Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler Review

Noctua NH-U12S Overview
The Noctua NH-U12S is a simple tower cooler. It’s small size is to make sure you can install the cooler if you have memory with larger heatspreaders. Besides the low-profile Noctua coolers we have looked at this is the smallest Noctua cooler that has come through here at ThinkComputers.

Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

The tower part of the cooler is made up of aluminum fins and 5 copper heatpipes that come up from the base of the cooler. The top fin has a Noctua logo on it.

Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

To help dissipate heat from the heatsink Noctua is using one of their own 120 mm NF-F12 PWM fan. This fan has a max rotational speed of 1500 RPM and noise level of 22.4 dBA. Around the corners of the fan are rubber grommets that will help keep vibrational noise down. As I said this cooler is small and thin. How thin? Without the cooling fan installed it is only 45 mm and with the fan installed it is 71 mm. This ensures that it will fit without getting in the way of your memory.

Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

Moving down to the block we can see that all 5 heatpipes go into the block and come out the other side so essentially you have 10 heatpipes that extend up into the heatsink. All of the heatpipes as well as the base are made of copper. The base is very clean and flat, which will make for good contact with your CPU.

Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

The fan on the cooler uses a 4pin PWM connection and the connecting cable is sleeved, which is a nice addition.

Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

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