Noctua NH-L12S Review

👤by Matthew Hodgson Comments 📅02-11-17
Introduction

Product on Review: Noctua NH-L12S
Manufacturer: Noctua
Street Price: £45.95 / $49.90

Noctua is one of the most well-known cooling manufactuers, specialising in the silent and high-end cooling range. The Austrian manufacturer has an almost perfect reputation for building some of the best CPU coolers on the market.

Today we take a look at the Noctua NH-L12S which is the direct evolution of its award winning NH-L12. Featuring an overall height of only 70mm from the CPU, the NH-L12S is designed to fit into your small HTPC while providing excellent cooling performance.



The NH-L12S comes equipped with Noctua’s patented SecuFirm2 mounting system, designed to work with a wide range of socket types with the included fixing equipment. Alongside the mounting bracket is the NG-A12x15 PWM fan, a 120mm, low-profile fan designed to push large amounts of air without sounding like a vacuum cleaner.

After reading the specification sheets, we were intrigued to find out just how well such a small CPU cooler can perform. They recommend to take care when using this cooler on any CPU with a TDP above 95w so our Core i7-3930K should pose quite a challenge with the 130W TDP. Read on to find out just how well such a small CPU heatsink can deal with a power-hungry processor.

Noctua on the NH-L12S:
Successor to the award-winning NH-L12, the NH-L12S is a compact low-profile CPU cooler that combines excellent compatibility, surprising efficiency and remarkable flexibility. Thanks to its NF-A12x15 PWM, slim 120mm fan, the NH-L12S provides even better quiet cooling performance than the previous model with its 92mm fan. At the same time, the NH-L12S is highly versatile: with the fan installed on top of the fins, the cooler is compatible with RAM modules of up to 48mm in height. With the fan installed underneath the fins, the total height of the cooler is only 70mm, making it suitable for use in many HTPC and Small Form Factor cases. Topped off with the trusted, pro-grade SecuFirm2™ multi-socket mounting system, Noctua’s proven NT-H1 thermal compound and a full 6-year manufacturer’s warranty, the NH-L12S is a premium-quality low-profile solution for the highest demands.


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