The Noctua NH-U12S Redux Cooler Review: Bringing Noctua's Best To a Lower Price
by E. Fylladitakis on August 25, 2021 8:00 AM ESTConclusion
The NH-U12S Redux is a fresh approach to the market from Noctua, as it is one of their first attempts to significantly reduce the cost of their products and make the company more approachable to budget-driven users. Noctua’s reputation may be legendary, but there's no getting around the fact that the mainstream market for coolers is quite price-sensitive, making the development of the NH-U12S Redux a strategic diversification attempt that should open Noctua up to a larger percentage of PC builders.
In order to make the NH-U12S Redux ($50) more affordable, Noctua removed some of the items they usually bundle with their coolers, such as the thermal paste syringe and the low noise fan adapter, and removed one heatpipe from the body of the cooler. The quality of the body was also reduced, as the aluminum fins are no longer welded onto the heatpipes. Such differences may be subtle, even unimportant for typical PC users, yet they will not stay unnoticeable to experienced builders and experts.
However, in terms of performance, the NH-U12S Redux has little to fear from the more expensive cooler it was based upon. As promised by Noctua, when compared toe to toe with the NH-U12S, the NH-U12S Redux offers about the same thermal performance. The only difference is that, all else held equal, the Redux is technically noisier for the same level of cooling performance. And we say "technically" because while there is a difference, you're going to be hard-pressed to notice them, especially as the absolute noise levels are still well below what anyone would consider a noisy cooler. If anything, the NH-U12S Redux is one of the quietest tower coolers with a 120 mm fan that we have ever tested, and it's less noisy than Noctua’s own NH-U12A, a cooler that costs nearly twice as much.
In fact the stock performance of the cooler is so good that there's little benefit to be had from trying to improve it with a second NA-FK1 fan. Using a second fan tends to be counterproductive, as it does not significantly improve the performance of the NH-U12S Redux. Instead, it mostly serves to push the total price of the setup to nearly that of the NH-U12S, making the purchase of the NA-FK1 a practically pointless choice.
We believe that the great overall performance and good build quality make the NH-U12S Redux a very competitive product. It is a product that makes a lot of sense in today’s market – far more than the monstrous, ludicrously expensive behemoths, at any rate. For many users, who just want a plug-and-play solution for a PC that they are not planning to fiddle with for years, the NH-U12S Redux is an excellent, cost-effective choice.
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Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
Yeah, you're definitely outside the Prism's sweet spot at that point. I'm impressed to hear that it handles 135W at all!AntonErtl - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
It handled even 190W above idle power consumption. Given that the Prism is delivered with CPUs that have 138W PPT, it definitely should be able to handle that. The 190W is surprising, though.Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
My experience with the Wraith Prism was very good, but I think you need to stick with 65W (or below) processors in order to get the best from it. It will handle higher loads than that, you just have to accept that it won't be anywhere near quiet.TrevorH - Thursday, August 26, 2021 - link
While the linked article does contain several stock coolers, are any of those available or widely used in 2021, 5 years on from that review? Are the results directly comparable with the current review? It would have been nice to include the AMD Wraith Prism in this set of results since it's not in that old article and I guess it would be nice to include whatever Intel is bundling too.kepstin - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
This gets particularly interesting with things like AMD's high-end Ryzen CPUs, where even when not overclocking, a better cooler than stock might let the CPU boost to higher frequencies for longer. (Let alone the noise benefits) But that's so dependent on the particular CPU and case environment/ambient that I don't really know how you could make a useful comparison in a standalone cooler review :/A5 - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
The short answer is that they're really bad. Anyone who sits in the same room as their computer should invest the $20-$50 to get a good air cooler.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
They're fine as long as you dont put a K SKU with unlimited turbo under them. Regular intel chips are quite efficient.Spunjji - Friday, August 27, 2021 - link
I've never had a good experience with an Intel stock cooler, but I know a few people who've used them for their budget gaming systems. It depends a lot on your sensitivity to noise. Personally I hate the buzzing noise the fans on them make, even at lower speeds.Leeea - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
I like the pre-applied thermal paste, great feature.I wonder if the different fan was necessary, or if they are just artificially nerfing the product? I doubt they cost any different to manufacture.
I did not know Noctua normally welded the fins, interesting.
DanNeely - Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - link
The cheap model has fewer heat pipes and poorer connections between the pipes it does have and the fins. With an equivalent fan it would preform hotter than the more expensive model; to keep the thermal performance the same Noctua used a faster - and thus louder - fan.