- Review -
NH-U12S,NH-U14S
The Gelid was unable to hang with the Noctua boys with a 4.5GHz clock on our 3770k under load. At idle however the Gelid bested the NH-U12S and only slightly lost to the NH-U14S. The Noctuas even did very well with their LNAs installed. During testing I noticed that the 150mm fan on the NH-U14S was slightly quieter than the 120mm unit on the NH-U12S, but both were easily the quietest I’ve tested to date. [...] The prices are high in comparison to the other coolers I’ve tested but that does come with the added benefit of performance. The Gelid couldn’t keep up with the heat, so the Noctua gets the nod for the recommended buy. You honestly couldn’t go wrong with either version we tested here so it really comes down to your needs. If you have 4 sticks of RAM in your LGA115x board, then the NH-U12S is for you. If you only have 2 and want max cooling performance, then scoop up the NH-U14S with an additional NF-A15 PWM and enjoy. The coolers performed amazingly well and did so with near total silence so I have no hesitations about giving them our Great Hardware award.
"Noctua did an amazing job with the NH-U12S and NH-U14S CPU coolers. They’re built extremely well and no detail was left untouched. Their performance is stellar and all the while they make the least amount of noise of any CPU cooler I’ve ever tested." (Will Lyon, PureOverclock.com)
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