Noctua NH-U12A Review

[AntonioSlash]

Hey all!

Just purchased the all new Noctua NH-U12A cpu cooler. Just thought I'd share my thoughts and  performance numbers with it. So I recently upgraded from a Hyper212 Evo with Noctua NFF12 Chromax fans in push pull. CPU is a Ryzen 1700X OCed @ 3.925MHz(1.36V). So i Didn't manage to screen cap the before tests with the 212, but during a 10min aida64 run with ambient temp at 22 celsius temps leveled out at 75-76 degrees celsius during that run with the weird occasional spike to 80 and back down.(my cpu has always done this..) so after installing the NH-U12A, which was super easy and user friendly due to the ease of assembly, thorough instructions and provided tools. Running the same aida64 tests with the same ambient temps with the stock fans included with the cooler after 10 mins of testing temps settled at 70-71 degrees celsius. fans were commanded to 100% PWM at 69 degrees and were barely audible compared to my case fans even with the case side off. I then proceeded to test the cooler with my NF-F12 Chromax fans. Which aesthetically match my build alot better due to the black/green colour scheme I have going on. so same tests again with same ambient temps after 10 mins I was leveled out at 71-72 celsius noise levels with these fans were slightly higher than stock fans but was a different sounding tone and still barely audible above my noisy case fans.

So overall I think the Noctua NH-U12A is an amazing cooler for its size and would put up quite a good fight with many other 140MM tower coolers and maybe entry level AIOs the price is high,as expected with premium quality coolers but its justified by its performance. my only wish with this cooler was that the stock fans came with a black option just to suit many build but I don't mind the OEM colour scheme. Below are some snapshots of Aida64 and HW monitor numbers Thanks for reading hope this can help anyone considering the purchase!