Noctua NH-U12A chromax.Black, 120mm Single-Tower CPU Cooler (Black)

I7 12900k wird mit den richtigen Fan Einstellungen auf 31 grad Idle gebracht, unter Last ca 85 konstant.

I run my PC all day for and then game at night. This cooler exceeds all expectations in keeping my 12700K CPU temperatures low. I idle between 21 and 25 degrees, which is a couple degrees above ambient temperature, and Ive never pushed the cpu temp past 42 even while gaming in 4k. I also have a full case of Lian Li V2s circulating air. I got the heat sink cover for it which was sold separately. Overall, Im super impressed with the performance of this air cooler.

Installation and use was straightforward and the system performed as expected. No fuss, no drama.

This was a perfect fit for my case and it’s a phenomenal cooler—temps are absolutely wonderful (though the fact that I have it in a Lian Li O11 Air Mini synergizes well with an air cooler may factor into that) but as for the noise level? What noise?

Like all Noctua products, the quality is exceptional. It is a touch difficult sometimes to get the screws going when mounting the cooler, but thats about it. Keeps my Ryzer 7 at good temps. I did try out their smaller 92mm single fan cpu cooler version for a bit. Compared to that I got 5 degrees lower on idle, and around 9 degrees cooler on load on Cinebench. That is going from a single 92mm cooler to dual 120mm, so the improvement makes sense. That just goes to show how good their smaller coolers are! If you dont plan to overclock your cpu I would go with their smaller cooler as the difference isnt massive. This particular all black version is on the pricier side (thats the 1 star drop). Nonetheless, Noctua is my go-to for anything cooling. I thought hard about buying an AiO from another brand but didnt want to have to worry about pump issues, leaking, or fitting the radiator in my case. Im happy I went with Noctua.

Comes with everything you need and great instructions!

Keeps my 5800x3d nice and cool at all times. RAM clearance is another plus over its bigger brother.

Performance aside, I paid full price for a new cooler and was sent one that had been damaged. The heatsink had several bent fins and all of the bags of screws had been opened and were strewn all over the package.

Was expecting nhd15 levels of performance, at best. What I got was far superior cooling. I cant guarantee there wasnt an issue with the mount of my nhd15 to my i7-12700k, however, temps are a solid 8c cooler during Aida or p95 stress tests. You can tell this cooler was engineered very thoughtfully. Its densely constructed with a thick copper base. Heat pipes saturate every point of contact with the IHS. If I had to nitpick, the fans can get quite loud at full chat, but they perform excellently even at idle. Cant fault this cooler in basically any way, its very impressive. Installed in Fractal Torrent Nano.

I am running this with my new 12700k non-overclocked and the temperatures easily stay around 64-68C during a stress test. With a custom fan curve its super quiet while still easily keeping things cool.