This is EXPENSIVE testing. To help support our ability to continue bringing high-quality and independent reviews like these, grab something on our store! store.gamersnexus.net/ -- Consider grabbing one of our 3D emblem commemorative pint glasses: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-3d-emblem-glasses Watch our engineering interview on how the fans are designed: th-cam.com/video/F7ia_FZcthQ/w-d-xo.html Watch our Coldplate Engineering deep-dive: th-cam.com/video/7BMYsMGpyFY/w-d-xo.html Buy a GN Large Anti-Static Modmat for PC Building! store.gamersnexus.net/products/large-modmat-gn15-anniversary Buy a GN Soldering & Project Mat: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-project-soldering-mat
From what I gathered from this video; Noctua did some impressive engineering again. But I can already tell that they have reached the edge of the limits of air cooling technology. To be frank, as impressive as this is, it's over engineered for the tangible results gained which is a five degree cooler than the original model. Noctua has to start considering new types of cooling methodology in the future, unless CPU's start running cooler at lower nm process in which case, ignore all of the above.
Great work by your team and the testing. Sadly.. i think this is going to start the path to the end of Noctua.. They have become so obsessed with perfection and micro details that they are losing performance where it matters. At a cost that is so unbelievably out of touch for the times and for the majority of customers. and no.. I don't think they are over charging.. Its just so overly engineered that its not affordable for them either.. im sorry but using exotic materials on a PC fan.. Its just a fan. No.. Even compared to their own previous offering they are WAY off what this is worth. Sad to watch. I will NOT be buying this cooler for my next build.. Or for the build of friends and family. Out of touch and overly engineered to death.
I never thought of purchasing items from Tech Tuber. However, Steve has done the research and engineering studies that I have about computer hardware. Therefore, I have purchased many GN items. Thanks, Steve.
You can hear it in Steve's voice in the intro how excited he is to use all the testing equipment on the new Noctua. "THIS IS WHY I BUILT MY TESTING TEMPLE" ~Steve (Probably)
@@GamersNexus Hi Steve, currently watching, PLEASE tell me you tested with a contact frame! Wouldnt you agree that a $5 contact frame is a good idea to replace the ILM which induces permanent curvature to the CPU?
@@Vipersrule Yes, because it's not just as easy as coloring plastic differently. Different dyes change the plastics properties. And when you want to release a product that's optimized for performance, changing the color would not give the same results as the brown/beige versions.
They haven't tested the phantom spirit which has one more heat pipe and "different" fans from other reviews it's around 2-3 degrees better then the peerless assassin so it's close the the new gen noctua, please GN would love a review on it especially noise tests!
The fact that the Peerless Assassin can get within marginal degrees of temp difference, while keeping equal (or lower) noise levels on a 120mm fan setup vs Noctua's 140mm setup, and then do that at basically 5x lower cost... Noctua is doing some great stuff, but honestly the best thing they're doing, is free marketing for Thermalright lol.
Then there's the Thermalright phantom spirit evo which clearly beats the peerless assassin at the same price. It'd have matched or beat this cooler too if GN had tested it. If someone wants a new cooler they should get the PS EVO or wait for the Royal Preytor Ultra.
_But then_ how will the cheaper one be doing in ~8 years time? My 2015 NH-D15 didn't get more than a handful of days time off until I replaced that machine entirely 6 months ago, and those fans just kept on silently spinnin'.
@@johnnypopstar Do air coolers really detoeriorate like that to need to be replaced? At wost you just replace the fans, and it would still costs less in total than one of these Noctuas.
@@johnnypopstar Most air coolers will work just fine for that long, and by the 10 year mark there's likely gonna be fair improvements to the available coolers on the market if you wanna upgrade. I haven't had any air cooler perform much worse over time, at worst a fan dies (which is still very rare) so you just get a spare one for 10 bucks. The entire selling point of air coolers in general is how bulletproof they are in general, not just Noctua.
I still have a Noctua NH-U9F, bought in 2008. Fan is still going strong, and Noctua providing me with a kit to fit it to an AM4 motherboard. Excellent customer service.
vs. LTT who will mount it on the wrong CPU, complain that it didn't work right, auction off the prototype and then find a way to hide sexual harassment and assault on an employee who had to self-harm herself to get a day off.
FINALLY. I buggered up my latest AIO install and it's held together with a self tapping screw. I've been waiting for this so, when it spills its guts, I can ruin and bodge another expensive cooler. It's what you get for assembling with an impact driver. (in all seriousness, I keep AIOs running until they are nearly totally out of liquid... It'll survive).
Geez man, I don't know if people can really appreciate the depth of testing expertise displayed in this video. 9 passes for a single mount?! 13 dBA noise floor?! 3 different cold plates, fan swaps, two test benches. Easily over $100K in time and equipment. Well done guys. I bet Noctua are pleased to have their best tested by the best.
I'm still running an NH-D15 after who knows how many years. The quality and longevity of the brand are prime reasons I'd buy Noctua again for this class of air cooler.
I bought my NH-D15 for an AMD FX-8350 to try to squeeze some extra life out of it. I'm still using it with a Ryzen 5900X. Oof. But hey, it still works!
@@Petr75661 honestly it wouldn’t be that awful of an idea, you would just need to settle on running it at a certain speed (because dimensions change based on speed) and let it wear in. I wonder if anyone will switch to metal or composite fans at some point for even higher stiffness and therefore lower gap.
wait, how old is Steve? 20 years in retirement? I would have believed mid 30, if he told me. Even with the few gray hairs, some ppl get grey hairs early.
@@GamersNexus **a figure clothed only in holograms flys out of the forest on his downhill hover bike. He brushes his long white hair out of his face** “today we’re reviewing…”
can always count on steve and the team to give me deep dives into products that does not leave me searching for more information after i watched their tests. gg boyos, ur format kick ass!
I am curious whether the original fans on my NH-D15, which I have been using daily for the past 10 years, will need replacing when the G3 version comes out, or if they will hold up until the G4 or even G5 models...
@@Kadotus My original case fans bought in 2009 are still going strong. Although I am tempted by the newer fan line up. Might upgrade if the 10k CPU from AMD is not trashed like the 9k series right now.
I'm still running my Noctua NH-D14 I bought in June of 2012 - and have no desire to upgrade at this point. $88 for a fan in 2012 seemed insane, but Noctua continues to support their older fans by selling adapter plates each time a new CPU is introduced, and currently I'm running an AMD 5900X and it has no issues keeping it cool. I'll probably upgrade that to the next AMD chip that comes out, and I bet you this fan will continue to work just fine for another 12 years.
Basically same experience here with NH-D14. "Side-graded" it to NH-U12A last month, though. It performs about ~7c better on 5800X at full load. Fans are a bit louder on it, but it's also more impressive because it's a single tower cooler and there's zero issues with any kind of RAM.
The fans are the spinning part with the motor and what you are talking is the tower cooler not the fans you clip on it, the fans and the cooler are not the same thing
Same old story with my Thermalright Macho. It just does what it has to do, quietly and efficiently. (And I think it was around 50 bucks 11 years ago...)
I have a NH-D14 and NH-U9 that are about that old and recently the U9SP3. The fact that I could contact Noctua for mounting kit upgrades over the years has been a nice plus.
Seems a bit strange not to include AM5 test data at this point, especially since you even updated Intel's thermal results to the 14900K. Not a huge deal but considering the notable IHS changes and that more people will move to AM5 going forward, it would be nice to see. Overall it's nice to see Noctua back on top and including decent accessories for that price tag. I am a bit disappointed the new 140mm we've been waiting for is still limited up to 1500 RPM, even now that they've shifted to LCP. I'm hoping we at least get a version capable of ~1800 or so, since I assume the bearings can handle that. At this price, integrating a speed switch like their competitors would be a nice touch for those with a need to max out performance at the cost of noise.
