Flagship cooler Noctua NH-D15 G2 no longer makes a rattling sound

Austrian cooling system manufacturer Noctua has announced to ComputerBase that it has fixed a rattling sound problem with its latest flagship cooler, the NH-D15 G2.

Image source: ComputerBase

The first buyers of the new $150 cooling system complained of a strange noise in its operation. An internal inspection determined that the noise may be caused by the top fin of the radiator becoming loose during transport. Because of this, vibrations and slight rattling noise may appear during cooler operation – although its level is small (less than 0.5 dBA), it is noticeable enough to cause complaints. As a temporary measure, Noctua suggested placing a piece of tape or tape on the side of the heatsink fin, or inserting a small piece of plastic or foam about 1.8mm thick between the top and second fins of the heatsink to soften vibrations and reduce noise.

In a conversation with ComputerBase, the company said that the problem with attaching the top fin of the heatsink was corrected in production. For those NH-D15 G2 owners who encountered the problem of the rattling sound of the NH-D15 G2, but decided not to issue a return, the company is ready to provide free of charge special steel panels that fit on the sides of the cooler and similarly eliminate the problem of noise during its operation. In the near future, the manufacturer will offer three options for solving the situation:

• Request from Noctua special steel panels for installation on the cooler (provided free of charge);
• Replace the cooler with a model specially adapted for a specific processor socket (this option will become available in October);
• Request a full refund for the cooler.

To improve the efficiency of the new NH-D15 G2 over its predecessor, Noctua has developed three variants of the new cooling system:

• Standard universal NH-D15 G2 (as before);
• NH-D15 G2 LBC (Low Base Convexity);
• NH-D15 G2 HBC (High Base Convexity).

The LBC (Low Base Convexity) version is optimized for use with processors with relatively flat heat dissipation covers. Thanks to this, the cooler provides excellent contact with AMD AM5 processor covers even without the use of an offset mounting system, as well as with other relatively flat CPUs (for AM4, LGA 2066, LGA 2011 and custom covers).

Image source: Noctua

The HBC (High Base Convexity) version is optimized for Intel LGA 1700 processors that are used with maximum socket pressure, providing excellent contact quality despite the concave shape of the processor that inevitably results from high socket pressure.