Looking for the top choice for an i9-12900K cooler?
Looking for the top choice for an i9-12900K cooler?
The NH-D15 is expected to perform marginally better as a cooler. You can still purchase it in black if that matters. Apart from the slight price increase, the Noctua model offers more advantages than drawbacks overall. For the AIO, you can choose that option too, but you'll need a substantial unit to match the 12,900k performance. Personally, I favor the dependability and longer life of an air cooler.
DRP4 performs worse by about 2-3 compared to d15, though that doesn’t mean d15 is sufficient unless you adjust the voltage.
Consider purchasing the Dark Rock Pro 4 if you're interested. There are no issues with it. I bought the NH-D15 as well; small variations make a difference. I'm okay with a few adjustments. It performs well in most scenarios, though it can get quite hot without any effort. During gaming sessions, my temperatures stayed stable. Running Cinebench showed an instant 100°C. After applying undervolting, everything worked smoothly—my temperature drop exceeded 20°C as noted. My motherboard was delivering more voltage than needed, but the chip remained perfectly stable.