I dont think it's honestly possible to convince me its $115 better than a peerless assassin. I definitely prefer air coolers to AIOs in general though. Pump noise I find super aggravating for whatever reason, and they have many more points of failure.
Some people just don't mind paying a lot more for marginally better perf, even if they don't want to go water. I personally went on full custom, but if i were not, i'd probably think about upgrading to this. (My previous air cooler was a dark rock pro4)
@@TheHighborn Oh I have no issues with people buying Noctua stuff. I get the draw. Im also biased as I have a PA. The hill I'll die on though is that air coolers suffice for 90% of builds. Only thing Id use an AIO on is 13/14th gen Intel and I'd never buy that in the first place. :D
Agree with you. Also, if the fans fail on your PA, you can buy better fans like Phanteks T30 and get even better performance. For my current system (13700k), I'm using an AIO. I cannot understand who will buy this D15 G2.
Great review, but I would never spend this much on an air cooler. I'm just waiting on Thermalright's PA 140 or their Royal Pretor to release before upgrading my CPU cooler.
God tier review, honestly the G2 is disappointing, I'll be looking at the arctic freezer III as best bang for buck and performance at a decent audio level. Thanks gamersnexus for being some unapologetically epic content and review procedure.
Two super flat steel surfaces touching one another can cold weld together when left too long in that state. That happened to me with some parallel gauge blocks. Adhesive power is strong. Don't know if anyone saw the commercial from the 90's in which two tractor puller weren't able to pull apart two huge blocks of steel because of glue or some shit. That wasn't a trick. They actually did that, but it only worked because there wasn't any glue between the two super polished sides of the blocks, only pure adhesive power. That was my contribution of useless knowledge for the day. Have a good one ^^
So what you're saying here is, if I polished my CPU and this cooler enough, and I had them lapped nearly flat, I could potentially get rid of the need for thermal interface material entirely.
@@Fay7666 there's a youtube channel called tronicsfix that has some fun with it. the host (i think his name is steve, no relation to this steve) always says "time to apply the PERFECT amount of thermal paste" and plays angelic chorus on it
@@Fay7666 there's a youtube channel, tronicsfix, that has some fun with it the host, I believe his name's steve (seems like there's quite a few of those in this industry) says "time to apply the PERFECT amount of thermal paste" and will play an angelic chorus for it
With so much drama over LBC It's kinda hard bein' S to the E-V-E But I Somehow someway Keep turnin' out standardized tests like every single day Could you kick a lil somethin' for the GN Store now'at we test in a sound proof, 250k booth an' the channel still jumpin' cuz Snowflake izzat home I got coolers with the washer mod mountin' 'em on, yet They get jenky so we want a update So what you wanna do? Bet Noctua pocket full of SKU's to make the cold plate fit you So give up the lights, embrace the tan But (But what?) you don't love them fans Yeahhhhhh... But we gon' drop a lot on this G up, N down while you liquid simps shrug at us ROLLIN' DOWN THE STREET, REPPIN' BROWN FANS D15 G AND 2 laaaaiiiid baaaaaack GOT NO MIND FOR MY MONEY CUZ NOCTUA ON MY MIND ROLLIN' DOWN THE STREET, REPPIN' BROWN FANS D15 G AND 2 laaaaiiiid baaaaaack GOT NO MIND FOR MY MONEY CUZ NOCTUA ON MY MIND
I know this review isn't about the price of the G2, but at $150 for an AIR COOLER, it's hard to talk about anything else. Yes, it's Noctua so you know it'll be well made, but at $150 you could buy 2 of the cheap 360 AIOs from the last video, a 12-pack, and have money left over. Noctua is out of their damn minds.
Don't think I've ever mentioned it, but I sure have meant to.... That sound chamber looks really good with your colors on the sound absorbing tiles/peak/mountains/whateverthehellthey are called!
Kinda underwhelming tbh. Existence of better Thermalright coolers for much, much cheaper price and not in weird colors ruins this IMO. PA120 is not even on top 3 best TR coolers right now and new ones were shown on Computex. Reliability and bracket support of Noctua become pointless when you can just buy the other cooler 3 times and still have money left to upgrade the fans. It's just not good enough to justify itself. Hell, on amd side it is barely better than PA120. I wonder how it would stack against PS120 and 140mm variants...
@@Khaled-bs7zcps120 evo is the best performing and looking cooler that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Thermalrights next gen coolers will up the ante even more. Can’t wait for the white royal knight 120
100 percent. That's so much money, you can jump up a pretty significant amount in cpu for that, and the 7800 x3d can run with a 30 dollar single tower cooler anyway.
@@GamersNexusSteve /GN team, how hard would it be to implement a short noise sample for each of your noise tests. I personally would prefer having the option to compare the way something sounds.
Maybe I missed it but I am surprised the new fans weren't put on the old cooler since the old fans got put on the new cooler. It showed a decline in performance that virtually matched the og cooler. It almost paints a picture that the cooler change didn't make much of a difference and that the fans provided the majority of the cooling improvement. If you own the og do you get the same or at least very similar performance just by buying the new fans and potentially saving a decent chunk of change?
That´s assuming we get the chance. The only 1500rpm replacement for old-gen A15 in existence is Chromax A15, because standard standalone A15 fan is only 1200rpm...
@@Morpheus-pt3wq It certainly seems like a sneaky tactic that I wouldn't put past Noctua. They do love to find ways to make the most basic things as expensive as possible. There seems to be more markup on the cooler package than just their fans so why not make people think they need the entire thing for better performance.
The only things that are different in G2 are 8 heat pipes and higher fin density. Essentially the same thing which companies like Thermalright and Deepcool have been doing for years now. I'm sure Thermalright will make a 140 mm dual tower cooler which will match G2 for a fraction of the price. And in a few years, they'll introduce vapour chamber coolers which make G2 fully obsolete.
@@Chopper153 Yes, that will and always has happened. As far as changes, they aren't exactly minor. There's only so many parts and every one of them has been altered in some way. The question is does it matter? Noctua states those changes don't really start to show benefit until 250 watts is exceeded. That wasn't really tested and neither was new fan on old cooler. Ignoring Noctua being crooks, we really didn't learn how true the claim from Noctua is. Given how thorough GN normally is I would have thought that test with the old fans would have raised some questions. I would imagine all the extra mass the G2 has would make a difference under high wattage loads but it didn't seem to make a difference when fans were the same for both.
It could just be that all heat loads tested didn’t output enough heat to make the differences really show. It would be good to see if Steve can test noctua’s own claims which are tested not using CPUs but heaters. Noctua claim that the original NH-D15 can hold a 460 W heat load at 60 C whilst the new version can handle 620 W. You won’t get near that with CPUs because of how the heat is distributed though. Steve can only test it on current CPUs where the difference just might not be that high and it puts a cap on how high he can set the heat load. Obviously Steve’s testing is real world testing with components that people will actually use, not just heaters, so his testing will be more valuable for most people. What will be interesting to see is how the new version holds up as CPUs use more and more power. What makes you think that noctua are crooks or are being shady?
When you can get 4 Thermalright equivalent coolers for the same amount of money... No, Noctua, as much as you technically hold the crown for best air cooler, the eye-watering MSRP is a joke. This comes from someone that owns and used an OG NH-D15. Noctuas are nice, but the price is very hard to justify, as it's now what I love to use as a prime example of diminishing returns.
