Noctua NH-C14S, Premium CPU Cooler with NF-A14 PWM 140mm Fan (Brown)

You cant go wrong with Noctua. I bought this when I converted my old PC into a NAS and the original water cooler was end of life after 8 years! The Noctua seems to keep the temps about the same as the water cooler did. I have a big fan controller on the front and I can see the temps all the time so I know if its getting hot, which it does not. My ambient temps are around 75 max and the CPU is always below 30C, no O/C and running freenas OS. Fan is quiet but not completely silent, gets only a little louder when the fan controller kicks it into high. Still not bad. The case fans are louder.

Yep...this cooler exudes quality and cools my CPU, like no other.

Mounting issue. When I lay the case flat down horizontally like a HTPC or rack server, the performance is almost as good as my Noctua D15s. Once I shift the case into normal vertical orientation, temperatures went from 63 to 72 degree Celsius real fast (Ive remounted and tested this multiple times). Ive also tested this with the heat pipes facing in every possible direction except for top-to-bottom, as instructed by Noctua. I guess this cooler is more suited towards HTPC chassis such as Fractal Node 304, because performance takes a hit if you use it in a tower case. My theory is that either the concave base loses optimal contact with the processor when positioned in a vertical orientation, or the bent heat pipes have trouble in that configuration, which might also explains the varying results from many different professional reviews on the Internet.

Installed this with an Intel Quad Core i7 processor and then tested out how well the system holds up with a really good OC (over clock) ..... Wow the system does NOT heat up at all even under a really tough OC ..... take a likin and keeps on tickin ... glad that I got this as I normally do water cooling for extreme OCs but this Noctua is incredible and now I highly recommend it to anyone!!!!!

This cooler was a fantastic choice for my mini-itx build. Currently paired with a ryzen 5 3600 and it idles at 35°C. In a mini-itx build that is outstanding. The interchangeable design was the only reason I was able to fit this cooler into such a small build. Standing at only 115mm with the 140mm fan on the bottom allowed me enough clearance for my ripjaws V ram plus some smaller cables. Of course since were talking about noctua, theres is little to no audible sound at idle will only hearing a slight hum at full load. Temps at 100% maxed out at 75°C. This cooler is well worth the premium price.

If youre dead set in using the Silverstone GD09 HTPC case, then this is the best air cooler you can get. This case doesnt support water-cooling radiators, I think they have a newer case that support it.

Included mounting system is very simple and easy to install. Fits snugly in my Cooler Master NR200, and can easily keep my Ryzen 7 5800X under control at stock speeds. Included fan is reasonably quiet for such a large setup.

Warning of the height (158mm if you install fan on top)

Its huge and quite. Please prepare a big computer case.

This consumer removed the stock fan and replaced with RGB fan. Now he has performance and appeal. This worked out exactly how I wanted it too, let the noctua cooler do its job which we already know can do its job real well but now it looks good while doing it placed it on my 1600x and no problems rose