CoolIt Vantage versus Noctua NH-D14

[dugdiamond]

ok peeps,

today, i proudly took possession of the D14, Noctua's flagship air cooling solution, and i am not dissapointed.

previously, my 1055T (@~4GHz) had been happy being cooled by CoolIt's Vantage self-contained water-cooling offering. before that, i am ashamed to say, i had a Artic Cooling Freezer Pro on it (we all make mistakes - lol).

the vantage was a very decent cooler, and it was happy chugging away on extreme settings for almost a year, but slowly was beginning to fail to start upon the power-on phase. it would takes two to three on-offs before she decided to play game! this was starting to become a PITA, and an UPGRADE was desperately needed.

i had had the vantage radiator being cooled by two 120mm Apache super-silent fans, and even though these were working great in a push/pull configuration, i thought "what the heck... in for a penny... in for a pound", and decided to change ALL the fans in my CM Storm Scout for Noctua equivalents (all from Aria).

many of the regulars have heard me say that i was going to mod (butcher) the D14, just for the sake of having the pleasant-looking heatsinks on my dominatorGTs, stay on. but, i haven't...

the reason is this, those fins upon the top of the ram don't do much, unless i was going to be memtesting 24/7... which i am most definitely not.

so, "off with their heads!". ahhh! they are lovely in all-black now, and fit under the D14 perfectly

the D14 was fitted with IC-Diamond thermal compound, and all i can say is....

wait for it...

wait for it....

11C cooler... yes, you read that correctly... 11C

and, that's not all...

i no longer have a jet engine, taking off, by the side of me... i still have 10 fans in my rig, but the noise difference is very significant. all fans, apart from the D14, are using the ULTRA-low-noise adapters and i can only hear my two GPUs now.

one word can some all this up:

RESULT

 

[Firat]

do you think the included NH-1 thermal compound would be nearly as good as IC diamond?

its meant to be really good, but no1 has compared it to the IC diamond...

im curious

care to test

 

[dugdiamond]

i would, but i don't have any left! both my rigs have IC-Diamond TIM in them

 

[dugdiamond]

BTW: have a third fan on the D14 doesn't improve cooling

 

[Firat]

i would, but i don't have any left! both my rigs have IC-Diamond TIM in them

hmmm no worries, from tests ive seen, the noctua TIM is really good but how good is the question

its the difference between buying the IC diamond TIM = more money spent or the current nh-1 TIM.

need to make up my mind b4 assembley begins :/

 

[dugdiamond]

i used to use Arctic Silver 5 - which i always thought was up-there... but after using IC-Diamond, i noticed 2-3C drops in temps - on both rigs

works for me!

 

[dugdiamond]

... now to see if i can get my 1055T passed a stable 4.2GHz

if i can, i will be doing the "I'm not worthy." (wayne's world) towards the D14

 

[Firat]

... now to see if i can get my 1055T passed a stable 4.2GHz

if i can, i will be doing the "I'm not worthy." (wayne's world) towards the D14

Gd luck dude, im sure you'll do it now that the d14 is in charge of heat removal

and that its good at

 

[marsey99]

the 3rd fan does have an effect but only a small one, i tested my ifx with 1, 2 and 3 fans.

i needed to really up the voltage and speeds to see the differences but the 3rd fan did help, i only ever used 3 fans on it when i was benching it to the extremes tho.

for every day use i only have 1 in the middle and a case fan sucking of the top/rear of it.

i also found that having 2 fans sucking thru each tower was better than blowing but only by a little. idk how much it will differ on the d14 as its heat pipe and fin config are different so it might react differently.

if i was you would try the 3rd fan again once you hit the limits ocing it with 2 and see if you notice a small drop then.

gratz on the new cooler running temps too

 

[dugdiamond]

arrrgh! 1055T fails past 4.2GHz

damn you locked multipliers

but i did manage to squeeze a tiny bit more

old best:



new best:

 

[marsey99]

if your just going for a max cpuz validation you might do better with only 2 sticks of ram.

 

[dugdiamond]

NB maxxes out dude

i am stuck with the x14 multiplier

i want a BE amd, but... really want to hold out for bulldozer

 

[Firat]

NB maxxes out dude

i am stuck with the x14 multiplier

i want a BE amd, but... really want to hold out for bulldozer

I would say wait aswell, it shouldnt be too long now

 

[Terrifictez85]

I would say wait aswell, it shouldnt be too long now

According to eports it has been delayed until August/September 2011 now. May have to purchase Crosshair Formula V whilst waiting

 

[C3mods]

According to eports it has been delayed until August/September 2011 now. May have to purchase Crosshair Formula V whilst waiting

That is the next motherboard I am wanting to purchase when it becomes available to order in the US. I would also like to see what the bulldozer chip will do especially against some of the latest Intel offerings.

 

[dugdiamond]

the CF5 is only AM3+

i want full AM4

 

[Terrifictez85]

the CF5 is only AM3+

i want full AM4

No doubt that will happen when i have bought the 8 core bulldozer chip and yet again have to upgrade my platform. At least i can run my Phenom 955 on the Asus Crosshair V. Well i hope i can, that or i have misread Toms review.

 

[tonkin97]

im going to buy a BD see if it works in my ac iv, will bench test it etc, then put it in the ac v should be good see if there is much improvement lol