Noctua nh-d15 se - Reviews 2024

After the recent departure of the AMD Ryzen platform and the shortage of motherboards on the market, it is not a very encouraging start. In addition, it must be added that few manufacturers are measuring up with supports and brackets… Noctua makes it easy for us with its new Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 and continues to demonstrate why it is one of the best heatsink manufacturers on the market.

Do you want to know its performance with an AMD Ryzen 1800X? Don't miss our review!

We appreciate the trust of Noctua for the transfer of the product for its analysis:

Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 technical characteristics

Unboxing and design

Noctua makes a presentation that we already know from the great variety of heatsinks that we have analyzed. A cover that highlights the corporate colors brown and white. Along with the main outstanding technical specifications.

While in the rear and side area we find all the technical characteristics in detail. Where we have a small introduction in several languages, including Spanish.

Once we open the box we find a very complete bundle. Specifically it consists of:

Heatsink Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 2 fans NF-A15 PWM 140 mm2 LNAC adapters 4-pin Y-shaped cable NT-H1 thermal paste SecuFirm2 mounting system for AM4. Sets of hardware and hardware.

The Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 presents really big dimensions with 160 mm (height) x 150 mm (width) by 135 mm (depth) with a weight of 980 grams. Once we installed the fans, it would be 165 x 150 x 161 mm and a weight greater than one kilogram, specifically 1, 320 grams.

It is built on a double tower with a large number of aluminum fins welded to six thick heatpipes that are responsible for transmitting heat to the two towers.

It should be noted that both towers have a quite peculiar design, since they leave enough space to be able to install high-profile RAM on each side. This is very useful, if you have an X99 platform and do not trust the compact liquid refrigerations (AIO) that are usually sold in online stores.

As you can see in the images it is a voluminous heatsink and it was quite pleasing to the eye with a matte design. The brand logo is engraved in the upper area and we love the design of the heatpipes. What about you?

The nickel-plated copper base is in charge of being in contact with the processor. Although it does not have the typical mirror effect, it has a rough design. We have always liked that Noctua uses this type of design, since the performance is far superior to the rest of the heatsinks we tested .

The Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 allows us to install up to three fans (if we buy the third set of clips). As standard, it incorporates two 140mm NF-A15 fans with a minimum rotation of 300 RPM and is capable of reaching up to 1500 RPM, always controlled by the motherboard using PWM (4-pin cable).

It gives off an air flow of 140.2 m³ / h and a maximum loudness of 24.6 dBA (one of the lowest). The estimated life time is about 150, 000 hours. More than enough to retire with the heatsink.

AM4 socket installation

As usual in our latest reviews we have chosen the AM4 platform since it is the one with the highest hype and thus check how it cools the new AMD Ryzen. However, this heatsink only has AM4 mounts.

We love that Noctua makes life so much easier for us. As on other occasions, it incorporates a very explicit and perfectly explained manual with images. The text is in English…

The first step is to unscrew the plastic supports and keep only the rear backplate on. It is highly recommended to rest the motherboard on a flat place, to avoid any problem when fixing the heatsink.

We proceed to fix the four plastic spacers, the two metal plates and the 4 thread screws. As you can see in the image, we have chosen this option, since with the other two supports it would collide with our RAM memory.

It is time to apply the thermal paste in the form of a cross (important for the two AMD Ryzen modules to cool properly) in the processor and we will install the heatsink with the fixing screws.

Now we only have to connect the power cable (4 pins - PWM) to the motherboard. And we can see how it looks with a high-end motherboard. The assembly would be as follows.

As we can see, it allows us to install any RAM memory regardless of whether it is high profile or low profile. A great improvement over the traditional Noctua NH-D15, and that we already saw in the Noctua NH-D15S for the Intel and AM3 platform.

You like how it looks, right? A sublime design.

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	AMD Ryzen 7 1800X.
Base plate:	Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming.
Memory:	16GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LED.
Heatsink	Noctua NH-D15 SE AM4.
SSD	Samsung 850 EVO 500GB.
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1080.
Power supply	EVGA G2 750W.

To test the real performance of the heatsink we are going to stress the best processors on the market: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X Our tests consist of 72 uninterrupted hours of work. In stock values and with 4 GHz overclocking. In this way we can observe the highest temperature peaks and the average that the heatsink reaches. We must bear in mind that when playing or using other types of software, temperatures will drop dramatically between 7 to 12ºC.

How are we going to measure the processor temperature?

We will use the internal sensors of the processor. For that test on Intel processors we will use the CPUID HwMonitor application in its latest version. Although it is not the most reliable test of the moment, it will be our reference in all our analyzes. The ambient temperature is 20º.

Let's see the results obtained:

Final words and conclusion about Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4

The new Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 is an aluminum double tower heatsink, made with the best components on the market. Its set with the NF-A15 140mm PWM fans are the ideal combination of loudness and performance on the market.

Its nickel-plated copper base and 6 thick heatpipes allow the AMD Ryzen 1800X to maintain temperatures of 30ºC at rest and 48ºC at maximum performance. While when we apply 4 GHz overclocking and a voltage of 1.41, the temperatures rise to 37ºC at rest and paralyze up to 56ºC at full .

Special mention to its easy and intuitive assembly. The new brackets are the best I have currently tested for the AM4 socket. For now, it's my favorite choice for those users who don't want liquid cooling but want to get the most out of their high-end processor. We also liked that it allows you to install high-profile memory.

We recommend reading our guide to the best heatsinks on the market.

The only downside that we can get is that its weight is 1.3 kg with the two fans mounted . Something heavy. So will I have problems with my motherboard? The motherboards now, with how well built they are and a good fixation in the box, will not pose any kind of problem.

Its price in stores is 89.95 euros and its availability is immediate. Be careful, if you already have a Noctua heatsink from your old PC, you can order the brackets on the Noctua website, which will send it free to your home.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS.	- WEIGHTS 1.3 KG.
+ THE BEST AM4 BRACKETS ON THE MARKET CURRENTLY.
+ EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE AND SUPPORTS A GREAT OVERCLOCK.
+ TWO HIGH QUALITY 140 MM FANS.
+ SUPPORT WITH HIGH PROFILE MEMORY.
+ VERY LOW SOUND.