So, to summarize. Same performance as Pearless Assassin for 5 times the price. Bargain. Only for Noctua fan boys and girls. Nothing to see here. Move along
Considering the price of this Noctua I think I'll wait for the vapor chamber air coolers from other companies if they are even better at similar noise levels.
@@GamersNexusI think we just cracked Jensen’s latest business strategy: Sell more GPU’s to support machine learning, to keep people living longer, to generate more demand for GPU’s. How did no one figure this out sooner 🤦♂️
There's going to be a non-zero chance that through assembly line snafu, or otherwise (like restocking), that HBC coolers will be mixed up with LBC coolers. Good luck everyone!
There is no justification for that price period. You can buy 4 Peerless Assassin with that money. Even if each of them fails in 2-3 years its still a win. But I don't think PA will fail in at least 5 years. Or you can go liquid which is miles ahead of Noctua at that price point. Only thing that would counter this logic is hoping that they would provide mounting kits for upcoming platforms for 10 years. But don't buy tomorrow's technology today. And never trust a corporation's promise. You never know what will happen in future. Maybe the variation you buy today (HBC-LBC-STD) won't be effective on new CPUs' ihs tomorrow.
Noctua is like Apple, very good at marketing and also good in engineering. You'll find several fanboys behaving like cultists in this very comment section.
@@uponeric36 thermalright made a cooler when I built my first pc in 2014 it was the Silver Arrow, it was basically a NH-D15 and it came with blue fan shrouds with grey blades. I thought it looked better personally, I have no idea why they didn't become more mainstream way back then. (edit - the fan shrouds might of been grey with blue blades it's been awhile)
So for 99.99% of people just buy a peerless assassin if you are air cooling. Got it. Thermalright engineers being able to create a cooler that basically hangs right there with noctua for pennies on the dollar is pretty wild.
Easy to do if their R&D is basically "copy that good shit!". I'd rather pay a honest price for a well designed product from a company that has a proven track record of excellence in customer support.
Shoutout SPCR crew. At least with Noctua, you're not just buying the name, you're actually also buying the support, quality and performance. Unlike some fruitbased hardware.
A really bad miss on their part given that the PS easily beats the PA at the same price point and has been out for a while. Not having it in this review is misleading for potential buyers.
Thx for your tests. Today i got my GN, AM5 and Intel 1700 Case Batches. I like that. they looks really good and they are so massive and really good quality. Greetings from Germany 😇
I think the fans took the longest to get right. Once they figure out the 120mm they had issues with the material on the 140mm. Getting a gap that tiny isn't easy without adding a ring.
@@Bound4Earth absolutely, yet the Performance gap to i.e. thermalright who Just pumps out products left and right (many of them arent great, fair), just isnt that big. Just think about how long noctua took. I appreciate what they do and love their overengineering, but the jump we made kind of feels unproportionate to the time it took.
I know Noctua are generally more expensive than other brands, but dang. That's a big price increase for a small efficiency gain. :/ You are better off just buying a liquid cooler and you'll get the same or better performance at better noise levels.
@@schwazernebe I wasn't under the impression Corsair made crap aio watercoolers when I bought it, nor am I now. Any brand no matter the warranty will have the occasional leak. And warranty doesn't mean much when I got my aio replaced, but still had to buy a new psu, mb and cpu myself. I was lucky the GPU survived the liquid damage. Why would I ever risk that again when I can aircool without risk of leaking, pump failure or clogging? I get the clocks I want from PBO with air too, no interest in manual overclocking. And my latest case is windowless, so looks are irrelevant too. There is no benefit to watercooling for me.
Great review guys. I'm off to buy an Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360. My reasoning is I already have the NH-D15 (not G2) and moving to the G2 only gets me 2 degrees lower. The ALF III 360 will get me about 8 degrees cooler. And I'm using a 13900K, so...
Will I ever buy such an expensive cooler? I don't think so. Am I glad it exists? Yes. Engineering is stepped up to the next level in every part of the product. Company is known to support these products for many years. It's an awesome thing to see.
Considering you guys are comparing it to the TR Peerless Assassin, I would like y’all to compare it with the TR Phantom Spirit. A great cooler too at a great price with an extra heat pipe
Noctua, I love your products, but there's no world were I'm spending $150 for an air cooler. Even $100 is pushing it when you're fighting for market share against Thermalright. Good cooler though 🤷♂️
I care about Noctua products as much as I care about Rolls-Royce or Bugatti cars. $20 coolers doing only 5-6 degrees more is where I'm at. Also - will we ever see fan tester in action?
I've been using Noctua fans in every PC I've built. A part of me wants to buy a G2 for my next build, though it is extremely difficult to justify it based on the performance alone, no matter how well their previous models served me, and no matter how much I enjoyed their engineers' interviews with Steve.
There's lots of good choices out there, but I will always put Noctua first, even if they are cheaper options available due to the company's reputation of outstanding support for the long-term.
@@jamesm568noctua got their reputation because of how far ahead their air coolers were back then. But the market's vastly different now and noctua no longer holds the edge performance wise, especially considering the price.
Could you please 🙏 review the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE as the Peerless Assassin is now 2 generations old as they also release the SE version and I don't think any people are buying the OG version anymore.
3950X results are stupid and irrelevant. No one is buying this cooler to run on an ancient CPU like that. Scrap that sh1t. You should be testing this cooler only on the hottest (in terms of heat) CPU's from both Intel and AMD right now. The 14900KS and 7950X at full load balls to the wall heat to see what these coolers can handle. You should be also testing frequency degradation as well. If you are going to test this sh1t, test it on the latest CPU's.
You guys do really good work. You test things that others do not. There are plenty of other good TH-cam channels out there. They all do good work, but you guys have set a standard that other channels can use as a benchmark. Over the years you have really taken it to another level.
I paid 60 quid for my NH-D14 in 2011. I thought it was crazy when the new ones went up to £100, but £150 is just nuts. This cooler isn't for me (3700X, maybe upgrading to a 5700X, so sub-100w), I prioritise silence/quiet over power (tinnitus), but after watching the review and listening to the new fans at high-load RPM, I'd probably go for the older model. Although tbh if I was upgrading a cooler to put in a system that needed it, it means I have enough money to do such a big upgrade, and would prioritise silence again, and probably do a liquid cooling setup with as big a radiator and fans as possible to really push how low RPM I can go on the fans. I'm trying to figure out who this is for. That price tag, it's almost like it's a bragging rights part, like the high end Intel parts that suck up huge amounts of power for marginal gains. But surely someone who goes to that level would get a liquid cooler, or water cooling setup.
Why even replace the NH-D14? If price is that much a factor just keep using it. America and it's ewaste is going to bury us all in Temu shit man. Also you run your fans at 100%? bro just to net what another handful of frames. Try slowing down whatever fans you have to make them quieter and still get great performance.
With the washer mod they should include 4 longer screws. Looks like maybe one thread is holding it together. Or buy a Thermalright block like I did, works well.
Well, its sure good but not with that price. If your cpu can be cooled with air cooler, you go for $35 thermalright cooler, if not, you go with $55 thermalright aio, or less noisy $100 arctic aio that cool better, cost less and makes less noise.
So all I can say is the new product is such a small iterative improvement that for most people, buying the last-gen product is a better value proposition for longevity reasons. And for hardcore overclockers, Artic LF3 360 is still the best mid-term solution. As mentioned in your video for that product, the only downside is the hard-to-use mounting plate leaf spring for AMD platform.
