Noctua NH C14 Heatsink Review

1. Introduction2. The Noctua NH C14 Cooler (Bundle)3. The Noctua NH C14 Cooler4. The Noctua NH C14 Cooler (Installation)5. Performance Testing6. Acoustics Performance7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

We have covered Noctua's excellent ‘SecurFirm2' multi socket mounting system many times before, so today we thought we would show you the installation procedure on an AMD motherboard. The Asus Crosshair IV Formula to be exact. The first thing you have to do is to remove the AMD retention bracket at the front. Keep this stored however in case you decide to change coolers later. The AMD backplate is used.

The retention bracket removed, the backplate should be held in place to mount the cooler.

Four plastic spacers are placed over the backplate holes.

The AMD system uses two small bars which must be mounted with the curve pointing inwards. These diagrams show it much clearer than a picture. It is elegant and simple to fit.

The top fan can then be removed, exposing two small holes through the aluminum fin array and through to the two screws below. Noctua supply a handy tool specifically designed for this, but if you have a long, thin screwdriver then you can use that instead. The heatsink can be mounted in any direction, to suit specific motherboards. Remember the air is forced downwards over the motherboard PCB, so direction isn't critical with this design as case fans will remove the hot air from the area.

The mounting process only takes a couple of minutes and then the outmost fan can be reattached. The top fan doesn't actually need to be removed as the driver will fit between both sets of fan blades, but we found it easier to work with. We are admirers of the Noctua fan mount system, they use two simple clips which connect to the curved heatsink fin section, seen above. Both fans can then be connected to the motherboard.

It is worth pointing out that the heatsink has two sets of clear elastomeric anti vibration strips mounted to all edges, these help reduce vibrations and subsequent noise emitted from both fans.

The C14 doesn't prove a problem for oversized ram modules, especially as you can rotate the heatsink in any direction to suit. Above, our GSkill modules fit perfectly fine, even in the nearest ram slot.

A stunning design, but now its time to see how it holds up with our stress testing.

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