- Review -

11.05.2015 The Tech Buyer's Guru

Built to Noctua’s exacting specifications, the NH-U12S is nearly silent at idle and still relatively quiet when pushed to the max, while being by far the easiest tower cooler we’ve ever had the pleasure of installing. At just 158mm tall, it will also fit easily into most mid-sized ATX cases. Plus, the NH-U12S works extremely well, better in fact than every other 120mm cooler we’ve tried in the past. It even includes a second pair of fan clips to allow you to attach another NF-F12 fan, turning the NH-U12S into a true ultra-high-end cooler. Now, there’s just one fly in the ointment keeping the NH-U12S from being flat-out perfect, and that’s price. It’s not only more expensive than every other 120mm-based cooler, it’s also more than many 140mm-based models. It even approaches the price of the Noctua NH-U14S, which is essentially the 140mm version of the U12S. That being said, the elegance, broad case and motherboard compability, and best-in-class fan of the NH-U12S make it worth paying for, as long as you don’t need the absolute highest-capacity cooler out of the box.

"If there were one aftermarket cooler that we would have no hesitation recommending to every PC enthusiast, the NH-U12S would be it." (Ari Altmann, The Tech Buyer's Guru)