Noctua NH-D15 G2 chromax.black Review
Noctua has released chromax.black edition of the flagship cooler NH-D15 G2. The footprint and design are the same as the original or regular NH-D15 G2; the only thing that changes is the color scheme from tan and brown to all black.
I think they have released the black version of NH-D15 G2 only. We don’t see black editions of LBC and HBC variants on the Noctua website. It makes sense since NH-D15 G2 is a go-to for all sorts of requirements.
The chromax.black version is listed as USD 159.90 to USD 189.90, depending on the US trade regulation. European price is 159.90. It is a beefy price for a beefier cooler for beefy cooling. This cooler is compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200/1700/1851 and AMD AM4/AM5 sockets.
We tested the regular and HBC variants when this generation of coolers was launched. Click here to read our take on those coolers.
Specifications
Packing and Unboxing
Noctua has used a black color scheme, which is their standard for chromax series products. The main box shows the specifications and features of the cooler in addition to the picture. Two more boxes are placed inside the main box. The top box has the accessories, whereas the second box contains the cooler.
The following are provided in the box:
- Black NH-D15 G2 heatsink
- 2x NF-A14x25r G2 PWM chromax.black premium fan
- 2x NA-RC16 Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
- NA-YC1 4-pin PWM splitter cable
- NT-H2 high-grade thermal compound
- NA-TPG1 thermal paste guard for AM5
- NA-CW1 cleaning wipe
- Black SecuFirm2+™ multi-socket mounting system
- NM-SD1 Torx® T20 screwdriver
- Noctua metal case-badge
Closer Look
Let’s take a look at the cooler and see its design and layout.
The cooler has the same dimensions, which is obvious. It is 168x150x152mm (HxWxD). The dimension without fans is 168x150x127mm (HxWxD). The weight of the cooler is 1525 g. Noctua has managed to keep the same height and width on the new generation as on the NH-D15, but they have reduced the depth by 9mm compared to the original NH-D15.
This cooler packs 8x copper heat pipes. You can see the terminating tips of those pipes on both towers. The rear tower has Noctua branding. You can see an angular placement of heat pipes inside the heatsink. One look and you can tell it is a soldered interface.
The front tower is 5mm less thick than the rear tower. According to Noctua, this is done to provide balanced loading between two fans.
Both towers have the same layout. The above picture shows the front side of the cooler. It is important to keep this in mind since this cooler has an offset design in regard to the PCIe slot. It sits closer to the top of the motherboard, giving a better clearance to the graphics card.
Noctua has managed to add more fins by reducing the gap between the fins from 1.9mm to 1.6mm. By doing so, they are able to add 23 extra fins, thus providing 20% more surface area. This is achieved in tandem with the NF-A14x25r PWM fans that have a reduced footprint compared to the NF-A15 fans. The new fans have high pressure and airflow as well.
The overall pattern is almost the same as on the original NH-D15. The main fin plates are in a straight line with an inset in the middle. There are triangular-shaped fins on both sides of the tower. These help in reducing the vibrational noise or humming. By my count, there are 51+8 fins on each tower. The 8 fins are on the offset portion.
This cooler uses a double offset design—one for the DIMM slots and one for the PCIe slot as described above. RAM clearance is achieved via fin stacking offset, whereas the PCIe slot clearance is done via heat pipe placement. They are consolidated towards the right side of the tower, with more space on the left side.
The rear has the same interface and layout as on the front.
Although the left and right sides are identical, there are subtle differences. The first picture shows the side view from the fins’ offset side, whereas the second picture shows the side view from the opposite end. The fins are interlocked on the sides. The insets on the borders are ensured to provide a place where the fan clips are inserted.
The NM-SFB4 mounting plate is used. This is a cross-bar or mounting plate, however you want to call these. It has spring-loaded screws on the ends. These screws use a Torx head. Noctua has provided Torx based screwdriver in the accessory box.
If I remember correctly, the LBC and HBC variants have LBC/HBC engraved over the top of this mounting plate for identification.
This cooler packs 8x copper heat pipes, which are nickel-plated. The complete heatsink assembly is black coated. These pipes are installed in an offset manner as mentioned above. The complete assembly is soldered. This provides better durability.
This cooler comes with a nickel-plated copper base measuring 44x50mm. This base has a medium convexity, making it suitable for all sorts of applications. In comparison, the LBC has low convexity, and HBC has higher convexity.
A few pictures of the cooler.
The new NF-A14x25r Sx2-PP PWM Fans
Noctua has used NF-A14x25r Sx2-PP PWM chromx.black fans with this cooler. The only thing that is different in a two-fan pack is the offset speed between the fans. Otherwise, fans are the same. These fans are round-shaped and have a small size compared to the NF-A15 round frame fans. These fans are made from Sterrox® LCP and feature ha ighly optimised Progressive-Bend impeller with winglets, Flow Acceleration Channels and a Centrifugal Turbulator hub. Another salient feature is 0.7mm tip clearance from the frame for better acoustic and thermal performance.
