Noctua nh-u14s tr4 - Reviews 2024

The arrival of the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors has a small drawback for users and is that its new TR4 socket is not compatible with the heatsinks that are currently on the market. AMD wants to fix it with a retention kit attached to the processors that is compatible with many of the liquids on the market, however many users prefer more traditional air cooling and there is Noctua to meet their need with the new Noctua NH- U14S TR4-SP3.

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

Technical characteristics Noctua NH-C14S TR4-SP3

Unboxing and design

Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 returns to make a gala presentation as usual in all the products of this great Austrian brand. The new heatsink comes with a large box and a design very pleasing to the eye in which the corporate colors of the brand predominate, as it could not be otherwise.

At the back we find all the most important features of this heatsink in several languages, including Spanish.

Once we open the box we find a gala packaging in which the foam protectors abound to prevent the different parts from moving during transport, thus Noctua ensures that it reaches the hands of the end user perfectly.

The bundle consists of:

Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 . Premium NF-A15 PWM fan. Noise Reduction Adapter (LNA). NT-H1 thermal compound. SecuFirm2 ™ mounting system. Anti-vibration panels and snap hooks for a second NF-A15 fan. Case-Badge Night in metal.

We are dealing with a high-end heatsink so it has a bulky size of 52 x 150 x 165 mm without a fan and with a 78 x 150 x 165 mm fan with the attached fan installed.

Additionally it allows us to install a second fan in case we want to achieve a greater air flow and with it a better cooling capacity, in this case it is especially interesting given the high power consumption of Threadripper processors.

Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is manufactured with a single body although the manufacturer has achieved the performance of a double one by having used the most advanced technologies in its manufacture.

With this, an extremely thin product is achieved for excellent compatibility with medium and high profile RAM memories, although we must be careful in the case of the latter, since it is not 100% guaranteed.

Noctua continues betting on its usual fan clips, they are the same as those seen previously and their installation is extremely simple. In addition, anti-vibration rubbers are attached to achieve the most silent operation of the heatsink.

We now focus on the base of the heatsink, as always it is protected with a plastic blister that we must remove before installation.

The base is finished in nickel-plated copper to offer better aesthetics and improve the durability of the material. This base is very well polished and will make perfect contact with the IHS of Threadripper processors to maximize heat transfer. The large size of the base is striking, let's not forget that the Threadripper processors are huge so it takes a very large base to cover them in their entirety.

Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 comes with an NF-A15 PWM fan attached, in this way the user gets one of the best cooling systems on the market without the need to buy any fan separately, despite this we can install a second one fan as we mentioned before. NF-A15 PWM has dimensions of 140 x 150 x 25 mm with a width of 150 mm and is one of the best in its class, this fan can work from 300 RPM to 15200 RPM, which is capable of generating a pressure static of 140.2 m / h (CFM) with a loudness is almost zero of 19.2 dB (A). The lifetime to start the first failure is 150, 000 hours.

The fan has Flow Acceleration Channels technology in its suction area. With this you can increase the speed of air flow in crucial areas of the blades while reducing loudness, improving efficiency and engine noise.

Installation on AMD Threadripper

Installation is very simple since we do not have to have any additional accessories except the key included between the accessories and the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 heatsink. First we apply thermal paste all over the IHS of the processor and we install the heatsink.

We locate the 4 screws and tighten with the key that brings us as standard.

As we can see, the installation does not need a lot of time and once installed it stays that way. Now we only have to hook the fan to the heatsink and proceed to connect the 4-pin cable to the FAN_PWM header on the motherboard.

We leave you some images of how it is installed and its excellent compatibility with low-profile DDR4 memory. The combination is great!

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X
Base plate:	Asus Prime X399-A
Memory:	32 GB G.Skill FlareX
Heatsink	Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3
SSD	Kingston UV400 480 GB.
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti
Power supply	Corsair RM1000X

To test the real performance of the heatsink we are going to stress with an interesting AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X at stock speed and with an overclock of 4050 MHz at 1.35v. Our tests consist of 72 uninterrupted hours of work in stock values and with overclocking in a room at 21ºC.

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, the temperature will drop dramatically between 7 to 12ºC.

How are we going to measure the processor temperature?

For this test we will use the internal sensors of the processor under the supervision of the HWiNFO64 application in its latest version. We believe that it has positioned itself as the best on the market and even more so as a free version. Let's see the results obtained:

Final words and conclusion about Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3M4

The Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 ranks as one of the best heatsinks for the TR4 platform, even better the classic ASETEK liquid coolers that Cooler's top manufacturers use.

The big difference between a Water Cooler and the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is that it fully covers the entire IHS of the AMD Threadripper, which makes it a safe bet for our precious processor and offers us much more confidence.

We recommend reading the best heatsinks on the market

In our test bench with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X we have obtained 36ºC at rest and 56ºC at maximum power. While when we have raised the processor to 4050 MHz (it ranges from 4050 to 4, 100 MHz) we have obtained 43º C and 66º C at maximum potential. Great result!

There are not many stores that have chosen to buy this heatsink series but the few that have it ready to buy have it at 82.60 euros. We think it is worth every euro that its price sets and that it would be one of the key pieces for our Workstation configuration.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ CONSTRUCTION QUALITY.	- THE PRICE MAY BE HIGH, BUT IT IS JUSTIFIABLE.
+ SILENT, POWERFUL FAN WITH GREAT DURABILITY.
+ COVERS THE ENTIRE PROCESSOR BASE.
+ ALLOWS OVERCLOCK.
+ COMPATIBLE WITH LOW PROFILE RAM MEMORY.