It’s a yearly tradition that we’ll drop by Noctua’s booth at Computex and see what’s the latest and greatest air coolers that Noctua has been cooking up. For the past few years, we were teased with the next-generation Noctua NH-D15, but this year – Noctua is finally going to release it as the Noctua NH-D15 G2. G2 stands for second-generation.
At a glance, it looks very similar to the D15 that we have currently – but there are more heatpipes and the fin-stacks are now even tighter than before. There will also be better clearance for PCIe cards, and 9mm less in terms of overall depth for better case compatibility. With these many improvements, Noctua showed us that they can kick off 200W more heat compared to the original NH-D15.
Knowing Noctua and their over-the-top engineering, the NH-D15 G2 comes in a total of 3 different versions:
- NH-D15 G2 (standard version with medium convexity like other Noctua heatsinks)
- NH-D15 G2 LBC (low base convexity, suitable for AMD AM5 processors)
- NH-D15 G2 HBC (high base convexity, suitable for Intel LGA1700 processors)
The reasoning behind this is because of how each processor’s IHS will contour when the cooler is mounted. Particularly for the Intel LGA1700 platform, the mounting pressure will cause it to bend a little more, so that is why the NH-D15 G2 HBC will perform the best with it.
Of course, this means the HBC and LBC versions of the NH-D15 G2 are fine-tuned for that particular processor and is not ideal for other processors. If you plan to change to other processors while still using the NH-D15 G2, then the standard version is the one to get.
Left: Current blade design.Right: New fan blade design
The NH-D15 G2 is also using a new fan blade design too. It has a sudden sharp curvature that further improves airflow. The lines around the center of the fan will also redirect the air into the blades. As far as I can remember what I was told, the fan can perform as well as other thicker fans because of this new fan blade design. It is still made from the Sterrox material that is used on the NF-A12x25 fans. Speaking of that fan, they will be updated with this new fan blade design too.
Noctua is also releasing a 120mm dual-tower cooler that will perform the same as the current NH-D15. It will have 8 heatpipes, dense fin-stack, and it will also be using the new fan blade design for its 120mm fans.
One of Noctua’s prototypes that they showed off is the two-phase thermosiphon cooler. It looks awful lot like an AIO cooler, but this does not have a pump inside the system. The entire working principle is very similar to how a heatpipe works. The liquid inside gets evaporated by absorbing the heat in the CPU, then moves to the radiator and it condensates back into liquid form with the cooling capabilities of the fan – before flowing back to the CPU and repeating the cycle again.
The main advantage of this design is by not having a pump. That saves on power, has no noise, has no vibrations, and definitely no point of failure that is unfixable.
There is no ETA or anything now as this thermosiphon cooler is still in early stages of development. Knowing Noctua, it’ll take a few more years before we can buy it.
