[section_title title=Closer Look]
Closer Look
I’m not going to show all of the packaging for this review as in typical Noctua fashion, everything is laid out perfectly. Thus I’ll not waste your time showing you awesome packaging. The C14s out of the box will support all new intel platforms and it supports FM2 / AM3+. It is also worth noting that the C14s does actually support older platforms like the LGA 1336 however you’ll need to contact Noctua who will provide a free upgrade kit to your chosen platform.
As you can see from the picture Noctua have laid out the accessories and tools in a really neat fashion, and the heatsink comes pre-built with the fan in a top-down orientation. The AMD and Intel brackets are completely different so please take this into consideration when installing, as you may damage the board. The intel mounting bracket is straight forward with a backplate, small stands then attach on the CPU side of the board, and you screw the brackets onto these stands. The heatsink then simply sits on the brackets and you can use a long screwdriver on the included screwdriver to attach the heatsink to the mounting bracket.
In this photo you can see the precut fins that allow you to easily install the cooler without any real hassle, you’ll struggle with most commercial screwdrivers however Noctua do include a tool that does the job.
At the rear of the heatsink, we can see the six heatpipes that extend upwards into the heatsink. Its worth noting these are really slim and don’t stick out all that much, making this a cooler that can be installed on some ITX boards. The middle pipe you can see is actually a structural post to aid in supporting the massive fin array.
Included with the heatsink is a Noctua 140mm, these fans come with dampeners to reduce the vibrations and noise created whilst in use and they are some of the best fans for silence and aesethically they are awesome.
Here we can see some of the gorgeous Noctua branding and design that is so clean and nice to look at, I almost feel like it should be in a glass case in my lounge.
There is only so much you can say about a cooler, however a Noctua cooler is a thing of beauty. I included a picture of the case we decided to install this cooler in, as a little bit of a challenge we installed it in an Element Gaming Atomic (with some minor modifications) at a local LAN Party. You can see the sheer size of this cooler when compared to its little brother the l9i, but lets move on to testing.
