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Noctua support AMD processors with new coolers such as the NH-U12S and the larger NH-U14S has also received the Threadripper treatment – hinted at by a ‘TR4-SP3' at the end of the name. This means changing out the contact surface of the cooler, to primarily ensure it is large enough for the much bigger Threadripper IHS, and secondly ensuring the cooler can handle the higher TDP from such a CPU. In our testing, the NH-U12S TR4-SP3 performed pretty well which would suggest we can expect even better results from the larger NH-U14S.
It really is an interesting one when it comes to price vs performance though as the NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is priced at £74.99, only £1.00 more expensive than the 120mm model. With such a small price difference, is there really any reason not to choose the Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3?
Watch via our Vimeo channel (below) or over on YouTube at 2160p HERE
Specification:
- Model: NH-U14S TR4-SP3
- Heat Sink Material: Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminum (cooling fins)
- Included Fans: Noctua NF-A15 PWM
- Fan Dimensions: 140 x 150 x 25mm
- Fan Speed: 1,500 RPM @100% PWM
- Fan Noise Level: 24.6 dBa @100%
- Fan Connector: 4-Pin (PWM)
- Warranty: 6 years
- AMD socket compatibility: AMD TR4
- Heat Sink Weight: 865g
- Heat Sink Dimensions (DxWxH) : 52 x 150 x 165 mm
- Accessories: Low-Noise Adaptor
The NH-U14S TR4-SP3's packaging follows Noctua's typical design, a large closeup of the cooler inside, and some key features are listed. Opening everything up reveals the cooler itself, along with a pretty simple accessories box.
We have a set of instructions, some thermal compound, a low noise adapter, spare wire mounts, and rubber anti vibration pads for adding a second fan at a later date.
There are no further mounting parts, or back plates supplied with the NH-U14S TR4, as all parts required for mounting are pre-installed on the cooler itself. The included fan as expected is a premium one the Noctua NF-A15 PWM With a max rpm of 1500.
Taking a look at the cooler it is quite a bit larger than the NH-U12S TR4-SP3 coming in at 150mm by 165 by 52mm without the fan installed, and 150mm deep with the fan. In terms of weight 1030g with the fan, pretty serious for a single tower air cooler.
Being a bit larger, case compatibility and clearances will come into play a little more than with the NH-U12S TR4 so realistically it's not going to be a great option for smaller form factor builds but the tradeoff being lower temps, and audible noise. It will be interesting to see how much this is the case in our testing.
Installation really is super simple. The mounting brackets and mounting screws being built into the cooler means all you need to do, is apply some thermal compound and set the cooler atop your CPU.
One nice feature which should help with compatibility is offset mounting built into the coolers mounting bracket. This allows you to adjust the coolers position by 3 or 6mm moving it up toward the top of your motherboard which increases clearance for your top PCIe slot.
It is worth a quick test fit just to ensure there is enough clearance for your top PCI-e slot, and making adjustments to the offset mounting as required. With the cooler sitting atop your CPU, you can use the included allen key to screw it down. With the cooler mounted, you can re-attach the fan.
In terms of clearance for RAM, the cooler itself doesn’t overhang any memory slots, but the fan does. This means that the fan will have to be installed a little higher if you are populating all of the memory slots.
With Lower profile memory this isn’t really an issue, but you would have to add an extra CM or two to the overall cooler height when looking at cases. As the I wasn’t using the closest memory slot to the CPU socket, in our testing, the fan could be mounted in the center of the cooler.
To test all CPU coolers, we devised an easily repeatable test with no variables other than the coolers themselves. This ensures that figures from every cooler we test are comparable with each other.
Test rig
For the CPU we are testing with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X installed in a Gigabyte X399 Aorus Gaming 7 motherboard. For RAM we have a 32GB kit of G skill flare X running at 3200Mhz, and storage is handled by a 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD. Powering our bench is a Seasonic Prime Platinum 650W PSU, and just to enable a display output an Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 was also installed.
