Noctua NH-D14 HSF Review – The Best CPU Cooler Ever?

Results

With the system running at stock settings the NH-D14 did very well. Taking the number two spot from its predecessor, the NH-U12P, by beating it by 1.5 degrees, the NH-D14 cooler is only .25 of a degree out of first. The NH-D14 is also 19.25 degrees cooler than the stock Intel heatsink.

Turning up the heat a little with the system overclocked to 3.5GHz, the NH-D14 is really starting to shine beating the Cooler Master V10 by 2.25 degrees, and it is a massive 21.25 degrees ahead of the stock Intel cooler.

Now lets put on a little more heat and raise our i7-920 to 3.8GHz. The CPU temp climbed up to 76.5* degrees at full load and 39.25*C at idle. I tried for 4GHz, but the CPU we have is the C0 stepping which is known to run hot and is notoriously temperamental for OCing passed 3.6GHz. Coupled with the non-OC friendly DX58SO motherboard to get a stable 3.8 I had it set to 190×20 and 1.3875v on the CPU. So those with D0 stepping i7-920’s will see better results.