- Review -

03.06.2007 DarkVision Hardware

As you can see the Noctua NH-U12F outperformed the other two coolers. At idle the temperature of the processor rose only 1.6°C above the room temperature with the NH-U12F. During load the processor got 10°C less hot with the NH-U12F than with the stock Intel HSF. Besides cooling much better, the NH-U12F was also a lot more silent than both other coolers. [...] Much to my surprise the Ultra Low Noise Adapter barely increased the temperatures. The processor only got 1° hotter with the U.L.N.A. and that's almost negligible if you take the higher room temperature into account. It seems the NH-U12F needs very little airflow to keep the temperatures low. The temperatures without the fan are also still OK. In fact, when you compare the results from this chart with the first chart in which I compared this cooler to the standard Intel heatsink you can see that the NH-U12F without active cooling gets 2°C less hot than the actively cooled Intel heatsink!

"I'm very impressed with the Noctua NH-U12F. The cooler is really big and heavy but it's build quality is excellent and it keeps the processor very cool. Additionally, the noise levels of the Noctua NH-U12F fan are exceptionally low and the package also includes anti-vibration pads and an Ultra Low Noise Adapter to further decrease the noise levels." (Thomas De Maesschalck, DarkVision Hardware)