Noctua NH-D15 v2 in Q2/2024
Noctua’s tentative plans for the next period specify the possible release of a successor to the NH-D15 cooler. Along with that comes the assurance that the next generation of 140mm fans that this cooler will use is really close. In addition to this, there is also the notable announcement of an upgrade to the NH-L12(S), a lower-profile cooler with a horizontal fan (or fans, if the heatsink will be cooled by two fans again).
After some time, Noctua has updated its roadmap, on which a number of things are unchanged from the previous one. Taking it one at a time, based on what is closest, the chromax.black variants for the NH-D9L and NH-L9x65 coolers are still planned in the fourth quarter of this year.
And it looks like a 40 mm 24 V fan will be available any day now. This will be of particular interest to owners or designers of 3D printers with 24-volt power supplies.
However, the NH-D12L chromax.black cooler has already moved from Q4/2023 to Q1/2024, as has the low-profile (15mm) fan in the 60mm format. What’s still to come in early 2024 is a new generation of 140mm LCP fans, which Noctua has already shown at this year’s Computex.
That’s also one of the things that makes this a slightly different situation than last year, when they also seemed to have these fans right up until the last minute before release. In the end it didn’t happen due to production complications, but now perhaps Noctua could be more confident in this regard. This is indicated by the fact that the cooler with the operating designation NH-D15 v2 has been entered into Q2/2024. In the earlier roadmap, it was only assigned to the “2024” column, which means Noctua is clearer at this point on when this cooler might hit stores.
And related to the above, 140mm LCP fans which it will use must be in production at that point. These will apparently come out first, and only then will they appear as part of the cooler that will be the most efficient Noctua will have to offer. So it’s the reverse of how it’s often done (that some fans appear on a cooler, for example, and only later can be bought separately), but Noctua has it figured out this way.
The “sometime in 2024” status is given to the black variants of the 140mm LCP fans, and then there’s the cooler that’s set to expand the top-flow cooler model range in the NH-L12 lineup. The design details are yet unknown, and it is difficult to guess whether it will be equipped with one fan (as with the NH-L12S) or two (as with the NH-L12). However, we assume that in the case of the two fans, they will both be in the 120mm format for the sake of the highest efficiency (and not a combination of a 120mm and a 92 mm one as with the NH-L12).
Still missing from the public calendar are white fans, which were long rumored but eventually shelved by Noctua. Not cancelled, postponed. The reason their release isn’t even tentatively mentioned will probably still be the same – they’re a lower priority compared to other things, and Noctua doesn’t want to promise anything at the moment until it knows for itself whether next year is realistic for them.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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- Noctua NH-D15 v2 in Q2/2024