Noctua NH-C14s CPU Cooler Review

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Conclusion

The installation of the C14S is something that is made super easy with the SecuFirm2 mounting mechanism that basically allows the cooler to be used on almost any platform with the correct mount, however out of the box it will support every modern day platform. The SecuFirm2 in my opinion is one of the best mounting systems in the industry, its simple and easy to install and one of the most sturdy at the time of writing. The reason I’m bringing up the mounting mechanism is because we always need to consider the quality when working with larger coolers. The C14S is no small cooler, and the sheer size of this cooler is something that is worth a mention.

The C14S uses a 140mm which can be mounted in multiple orientations or alongside a second fan giving huge versatility in the type of case this can be used in. Whether you want to put the fan below the heatsink for a low profile mode or above to allow for larger RAM to be fitted to the motherboard. Noctua puts a huge amount of thought into their products, enabling the target audience to get amazing quality that’s designed for everything a user might encounter.

In terms of performance the C14S like its bigger brother is one cooler to not underestimate, for our testing we used a massively overclocked Pentium G3258 at 1.3v in a low airflow case. And the results? This cooler kept the processor at a low operating temperature even with a huge overclock, and based on our testing in a SFF case it would actually perform even better in a case with more airflow, enabling this beast to cool most processors with a decent overclock. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with any Noctua cooler, even before testing their products I know that the cooling efficiency and ease of installation is going to be amazing. However the C14S is a cooler I recommend because of the versatility it can bring to your project.

Gold award: I’m giving the Noctua NH-C14S the Gold award today, with its only hindrance being the cooler could have been slightly taller enabling dual fan configurations on boards that have a socket close to the DIMM slots. However in 95% of situations this won’t be a problem, but in our test we couldn’t mount the additional fan due to it touching the DIMM slots on an ITX board.

Editors Choice: As a reviewer, I love Noctua products. Every single Noctua product I’ve ever reviewed has been simply perfect. The consistency of well designed, great performing products is something I really take into consideration with my reviews, and the editors choice award is my way of saying thank you for keeping up the innovation of great products over the years.