Noctua NH-U14S 140mm U-Type Tower Heatsink Review

When reviewing silent cooling solutions we are often forced to recognize that silent cooling doesn't always translate into good overclocking performance yet, there are a few notable exceptions like self contained watercoolers and the Noctua NH-U14S.  Thermal performance comes from a variety of factors such as the 140mm radiator, six large heatpipes and 150mm cooling fan(s).  The position of the heatpipes is also key in making sure heat is evenly distributed across the radiator and takes advantage of the primary airflow across the fins.  As our benchmarks showed the NH-U14S could easily handle a 4.6Ghz overclock on the LGA2011 and actually posted a lower C/W rating meaning that it could still handle more abuse either from higher ambient temps or more GHz.

Heatsink installation went incredibly smooth and was actually quite simple thanks to the Noctua universal mounting system.  Despite having two basic levels there is only a single set of screws holding the main retention clips in place which allows you to use this heatsink on any number of systems.  Both heatsinks in this review offer a thinner radiator profile allowing the heatsink to be used on system with taller memory modules and come with hardware so a second fan can be installed at any time.

While this review focuses on the NH-U14S there is a smaller version of this heatsink called the NH-U12S.  The cooler features a total of five heatpipes and smaller radiator profile for the same expanded memory clearance.  A single NF-F12 120mm Focused Flow fan is included along with hardware to install a second if your application requires it.  In terms of features the cooler is almost identical to the NH-U14S but with a much lower thermal threshold making it a good solution for LGA1155 (Sandy/Ivy Bridge) and LGA1150 (Haswell) procesors.

Either heatsink would be a welcome addition in any high performance PC especially when overall noise is a deciding factor.  We did witness some excessive fan noise when two fans were used in a push pull configuration but only when cranked up to 100%.  Considering that while overclocked the fans never spun past 50% it is pretty safe to say that any noise from this configuration would be a warning sign that something else is wrong.

Update: It was pointed out to us that Noctua has addressed the resonance issue when adding a secondary fan to the NH-U14S and U12S and was something we overlooked in the installation guides.  Noctua suggests that if space permits you should install the larger fan isolators which will move the "pull" fan away from the radiator slightly and thus minimize the resonance passing thru the radiator fins.  Keep in mind the noise isn't from vibration but rather the fan blades passing over each other which brings us to the second method they suggest.  The "push" fan should be configured to run at 1500rpm while the pull fan spins slightly less around 1200rpm.  By changing the rpm you lower the frequency and create a passive noise canceling effect.  

Excellent Performance
Noctua Mounting System
NF-A15 Fan Included (NF-F12 Focused Flow on NH-U12S)
Six Heatpipe Configuration
Adequate Memory Clearance

Large 140mm radiator can impact some video cards
Dual fan resonance at 100%