A CPU cooler can be the life or death of your PC. There have been many PCs brought to me that were blue screening, only for me to discover some failure with the CPU cooler; dust build up, loose screws, bad contact with the CPU, or insufficient thermal paste. If you want your PC to last, you have to take care of the processor. We were quite impressed with Noctua’s beastly large NH-D14 cooler that they sent us last year, and now they have sent us another large cooler called the NH-C14.

From the Ground Up

The best way to look at the NH-C14 is to start at the bottom. The CPU contact area may look like some average run of the mill metal, but in fact, it is all copper with nickel plating. Though some people will swear by a copper base, the nickel plated copper proved its performance in Noctua’s NH-D14 we review in 2011. Attached to the base are six nickel plated copper heat pipes that carry the heat to the aluminum fins.

The overwhelming majority of air CPU coolers out today stand vertically and require a lot of overhead space. Instead, the NH-C14 is turned sideways and gives you plenty of clearance options. You can have both fans attached for maximum airflow and cooling, or remove the top one for a low profile case, or even remove the bottom fan to give you the space needed for ram with really tall heatsinks.

I know some tech guys who will run a heatsink with no fans as long as there is good airflow in the case. They do this to make the case quieter overall, however, I would not recommend doing that with the NH-C14. Noctua’s fans have developed a reputation for being some of the quietest on the market. If the 19.6 dB noise level is too high for you then you can attach the 3-pin inhibitors that will bring the noise down to an amazing 10.1 dB. Doing this though will bring your fan speed down from 1200 rpms to about 750 and will decrease the overall cooling performance.