- Review -

04.09.2013 Overclock3D.net

Unboxing a Noctua product is one of the truly great treats in the reviewers world. There's a real sense of quality and class from the outset, and although the inner boxing is brown card, even its thin sturdiness belies quality and simplicity rather than cheap and cheerful. Delve deeper and the individually boxes reveal that they are there to separate the fittings required for Intel and AMD CPUs. A third long thin box contains the accessories, an LNA lead, a Y splitter, an additional set of fan clips, a set of thicker rubber fan spacers, a tube of actual NT-H1 TIM, a screw driver and even a metal case badge. All that's missing is the cuddly toy. Having cursed and sworn at many a CPU mounting system over the years, the SecuFirm2 mounting system coupled with clear and concise instructions make fitting the NH-U12S a simple, perhaps even joyful task, and with a 50 fin stack measuring just 45mm thick, even with a 25mm fan attached Noctua guarantee you will not have any RAM encroachment issues. Which is nice. Producing just 22.4dB(A) of noise at is full 1500RPM the NF-F12 fan that comes with the U12S makes for a very quiet set up. An LNA is supplied which can be used to further reduce the noise to 18.6dB(A) but we found this to be wholly unnecessary as it's quiet enough as it is especially when you consider the 300RPM drop in fan speed will result in a 2-3 degree increase in your temps.

"To summarise, the UI2S is a good cooler, especially if you're looking for something that will keep things cool while not getting in the way of comedy tall RAM. It's also one of the quietest coolers we've ever tested. The quality is there in spades" (Gary Wain, Overclock3D.net)