By: Jonathan Kwan
September 6, 2024
One of my favorite restaurants here in Calgary is a place called Hayden Block. Since most readers on this website is not from Canada, never mind Calgary, let me give you a little bit of context. Hayden Block is a Texas-style barbecue restaurant that serves meat at half price after 10pm. Now, I go to Texas enough to know nobody actually eats at barbecue restaurants after 10pm -- in fact, they usually close at 9pm -- but strange timing aside, I consider Hayden Block, despite having variance in quality depending on the day, to be at least mid-grade by Texas standard most of the time. The combination of food quality, pricing, location, and just being a good place to hang out with friends late at night made me a regular for the last little while. In fact, I have been there so much that when I dropped by recently, the host recognized me, shook my hand, and asked me for my name, while the server checked if I wanted my "usual order". It seems repetition creates familiarity, and if there is anything else that embodies this idea as much as my frequent visits to Hayden Block, it will be Noctua's D-series CPU coolers. Other models in the D-series aside, we have reviewed no less than four models of the NH-D15 family alone since 2014, including the NH-D15S chromax.black, NH-D15 chromax.black, NH-D15S, and NH-D15. Today, we have the newest member of the NH-D15 family in our labs, the NH-D15 G2 HBC. With Noctua being so recognizable and the model family so familiar to us, will the latest version continue the company's tradition of excellence worthy of your money? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC arrived in a medium-sized brown corrugated cardboard box from the company's headquarters in Vienna, Austria. After making its trip across Europe and most of North America with the Atlantic Ocean in between using UPS Saver, the package arrived in acceptable condition to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, save for a sizable rip on the top of the box. That said, everything inside was well-protected, and as you will see, all the contents inside came in pristine condition.
My first impression of the Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC's retail package actually has little to do with the retail package itself, but rather the realization this is not the chromax.black version, not is one even available at press time. This is too bad, because I am a big fan of Noctua's all-black series. Hopefully Noctua will make a Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC chromax.black soon.
The NH-D15 G2 HBC's packaging ensures Noctua-ness never goes away despite the changes in design by retaining Noctua's fundamental brown color scheme. There were multiple layout updates for a modernized look over the years, but if you see them all next together at a retail store, no member of the family will look or feel out of place. While some people may not be big fans -- no pun intended -- of the Noctua color palette, it is hard to argue against its overall clean and distinguished appearance when placed on the shelves at your favorite local retailer. The packaging is sleek yet practical, as you can see in our photo above. A photo of the heatsink in three-quarter view occupies the majority of the space. The product name, Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC, can be seen prominent displayed in white text at the bottom, while a short product description is printed immediately below. At the top, you will find the Noctua logo. An array of three icons on the left shows off its dual NF-A14x25r G2 fans, high base convexity, and G2 technologies. Meanwhile, feature highlights, product specifications, and performance charts are on the remaining sides of the box.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the Noctua NH-D15 G2 HBC, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Cooler Specification
Socket compatibility: AMD AM5, AM4 and Intel LGA1851, LGA1700, LGA1200, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1151, LGA1150
Height (without fan): 168 mm
Width (without fan): 150 mm
Depth (without fan): 127 mm
Weight (without fan): 1180 g
Height (with fan): 168 mm
Width (with fan): 150 mm
Depth (with fan): 152 mm
Weight (with fan): 1525 g
Material: Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating
NSPR: 228
Fan compatibility: 140x150x25 (with 120mm mounting holes), 140x140x25 (with 120mm mounting holes), 120x120x25 (optional NA-SFC12 fan clips required)
Scope of delivery:
- 2x NF-A14x25r G2 PWM premium fan
- 2x NA-RC16 Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
- NA-YC1 4-pin PWM splitter cable
- NT-H2 high-grade thermal compound
- NA-TPG1 thermal paste guard for AM5
- NA-CW1 cleaning wipe
- SecuFirm2+™ multi-socket mounting system
- NM-SD1 Torx® T20 screwdriver
- Noctua metal case-badge
Warranty: 6 years
Fan specification
Model: 2x NF-A14x25r G2 PWM
Bearing: SSO2
Max. rotational speed (+/- 10%): 1500 RPM
Max. rotational speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%): 1250 RPM
Max. airflow: 155.6 m³/h
Max. airflow with L.N.A.: 127.1 m³/h
Max. acoustical noise: 24.8 dB(A)
Max. acoustical noise with L.N.A.: 19.7 dB(A)
Blade geometry: Progressive-Bend impeller
Acoustical noise: 24.8 dB(A)
Input power (max.): 2.28 W
Voltage range: 12 V
MTTF: >150.000 h
Out of the box, you will be greeted by two more boxes. All of them are raw corrugated cardboard boxes, and are printed and labeled in black ink to show you what is inside. The bigger one of them holds none other than the NH-D15 G2 HBC heatsink itself, which already has two NF-A14x25r G2 fans pre-installed. The smaller box holds the mounting accessories with everything nicely separated into their own bags placed in separate partitions. The SecuFirm2+ mounting kit allows the NH-D15 G2 HBC to work with Intel's LGA1851, LGA1200, and LGA115x sockets, as well as AMD's AM5 and AM4 sockets.
Accessories tagging along include two NA-RC16 low noise adapters, NA-YC1 4-pin PWM splitter cable, NA-TPG1 thermal paste guard for AM5, NA-CW1 cleaning wipe, NM-SD1 Torx screwdriver, and a case badge. As always from the company, the included bundle is not just about the heatsink itself. It is also about the included excellent high performance fans and thermal paste. Cooling fans such as the NF-A14x25r G2 are not exactly cheap when you buy them separately in retail. The NH-D15 G2 HBC also ships with a 3.5g tube of Noctua's excellent NT-H2 thermal compound, which we had reviewed back in 2019.
One installation poster is included with concise and clear instructions. Noctua has always led the game in clear instructions and great accessories organization. It makes life just that much easier with the accessories very cleanly distinguished for each application.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Installation and Test Results
4. Conclusion
