During Computex 2019, Noctua announced its plans to update its fabled D series of CPU coolers with a new design. The new, currently-unnamed coolers incorporate an extra heat pipe as compared to the current NH-D15 and NH-D15S, as well as increase performance and utilize an asymmetrical design for improved PCIe slot clearance.

Noctua of course is well known in the air cooling market for its high quality fans and coolers, which are aimed at the premium end of the market and deliver some of the best performance on the on the market today. Not hurting the company's visibility either is their highly distinctive beige and brown color scheme, which make their products easy to tell apart from more commodity products.

At Computex in addition to its fanless concept CPU cooler design, Noctua also had its next generation of D series CPU cooler on display. The new cooler features seven heat pipes – up from the traditional six of the previous NH-D15 models – and the heatsink itself has been tweaked to offer 10% more surface area for heat dissipation than previous models. One of the most interesting aspects is that Noctua revealed that the new D series coolers are designed to dissipate up to 400 W of heat, which makes them highly suitable for beefier sockets such as AMD's TR4 and SP3.

Showing off one of the prototypes in action, the company had one of the new coolers setup against one of its current NH-D15 models in a custom designed test chamber, using the two otherwise-identical test systems to show the differences in performance between the two models. And since this was designed to be a test of the heatsink and not the fans, only the heatsink itself was swapped here; both systems used the same NF-A15 PWM cooling fans.


The new D series cooler is on the left, the pre-existing NH-D15 is on the right

Overall we didn't see a massive difference – and to be fair, it was very hot (ed: Taipei in June), so ambient temperatures were running high – but none the less, the prototype cooler did come out consistently ahead of the NH-D15. In its custom chamber, the new D series cooler had one degree advantage over its predecessor.

Shifting gears to retail matters, Noctua is planning on releasing two versions of the new D series coolers, rolling out both a single fan model and a dual fan model. The new coolers will include a traditional multi-socket mounting kit, which will support AM4, LGA20xx, and LGA115x. Meanwhile there will be separate dedicated TR4 models due to the larger base plate needed to properly match the large IHS used on AMD's Threadripper processors. Each cooler will also be bundled with a tube of its new NT-H2 thermal compound.

At this point the company hasn't announced an official release date, but it's likely that the next generation of D-type coolers will be available by the end of the year, with a pricing structure similar to that of the current NH-D15 and NH-D15S models.

Want to keep up to date with all of our Computex 2019 Coverage?
 
Laptops
 
Hardware
 
Chips
 
Follow AnandTech's breaking news here!
Comments Locked

38 Comments

View All Comments

  • piroroadkill - Friday, June 28, 2019 - link

    They sell the covers already, as promised:
    https://noctua.at/en/products/accessories/heatsink...

    And they sell black fans with colour coordinated vibration mounts, as promised:
    https://noctua.at/en/nf-a15-hs-pwm-chromax-black-s...

    So I'm not entirely sure what you're waiting for.
  • piiman - Saturday, September 7, 2019 - link

    I'm waiting for a AIO with them included so I don't have to spend MORE
  • piroroadkill - Wednesday, June 26, 2019 - link

    Nice, but they better hurry... I'd love to buy a newer high end Noctua when I build a new Zen 2 rig...
  • Skeptical123 - Wednesday, June 26, 2019 - link

    I wonder how close they are too realistic thermodynamic limits? I assume Noctua has to be pretty close. With that being the case the only new coolers from Noctua should just be the "same" cooler but with slight size changes to fit the current market.

    Without increasing size or air volume/speed as far as I know the next thing to change to increase performance would be switching to copper heat fins from aluminum. Which might give you another half a degree for an extra $50-$100 xd
  • Mikewind Dale - Sunday, June 30, 2019 - link

    I want a solid gold heatsink!
  • Mikewind Dale - Sunday, June 30, 2019 - link

    Update: it appears that silver is slightly more thermally conductive than gold.

    Still, I want gold!
  • TomWomack - Saturday, June 29, 2019 - link

    I suppose that the profit margin on coolers is high enough to make it worth putting three sets of mounting hardware in the box and low enough that you don't want to handle returns from people who ordered NH-D9-2066 when they needed NH-D9-AM4, but I feel a bit guilty throwing away a dozen plastic spacers of different sizes and three carefully-bent pieces of metal every time I buy a modestly high-end cooler.

    (not as guilty as I feel throwing away AIO water-cooling systems whose pumps have stopped pumping; but I can resolve that by never buying another water-cooling system)
  • shoeish - Monday, November 25, 2019 - link

    What are the "dummy" heaters they are using and how can I get a few?

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now