Noctua NH-U12S Air CPU Cooler Review

Performance

Stock

Given that the Noctua NH-U12S is just a single fan air cooler, it’s quite impressive to see that it finds itself competing with many larger air coolers or indeed even 240mm AIO coolers.

Overclocked

While things do get a little warmer when overclocked the Noctua NH-U12S again performs excellently well. It does admittedly struggle a little more than it does when under a standard processor setting, but even so, this cooler proves itself more than competant at overclocking and even capable of competing with much more expensive cooler options.

Stock Acoustics

With it giving some excellent temperature performances, you could be forgiven for thinking that it might have to compromise a little on noise. That, however, is very much not the case. The Noctua NH-U12S is incredibly quiet. The new fan design clearly has paid big dividents in terms of performance in this area.

Overclocked Acoustics

When overclocked, the Noctua NH-U12S barely performs any louder. As can be seen below, the noise levels are only negligibly higher than those seen in the normal processor mode. As such, if noise is a major factor in your decision, you would struggle, at least for something within this budget, to find anything anywhere near as quiet.

We should point out that this has even managed to beat manage of the AIO liquid coolers. Considering that one of their selling points is to be quieter than air, Noctua clearly has something to say about that!