I am not going into details since it is already covered in the NH-D15 G2 regular and HBC review.
Each fan is PWM regulated, and these fans feature 0 RPM, meaning they can come to a halt if the motherboard or fan controller provides the fan stop function under no thermal load. In this way, the new coolers can also act as semi-passive coolers.
Installation
We are not covering the installation of the coolers. Please refer to the user guide for this purpose. The installation of NH-D15 G2 is the same as on the other Noctua coolers. I did not observe anything in this regard. The SecuFirm2+ Torx-Based Multi-Socket mounting kit serves its purpose quite well. You don’t need any tools as Noctua has provided everything, including a screwdriver.
Clearance
It is time to take a look at the clearance of NH-D15 G2 coolers.
The heatsink with a middle fan provides a 59mm clearance. However, with front fan, the RAM clearance is roughly 32mm. You can adjust the height of the front fan though it would increase the overall height of the cooler.
There is no clearance issue for the first PCIe x16 slot on the ASRock X870E NOVA WiFi motherboard.
There is no clearance issue towards the Rear and top portions of the motherboard.
This cooler is 168mm tall. You would need at least 170mm clearance for the PC Case.
Testing
The following configuration is used for thermal testing:
- AMD Ryzen 9 9900X [243W]
- ASRock X870E NOVA WiFi
- GSkill TridentZ NEO RGB 32GB 6400MHz CL30 DDR5 kit
- ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 7600 Graphics Card for Display
- Biwin X570 Pro 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD
- Fractal Design ION+2 860W Platinum PSU
- Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout
Here is the settings table for testing:
| Settings | PBO Enabled [243W] |
| Clock (MHz) | Auto |
| Voltage (V) | Auto |
| Thermal Paste | Noctua NT-H2 |
| Thermal Paste Application | Dots Method |
| Test Run Time | 30 minutes |
| Idling Time | 10 minutes |
| All Fans Speed | 100% PWM Duty Cycle |
| Pump Speed | |
| Stress Software | CINEBENCH R23.2 |
| Monitoring Software | HWINFO64 |
I am reporting absolute temperature in the graph because room temperature was at 22°C throughout the day. The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.
Result
The cooler has a good performance, doing 86.9°C for a 243W load on 9900X. It runs silently as well.
Conclusion
I have taken a spin on Noctua’s prime and might i.e NH-D15 G2 in chromax.black edition. This is the same cooler in every bit as a regular NH-D15 G2. The difference is the color. The new cooler is compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200/1700 and AMD AM4/AM5 sockets. The chromax.black edition is available for the regular edition only. LBC and HBC variants did not get this treatment, and it makes sense.
The dimension of the cooler is 168x150x152mm (HxWxD) without a fan. Noctua has managed to reduce the depth by 9mm compared to the original NH-D15. The front tower has 5mm less thickness than the second tower. They have increased the fin count by 23 by reducing the inter-fin gap from 1.9mm to 1.6mm. This provides roughly 20% more surface area.
The heatsink is designed in a dual offset manner. The lower 8 fins are reduced in size from the left side, and similarly, the heat pipes are consolidated towards the right. This gives better RAM and PCIe clearance. Noctua has increased the heat pipe count from 6 to 8 ,ensuring no compromise for better heat transfer.
The complete assembly is soldered (fins and heat pipes) and black coated. The nickel-plated copper base measures approximately 44x50mm. The convexity of the base determines the variant of the NH-D15 G2. This edition has medium convexity.
Noctua has provided a SecuFirm2+ Torx-based multi-socket mounting kit with all variants, and most importantly, it comes with a high-performance NT-H2. This kit has everything that you would need to install your cooler, and the overall installation method is the same as on the other Noctua coolers. You need 10 items on the AMD platform to install the mounting hardware over the socket and 19 items on the Intel platform.
Noctua has provided new NF-A14x25r Sx2-PP PWM chromax.black fans with these coolers. These fans operate in an offset speed of ±25 RPM to reduce the humming across the heatsink, which happens when two fans operate at the same speed. These fans rated for 0 to 1500 RPM speed with a maximum airflow of 91.58 CFM and air pressure of 2.56mmH₂O. They use SSO2 bearings and are PWM regulated.
This cooler is listed at Euro 159.90 and USD 159.90 to 189.90 depending on the tariff. Noctua offers a 6-year warranty on this cooler. The cooler packs a solid performance punch and runs almost silently. This is beefy cooling and an even beefier price!
Pros:
- Thermal Performance
- Black Edition
- AMD AM5 Socket Support
- Intel LGA1700/1851 Socket Support
- New NF-A14x25r PWM Fans
- Heatsink Offset Design
- Stepped Fins Design
- More Surface Area
- NT-H2 Thermal Paste
- Better PCIe Clearance
- Noise
- SecuFirm2+ Torx-Based Mounting kit
- Screwdriver
- Warranty
Cons:
- Price
