Noctua NH D14 upgrade?

Varys · 11 Jul 2024 at 16:15

I have a NH D14 which is now 12 years old cooling a 5800x3d with the aftermarket AM4 bracket.

I intend to get a 9800x3d when they come out. Is it worth upgrading the cooler to a Themaltake Phantom Spirit SE or would it be a waste of 40 quid?

I can't find any comparisons for the D14 (probably because it' so old and discontinued) but it seems there is not much difference in thermals and noise between the newer D15 and the Phantom Spirit.

Incidentally I note Noctua fans are rated to last 150,000 hours (17 years) so I wouldn't expect them to fail anytime soon.

My case has 2 front 140mm Arctic F14 fans, 1 rear 120mm and 1 top 120mm fan.

HWINFO Tdie temps with the NH D14 at 24 degrees ambient room temp, are 52 degrees desktop idle, 88 degrees (max) gaming in Cyberpunk, although Rivatuner reports 70 degrees gaming, but I have a non-aggresive fan curve and it's almost silent.

Worth a new cooler or not?

ATIorNvidia · 12 Jul 2024 at 01:24

The 9700X and likely the X3D variant will be 65w TDP/87W PPT parts so no, I'd say you don't need to.

doyll · 12 Jul 2024 at 17:31

As stated, your D15 will do the job no problem.
If you want a new cooler check out Thermalright, both single and twin tower are good to very good and priced 1/4-1/3rd as much as many others with similar performance.

AgedIdiot · Sunday at 12:19

Personally I would wait until the new chip is out and you have decided which new board you are going with - just in case!!

doyll · Sunday at 13:33

What AgedIdiot said is good advice.

Varys · Sunday at 14:14

The board is not a problem as my existing NH D14 works with AM5 socket. I was just wondering if it was worth replacing a 12 year old part with something new

doyll · Sunday at 14:44

Varys said:
The board is not a problem as my existing NH D14 works with AM5 socket. I was just wondering if it was worth replacing a 12 year old part with something new

As stated several times now, there is no real reason to replace your NH-D14 with a new cooler. The only thing that will eventually fail is heatpipes and they last indefinitely if undamaged.

Only long term cooler performance losses I've seen are TIM needing replaced in 2 or more years, and accumulations of dust, smoke film, etc on fins insulating heat transfer to airflow .. and fans wearing out. The oldest cooler I have still in operation is Thermalright Ultra 90 I got in 2007. I had to update mount and replace fan, but cooler is still gong strong.

Straz · 2024-07-19T11:04:13+0100

Not really needed. But you can get better coolers for £30 now, such as the Thermalright Frost Commander.

doyll · 2024-07-19T13:19:31+0100

When NH-D14 was tested against NH-D15 with same fans results were near identical. Even with stock fans D14 is only a degree or two warmer.

The best coolers 13-15 years ago (Silver Arrow, NH-D14) are almost as good as very best today. NH-d15 tested against NH-0D14 with same fans showed them to be near identical.
NH-D15 44.9c to NH-D14 44.2c .. NH-D14 is 0.7c cooler
NH-D15 w/ stock fans full speed 42.3c to NH-D14 w/ stock fans 45.6c 3.3c difference, NH-d15 fans 257rpm faster than NH-D14 fans
Slow down NH-D15 w/ stock fans to same speed as NHD14 was 44.9c to NH-D14 45.6c .. 0.7c difference at same speed / noise level.

NH-D14 and Silver Arrow cooled basically the same, but NH-D14 was louder.