Noctua NH-D15 review - Product Gallery Noctua NH-D15 cooler

The design remains a little awkward to see, but man does it work well. Why the asymmetric U shape radiator design and why simply not place a fan on each side of the cooler? Well, it's for practical reasons only -- placing one fan in the middle saves space/clearance which is needed for your DIMMs/memory.

When we flip the cooler on its back you'll see the six heat-pipe design. Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminum (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating. You receive two fans, these are NF-A15 PWM premium fans with a max RPM of 1500 RPM and they can go as low as 300 RPM. If you are unable to regulate the PWM controlled fans, Noctua adds a 'Low-Noise Adaptor,' basically an extension cable with a resistor in it. That will lower the fan RPM towards very silent noise levels. Again, the fans are PWM controlled meaning you can have your motherboard do that for you (or a fan controller). 

The cooling base, very flat, not a mirror finish as we see with a lot of copper base plates these days. The base is actually made out of copper yet has nickel plating on it.

Alongside the cooler and two fans you will receive the handy to use SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system, Noctua’s NT-H1 thermal compound and Noctua tops off the cooler with a full 6 year manufacturer’s warranty. Very nice. The basis of this cooler definitely resembles the D14 a lot, with minor changes here and there and of course the new fans that are being used.