- Review -

02.05.2010 BCCHardware.com

It has been almost 2 years since we first took a look at the Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler. While the Noctua Noctua NH-C12P SE14 might not be all that different from the original, it has shown in our testing that much like the original it was able to keep up with the others and offer great performance. The biggest difference between the original NH-C12P and the new Noctua NH-C12P SE14 is the size of the fan and thanks to the bigger fan Noctua is able to increase airflow by just under 10% which helps increase the performance of the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 over the original. Quality-wise the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 is top notch, you're not going to bend fins on the heatsink during installation. Installation is also a breeze (although you will have to remove your motherboard to install the back bracket) and should take no more than 10-15 minutes from start to finish. As far as noise goes, the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 is very quiet and is very well suited for HTPC cases where you don't want to hear a fan spinning up and down while you're trying to watch a movie, even at full speeds the NH-C12P SE14 is tough to hear over other system noise.

" It's very easy to like the new Noctua NH-C12P SE14 overall thanks to the high quality heatsink, low fan noise, and very decent performance. Thanks to those facts we've awarded the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 with our 'Editor's Choice - Gold' award. If you need a cooler to fit into a tight case where others can't, then the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 might just be the cooler for you." (Jason Schneider, BCCHardware.com)