Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler Review

Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler Overview
Taking a first look at the cooler itself we can see that it is a single-tower type cooler and is much smaller than the NH-D15 SE-AM4. With the fan attached the cooler has official dimensions of 158mm x 125mm x 71mm (HxWxD) and weighs in at 755g.

Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler

If we take a look at the cooler from the side we can see just how thin the actual heatsink tower is. The fins look pretty dense though, which should provide good cooling. This thin tower design allows for 100% RAM compatibility according to Noctua.

Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler

From the back of the cooler we can see the fin stack more closely and how the heatpipes come up from the base and go all the way up through the heatsink. From the top we can see that all of the heatpipes extend out of the top. The top fin also has the Noctua logo on it.

Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler

Talking about the fan mounted on the front of the cooler we have Noctua’s own NF-F12 120 mm fan. This PWM fan runs between 300 – 1500 RPM with a max airflow of 93.4 m³/h and max noise level of 22.4 dB(A) so the cooler should be pretty quiet. The cooler has the typical Noctua colors we are used to seeing. Each corner has a rubber cover, which should help with vibration etc.

Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler

Flipping the cooler over we can see that the five copper heatpipes start at the base of the cooler and go up into the heatsink in a “U” fashion. These heatpipes are made of copper and are quite thick.

Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler

While the heatpipes go into the base of the cooler they actually don’t make direct contact with your CPU. This will be taken care of by a large nickel-plated copper base. It is pretty thick and should make good contact with your CPU, although we do see some visible machining marks.

Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler

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