Noctua NH-U12S Air CPU Cooler Review

Mike Sanders / 6 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Noctua NH-U12S retails for a price in the region of £55. Now in terms of air coolers, that might seem a little on the high side and you would be right. What you have to understand, however, is that Noctua is pretty much universally recognised as producing the finest air coolers available. Not only that, but the build quality is so good that an initial purchase will guarantee you a cooler designed to last for the long-term.

When viewed from this perspective, while the Noctua NH-U12S isn’t cheap, it is an excellent investment.

Overview

Noctua produces some of the best cooling products on the market and this is clearly indicated throughout there product. The presentation throughout is excellent and flawless. Yes, the box art could be a little flashier, but that doesn’t fit into the company remit. Noctua coolers are not designed to be garish, they’re designed to give excellent performance.

Build Quality

As with all Noctua products, the NH-U12S speaks of exceptional design and durability throughout. Very rarely will you see a cooler given a more substantial guarantee. Noctua, however, go as far to give their coolers a 6-year guarantee. I can assure you that based on the excellent build-quality of their products that this 6-year guarantee is absolutely worthless.

Not because Noctua won’t honor it, but because I sincerely doubt that this cooler would ever break.

Fans

Noctua made a name for themselves based on the excellent production levels they put into their fan design. It’s for reasons such as this that their fans are often considered the best available even in terms of chassis air flow. Yes, they are admittedly not the prettiest design in the world, but they are distinctive to the brand. To change it now would make very little sense for Noctua.

In terms of its performance, the testing figures speak for themselves. Beyond the cooler design itself, which can only do so much, the fan was clearly more than capable of not only keeping it cool but also doing so at exceptionally low noise levels.

Performance

Despite this not being Noctua’s highest level cooler product, the performance figures are still highly excellent. Throughout the testing, the Noctua NH-U12S was able to run with excellent temperature results and also exceptionally quiet. We should note that this, as per most Noctua products, does come with a noise dampener. I want to make it clear that we did not use this.

As such, for performance figures alone, you are clearly getting some massive performance here often not seen in far more expensive and larger AIO liquid coolers.

Should I Buy One?

While we have nothing but good things to say about Noctua here at eTeknix, the brand will always struggle to win everyone over. We have often made the argument that while their air coolers are a little more expensive than alternatives, their performance figures alone can easily put their products within the remit of mid to high-end AIO liquid coolers.

Largely, the biggest issue is aesthetics. Some love it on Noctua products, some loathe it. If you can get over this point though, the Noctua NH-U12S is clearly an excellent cooler and while the price is high, we would always suggest that Noctua coolers should be looked in a long-term perspective. They are so well made and perform so well that there is no reason based on current technologies why you should ever have to buy another cooler again.