Noctua NH-U12A

[crazyeyesreaper]

Noctua delivers top-tier air cooling performance in a compact design with the release of the NH-U12A. Sporting two of their latest NF-A12x25 PWM fans, what this cooler lacks in regards to RGB LEDs, it makes up for with brown and tan Noctua styling and a premium build quality that is second to none.

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[dirtyferret]

awesome cooler, awful price

With cases becoming smaller and smaller I can see more people heading towards this cooler.

 

[ZoneDymo]

awesome cooler, awful price

With cases becoming smaller and smaller I can see more people heading towards this cooler.

idk, its a top of the line cooler that is still cheaper then most water cooling solutions, I would say the price is fair.

unrelated: quite difficult to make out which coolers are actually the best tbh, I mean all the info is there but there is so much to keep in mind, like the Reeven Naia looks good for cooling performance but its also seemingly a bit louder then the rest so the cooling would make sense considering the fans probably spin faster hence louder.

 

[mcraygsx]

Given the smaller size, it does return solid numbers as compare to dual tower NH-D15.

 

[Crackong]

Got my U12A right at launch.
There is no doubt in performance.
My opinion is the same as before.
Bundle with ONE fan and lower the price to $80, Noctua can rule the high-end air cooling market.

 

[Camm]

I've been using U12's on pretty well much everything for years, as its combination of performance and clearance are just outstanding.

That being said, Noctua have been teasing for over a year a black nickel plated cooler which is still MIA, and a continuing refusal to adjust to aesthetic trends is bloody annoying.

 

[eidairaman1]

There are less costly solutions that work as well.

 

[mastershake575]

There are less costly solutions that work as well.

I paid $45 for the MSI CPU cooler and it offers basically the exact same performance and fan noise as this $100 cooler.

 

[F-man4]

Performance
NH-U12A 100%
NH-U12S 100%

C/P
NH-U12A 100%
NH-U12S 154%

That means we have no reason to upgrade a NH-U12S to NH-U12A.
Nothing increased but price.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Good cooler, but not for price. Will stay with DR4, looks much better too.

 

[Ebo]

Ive used Noctua NH-U12S for a number of years, and it have served me well. Noctua came tru when I changed to AM4 platform, so I could still use my cooler.
I hoping my new case if arriving today and theres also comming a Noctua cooler in that, since theres not enough room for my NH-U12S, because its 0,3mm too high. In the new case im putting in a NH- C14S instead.
Noctua might cost premium, but you know what youre going to get for your money which in my book is fair.

 

[Vlada011]

Far best Air CPU Cooler. Everything bigger become absurd.
Even he is little bigger for my taste but worth. I'm not absolutely sure he give better temps than bigger Noctua models but I can bet difference is to little to someone choose bigger models.
Price is strong but half price is two fans.
He even look more powerful than other coolers.
I would pay this price because nice fans even if I switch to AIO or radiators, and because Noctua offer free brackets for different AMD-Intel LGA in future.
Half price are fans, cooler is 50$, that mean with normal fans would cost 75$. But anyway normal fans are not so usefull as NF-A12x25 PWM.

I will never back to Air but NF-U12A or NH-U9 are only models of Air coolers I would look for.

 

[kastriot]

Best coolers on earth, more expensive ofc but with a reason, and for poop&vomit color who cares.

 

[Vlada011]

Exactly. Only "German" quality Air CPU coolers.
I know Noctua is Made in Austria. But that's almost same philosophy.

It's not enough to be Made in Germany, you need to show customers that you are someone who want to offer famous German quality, like Watercool.de.
Blacknoise Noiseblocker fans maybe now are not best performer but nice package, nice materials. Same models are on market 10 years and still are cool.
Look CM fans before 10 years or CORSAIR fans before 10 years.

Except that you got thermal paste and two fans at the moment best push fans on market and if you change platform you got new Mounting mechanism if need.
They sent to customers of older coolers. NH-U12S was famous cooler. This is improved version.

5 pipes NH-U12S

7 pipes NH-U12A

 

[cucker tarlson]

I'd love to have this little beast if I could sell my d15s and get it at the price of a new one.The premium is horrendous.I might get it anyway

 

[P4-630]

Got my U12A right at launch.

Same here, excellent performance.

 

[Crackong]

That means we have no reason to upgrade a NH-U12S to NH-U12A.
Nothing increased but price.

It is down to the fact that the A12 (Comes with U12A) fans aren't built for 100% rpm operation.
The A12 fans are targeted for "normal" fan speed range, let's say 30% - 70%
At those fan speeds the A12 gives incredible noise/performance ratio.
However at 100% fan speed, the F12 fans ( Come with U12S) actually gives better static pressure with a lower rpm.
Therefore the factors are sort of compensating each other for U12A vs U12S

For me, I have two A12 fans on my U12S before the release of U12A, then I switched to the U12A.
So the fan difference is eliminated.
The max temps are not amazingly different ( 3 degrees difference ).
But the idle and normal gaming temps are around 6-8 degrees difference, which is significant.

Suggesting the A12 fans are optimized at low rpm and actually holding back the full capabilities of the heatsink at 100% fan speed.

 

[Joss]

Lack of RGB for the gamer crowd

Lack of RGB for imbecilic teenagers. There, fixed it for you.

 

[junglist724]

I paid $45 for the MSI CPU cooler and it offers basically the exact same performance and fan noise as this $100 cooler.

Decibel levels aren't the best measure of noise. Different frequencies are perceived as louder than others. NF-F12s @ 1500rpm are way more irritating to listen to than these NF-A12x25s @ 2000rpm.

Plus a lot of fans bundled with cheap coolers will not last. Half of the maingear machines where I work with their stock nzxt fans have failed bearings after 1.5 years, and the 20+ hp machines they got last year have a nearly 100% failure rate on their psu fans after 1 year. My noctua industrial ippcs on my server builds have been running @ 3k rpm uninterrupted for 2 years straight without problems so far and all noctua fans have insanely long mtbf ratings.

 

[sutyi]

Not feeling the 99EUR price tbh. The +50% price hike over the U12S is a lot, especially considering the performance uplift it carries. Also I'm not entirely convinced that with two NF-A12x25s attached this carries a more soothing fan noise compared to a single NF-F12.

 

[micropage7]

awesome cooler, awful price

With cases becoming smaller and smaller I can see more people heading towards this cooler.

you can't beat their price
noctua well known tag their price pretty high, their quality is good but all i can;t stand is the price

 

[Mayclore]

I sometimes wish cooler manufacturers would just sell us the tower without fans at a lower price. If the two fans are $30, I'd gladly pay $39 for the chunk of metal and stick two fans I already own to that instead.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Much less impressive numbers here than on the LTT video from a week or so ago.

Probably down to the different methodology but definitely something I'd like to look more into

 

[Joss]

The Thermalright Macho 120 SBM costs half the price, has 150mm height, looks better and probably cools as well.

 

[dicktracy]

This thing weights more than the D15s 140mm Dual Tower while performing worse and is more expensive. The U12s looks more efficient as a 120mm cooler. Some reviewers were able to match the U12A performance when they used the same dual Noctua fans on the U12s.