The test process
For testing, we run a number of tests including 6 separate temperature readings per cooler. We first measure the idle temperature of the 1950X locked in at 3.4GHz before measuring its temperature under load at the same frequency.
For a representation of overclocks, we run the 1950X at 4.5GHz with a core voltage of 1.4V applied both at idle and load. The temperatures we present are temperature deltas, where the ambient temperature of the testing environment is deducted from the temperature taken from the CPU for both idle and load. An idle reading comes from leaving Windows on the desktop for 15 minutes. A load reading comes from running Prime95’s (version 26.6) Small FFTs test for 15 minutes – enough time for temperatures to plateau. We use HWInfo64 v5.82 to measure temperatures.
As the 1950X is suited more for productivity, passes of both Cinebench R15's Single and Multicore benchmarks were run, as well as Blenders BMW CPU benchmark to give a better idea of temperatures during typical use.
Noise output
We measure noise levels with our sound meter positioned 1 foot away from the test bench. The peak noise level is presented. We have measured the noise floor (i.e. ambient noise levels of the room) to be 34 dBa, and when tested at stock clocks, the vast majority of coolers do not emit noise levels above this figure. Thus, we present one chart with noise levels taken during our overclocked CPU test run.
Temperatures
All temperature charts are sorted with lowest load temperatures at the top.
Starting with Prime, the NH-U14S TR4 sits basically exactly where expected, in between the smaller NH-U12S TR4, and the dual fan Dark Rock Pro TR4 with a max temp of 64.3 degrees, when our 1950X was overclocked to 4.0GHz. At stock, we see some much better temps at 37.8 degrees.
With Cinebench running a number of passes of the multicore benchmark to ensure that temperatures had levelled out we do see quite a drop of about 8 degrees, to 56.3 degrees when overclocking, and 32.3 at 3.4GHZ. Both single core temperature results came out the same at 23.5 degrees.
Blenders BWM render also revealed some promising results, with our 1950X overclocked 61.7 degrees, and at stock 35.5 degrees. Our testing results fell basically in line with our expectations.
The larger cooler and fan sizes providing lower temps when compared to the smaller NH-U12S TR4, but the Dark Rock Pro 4 still sits in first place, thanks to its significantly larger size, and dual fan configuration.
Audible noise though was very impressive. At 45 dBa, the NH-U14S TR4 was almost just as quiet as the Dark Rock Pro 4 and sits in second place. There is, of course, the low noise adapter included which wasn’t used during testing, but this could always be installed for even quieter operation – albeit it with slightly worse cooling performance.
The NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is another strong product from Noctua, set to target the hardcore enthusiast audience wanting to cool one of AMD's high performance Threadripper coolers.
Just as with the smaller NH-U12S TR4 the installation was super easy, as the cooler is basically set up and ready to go with all the required mounting hardware pre-installed, but as you would expect performance is better thanks to the increased physical heatsink size and larger fan. The NH-U14S TR4-SP3 did a great job cooling the AMD TR 1950X both at stock and overclocked, but as with the NH-U12S, it's not the best option if you are planning on overclocking heavily.
The NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is good cooler, and it is better value for money than the smaller NH-U12S model. It is currently only £1 more at Overclockers UK and you can expect better thermal performance with lower audible noise. Really the only reason to consider the NH-U12S over the NH-U14S TR4-SP3 would be because of space restrictions.
The Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 is currently available from Overclockers UK for £74.99 inc. VAT HERE.
Pros
- Great cooling performance, with a little flexibility to overclock.
- Installation is very simple with only four screws to tighten.
- Low noise adapter and extra mounting for a fan included.
Cons
- Only compatible with the TR4 socket.
- Really only supports low profile memory.
KitGuru says: If space in your system isn't a limitation there really is no reason not to pick up the NH-U14S TR4-SP3 over the NH-U12S. Even when compared to larger dual fan coolers like the Dark Rock Pro 4 it still performs great, but with a much simpler configuration and mounting.