I think people value Noctua for longevity and support over price. Noctua has never been a value add product and never will be. It is like arguing Vulcan stoves are bad buys, even though they outlast whirlpool and similar brands everyone buys by a large margin.
A four degree delta between the new NH-D15 and the Peerless Assassin? Talk about $ diminishing returns $. Thank you GN for the extremely comprehensive review
@@maxv9872 air coolers have less points of failure and the only maintenance required is dust cleaning and fan replacement when the bearings give out. They make more sense for most unless you're looking at heat loads above 200W.
In the A/B testing I was kinda surprised by much higher the overall impression of the G2 fan was vs. the old ones, but then I remembered that this was a 100% vs. 100% test, meaning the old fan was running at 1200 rpm and the new one was running at 1500 rpm. To my understanding at least from Noctua's talking points and the way the NF-A12x25 worked out vs. the older NF-A12, at the same RPM the new fan should be both quieter and performing about the same or better than the old one, and dropping the RPM should also bring the overall noise signature closer to the old fan's 1200 rpm noise. I know this is a long shot, but could you guys maybe make a short or record and release audio clips of the G2 vs. the OG running at 1200 rpm, to compare the noise signatures? Somewhat irrelevant though since my fans basically never go beyond 1000 rpm anyway... Just curiosity.
It's been a few days since it's become available. A day later, no other channels or websites have released any reviews. Just goes to show how much dedication Steve and the GN team to cover this so quickly.
Thermalright Peerless Assassin's value has just gone up even more with the introduction of NH-D15 G2. No point in spending more money on these expensive coolers which only provide slight improvement.
"Good enough" is not why you buy Noctua. You buy Noctua for a quality statement that says: I'm the best, deal with it. I would never buy a different air cooler, and I will never buy AIOs. Working as sysadmin for SMB with plenty of CAD machines, I've personally seen three (!) AIOs leaks destroy multiple thousands of euros in a literal flash.
This is EXPENSIVE testing. To help support our ability to continue bringing high-quality and independent reviews like these, grab something on our store! store.gamersnexus.net/ -- Consider grabbing one of our 3D emblem commemorative pint glasses: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-3d-emblem-glasses
Watch our engineering interview on how the fans are designed: th-cam.com/video/F7ia_FZcthQ/w-d-xo.html
Watch our Coldplate Engineering deep-dive: th-cam.com/video/7BMYsMGpyFY/w-d-xo.html
Buy a GN Large Anti-Static Modmat for PC Building! store.gamersnexus.net/products/large-modmat-gn15-anniversary
Buy a GN Soldering & Project Mat: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-project-soldering-mat
Thanks for the hard work testing!
From what I gathered from this video; Noctua did some impressive engineering again. But I can already tell that they have reached the edge of the limits of air cooling technology. To be frank, as impressive as this is, it's over engineered for the tangible results gained which is a five degree cooler than the original model. Noctua has to start considering new types of cooling methodology in the future, unless CPU's start running cooler at lower nm process in which case, ignore all of the above.
Please do another run of the RGB GPU GLITCH shirts.
Great work by your team and the testing.
Sadly.. i think this is going to start the path to the end of Noctua.. They have become so obsessed with perfection and micro details that they are losing performance where it matters. At a cost that is so unbelievably out of touch for the times and for the majority of customers. and no.. I don't think they are over charging.. Its just so overly engineered that its not affordable for them either.. im sorry but using exotic materials on a PC fan.. Its just a fan. No.. Even compared to their own previous offering they are WAY off what this is worth. Sad to watch. I will NOT be buying this cooler for my next build.. Or for the build of friends and family.
Out of touch and overly engineered to death.
I never thought of purchasing items from Tech Tuber. However, Steve has done the research and engineering studies that I have about computer hardware.
Therefore, I have purchased many GN items.
Thanks, Steve.
You can hear it in Steve's voice in the intro how excited he is to use all the testing equipment on the new Noctua. "THIS IS WHY I BUILT MY TESTING TEMPLE" ~Steve (Probably)
Just excited to use all this stuff every day! I love this kind of work.
@@GamersNexus Hi Steve, currently watching, PLEASE tell me you tested with a contact frame! Wouldnt you agree that a $5 contact frame is a good idea to replace the ILM which induces permanent curvature to the CPU?
@@GamersNexusit’s awesome and truly valuable work, but I really appreciate hearing your personal opinions and wisdom at the end
BEHOLD, MY STUFF! -metrology nerd
@GamersNexus whatever happened to the fan testing machine?
Now wait 4 years for a chromax black. Revolutionary.
that’s too ambitious, give it 6-7 years at the minimum
I really wish they released a chromax black g2 along with the brown one.
@@iamrubinot42IIRC correctly it’s because of the type of plastic they used. Black is different material and it wasn’t up to their standards (yet).
chromac black will come out 1Q next year
@@Vipersrule Yes, because it's not just as easy as coloring plastic differently. Different dyes change the plastics properties. And when you want to release a product that's optimized for performance, changing the color would not give the same results as the brown/beige versions.
Time for Thermalright to make the Peerless-er Assassin.
Peerless-er Assassin-er?
they have a 140mm version coming at some point LOL
Stop it with the hard -er
They haven't tested the phantom spirit which has one more heat pipe and "different" fans from other reviews it's around 2-3 degrees better then the peerless assassin so it's close the the new gen noctua, please GN would love a review on it especially noise tests!
To be honest the Peerless Assassin still wins on account of normal price and not having the color palette of a toilet paper.
The fact that the Peerless Assassin can get within marginal degrees of temp difference, while keeping equal (or lower) noise levels on a 120mm fan setup vs Noctua's 140mm setup, and then do that at basically 5x lower cost... Noctua is doing some great stuff, but honestly the best thing they're doing, is free marketing for Thermalright lol.
Then there's the Thermalright phantom spirit evo which clearly beats the peerless assassin at the same price. It'd have matched or beat this cooler too if GN had tested it. If someone wants a new cooler they should get the PS EVO or wait for the Royal Preytor Ultra.
_But then_ how will the cheaper one be doing in ~8 years time? My 2015 NH-D15 didn't get more than a handful of days time off until I replaced that machine entirely 6 months ago, and those fans just kept on silently spinnin'.
@@johnnypopstar Do air coolers really detoeriorate like that to need to be replaced? At wost you just replace the fans, and it would still costs less in total than one of these Noctuas.
@@johnnypopstar Most air coolers will work just fine for that long, and by the 10 year mark there's likely gonna be fair improvements to the available coolers on the market if you wanna upgrade.
I haven't had any air cooler perform much worse over time, at worst a fan dies (which is still very rare) so you just get a spare one for 10 bucks. The entire selling point of air coolers in general is how bulletproof they are in general, not just Noctua.
@@_RIL_ sure, but also, CBA constantly replacing fans or checking for noise. To my lazy ass it's worth the extra for the peace of mind aspect
I still have a Noctua NH-U9F, bought in 2008. Fan is still going strong, and Noctua providing me with a kit to fit it to an AM4 motherboard. Excellent customer service.
Ayyy another U9 user! I've been using mine with a 5900x and payers to squeeze life out of the cooler until I find something worse changing to
I come here to see clean coolers to help heal my trauma. Thank you for your service.
Is this like eye bleach for you 😂
"The greatest Technician that has ever lived.........................."
This is a 37 minute therapy session for the greatest technician that ever lived
Back to cleaning swamp gouce raccoon boy
I wonder if he can fit his tiny raccoon like fingers between those beautiful pipes
"We are not here for the basics"
GN in a Nutshell
vs. LTT who will mount it on the wrong CPU, complain that it didn't work right, auction off the prototype and then find a way to hide sexual harassment and assault on an employee who had to self-harm herself to get a day off.
