Noctua NH-U12S

[crazyeyesreaper]

Noctua seems to have a mantra of silence, quality, and excellent support, and this mantra is enjoyed by enthusiasts the world over. Today, we put this mantra to the test again as we review their latest cooler the NH-U12S. This single tower design offers ultra low noise levels and 100% RAM compatibility.

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[Ghost]

How come AR03 doesn't have "Can mount a second fan" in its pros?

 

[Frick]

I like it and all, but it's twice as much as the CM Hyper 212 EVO, and I can't really stomach that. I've had a bunch of Noctua fans in the past, and while they are top notch the price is pricey..

 

[buildzoid]

yeah but the noctua beat the 212 in the prime95 test by 19°C so I can kind of see why the price is doubled also noctua fans are incredibly expensive if they sold it without the fan it be 27$ cheaper.

 

[Octopuss]

I am a bit disappointed the tests were performed on Sandy Bridge CPU rather than IB.

It would be very interesting to compare it to the Hyper 212+ EVO with the same fan.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

As has been said before Ivy Bridge has alot of variation due to the IHS + TIM issue,

with a variance as bad as 15'C between CPUs Ivy really isnt the best test bed,

SB-E using solder is more stable testing platform. That said I do feel that for some this is an Issue as few run SB-E but then if variance between Ivy CPUs can be as bad as mentioned above that makes heatsink testing rather moot as what is seen from CPU to CPU can be dramatically different. That said all feed back is appreciated

How come AR03 doesn't have "Can mount a second fan" in its pros?

as for that, I missed it thanks for the heads up Ill fix it immediately. Lol wouldn't you know I had it in the very first rough draft but then removed it for some reason oh well its been fixed.

 

[Octopuss]

Oh, I see what you mean. True.

 

[Mike89]

I bought this heatsink for my daughter's I7 920 (which was passed down from me). One thing that needs to be mentioned is that out of the box this heatsink will not fit a 1366 cpu socket. I found that out the hard way from not reading enough and when I tried to put it in I discovered my blunder. Noctua will ship out an adapter kit to fit 1366 for free when you send them your proof of purchase of this heatsink. So if you have the 1366 socket (for example the I7 920) then send them the POP as soon as you buy it so you don't have to wait as long as I did.

Anyway I ended up using a Noctua NF-S12A fan I had to push and the included NF-F12 as pull. I chose this because the NF-S12A is completely silent at it's 1200 rpm full speed where the NF-F12 has a little hum at full speed. The NF-S12A also pushes a little more air. I used the Low Noise adapter to bring the NF-F12 down to 1200 rpm and now the whole thing is silent and moves a good bit of air.

Completely happy with the result and the old saying you get what you pay for holds true here. I still can't wrap my brain around the water stuff, I'm an air breather and so is my cpu.

 

[Ikaruga]

Good read, and a nice cooler too. Thanks.

 

[LinkPro]

This is really just like a NH-U12P rev.2 TBH. They keep the price similar to a P by including only one fan to justify the added heat pipe (5 vs 4) and other small improvements if any. With a second fan the S should beat the P. I for one don't need that kind of extreme cooling efficiency so I went with the S to keep noise down. I'm just using it as a temporary solution before I move to my new place where I'll start my watercooling project.