Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

The crew at techPowerUP! seem rather impressed with the Noctua NH-U12S heatpipe HSF. While the cooler was docked for price and the lack of a second fan, that didn't stop the reviewer from giving the NH-U12S a score of 9.2.

Noctua seems to have a mantra of silence, quality, and excellent support, and this mantra is enjoyed by enthusiasts the world over. Today, we put this mantra to the test again as we review their latest cooler the NH-U12S. This single tower design offers ultra low noise levels and 100% RAM compatibility.

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I bought this heatsink for my daughter's I7 920 (which was passed down from me). One thing that needs to be mentioned is that out of the box this heatsink will not fit a 1366 cpu socket. I found that out the hard way from not reading enough and when I tried to put it in I discovered my blunder. Noctua will ship out an adapter kit to fit 1366 for free when you send them your proof of purchase of this heatsink. So if you have the 1366 socket (for example the I7 920) then send them the POP as soon as you buy it so you don't have to wait as long as I did.

Anyway I ended up using a Noctua NF-S12A fan I had to push and the included NF-F12 as pull. I chose this because the NF-S12A is completely silent at it's 1200 rpm full speed where the NF-F12 has a little hum at full speed. The NF-S12A also pushes more air. I used the Low Noise adapter to bring the NF-F12 down to 1200 rpm and now the whole thing is silent and moves a good bit of air.

Completely happy with the result and the old saying you get what you pay for holds true here. I still can't wrap my brain around the water stuff, I'm an air breather and so is my cpu.