Visual inspection
The Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black is the new version of the award-winning NH-D15 cooler. The differences between the two models is down to the colors used for the heatsink, the two fans and the accessories.
The NH-D15 chromax.black has a dual-tower heatsink design and uses six copper made heatpipes for transferring the heat. The cooler also features two 140mm fans which are part of the chromax.black series. The dimensions of the heatsink are: (H)160mm x (W)150mm x (D)135mm.
The heatsink has a dual-tower design with a widened fin stack and an enlarged heatpipe layout, which results in a better heat dissipation. The materials used to make the heatsink are aluminum and nickel-plated copper. The weight of the heatsink alone, without the fans and fan clips is 980g
The NH-D15 chromax.black has a total of six heatpipes, each with a diameter of 6mm. These heatpipes are made from nickel-plated copper, which are then painted with the same thick all black matte coating as the rest of the heatsink. The contact between the heatpipes and the base plate is done through soldering.
The base of the cooler is made from nickel-plated copper, just like the six heatpipes. The base plate itself is not painted and has a smooth finish, with a reflection that is close to a mirror. Subtle circular marks are present on the base surface, these are left from the manufacturing process, but they are smooth enough that the spread of thermal compound will not be affected.
The aluminum fins positioned on the lower side of each heatsink tower are smaller to increase the clearance for tall RAM modules. This is done on both sides of the heatsink to facilitate the usage of this cooler with motherboards that have RAM slots on both sides of the CPU socket.
The NH-D15 chromax.black uses two 140mm fans that are also part of the chromax.black series. Both fans are the NF-A15 HS-PWM chromax.black model, these have a height of 140mm and a width of 150mm, with a thickness of just 25mm.
The NF-A15 HS-PWM uses the SSO2 bearing system which provides better stabilization of the fan and increased reliability of the bearing. The fan has a minimum speed of 300 RPM and a maximum speed of 1500 RPM. If the included low noise adapters are used, the maximum speed of the fan is lowered to 1200RPM.
The cable of the fan is covered by high quality sleeving and the connector used for power is a standard 4 Pin PWM.
