Noctua NH-D14 & NH-U9B SE2 Review - PAGE 1

Silence, performance and overclocking. These three words don't go hand-in-hand with Intel's default cooling solution that ships with their retail processors. For this very reason, enthusiasts have to rely on other companies to design superior heatsinks. Some large players are, for better or worse, more widely known than others, while a few of them truly stand out for their premium products. Noctua is definitely part of the latter. They have been in the business since 2005 and have released quite a few solid products including the NH-U12P, which is among the best heatsinks available on the market.

Today's two coolers we will review target the same goals as their predecessors : low noise, performance and quality. The NH-D14 is Noctua's new flagship heatsink, sporting two fans and six heatpipes in a large footprint. On the other hand, the NH-U9B SE2 is a much more compact design. With half the heatpipes and pair of 92mm fans, it will accommodate smaller cases. They both ship with their SecuFirm2 mounting system which supports a wide range of processors starting with AMD's AM2, AM2+ and AM3 as well as Intel's LGA775, 1156 and 1366. Basically, right about everything that was released in the last few years.

Let's see if Noctua's latest pieces of engineering have what it takes to compete!