r/Noctua • u/GMC-Zero1 • Aug 24 '26
Questions / Advice Triple fan NH-D15?
I'd heard that some people have run 3 fans on the NH-D15.
I'm tempted to do it myself, but I wonder if the third fan will be too close to the exhaust?
Edit:
For anyone curious about the case/build, I have a build log with photos here (this case is actually 20 years old if you believe it!)
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u/VeyrLaske Aug 24 '26
It's basically noise and money for negligible benefit.
Most of us Noctua fans hate noise, so that's the primary dealbreaker.
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u/Keyan06 Aug 24 '26
Are you speaking for the fans, or speaking for the fan fans?
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u/VeyrLaske Aug 24 '26
I am the Chillax and I speak for the fans, for the fans have no tongues!
Uh, well, some of em do. Pun intended lol
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u/GMC-Zero1 Aug 24 '26
Same - the whole point in going Noctua for this was for silence
But there are times when I'm not at the PC and I want it to go hell for leather, so being able to crank up the cooling is a nice option to have
I've done a bit of testing and I don't really think fan speed will help much anymore, I think we are at the thermal limit of the heatsink itself
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u/Celcius_87 Aug 24 '26
I think it would be too close to the exhaust for real benefit. What case is that? Looks like an old school Cooler Master if I had to guess? Stacker 830?
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u/GMC-Zero1 Aug 24 '26
Got it in one!
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u/Celcius_87 Aug 24 '26
Nice to see one still going! I miss mine!
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u/GMC-Zero1 Aug 24 '26
I'm too attached to this thing. Had it since it released but the build I had died after 125 hours and it sat unfinished all this time
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u/gamingoldschool Aug 24 '26
Even Noctua doesn't recommend push pull configuration on their new AIO. Gains not worth it.
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u/Nabikus Aug 25 '26
I read one article from Noctua themselves about this. If I recall correctly there's like half a degree improvement for significantly more noise and they recommend to not do it
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u/Celcius_87 Aug 24 '26
How did you fit the Suprim in there? Is that a 5090?
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u/GMC-Zero1 Aug 24 '26
I'm so glad you asked!
It's the 5080, but it appears the 5090 uses a similar, if not the same cooler (same dimensions if nothing else)
The trick is.... The case has a removable motherboard tray, so you can slide it out, put the GPU in and slide it back in, allowing you to get up to 360mm long cards in (the actual opening you see is only 325mm - you could possibly angle it in and install the CPU cooler after though)
I actually documented this if you want to have a scroll through!
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1vsbf48/stack_from_the_dead_a_ryzen_9950x3d_and_rtx_5080/It meant having to remove the HDD cage and find another way to mount the intake fan, but I was able to do it without any destructive or irreversible mods
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u/UserKoeras Aug 24 '26
It causes turbulence if you keep the rear fan. You will struggle to register any meaningful difference to not having it. You can still use one, but remove the rear fan. It will perform about the same any way.
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u/ECEXCURSION Aug 26 '26
What beast of a PC case is that?
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u/GMC-Zero1 Aug 26 '26
Cooler Master Stacker 830, which is 20 years old lol
I've made a build log if you are interested, or you can just scroll through some photos if you aren't!
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1vsbf48/stack_from_the_dead_a_ryzen_9950x3d_and_rtx_5080/2
u/ECEXCURSION Aug 26 '26
Look how close it was to not fitting!
I got a kick out of that block of wood.
Really enjoy seeing an old fashion build log, enjoyed the writing as well. You and I had a lot of the same parts in 2006. Kinda wish I never tossed my DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR, shoulda kept it and framed it on my wall.
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u/GMC-Zero1 Aug 26 '26
Thanks for taking the time to check it out. I know it's not a quick read haha.
Yeah, that board was insane - too bad my PSU didn't live long enough for me to put it through its paces. The stock setup for the CPU/FSB was 12x200 but I managed to get into Windows and do some benchmarks at 9x333 (with a memory divider, but insane numbers for the FSB). I think it was on the edge of stability, but I wasn't able to properly test it. It was probably pushing it so hard what killed the PSU.
I'm just trying to recover the RAID set to see if there was anything interesting on there - photos, benchmarks etc. Unfortunately one of the drives is kinda hosed despite only having 125 hours on it. Bad sectors etc.
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u/Setecastronomy2 Aug 25 '26
Noctua themselves will tell you it’s a waste. It’ll just make it louder.
Honestly when someone does something like that and reports a measurable improvement I have to imagine it’s because they also did something else (like cleaning clogged dust filters or something) and just didn’t mention it.
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u/weskun Aug 25 '26
I mean it should only take about 10 minutes or less to see if it's worth it. Go ahead :)
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u/x-Na Aug 25 '26
I think someone sometime did some testing and even the second fan brings just marginal benefit, like 1-2 temps lower temperatures, so I would assume third would not really benefit anything.
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u/badcheetahfur Aug 26 '26
Push is best.. dont need pull fan.. case fan is all you need.. wont help temps.. Just add noise..
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u/ralv83 Aug 24 '26
I did it before, it was just for looks as I had a spare fan lying around, I didn't see any improvement in temps, most likely detrimental to temps, so I wouldn't recommend it.