipes are further anchored in a large copper base, the nickel-plated contact surface of which is the only spot on the cooler that does not have a matte black finish.

Of course, the fan is also completely black, including the anti-vibration pads. Overall, the cooler looks inconspicuous, but also luxurious. This is further highlighted by excellent build quality. The top fin on both bundles bears an inconspicuously embossed manufacturer’s logo, and the entire cooler has an offset design away from the first PCI Express slot on the motherboard. You should keep this offset in mind during installation so that you do not accidentally rotate the cooler in a way that it interferes with the graphics card.

Both fin bundles also have cutouts in the lower parts to minimize any conflict with the memory modules or the power phase design’s heatsink of the motherboard. But it also depends on whether you fit the front bundle with another fan or leave it free. Here you can use a 120mm fan and a 140mm one, which of course has a great influence on the maximum height of the RAM modules. I mention this in more detail in the following chapter.

The box contains the usual things you would expect from Noctua. The mounting system for both Intel and AMD sockets has the same matte black finish as the rest of the cooler. You will also find several small brochures with clear instructions for installation. There is also a traditional screwdriver and a tube of Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste, which will suffice for approximately five applications. However, it still bothers me that Noctua does not include the newer and better NT-H2 paste with these new coolers.

The accessories also include an adapter to limit the maximum fan speed and a second set of clips to attach an additional fan to the front fin bundle. However, there is no splitter for connecting two fans to one connector onto the motherboard.

Like with most coolers, Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black uses the reliable and user-friendly SecuFirm2 mounting system. I consider it to be a kind of imaginary standard of simplicity among mounting systems. Regardless of the type of socket, mounting and installing the cooler are very easy tasks, so you should not encounter any difficulties here, of course, provided you have a spacious enough PC case, because this is one big cooler.

Cooler and fan specs

Interestingly, I compared this cooler with its smaller brothers from the Noctua Chromax family. It can be seen that this is really a big beast, which needs to be considered when choosing a case. Compatibility with RAM modules is slightly more complicated here due to the design of the cooler. If you leave the front bundle without a fan, you can use up to 65mm high RAM modules. If you use a 120mm fan, this height drops to 45 mm, which is still enough space for modern RAM modules with a height usually around 42–44 mm. However, if you install another NF-A15 fan on the front fin bundle, you are then limited to low-profile RAM with a maximum height of 32 mm.

The used fan NF-A15 HS-PWM is practically disguised as NF-A14 PWM in another frame, which allows mounting as with a 120 mm fan. The letters HS mean high-speed. The common variant of the NF-A15 PWM reaches only 1200 RPM, which leads to lower air flow and static pressure. Again, I’m adding other fans from Chromax coolers for comparison.

Noctua NH-D15S has been at the forefront of coolers for many years. However, the typically beige color of Noctua fans is usually not very popular. But a new version of this cooler with the chromax.black attribute has recently been released. This version has a black finish from the fan to the last screw. In addition, it should not affect the efficiency of the heatsink, but all that remains is to verify it on a hot processor.

Test methodology

The Intel Core i7-5820K in the ASRock X99 Taichi motherboard serves as a heat generator. The whole rig is placed on a Streacom BC1 benchtable without fans that would provide airflow. Stress tests are performed using the Aida64 Extreme application with a duration of 45–60 minutes. The coolers are tested at three speed levels (800, 1200 and maximum) at a processor clock speed of 4200 MHz with a voltage of 1.150 V. This is followed by another series of tests at 4500 MHz with a voltage of 1.350 V. The processor power draw at these clock speeds is approx. 150 W and 200 W, respectively.

The second series of tests represents a heavy load for most coolers. Thus, not all tested coolers can be expected to be able to cool the processor at all speed levels. The noise is measured using a calibrated Voltcraft SL-100 sound level meter in quick measurement mode (125 ms) with a sensitivity range of 30–100 dBA at a distance of 50 cm from the cooler. Measurements take place at three fan speed levels: 800, 1200 and maximum.

At the end of the test, the highest temperature reached is always recorded. All data regarding temperatures and power draw of the processor are obtained from the HWiNFO64 application. The results are then corrected for ambient temperature as the final Delta T value. The test success limit is set at 80 °C. Any higher value means the processor temperature above 100 °C and a risk of thermal throttling. Therefore, if the cooler does not pass the stress test with a Delta T value below 80 °C, such test is marked as failed.

Due to the fact that the layout of the room where I perform the tests changed slightly, I preferred to retest most of the coolers that got into my hands. Fortunately, the deviations were mostly minimal, but I wanted to make sure that the consistency of the tests was maintained. Just so you shouldn’t be surprised that the graphs from older articles now have slightly different values. Unfortunately, a few coolers have dropped out of the database, but I will try to include them again. And due to the fact that our database of coolers is slowly growing, we will now divide the results into three sections according to RPM for better clarity.

Noctua NH-D15S has been at the forefront of coolers for many years. However, the typically beige color of Noctua fans is usually not very popular. But a new version of this cooler with the chromax.black attribute has recently been released. This version has a black finish from the fan to the last screw. In addition, it should not affect the efficiency of the heatsink, but all that remains is to verify it on a hot processor.

Results – max rpm

Noctua NH-D15S has been at the forefront of coolers for many years. However, the typically beige color of Noctua fans is usually not very popular. But a new version of this cooler with the chromax.black attribute has recently been released. This version has a black finish from the fan to the last screw. In addition, it should not affect the efficiency of the heatsink, but all that remains is to verify it on a hot processor.

Results – medium rpm

Noctua NH-D15S has been at the forefront of coolers for many years. However, the typically beige color of Noctua fans is usually not very popular. But a new version of this cooler with the chromax.black attribute has recently been released. This version has a black finish from the fan to the last screw. In addition, it should not affect the efficiency of the heatsink, but all that remains is to verify it on a hot processor.

Results – low rpm

It can already be seen here that a high amount of waste heat in combination with low speeds means that most coolers are not able to prevent the processor from overheating and subsequent throttling. This is not unexpected, it is simply the physical limit of the cooler and does not mean that the cooler is of poor quality.

Noctua NH-D15S has been at the forefront of coolers for many years. However, the typically beige color of Noctua fans is usually not very popular. But a new version of this cooler with the chromax.black attribute has recently been released. This version has a black finish from the fan to the last screw. In addition, it should not affect the efficiency of the heatsink, but all that remains is to verify it on a hot processor.

Conclusion and summary

Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black takes everything good from its predecessor and significantly improves this piece visually with a matte black finish from the fan to the last screw of the mounting system. The cooling efficiency is very respectable for an air cooler. The noise level of the cooler at higher speeds is rather at average values, but it is largely caused mainly by the air flowing from the fan. The fan itself has a cultivated acoustic sound at lower frequencies and does not have much disturbance. At lower speed levels, it is also pleasantly quiet and inaudible.

Unfortunately, there was also a significant increase in price by 20% compared to the original version. For a similar price, you can buy, for example, the NH-D15 with one NF-A15 fan. In addition, we get into the territory of cheaper liquid AIO coolers. Fortunately, the NH-D15S completely catches up with its cooling performance and noise and significantly surpasses them in long-term reliability, because there is no risk of pump failure. For your money, you also get excellent build quality and a six-year warranty. Apart from the really high price tag, nothing wrong can be said against this cooler, and therefore it deserves our editorial award ‘Approved’.

• Contents
• Key features
• Test methodology
• Results – max rpm
• Results – medium rpm
• Results – low rpm
• Conclusion and summary