H105 vs NH-D14 mini review

OK lets start off with a little explanation. The #1 main reason I'm writing this little review is because every cooling review site I've seen lately reviewing the H105/H110, any new cooler really, has been using a 4770k. This seams like it would make sense as its arguably the hottest running CPU in the world right now. Truthfully NO ! not correct. A simple knowledge of physics should tell you otherwise. The 4770k has the core contacting the IHS with thermal paste. Horribly applied thermal paste for that matter. Meaning your losing a ton of heat before you even reach the IHS. This being the main reason they run so hot. Same reason why people are delidding them all over the place. Now I ask you. If the heat cannot reach the IHS then how in the world can a cooler effectively dissipate heat. It can't. Meaning comparing coolers using a CPU such as the 4770k, 4670k, 3570k, or 3770k is NOT a good comparison to the ability of said cooler to dissipate heat (keep the cpu cooler).

 

SO ! I am going to compare the NH-D14 with my newly acquired H105. Special thanks to Yellowbeard of Corsair ;):. A real test of high end air vs high end AIO water.

 

I used my trusty 4820k and X79-deluxe setup. Good thing about X79 for cooler testing is all the CPU's on lga 2011 platform have solder between the cores and IHS. The CPU is being ran at 4.8ghz 1.36-1.375v. I ran Prime95 with AVX support for 30 minutes on each cooler and took screenshots and then ran 5 runs of Linx with AVX on maximum memory usage.

 

I used identical fans for testing as well to show the true cooling potential of each cooler. Both coolers are using 2 original h100 fans running at 1650rpm. I did not find it necessary to do stock fans vs stock fans as the NH-D14 gets slightly worse temps with stock fans and H105 would get about the same with SP120L fans. The gap would obviously widen if you were using the H105 at a higher fan speed vs the NH-D14 with its stock fans maxed out.

 

Prime95 with AVX Results:

 

NH-D14 H100 fans at 1650rpm:

http://i58.tinypic.com/2vv0yg2.png

 

H105 H100 fans at 1650rpm:

http://i59.tinypic.com/20zbhgh.png

 

Linx with AVX Results:

 

NH-D14 H100 fans at 1650rpm:

http://i57.tinypic.com/179tec.png

 

H105 H100 fans at 1650rpm:

http://i58.tinypic.com/2qussnd.png

 

As you can see the H105 is the winner. While in Prime95 which is more of a total system stability test as it throws a huge workload to the CPU and the ram the CPU temperature difference is a mere 1-2C. Still a win in my book. Just the fact it wins and looks 100x better doing it makes it worth buying. When we switch over to Linx we really see the H105 stretch its legs tho. With a 2-5C difference depending on the core the H105 shows why I'm going to keep it :p:. Linx beats the crap out of cpu cores throwing more heat then any other tool I use to stress test. Keeping the cpu in mid 70s while the NH-D14 is into the 80s is a good win in my book. Hell the thermal paste hasnt had any time to settle. Its been stress testing since 5 minutes after install. Anyways, back to gaming. Hope everyone likes my review. Maybe it'll get me a sticky :laughing:. Overclock my young Padawan's Overclock !

 

Pics of rig:

http://i60.tinypic.com/51o7mg.jpg

 

http://i61.tinypic.com/1zplheq.jpg

Will be updating soon with push/pull and maximum fan speed in push results of the h105. Haven't had much time to mess around with it. Been working 11 hour days and sundays. Plus had to get some gaming in last weekend.