The Noctua NH-U12A CPU Cooler Review: Big Performance in a Small Space
by E. Fylladitakis on July 11, 2019 12:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Noctua
- CPU cooler
Testing Results, Low Fan Speed (7 Volts)
Switching things up a bit, let's next take a look at cooler performance with the NH-U12A fans taken down to 7 Volts.
| Core Temperature, Constant Thermal Load (Low Fan Speed) |
With the speed of its fans reduced down to 800 RPM, the NH-U12A becomes virtually inaudible to a user that sits one meter away from it. The thermal performance still comes close to 140 mm coolers, with the NH-U12A being unable to match it but landing near them, all while outperforming most other similarly-sized cooling solutions.
A closer look at the charts reveals that the NH-U12A actually is rather efficient with the handling of very heavy thermal loads even with reduced airflow. This suggests that the cooler will be able to handle overclocked processors without the thermal control of the motherboard having to shoot the speed of the fans too high, maintaining low noise levels.
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Oliseo - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
I run a Corsair 115i Platinum (280mm) AIO on my i9 9900k, running at 5Ghz all cores with no AVX offset. (Uncore at 4.8)It never goes above 72 degrees, when running 100% rendering 3D models. (Where AVX is used heavily).
I do have the Noctua NH-D15 on my sons i7 9700k, but it's simply not as good as my AOI.
Qasar - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
for $100 bucks more then the NH-D15, i would hope so, or it would be a rip off ;-)FreckledTrout - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
Yeah this did remind me of my old Thermalright TRUE 120. I have it in a friends computer running an old 2600K I donated. That cooler is/was very nice.mjz_5 - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Would love to see how this compares to the stock Ryzen coolerskeyserr - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Thanks for the review. I'm becoming one of 'those' people that likes silence in their PC. I was waiting for this fan to come out and build a system around it! However, I have since read that the NH-D15 / NH-D15S is quieter and this review suggests that since it performs well at low rpm. Lower rpm than than the NH-U12A. I might also wait for the fanless monster.. for a mITX beast system :)Hyper72 - Saturday, July 20, 2019 - link
I'm with you there. I like my computer out of hearing and sight so it's great to see a nice review!jabber - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Just love that fake limb plastic colour.Ashinjuka - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
While this is interesting and I understand why AnandTech would review it, similar to feelings expressed towards the extreme high end PSUs and folks asking for more realistic and everyday reviews to compare to, I'd love to see you folks do a round-up of some of the middle and lower end 3rd-party CPU coolers that are out there.My last few "utility" builds have used PCCOOLER Corona GI-X2B's and... they're fine. They're really fine. Basically silent under normal use. One 120mm fan with a LED ring, 2 heat pipes, rated for up to 105 TDP, for $15.
Sure, I wouldn't try to do any major overclocking with that but I suspect that for the 99%, these cheaper, less halo-premium CPU coolers are perfectly adequate and still way better than, for instance, stock Intel.
webdoctors - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
+1Really wish it was compared to regular budget coolers like the 212 in the graph.
At $100 its hitting the AIO water cooler heatsinks.
I see at newegg the CoolerMaster 212 is $35 with free shipping,
Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED with PWM Fan, Four Direct Contact Heatpipes, Unique Fan Blade Design, Red LEDs, Optimized Bracket
I'd love to know how this compares to that, its sort of the benchmark (pardon the pun) comparison point since its been used for ~10 yrs and on a multitude of platforms.
Using the stock AMD Wraith cooler, and putting that $100 into a better CPU would be much better, you'd get a substantial upgrade in CPU performance.
piroroadkill - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
But they did compare it to the 212 in the thermal resistance vs sound pressure level graph.The difference is stark.