$84.95
www.noctua.at
When it comes to comparing your PC with Santa Claus, two similarities may apply. First, you like to fly silently. Forget those jingling bells. When was the last time you heard Santa’s sleigh cruising under full load, eh? Exactly. At the same time, does Santa outfit his rig with water? No way, none of that fancy post-reindeer gadgetry for the Chubby Red Rider. If he can’t go on air, he stays home.
Likewise, Noctoua’s LGA 2011-friendly NH-D14 is legendary for helping you achieve the same two qualities: silence and air cooling so powerful it can practically appear at midnight in every single time zone. Some of this silence comes from Noctua’s Smooth Commutation Drive (SCD) enhancement, which minimizes noises caused by torque pulses as one stator coil transitions to another during fan rotation. Smoother coil transitions mean less noise. It also helps that the cooler comes with two Low-Noise Adapters—essentially modified power adapters that allow the fans to run at lower voltages than the default 12 V. Be sure not to use these if more processor cooling is required.
Also in play here is Noctua’s use of its own SSO-Bearings in its fan. SSO-Bearing design involves magnetically centered, self-lubricating bearings that allegedly surpass other ball, sleeve, and liquid bearing designs in both low noise and reliability. According to Noctua, SSO-Bearings are why the company can spec a 150 000-hour MTBF and warranty the fan for six years.
The two fans (one 140 mm and one 120 mm) in the SE2011 version support fully automatic PWM speed control. The smaller fan mounts in between the two sets of aluminum radiator fins while the other clips on the outside for lateral airflow. Maximum airflow at 1300 RPM without the low-noise adapters is 110.3 m³/h. With the adapters at 900 RPM, this maximum drops to 83.7 m³/h. Top acoustical noise output is 19.8 and 13.2 dB(A), respectively. The base and six heat pipes are copper with nickel plating.
If you’re hoping for a new Core i7-3900-series processor under the tree, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better LGA 2011-based air cooler for your top-end holiday monster than the NH-D14 SE2011.
- CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
- Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD80
- Memory: PNY XLR8 MD8192KD3-1600-X9
- Power Supply: SilverStone Strider Gold Evolution 1000 W
- SSD: Crucial m4 256 GB
- Graphics Card: Gigabyte GV-R695OC-1D
- CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K
- Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme
- Memory: G.Skill RipjawsZ F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZHD (4 GB x 4)
- Chassis: SilverStone Raven RV03
- Zotac Infinity Edition ZT-50102-30P GeForce GTX 580
- Noctua NH-D14 SE2011
- Creative Labs Recon3D PCI Express Fatal1ty Professional Edition


Mine was the one with the 4 SSD.
My floppy disk totally turned to a hard disk drive.
I can't wait for part 2 already.
Depends on if you use an aftermarket cooler or the stock one
Why are some things suggested in this guide mostly the worst value you could get for that sum of cash?
For starters:
-MSI 990FX-GD80 wouldn't be my top pick. That would go to a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD(x) board. Why bother getting a board that's more expensive than the best processor for the platform (or one whose lower-end boards don't catch fire).
-i7-3930K? Ivy's just around the corner and will run on 150 dollar boards that do more than X79 could think of.
-Silverstone 1000W PSU? Seasonic's already got their X-1050, which has 80+ Platinum certification instead of gold for the same cost.
Some things I guess I just don't understand, then. You list some parts that have really good value, such as that RAM and Powercolor graphics card along with the 955BE, and then go to the polar opposite. I don't see the reason for that.
Get a life you freak
Get a sense of humor you rude little man.