NH-U14S:

Packaging and Accessories:

The box for the NH-U14S keeps with Noctua's traditional approach for packaging a CPU cooler. Just like the NH-U12S you get plenty of information on what is included, the potential performance to be achieved, and a few dimensional sketches(no pictures) of the product.



Inside the box we find the same, well-organized, tiered approach to segregating the different pieces. You have one box for accessories, one for Intel specific mounting hardware, one for AMD specific mounting hardware, and underneath these we find the cooler.



Noctua provides the same items as found with the NH-U12S, which includes mounting hardware for all modern AMD and Intel processors, the syringe of their high performance NT-H1 thermal compound, a L.N.A. (low noise adapter) cable, and spring clips and antivibration pads for mounting an optional second fan.

The Basics:

Even though this is marketed as a 140mm CPU cooler, the first thing that I noticed is that Noctua included their NF-A15 PWM fan, which is essentially 150mm worth of fan mounted to a 140mm frame. The use of this fan will optimize the airflow and minimize the noise, and it just looks like a serious piece of cooling hardware. The array of fins on the NH-U14S look a bit different than those used on the NH-U12S due to two main things. While the fins on the NH-U12S created a square perimeter, the NH-U14S has more of rectangular shape, and at the bottom there is a bank of six more fins creating a bit of additional surface area for cooling.



The below left image shows the side of the cooler, where we see that a spring steel clip is again used to mount the fan. Despite being considered a 150mm fan, the mounting holes are in the same location as a 140mm fan, so this clip should be universal with other more typical 140mm fans. The below right image shows the top of the cooler where we see a total of twelve polished cones protruding from the final Aluminum fin. While the NH-U12S has five sets of u-shaped heatpipes, the NH-U14S has six sets in order to provide even more cooling potential.