Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black, Dual-Tower CPU Cooler (140mm, Black)

--Skip to second paragraph if you dont want to hear the backstory--Genuinely never even considered air cooler in the past, but my AIO was getting old and even with fresh thermal paste my cpu temps were pushing 80s under heavy load (i7 9700k). Worried about my pump failing, and wanting to rebuild my pc anyway, I started looking for new a new AIO. After looking endlessly and scratching my head on which was the best to buy, I noticed someone mention this cooler. Air cooling? Isn't that relevant for like... pentium level processors? Jokes aside, I genuinely didn't think air cooling could cut it. Boy was I wrong.Mine refuses to go above 64c under heavy load, usually hovering right around 60c. I think the only way it would is if the fans were set very low or off entirely. Max spikes will hit <75c but it's so quick and rare that I disregard it. It does hit the 60c threshold rather quickly (seconds after applying heavy load) with either a modest or aggressive fan curve, but once it's there it holds it even hours under a stress test. Under moderate load I see low to mid 50s.It's also QUIET. Even without low noise adapter and fan curve at 70%, this cooler makes most AIO setups sound like jet engines. I was going for a low noise setup and this cooler has been the perfect addition for that. I see people talking about adding the LNA but I really don't feel like it even needs it.If that's not enough, just remember that there's no pump failure. No having to desperately wait for a new AIO to arrive or shovel out another $100 for a cooler. This cooler can run perfectly fine on a single fan, so even if one goes out, or even if it's just for less noise, there won't be a huge difference on cooling.Lastly, I really do think this cooler looks so good in a case, especially one with minimal RGB like mine. Just enough to show its colossal shadow but not enough to light it up entirely. At first I really didn't care for the look but I decided to give it a try just for the cooling (and I didn't plan on having any rgb on at all originally) but once it's in the case it really does look good. The only thing I don't like is the spikes on the ends of the heatsinks. I do hope to cover those, eventually.While going for a low noise, minimal rgb build, this cooler is a big part of why I adore my pc.Some notes:When mounting the heatsink, use a single swift downward motion, lining up the screws, then alternate screwing them in. Moving the heatsink around could add a bunch of air to your thermal paste and degrade cooling quality. Make sure the screws are tight too. Don't try to tighten them farther than they're willing to go, but, make sure they are fully screwed in. When first installing I was trying to get one screw in at a time but it wasn't working and it kept messing up the thermal paste. One motion. Straight down.NT-H2 thermal paste will cool a few degrees more than the provided NT-H1. Both are good, though.The fans are easier to add or remove than they appear. Don't be dumb like me and try to pull off the wire clips without moving the fan. Initially installing them was a pain, because I was trying to do it by applying pressure on the wire only. Dont do this. To mount a fan, before putting it against the heatsink, push one side of the wire clips as far as it will go in the direction it's going to mount (the direction the fan will blow). Then hook it onto to heatsink where you want it. Now, pull the fan in the opposite direction of the currently mounted clip. The unmounted clip should extend past the heatsink where it's going to hook into. Now do the same as the other side, push the wire foward, hook it on, pull the fan to be center. Allow the fan to do all the work (you might have to push on one of the wires a little bit to get it to fully seat, but it shouldn't be much).This thing is BIG, it barely fits above RAM and will likely not work with a vertical GPU.That's about it, I really don't have anything negative to say. Happy I decided to try it, much happier than I would be with an AIO.If you took the time to read this, thank you, and I hope I helped in some way.

This cooler is significantly quieter than my previous cooler (Hyper 212 EVO), even with both fans installed. The fans come with rubber on the corners that help prevent sounds caused by vibrations. The fans are not audible at all compared to the fans on my GPU and case and can only be heard when intentionally ramped up. This cooler also comes with a fan splitter and some extra low noise fan cables, so both fans can connect to the CPU fan header and you can use the extra low noise cables if you want the fans to be even quieter. Unlike cheap fan splitters, the splitter will still allow your motherboard to see and control the rpm of the fans.It's quite huge and may not fit in many cases, or may only be able to fit with one fan installed in some cases or with some taller ram modules. Make sure to check the clearance of your case before purchasing this behemoth!It's able to keep my i9-9900k CPU very cool, even when gaming or putting heavy loads on it.Installation of the cooler was very easy because Noctua has a simple and effective mounting mechanism on this cooler. Putting the fans back on the cooler after installation was my only issue. There are several parts of the metal fins the fan clips can latch on to. Figuring out how far onto the fins to attach the fans required me to check pictures from the included instructional manual, and required a bit of force to get the clips all the way to where they're supposed to be. You can likely install the clips less tightly if you don't want to deal with it, but it may result in extra vibration and noise.The packaging for the cooler is very nice. The box and internal packaging feel premium, which is nice considering this is a premium cooler. Even if the external shipping box isn't packed very well, the cooler should be fine due to how well it's packages.