@theduck17 and then investigate themselves and find they did nothing wrong
"We have trouble screwing in stuff" xD
@@fredocuomo5386 Did LTT actually investigate themselves? Or did they just say that to get gamers to shut up?
@sammiller6631 they hired a third party investigator thats ultimately beholden to whoever is paying them
Wake up samurai, the Noctua NH-D15 G2 review is real.
FINALLY. I buggered up my latest AIO install and it's held together with a self tapping screw. I've been waiting for this so, when it spills its guts, I can ruin and bodge another expensive cooler. It's what you get for assembling with an impact driver.
(in all seriousness, I keep AIOs running until they are nearly totally out of liquid... It'll survive).
@@ts757arse looks like you need a self-sealing stem bolt
@@albertcamus6611 I am sure I know a chap with some big ears who has a few "spare".
@@ts757arse Oh, but they warned us about them at the academy! buyer beware
I'm still not convinced. Will wait until tomorrow and to see if video is still up or if this was just but a dream
Geez man, I don't know if people can really appreciate the depth of testing expertise displayed in this video. 9 passes for a single mount?! 13 dBA noise floor?! 3 different cold plates, fan swaps, two test benches. Easily over $100K in time and equipment. Well done guys. I bet Noctua are pleased to have their best tested by the best.
Yes, but check it out what's most replayed section :))
@@rob.ale90 well yeah it's a 36 minute long video. That's what's going to happen
I'm still running an NH-D15 after who knows how many years. The quality and longevity of the brand are prime reasons I'd buy Noctua again for this class of air cooler.
Yes, Noctua is a High Class! ❤❤❤
Same here, I've moved mine between 3 builds so far. If it ain't broke...
I bought my NH-D15 for an AMD FX-8350 to try to squeeze some extra life out of it. I'm still using it with a Ryzen 5900X. Oof. But hey, it still works!
@@vasiovasio pft. Found the Patrician.
or just get a cheaper cooler and pair it with the Noctua fans, you get the best from both worlds
Less than 1mm between the edge of the fan and the frame is wild.
NH-D15 G3 will have 0 clearance with self-ablation
@@Petr75661ha!
@@Petr75661 honestly it wouldn’t be that awful of an idea, you would just need to settle on running it at a certain speed (because dimensions change based on speed) and let it wear in. I wonder if anyone will switch to metal or composite fans at some point for even higher stiffness and therefore lower gap.
@Petr75661 Just send your G2 to Line2Line coatings and get it NOW!
A little dust build up and you'll start hearing an annoying noise
Can't wait for the G3 in 20 years!
The year is 2044. Steve exits retirement for one last review.
wait, how old is Steve? 20 years in retirement? I would have believed mid 30, if he told me. Even with the few gray hairs, some ppl get grey hairs early.
and the "Thanks Steve" comment will reappear
@@GamersNexus Same for Linus, he returns for 1 final tech drop.
@@GamersNexus **a figure clothed only in holograms flys out of the forest on his downhill hover bike. He brushes his long white hair out of his face** “today we’re reviewing…”
can always count on steve and the team to give me deep dives into products that does not leave me searching for more information after i watched their tests.
gg boyos, ur format kick ass!
as long as peerless assassin exists, there is no reason to buy from noctua
Already saved this video knowing I might need this in 10 years
I am curious whether the original fans on my NH-D15, which I have been using daily for the past 10 years, will need replacing when the G3 version comes out, or if they will hold up until the G4 or even G5 models...
@@Kadotus My original case fans bought in 2009 are still going strong. Although I am tempted by the newer fan line up. Might upgrade if the 10k CPU from AMD is not trashed like the 9k series right now.
Expensive testing that we get to see for free, thanks Steve and Gamers Nexus
I'm still running my Noctua NH-D14 I bought in June of 2012 - and have no desire to upgrade at this point. $88 for a fan in 2012 seemed insane, but Noctua continues to support their older fans by selling adapter plates each time a new CPU is introduced, and currently I'm running an AMD 5900X and it has no issues keeping it cool. I'll probably upgrade that to the next AMD chip that comes out, and I bet you this fan will continue to work just fine for another 12 years.
Basically same experience here with NH-D14. "Side-graded" it to NH-U12A last month, though. It performs about ~7c better on 5800X at full load. Fans are a bit louder on it, but it's also more impressive because it's a single tower cooler and there's zero issues with any kind of RAM.
The fans are the spinning part with the motor and what you are talking is the tower cooler not the fans you clip on it, the fans and the cooler are not the same thing
Similar experience with mine that I got in 2010, it still works great in my home server and was in my gaming PC until I went with a AIO in 2019.
Same old story with my Thermalright Macho. It just does what it has to do, quietly and efficiently. (And I think it was around 50 bucks 11 years ago...)
I have a NH-D14 and NH-U9 that are about that old and recently the U9SP3. The fact that I could contact Noctua for mounting kit upgrades over the years has been a nice plus.
Seems a bit strange not to include AM5 test data at this point, especially since you even updated Intel's thermal results to the 14900K. Not a huge deal but considering the notable IHS changes and that more people will move to AM5 going forward, it would be nice to see.
Overall it's nice to see Noctua back on top and including decent accessories for that price tag. I am a bit disappointed the new 140mm we've been waiting for is still limited up to 1500 RPM, even now that they've shifted to LCP. I'm hoping we at least get a version capable of ~1800 or so, since I assume the bearings can handle that. At this price, integrating a speed switch like their competitors would be a nice touch for those with a need to max out performance at the cost of noise.
Awesome, being with my d15 so long I recognize wich sound was which blind test
And like me did you prefer the OG sound to the G2 lol?
@@N4CR yessssssssssssss, that's the crazy part. I'm used to that warm hummmmm
I dont think it's honestly possible to convince me its $115 better than a peerless assassin. I definitely prefer air coolers to AIOs in general though. Pump noise I find super aggravating for whatever reason, and they have many more points of failure.
Some people just don't mind paying a lot more for marginally better perf, even if they don't want to go water. I personally went on full custom, but if i were not, i'd probably think about upgrading to this. (My previous air cooler was a dark rock pro4)
@@TheHighborn Oh I have no issues with people buying Noctua stuff. I get the draw. Im also biased as I have a PA. The hill I'll die on though is that air coolers suffice for 90% of builds. Only thing Id use an AIO on is 13/14th gen Intel and I'd never buy that in the first place. :D
Agree with you. Also, if the fans fail on your PA, you can buy better fans like Phanteks T30 and get even better performance. For my current system (13700k), I'm using an AIO. I cannot understand who will buy this D15 G2.
I'm happy and probably will continue to be happy with my Noctua NH-D15
@@spell105I 'm happy and probably will continue to be happy with my Noctua NH-D14😀
I was tickled by that Snoop bit
JROC baby
5:41 Steve beat the urge to say "WOO WOO" lol
I'd pay to watch this as a short to be honest 😅
Great review, but I would never spend this much on an air cooler. I'm just waiting on Thermalright's PA 140 or their Royal Pretor to release before upgrading my CPU cooler.
God tier review, honestly the G2 is disappointing, I'll be looking at the arctic freezer III as best bang for buck and performance at a decent audio level. Thanks gamersnexus for being some unapologetically epic content and review procedure.
