Noctua NH-C14 Review

In our labs today is an interesting product from the alpine nation of Austria. Noctua's NH-C14 processor heatsink possesses an interesting design which lets you mount the fan either above or below the fin array, promising compatibility with large memory modules or narrow casings. Read on to find out how Noctua's top-flow heatsink design stacks up.

Noctua is quite well-known for their enthusiast-grade cooling solutions. In this article we'll be reviewing the Austria-based company's NH-C14 processor heatsink. The NH-C14 is a top-flow design similar to Noctua's earlier NH-C12P (which is still on sale).

The NH-C14's key difference from the NH-C12P is its flexibility when it comes to fan mounting. For users of narrow/short casings, the fan can be mounted below the fin array, reducing the height of the heatsink to just 105mm. The fan can also be mounted above the fin array in the traditional configuration if you require additional clearance, for instance due to large memory heatspreaders (think Kingston's HyperX modules). And if neither of these constraints apply to you, both included fans can be used together to provide the maximum cooling performance.

All recent processor sockets are supported by the NH-C14. Noctua offers a whopping six-year warranty, but it's not clear if this extends to the bundled fans, without which the warranty would be rather superfluous since those are only parts liable to fail.

We'll take a closer look at the NH-C14 on the next page.