NH-D14 not working properly?

Gday all,

Recently I bought a used Noctua NH-D14 at a steal. It was in pretty good shape with no rusting or corrosion. Didn't come with the supplied paste though so I used my own Arctic MX4. I also have some older Xigmatek paste which I used for my old coolers. I've set up the heatsink this way:

<- rear
Top exhaust
[] -> []:[]:
Filtered intake -> fan 1 -> tower 1 -> fan 2 -> tower 2

Ensured that thermal paste was spread very thing and even (dot method), all the screws were as tight as they would go (manual says tighten until they stop) and ULNA adapters not installed. Checked that all fans are spinning. Casing is a spacious Corsair C70 with 2 floor intakes, 2 front intakes and 1 rear intake as seen above, all filtered. Temps in HWM are shocking.

29*C Ambient
Package:
Idle 39*C
Avg 49*C
Max 88*C - Prime95

i7-3770K at stock, these temps are the same as the stock cooler (IIRC, twas a long time ago) and worse than my single-tower Deepcool Gammax 300 (see pic).



Is there anything I'm doing wrong or might be wrong with the cooler, incredulous as that may sound?

I've connected all the fans to a Phanteks PWM fan hub and they adjust speed according to CPU temps, working as expected. I know this because the unrestricted the Corsair AF and SP fans are loud. The Noctua fans are also audible so I intend to install inline resistors for all of them which I can't because that'll make things hotter, so that actually means my current problem is a hot-running CPU with very loud fans.

Highly frustrating, to say the least.

Can you post a picture of the TIM spread you get?

Mistake in the OP: I was tidying the wiring in the back and didn't realize that both Noctua fans were actually not spinning (plugs not yet pushed tight into Phanteks module as they're hard to unplug). Here are the current temps with inline resistors on all heatsink and case fans. Pretty silent.

Package:
Idle 36
Avg 40
Max 80

Still none too pleased with the performance, only slightly better than the Deepcool if I'd say. Will disassemble the whole thing to try out the Xigmatek paste tomorrow which is what I used on the old heatsink and also get some photos. In the meantime please post other suggestions I can try.

Judging from your ASCII drawing (LOL), you have cool air coming IN from the back? That jacks up airFLOW...

Front/Sides = intake.
Top/Rear = exhaust.

I thought it'd be a good idea to have an intake directly bringing fresh air right towards the heatsink? The entire top of my case is vented so hot air simply rises and escapes due to positive pressure, which may be aided by more exhaust fans?

The side panel has been replaced with a new sheet of perspex without vent holes. A side fan would not have fitted (not inside anyway) as the D14 is already touching the panel.

As compared to waiting for air from the front/bottom intakes to reach the heatsink by which it'd already be sort of warm from the hard drives and graphics card. I only recently started to pay good attention to airflow though so feel free to advise.

Nicky, you are not chasing every degree C. And because of that, I would stick to proper airFLOW instead of messing around with a rear intake. CPU temps may go up a degree or so, but the rest of what is in the case will be cooler.

I've seen excellent results from fan maintenance. I believe there is a tutorial in the cooling section but I honestly forget where I was reading. Oiling my fans brought the noise down excellently, and IIRC correctly the poster of the tutorial advised to oil every FSN when you get it (even NIB)

Here's a pic from just after I installed the D14. Corsair AF at the bottom front (hdd cage removed), SP for the hard drives, two more 140mm NZXTs on the floor, and another SP120 at the back. No fans up top but no obstruction either.



If only there was an adapter for the 5.25" doors; the empty drive bays make a perfect intake tunnel.

Damn.. host the picture internally man... imgur is borking and taking FOREVER to load the image. Not to mention, the pictures will be temporary so after time, it wont be in the thread.

EDIT: 3 minutes in and I see 1/4 of the picture.........

Saved to the computer, edited and attached. Sorry about this is the first forum to *not* insist on external hosting - presumably to save disk space.

Add top exhaust to that image... done.

EDIT: Sorry, flip the CPU cooler and rear exhaust fan around to blow out the back..AND add top exhaust.

EarthDog said:

Sorry, flip the CPU cooler and rear exhaust fan around to blow out the back..AND add top exhaust.

Click to expand...

This.

EarthDog said:

Add top exhaust to that image... done.

EDIT: Sorry, flip the CPU cooler and rear exhaust fan around to blow out the back..AND add top exhaust.

Click to expand...

Dang! you beat me to it EarthDog

Rick, as EarthDog said, top and rear are for exhaust, I've never seen or heard of any case setup any other way, so make the changes and lets see a cool PC

Build it the way Noctua says to build it: front to back. Heck, on my rigs I even cut out the rear grill and leave off the rear fan.

Noctua tests their stuff extensively, so you should do what they recommend.

But that doesn't explain your results. Even with the LNA's on, it should cool very well. So check the RPM's of your fans to see if they are within 15% of spec. Do a visual inspection to see if someone has ruined a heatpipe.

MX4 is OK, but Noctua's TIM is nearly the best. Gelid GC Extreme is the best, but it costs a lot more than Noctua's.

The fact that he's completely stagnating airFLOW does explain his temps

A good sanity check is to remove the side panel and direct a desk fan at it.

EarthDog said:

Add top exhaust to that image... done.

EDIT: Sorry, flip the CPU cooler and rear exhaust fan around to blow out the back..AND add top exhaust.

Click to expand...

+2 this.

NiHaoMike said:

A good sanity check is to remove the side panel and direct a desk fan at it.

Click to expand...

This!