Two super flat steel surfaces touching one another can cold weld together when left too long in that state. That happened to me with some parallel gauge blocks. Adhesive power is strong. Don't know if anyone saw the commercial from the 90's in which two tractor puller weren't able to pull apart two huge blocks of steel because of glue or some shit. That wasn't a trick. They actually did that, but it only worked because there wasn't any glue between the two super polished sides of the blocks, only pure adhesive power.
That was my contribution of useless knowledge for the day. Have a good one ^^
These are not gauge blocks, bro.
So what you're saying here is, if I polished my CPU and this cooler enough, and I had them lapped nearly flat, I could potentially get rid of the need for thermal interface material entirely.
@@Its-Just-Zip th-cam.com/video/sQw20rHvpRw/w-d-xo.html
@@Its-Just-Zip Probably. Gauge blocks can be "wrung" together where they basically act as one piece down the the atomic level.
@@Its-Just-Zip What he's also saying is that you lose the AM4/AM5 advantage. You will be upgrading the CPU along with the cooler 😂
28:06 I love how you guys skip applying thermal paste, just to avoid the flamewar 😆
at the same time though, it'd be good for the algo
Secretly, it is also to save on wasting paste!
@@GamersNexus
"Millions for Noise-testing, but not one Penny for Paste"!
Do what Action Retro does and just blur it like if it were japanese erotica.
@@Fay7666 there's a youtube channel called tronicsfix that has some fun with it. the host (i think his name is steve, no relation to this steve) always says "time to apply the PERFECT amount of thermal paste" and plays angelic chorus on it
@@Fay7666 there's a youtube channel, tronicsfix, that has some fun with it
the host, I believe his name's steve (seems like there's quite a few of those in this industry) says "time to apply the PERFECT amount of thermal paste" and will play an angelic chorus for it
"...It's hard being Steve D O double G; but I, somehow, someway..."
With so much drama over LBC
It's kinda hard bein' S to the E-V-E
But I
Somehow someway
Keep turnin' out standardized tests like every single day
Could you
kick a lil somethin'
for the GN
Store now'at we test
in a sound proof, 250k booth
an' the channel still jumpin' cuz Snowflake izzat home
I got coolers with the washer mod mountin' 'em on, yet
They get jenky so we want a update
So what you wanna do? Bet
Noctua pocket full of SKU's to make the cold plate fit you
So give up the lights, embrace the tan
But (But what?) you don't love them fans Yeahhhhhh...
But we gon' drop a lot on this
G up, N down while you liquid simps shrug at us
ROLLIN' DOWN THE STREET, REPPIN' BROWN FANS
D15 G AND 2
laaaaiiiid baaaaaack
GOT NO MIND FOR MY MONEY CUZ NOCTUA ON MY MIND
ROLLIN' DOWN THE STREET, REPPIN' BROWN FANS
D15 G AND 2
laaaaiiiid baaaaaack
GOT NO MIND FOR MY MONEY CUZ NOCTUA ON MY MIND
Thanks for that! 😂
For me fan noise is really important and I have to say the old D15 definitely sounds much more pleasing, so not sure if I would ever get the new one.
I know this review isn't about the price of the G2, but at $150 for an AIR COOLER, it's hard to talk about anything else. Yes, it's Noctua so you know it'll be well made, but at $150 you could buy 2 of the cheap 360 AIOs from the last video, a 12-pack, and have money left over. Noctua is out of their damn minds.
I would really appreciate you checking out the Phantom Spirit 120. It's essentially an upgraded peerless assasin but for a very similar price.
@@el1f0 or any their 140mm that clearly better than PS120
Don't think I've ever mentioned it, but I sure have meant to.... That sound chamber looks really good with your colors on the sound absorbing tiles/peak/mountains/whateverthehellthey are called!
Thank you!
This will possibly be family heirloom.
"Your father's CPU cooler. This is the weapon of a true tech nerd. Not as clumsy or random as an AIO. An elegant weapon, for a more... civilized age."
@@c99kfm and we will look like old farts with grey/no hair^^
Definitely a mantle show piece
"You never actually own a Noctua. You merely look after it for the next generation."
Kinda underwhelming tbh. Existence of better Thermalright coolers for much, much cheaper price and not in weird colors ruins this IMO. PA120 is not even on top 3 best TR coolers right now and new ones were shown on Computex. Reliability and bracket support of Noctua become pointless when you can just buy the other cooler 3 times and still have money left to upgrade the fans. It's just not good enough to justify itself. Hell, on amd side it is barely better than PA120. I wonder how it would stack against PS120 and 140mm variants...
Noctua may make good coolers, but their prices are a bad joke. 80 to 100 Euros would have been high but acceptable. But 150 ist just laughable.
get peerless assassin and put that extra 120 onto a bettter cpu
No get a Phantom Spirit SE/EVO or wait for the Royal Preytor Ultra which is also $45.
Seriously, that’s enough difference to go from a 7600x to a 7800x3d most of the time.
@@Khaled-bs7zcps120 evo is the best performing and looking cooler that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Thermalrights next gen coolers will up the ante even more. Can’t wait for the white royal knight 120
100 percent. That's so much money, you can jump up a pretty significant amount in cpu for that, and the 7800 x3d can run with a 30 dollar single tower cooler anyway.
As a guy from Southern California, I appreciate the multiple mentioning of the LBC my G. Stay up Steve
Very happy with my Thermalright Assasin 120 Se for 3x less price
Yeah, I couldn't justify this price for an air cooler.
Thanks Steve. I'm torn on whether to change my drinking game from "Hemi Anechoic Chamber" to "Laser Scanner."
I think laser scanner would get you there faster. You can see him glowing everytime they use it.
'why not both'
7:40 damn steve
bars
@@GamersNexusi want to buy a new pc with ryzen 7800x3d and rtx 4080S. Should i pick the old nh-d15 or the new g2?
@@Troynex Get what you want they both will cool it incredibly well and be quiet. The G2 will be a bit better though
@@GamersNexusSteve /GN team, how hard would it be to implement a short noise sample for each of your noise tests. I personally would prefer having the option to compare the way something sounds.
@@Troynex When you spend that much money on your PC, are you really going to go for less than the best air cooler over less than $50?
Maybe I missed it but I am surprised the new fans weren't put on the old cooler since the old fans got put on the new cooler. It showed a decline in performance that virtually matched the og cooler. It almost paints a picture that the cooler change didn't make much of a difference and that the fans provided the majority of the cooling improvement. If you own the og do you get the same or at least very similar performance just by buying the new fans and potentially saving a decent chunk of change?
That´s assuming we get the chance. The only 1500rpm replacement for old-gen A15 in existence is Chromax A15, because standard standalone A15 fan is only 1200rpm...
@@Morpheus-pt3wq It certainly seems like a sneaky tactic that I wouldn't put past Noctua. They do love to find ways to make the most basic things as expensive as possible. There seems to be more markup on the cooler package than just their fans so why not make people think they need the entire thing for better performance.
The only things that are different in G2 are 8 heat pipes and higher fin density. Essentially the same thing which companies like Thermalright and Deepcool have been doing for years now. I'm sure Thermalright will make a 140 mm dual tower cooler which will match G2 for a fraction of the price.
And in a few years, they'll introduce vapour chamber coolers which make G2 fully obsolete.
@@Chopper153 Yes, that will and always has happened. As far as changes, they aren't exactly minor. There's only so many parts and every one of them has been altered in some way. The question is does it matter? Noctua states those changes don't really start to show benefit until 250 watts is exceeded. That wasn't really tested and neither was new fan on old cooler.
Ignoring Noctua being crooks, we really didn't learn how true the claim from Noctua is. Given how thorough GN normally is I would have thought that test with the old fans would have raised some questions. I would imagine all the extra mass the G2 has would make a difference under high wattage loads but it didn't seem to make a difference when fans were the same for both.
