A Closer Look

Due to the NH-D12L's low height of just 145 mm, it bridges the gap between 92 mm and 120 or 140 mm tower coolers. The design should be far more compatible with Mini-ITX cases while offering a greater level of performance. To achieve that, Noctua opted for a dual-tower design, but didn't sacrifice memory compatibility as the heatsink's front fin stack is quite a bit thinner than the other. Due to its shorter stature, it makes use of 38 aluminium cooling fins per tower, which is much less than some more traditional tower coolers, like the AS500 with 56 aluminium fins. As such, the lack of surface area compared to some of the competition may lead to worse performance on higher TDP processors, but more on that later.


While the heatsink is clean and well built, it suffers the same issue as many bare aluminium products. Regardless, it is a massive fingerprint magnet; if you want to keep it pristine, grab some gloves.


To transfer heat from the base to the fins, Noctua soldered five heat pipes to the fins, which gives the best possible contact for thermal dissipation. The fit and finish look good since the base and copper heat pipes are nickel plated. While the base itself didn't have a mirror finish, I did not notice any machining marks at first glance. Upon inspecting it more closely, I found some, but the base is exceptionally well done overall.


The NF-A12x25r PWM fan is similar to the NF-A12, but uses a wider frame rather than a square one. Consequently, the NH-D12L is only compatible with fans of this design. Square frame fans are not supported out of the box. As for the fan specifications, it uses Noctua's SSO2 bearing design and has an RPM range of 450–2000. If you want an even quieter operation, Noctua does include an NA-RC14 low-noise adapter which brings the maximum RPM down to 1700. In terms of airflow, the fan delivers up to 60 CFM at maximum RPM.