When you are building a home theater PC or small form factor PC it is really hard to find a CPU cooler that will not only fit, but provide adequate cooling as well. We know Noctua for making extremely large CPU coolers, some of the largest air coolers that we have seen actually. Today we are checking out one of their latest CPU coolers the NH-L12. What is interesting about it is that it is a low-profile cooler made for home theater PC’s and smaller systems. Will this cooler still provide the great cooling power we are used to seeing with Noctua CPU coolers? Read on to find out!
Special thanks to Noctua for providing us with the NH-L12 Low Profile CPU Cooler to review.
Specifications
| Socket compatibility | Intel LGA2011, LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775 & AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1 (backplate required) |
| Height (without fan) | 66 mm |
| Width (without fan) | 128 mm |
| Depth (without fan) | 150 mm |
| Height (with fan) | 93 mm |
| Width (with fan) | 128 mm |
| Depth (with fan) | 150 mm |
| Weight (without fan) | 415 g |
| Weight (with fan) | 680 g |
| Material | Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating |
| Fan compatibility | 120x120x25mm & 92x92x25mm |
| Scope of Delivery | 1x NF-F12 PWM premium fan 1x NF-B9 PWM premium fan 2x Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.) Y-Split Cable NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound SecuFirm2™ Mounting Kit Mini-ITX Mounting-Kit Noctua Metal Case-Badge |
| Warranty | 6 Years |
|
Fan specifications |
|
| Model | Noctua NF-F12 PWM & Noctua NF-B9 PWM |
| Bearing | SSO-Bearing |
| Max. Rotational Speed (+/- 10%) | 1500 / 1600 RPM |
| Max. Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%) | 1200 / 1300 RPM |
| Min. Rotational Speed (PWM) | 300 / 300 RPM |
| Max. Airflow | 93,4 / 64,3 m³/h |
| Max. Airflow with L.N.A. | 74,3 / 52,6 m³/h |
| Max. Acoustical Noise | 22,4 / 17,6 dB(A) |
| Max. Acoustical Noise with L.N.A. | 18,6 / 13,1 dB(A) |
| Input Power | 0,6 / 0,96 W |
| Voltage Range | 12 V |
| MTBF | > 150.000 h |
Packaging
Noctua has always done a great job on making their packaging very informative, so if you are at the store looking at different CPU coolers you can learn all about the NH-L12. There is information on almost every side of the retail box.
Getting everything out of the retail box you have the NH-L12 CPU cooler, bag of Intel mounting materials, bag of AMD mounting materials, bag of accessories and installation instructions.
To give you a good idea of how the NH-L12 comes and for a brief overview check out our unboxing and overview video below.