It could just be that all heat loads tested didn’t output enough heat to make the differences really show.
It would be good to see if Steve can test noctua’s own claims which are tested not using CPUs but heaters. Noctua claim that the original NH-D15 can hold a 460 W heat load at 60 C whilst the new version can handle 620 W. You won’t get near that with CPUs because of how the heat is distributed though. Steve can only test it on current CPUs where the difference just might not be that high and it puts a cap on how high he can set the heat load. Obviously Steve’s testing is real world testing with components that people will actually use, not just heaters, so his testing will be more valuable for most people. What will be interesting to see is how the new version holds up as CPUs use more and more power.
What makes you think that noctua are crooks or are being shady?
When you can get 4 Thermalright equivalent coolers for the same amount of money... No, Noctua, as much as you technically hold the crown for best air cooler, the eye-watering MSRP is a joke. This comes from someone that owns and used an OG NH-D15. Noctuas are nice, but the price is very hard to justify, as it's now what I love to use as a prime example of diminishing returns.
So, to summarize. Same performance as Pearless Assassin for 5 times the price. Bargain. Only for Noctua fan boys and girls. Nothing to see here. Move along
I've been inside one of those chambers and it is so freaky quiet.
Considering the price of this Noctua I think I'll wait for the vapor chamber air coolers from other companies if they are even better at similar noise levels.
Been absolutely loving the new testing methodology from you guys!
Yes Steve, we’re getting old 😉
Not if AI can help it!
@@GamersNexusI think we just cracked Jensen’s latest business strategy: Sell more GPU’s to support machine learning, to keep people living longer, to generate more demand for GPU’s. How did no one figure this out sooner 🤦♂️
@@GamersNexus haha
How come the charts say it is 43.8dba on AMD at 100% fan speed but only 35.3dba for Intel at 100% fan speed? That’s quite a discrepancy, right?
There's going to be a non-zero chance that through assembly line snafu, or otherwise (like restocking), that HBC coolers will be mixed up with LBC coolers. Good luck everyone!
There is no justification for that price period. You can buy 4 Peerless Assassin with that money. Even if each of them fails in 2-3 years its still a win. But I don't think PA will fail in at least 5 years. Or you can go liquid which is miles ahead of Noctua at that price point.
Only thing that would counter this logic is hoping that they would provide mounting kits for upcoming platforms for 10 years. But don't buy tomorrow's technology today. And never trust a corporation's promise. You never know what will happen in future. Maybe the variation you buy today (HBC-LBC-STD) won't be effective on new CPUs' ihs tomorrow.
Noctua is like Apple, very good at marketing and also good in engineering.
You'll find several fanboys behaving like cultists in this very comment section.
@@Chopper153 Hello! :D
Cmon Thermalright bout time you release your royal preytor ultra (sick name)
Missing thermalright phantom spirit and phantom spirit evo. Cannot wait for thier next cooler (Royale preytor ultra) for only 45$
Agreed, I want to see it against the FC140, FS140 & PS120 EVO
The phantom spirit evo is really a monster, those fans are crazy good for that price
Also remember the frost commander 😀
I'm almost certain thermalright will surpass Noctua's performance before Noctua's next air cooler, and they'll do it for at least half the price.
@@uponeric36 thermalright made a cooler when I built my first pc in 2014 it was the Silver Arrow, it was basically a NH-D15 and it came with blue fan shrouds with grey blades. I thought it looked better personally, I have no idea why they didn't become more mainstream way back then.
(edit - the fan shrouds might of been grey with blue blades it's been awhile)
So for 99.99% of people just buy a peerless assassin if you are air cooling. Got it. Thermalright engineers being able to create a cooler that basically hangs right there with noctua for pennies on the dollar is pretty wild.
Easy to do if their R&D is basically "copy that good shit!". I'd rather pay a honest price for a well designed product from a company that has a proven track record of excellence in customer support.
Shoutout SPCR crew.
At least with Noctua, you're not just buying the name, you're actually also buying the support, quality and performance. Unlike some fruitbased hardware.
Yeah, I really miss SPCR
You guys didnt test the Thermalrights phantom spirit or do i remember wrong?🤔
they don't have any of Phantom Spirit, they only have Peerless Assassin(s)
A really bad miss on their part given that the PS easily beats the PA at the same price point and has been out for a while. Not having it in this review is misleading for potential buyers.
Thx for your tests. Today i got my GN, AM5 and Intel 1700 Case Batches. I like that. they looks really good and they are so massive and really good quality. Greetings from Germany 😇
That's awesome! Thank you so much for buying them!
@@GamersNexus No problem 😇
Steve being able to show off so many GN toys in 1 video obviously makes him happy. The growth of this channel is astounding and well deserved.
3x the price of a Peerless Assassin or 5x of the Assassin SE ? NO-ctua i am sorry
I honestly expected a bit more from noctua, after that much time.
I think the fans took the longest to get right. Once they figure out the 120mm they had issues with the material on the 140mm. Getting a gap that tiny isn't easy without adding a ring.
@@Bound4Earth absolutely, yet the Performance gap to i.e. thermalright who Just pumps out products left and right (many of them arent great, fair), just isnt that big. Just think about how long noctua took. I appreciate what they do and love their overengineering, but the jump we made kind of feels unproportionate to the time it took.
I bought the Thermalright Phantom Spirit and couldn't be happier. Costs 35 bucks and it cools close to a 280mm aio
Yep, I have the PS and it's a beast.
@@StefanGalia yesss, just wish the fans were a bit quieter
I know Noctua are generally more expensive than other brands, but dang. That's a big price increase for a small efficiency gain. :/ You are better off just buying a liquid cooler and you'll get the same or better performance at better noise levels.
Having one expensive system die due to an AIO leak appearing after over a year, there is no way I will let a liquid near my electronics ever again.
@@00wheelie00 maybe start buying good aios and not crap with 2 years of warranty
@@schwazernebe I wasn't under the impression Corsair made crap aio watercoolers when I bought it, nor am I now.
Any brand no matter the warranty will have the occasional leak. And warranty doesn't mean much when I got my aio replaced, but still had to buy a new psu, mb and cpu myself. I was lucky the GPU survived the liquid damage. Why would I ever risk that again when I can aircool without risk of leaking, pump failure or clogging? I get the clocks I want from PBO with air too, no interest in manual overclocking. And my latest case is windowless, so looks are irrelevant too.
There is no benefit to watercooling for me.
It would also be cool to see how the old NH-D15 performs when using the NF-A14x25r G2 🙂
Great review guys. I'm off to buy an Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360.
My reasoning is I already have the NH-D15 (not G2) and moving to the G2 only gets me 2 degrees lower. The ALF III 360 will get me about 8 degrees cooler. And I'm using a 13900K, so...
Why would anyone pay all of this money when you have Thermalright assasin 120 SE for 30$?
HELL YEAH I have been waiting for this !!!!
HELL YEAH
HELL YEAH, waste money when you can get the same performance for half the price! 🤣
Will I ever buy such an expensive cooler? I don't think so.
Am I glad it exists? Yes. Engineering is stepped up to the next level in every part of the product. Company is known to support these products for many years. It's an awesome thing to see.
