Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. The Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler4. Installing the Noctua NH-U12S5. Testing Methodology6. Thermal Performance7. Acoustic Performance8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

The NH-U12S uses a standard tower design which consists of a stack of aluminium fins arranged around a series of five U-shaped heatpipies.  This is a fairly compact cooler and is only a couple of centimeters deep.

Even though Noctua only supply a single 120 mm fan with the cooler they have sent us an additional one so we can conduct testing in a push-pull configuration.  The brackets for attaching the second fan are supplied with the cooler.

The heatpipes themselves are made from nickel-plated copper and feature a staggered arrangement to maximize the dissipation of heat throughout the fins.   The CPU block is also made from nickel-plated copper and features a textured design to help improve surface area.

Noctua include a high quality NF-F12 120mm PWM fan with the cooler which is regarded as one of the best fans on the market for this type of application.  It is PWM controlled and can spin up to a maximum speed of 1500 RPM.  It is decorated in Noctua's trademark ‘coffee and cream' colour scheme. You either love or hate this!

Even with fans installed on either side of the cooler, the NH-U12S shouldn't restrict the memory on the vast majority of motherboards on the market.

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