🌬️ Noctua NH-U12A Premium CPU Cooler: High-Performance Silent Cooling Solution with NF-A12x25 PWM Fans (120mm, Brown) Review

I was very happy to get the U12A to replace me with the U12S. That excitement quickly faded when I saw just a 1 degree decrease in delta temperature compared to my U12S (on which I already had the new A12 fans). I think this cooler will only be an improvement if you are not already using A12 fans.

I've always wanted the cooling performance of a top-of-the-line Noctua cooler, but I didn't want half of my case to be covered by massive heatsinks and fans. NH-U12A meets all requirements perfectly! Installation was quick and the fans are very quiet, which keeps CPU temperatures down. Most importantly, my RGB memory cards are still visible!

I really believe this is the best cooling system for 95% of PC manufacturers. Cooling performance is almost the same or better than AIO, no worries about pump failure or leaking, it's quieter than AIO and small enough to work with most cases, motherboards and RAM. I even have it in my mini itx h200. If you're not using a gapless case for the CPU, you'll need something cheaper, or you'll need extreme cooling like phase switching, or maybe custom circuitry; it really seems like the best choice.

Does exactly what it's designed to do. D15 performance in a smaller space. The fans are also very quiet in an outdoor case and at 2000 rpm very quiet. The best part is they now fit my Core P3 with glass installed. The old D15 cooler only worked with a fan in the middle of the towers. Couldn't hit double 140s with Core P3 and big memory. If space is your concern, this is the cooler. D15 went to 63-64s. That's great considering how small this cooler is. Minuses - brown fans and the lack of…

First of all, this is a great fridge. I'm not running a powerful machine or overclocking, I'm just interested in a reliable, quiet machine. I have an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X that idled at around 55C and hit 70C under load with the stock Wraith Spire cooler it came with. After installing the NH-U12A, its idle temperature is around 48°C, under load it is 70°C and the fans only run at 60% of the maximum speed. The temperature drop is large, but the main advantage is the noise level. The stock Wraith…

When assembling the components for my recently built computer I thought of water cooling the I9 processor but decided to air cool first. Enter the Noctua NH-U12A and online reviews have shown that it was designed to offer better spacing compared to higher RAM DIMMs on the market. When I tested this cooler on an I9 installed on an ASUS ROG Maximus XI Extreme motherboard, I thought it would actually go well with some RAM DIMM slot overlap. Unfortunately, the front fan doesn't clear my DIMMs, but…

Jokes aside, I'm actually shocked at how quiet this thing really is. I build my own PCs every few years, usually with the best parts available at the time. I've always used liquid cooling in my PCs because I felt that a fanned heatsink couldn't cool a high performance processor in any way. I was wrong. The top of the heap is in the CPU heatsink. That is, if you don't mind spending a little more. Other air cooling manufacturers did well in some reviews, but usually when cost was considered. I…