Very easy to install. Instructions are about as good as they come.

Brown

Build quality it superb. Design prevents incorrect install. It's just easy to put this on.

Almost completely silent during daily use, including gaming. When the fan does have to ramp up, it *barely* makes any noise at all. It does an excellent job of keeping the CPU cool, and was able to keep an older i7-6800k under 70 degrees at all times even with a 4.2Ghz overclock. Noctua coolers have what is likely the *best* mounting mechanism on the market. Despite the size of the cooler, it is substantially easier to install than pretty much any other cooler that I've seen so far.

The cooler is very tall, and very wide. You'll need to make sure that your case has enough space to support the height of the cooler. Additionally, on some motherboards (X99 in particular) the CPU cooler sits millimeters away from a GPU in the first PCI-e slot. It works, but it becomes rather difficult to remove the GPU without pulling the cooler off first. The Z690 platform seems to have the socket further up on the board, and this isn't nearly as much of a problem though.

After six years of using this cooler, I upgraded to a new Z690-based system. Despite the fact that it is technically out of warranty already (they *do* have a 6-year warranty), Noctua sent out (at no charge) an upgrade bracket to fit the cooler to the new socket. Unless you buy a new motherboard that the cooler physically would not fit on, this is the only CPU cooler you would ever need. There's no noise, no liquid that can leak, and it just works.

Silent operation under normal loading conditions Keeps a Ryzen 5 5600X at 4.7GHZ (gaming load) at 43*C with the fan at 750 RPM. The fan isn’t that loud at 1500RPM if you really need it Keeps that same CPU at full turbo, under prime 95 at 72*C Very easy to install considering it’s size Incredible build quality on the tower itself, and the fan (the fan motor does not click when running at low speeds, and it can run as slow as 225 RPM). Surprisingly thin considering this is almost as good as a 240mm AIO and butts heads with dual tower coolers. They designed this thing to clear boards with ram slots ahead and behind the socket. You can run Ram with huge heatsinks if you really want to.

It’s very wide, might get in the way of the first PCIE slot if your GPU has a thick backplate. The fan is brown (yes I know brown fans are their thing), I don’t mind it but some people don’t like that. (Really wished we could get the chromax editions here)

This is a design from 2013 and its still one of the best CPU coolers you can get. A massive upgrade for Ryzen, and a must on the newer intel I7’s / I9’s. If you use a machine for heavy CPU tasks like rendering or CAD work, this does an amazing job controlling temperatures while running quietly. This design stands the test of time, they even have variants with a big contact plate to fit threadripper and the massive Xeon CPU’s (which pull over 280 watts!) One last thing, noctua will also send you new mounting brackets for future sockets so you can use it on future builds. You can carry it over from build to build!

Strengths, ha, it's awesome. I was skeptical about the results I'd get, even after reading about this product. Replaced an inexpensive Cooler Master (Intel i5 6600k), the thing ran so hot that even at 25% load it'd be at 100° very quickly. My idle and 100% load Temos dropped by 30%! I have a Fractal case with 5 fans, in a positive pressure configuration.

Becareful, the metal is very thin and bends easily.

Price matched, saved $10. Cooler temperatures relieves my worries. Very quiet fan, it's 140mm of awesomeness.

-Very large quiet, efficient fan -Good clearances despite being a tower cooler with

If you're OCD and decide to remount the fan after taking it off, it's hard to align it on the many many fins so that its perfectly straight.

My CPU i5 4670 idles at under 30C or so with this thing. And none of the dual fan nonsense you see on other coolers.

- Whisper quiet - PWM A15 fan - New heat pipe technology that makes this cook just as effectively as a massive twin tower cooler, like the D15 - Fresh, large tube of Noctua thermal paste that ranks above artic silver. It's right up there with IC Diamond! No need to buy additional thermal compound! - MemEx Wber price match lives up to its name! ;)

None. This cooler runs quiet does its job great and takes up much less space than its competition on the benchmark charts

I'm a picky user who overclocks and appreciates silence. This is a brand new product to 2013 that is at the top of its class. You don't need a closed loop Corsair cooler when you can have this for less!