Considering you guys are comparing it to the TR Peerless Assassin, I would like y’all to compare it with the TR Phantom Spirit. A great cooler too at a great price with an extra heat pipe
Noctua, I love your products, but there's no world were I'm spending $150 for an air cooler. Even $100 is pushing it when you're fighting for market share against Thermalright. Good cooler though 🤷♂️
4 degrees warmer than a $30 peerless assassin…. And they are making a 140mm peerless assassin too. I’m gonna have to pass on this cooler 😕
What about old D15 with new fans? You did other way around and it made big difference.
too much money for too little gain
What a disappointment from Noctua. Almost no improvement. Outperformed by cheaper older versions. What were they doing for 10 years?
It's not outperformed? Also it's hard to improve on perfection
@@Fantastika By a margin of error. I want to see the new 140mm vs Pantheks t30.
I care about Noctua products as much as I care about Rolls-Royce or Bugatti cars.
$20 coolers doing only 5-6 degrees more is where I'm at.
Also - will we ever see fan tester in action?
To me the G2 sounds like it's pulsing really quickly, kind of annoying coupled with the higher pitch overall. What RPM offset was it on the G2 again?
GNHipHop - new channel? Legend!
I was really hoping you'd include at least one of Phantom Spirit coolers in you charts.
I've been using Noctua fans in every PC I've built. A part of me wants to buy a G2 for my next build, though it is extremely difficult to justify it based on the performance alone, no matter how well their previous models served me, and no matter how much I enjoyed their engineers' interviews with Steve.
Buy a Thermalright cooler and use Noctua fans. Or an AIO with Noctua fans if you want the best noise normalised performance.
There's lots of good choices out there, but I will always put Noctua first, even if they are cheaper options available due to the company's reputation of outstanding support for the long-term.
@@jamesm568 that's Stockholm syndrome
@@v0ldy54 No, It's called a brand having an outstanding reputation unlike a many of other brands out there.
@@jamesm568noctua got their reputation because of how far ahead their air coolers were back then. But the market's vastly different now and noctua no longer holds the edge performance wise, especially considering the price.
Could you please 🙏 review the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE as the Peerless Assassin is now 2 generations old as they also release the SE version and I don't think any people are buying the OG version anymore.
Not Earth shattering. Personally the expense isn't justified. Just get a Thermalright dual tower or go liquid.
Definition of diminishing returns: NH-D15 G2
3950X results are stupid and irrelevant. No one is buying this cooler to run on an ancient CPU like that. Scrap that sh1t.
You should be testing this cooler only on the hottest (in terms of heat) CPU's from both Intel and AMD right now. The 14900KS and 7950X at full load balls to the wall heat to see what these coolers can handle. You should be also testing frequency degradation as well.
If you are going to test this sh1t, test it on the latest CPU's.
You guys do really good work. You test things that others do not. There are plenty of other good TH-cam channels out there. They all do good work, but you guys have set a standard that other channels can use as a benchmark. Over the years you have really taken it to another level.
182€ in my country. They can shove NH-D15 G2 somewhere
I paid 60 quid for my NH-D14 in 2011. I thought it was crazy when the new ones went up to £100, but £150 is just nuts.
This cooler isn't for me (3700X, maybe upgrading to a 5700X, so sub-100w), I prioritise silence/quiet over power (tinnitus), but after watching the review and listening to the new fans at high-load RPM, I'd probably go for the older model.
Although tbh if I was upgrading a cooler to put in a system that needed it, it means I have enough money to do such a big upgrade, and would prioritise silence again, and probably do a liquid cooling setup with as big a radiator and fans as possible to really push how low RPM I can go on the fans.
I'm trying to figure out who this is for. That price tag, it's almost like it's a bragging rights part, like the high end Intel parts that suck up huge amounts of power for marginal gains. But surely someone who goes to that level would get a liquid cooler, or water cooling setup.
Why even replace the NH-D14? If price is that much a factor just keep using it. America and it's ewaste is going to bury us all in Temu shit man.
Also you run your fans at 100%? bro just to net what another handful of frames. Try slowing down whatever fans you have to make them quieter and still get great performance.
With the washer mod they should include 4 longer screws. Looks like maybe one thread is holding it together. Or buy a Thermalright block like I did, works well.
Expensive cooler that barely out performs coolers that cost $100 less. Hard pass.
Using the Thermalright PS120 Evo with Noctuas offset AM4 mount! (NM-AMB14 and NM-SFB4)
Well, its sure good but not with that price.
If your cpu can be cooled with air cooler, you go for $35 thermalright cooler, if not, you go with $55 thermalright aio, or less noisy $100 arctic aio that cool better, cost less and makes less noise.
So all I can say is the new product is such a small iterative improvement that for most people, buying the last-gen product is a better value proposition for longevity reasons.
And for hardcore overclockers, Artic LF3 360 is still the best mid-term solution. As mentioned in your video for that product, the only downside is the hard-to-use mounting plate leaf spring for AMD platform.
I think people value Noctua for longevity and support over price. Noctua has never been a value add product and never will be. It is like arguing Vulcan stoves are bad buys, even though they outlast whirlpool and similar brands everyone buys by a large margin.
As always, I appreciate the effort you've put into the review
A four degree delta between the new NH-D15 and the Peerless Assassin? Talk about $ diminishing returns $.
Thank you GN for the extremely comprehensive review
and they are coming up with something even better, so Noctua aint looking too hot right now.
Diminishing returns at the very top end? I'm shocked
I dont understand why anyone would lay $150 for an air cooler over an aio.
@@maxv9872 reliability and less potential points of failure
@@maxv9872 air coolers have less points of failure and the only maintenance required is dust cleaning and fan replacement when the bearings give out. They make more sense for most unless you're looking at heat loads above 200W.
I'm using the original D15.
I find this test amazingly helpful.
I could see the difference in the base plate.
This reads like a haiku
it has 3 too many words though lol
tf did noctua do for 7 years bruh the phantom spirit 120 is better than this and its 40 bucks and looks better and smaller 😭
They're just relying on their name now lol. It's over Noctua.
tf did they do for 7 years the noise is worse then before on the new one
In the A/B testing I was kinda surprised by much higher the overall impression of the G2 fan was vs. the old ones, but then I remembered that this was a 100% vs. 100% test, meaning the old fan was running at 1200 rpm and the new one was running at 1500 rpm. To my understanding at least from Noctua's talking points and the way the NF-A12x25 worked out vs. the older NF-A12, at the same RPM the new fan should be both quieter and performing about the same or better than the old one, and dropping the RPM should also bring the overall noise signature closer to the old fan's 1200 rpm noise.
I know this is a long shot, but could you guys maybe make a short or record and release audio clips of the G2 vs. the OG running at 1200 rpm, to compare the noise signatures?
Somewhat irrelevant though since my fans basically never go beyond 1000 rpm anyway... Just curiosity.
It's been a few days since it's become available. A day later, no other channels or websites have released any reviews. Just goes to show how much dedication Steve and the GN team to cover this so quickly.
Just bought the G2 LBC for my AM4
Thermalright Peerless Assassin's value has just gone up even more with the introduction of NH-D15 G2. No point in spending more money on these expensive coolers which only provide slight improvement.
yeah wtf did noctua do in 7 years instead of making aios or cheap coolers
"Good enough" is not why you buy Noctua. You buy Noctua for a quality statement that says: I'm the best, deal with it. I would never buy a different air cooler, and I will never buy AIOs. Working as sysadmin for SMB with plenty of CAD machines, I've personally seen three (!) AIOs leaks destroy multiple thousands of euros in a literal flash.
There is a point if you want the best air cooler.
revolutionary. Now it time for thermalright to release a cooler that beats it. oh and it'll be 40 dollars.
Definitely think the Phantom Spirit Evo is worth testing. The Peerless Assassin was effectively replaced by that model.