title When Noctua comes to mind, I think of  a company truly dedicated to innovative cooling solutions.When the opportunity came to review there Noctua NH-L12 my curiosity was peaked to say the least.  The NH-L12 is a low profile CPU cooler with a L-shaped heatsink to maximise its cooling capability.The NH-L12 comes with two premium fans, a 120mm and a 92mm. It can be setup in either dual or single fan configurations to fit your specific needs. At the coolers lowest setting it's a mere 66mm high. This is ideal for small form factor cases and HTPCs. The Noctua NH-L12 has some impressive features, but will that be enough to blow away the competition?

Product Name: Noctua NH-L12

Review Sample Provided by: Noctua

Written by: Brock

Pictures by: Wes

 

Specifications

Model

NH-L12

CPU Socket

Intel

LGA2011 (Square ILM,) LGA1335, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775

AMD

AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, FM2

Height  (Without Fan)

66mm

Width   (Without Fan)

128mm

Depth   (Without Fan)

150mm

Height  (With Fan)

93mm

Width   (With Fan)

128mm

Depth   (With Fan)

150mm

Weight (Without Fan)

415g

Weight(With Fan)

680g

Materials

Copper Heat-pipes and Base, Aluminum Cooling Fins, Soldered Joints and Nickel Plating.

Fan compatibility

120x120x25mm & 92x92x25mm

Scope of Delivery

1x NF-F12 PWM premium fan

1x NF-B9 PWM premium fan

2x Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)

Y-Split Cable

NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound

SecuFirm2™ Mounting Kit

Mini-ITX Mounting-Kit

Noctua Metal Case-Badge

Warranty

6 Years

Fan specifications

Model

Noctua NF-F12 PWM & Noctua NF-B9 PWM

Bearing

SSO-Bearing

Max. Rotational Speed (+/- 10%)

1500 / 1600 RPM

Max. Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%)

1200 / 1300 RPM

Min. Rotational Speed (PWM)  

300 / 300 RPM

Max. Airflow

93,4 / 64,3 m³/h

Max. Airflow with L.N.A.                                             

74,3 / 52,6 m³/h

Max. Acoustical Noise   

22,4 / 17,6 dB(A)

Max. Acoustical Noise with L.N.A.

18,6 / 13,1 dB(A)

Input Power

0,6 / 0,96 W

Voltage Range  

12 V

MTBF                   

 > 150.000 h

 

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 Packaging

The Noctua NH-L12 packaging is the traditional brown and white, with a faint image of the NH-L12's heatpipes on the top of the box. The top and front panel lists the model number, product name, and six of the product’s features arranged in a bullet point format. The left side panel has a short paragraph describing the NH-L12, and is translated into eight languages. On the right side of the box is where you can find the product /fans specifications, as well as, a miniature top and side view diagram of the product. Finally, on the back of the box is a list of six features, each of which, are accompanied by a small descriptive paragraph and an image of the feature it describes. The packaging is standard Noctua from start to finish; however, thats never a bad thing!

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Inside the package is a rectangular box containing the Noctua NH-L12 accessories. These consist of: Intel’s mounting brackets, and back plate, AMD’s Mounting brackets, a miniature folder containing three instructional manuals (two Intel, and one AMD), the exceptional NT-H1 thermal paste syringe, a variety of extension, splitter, and low noise adapter cables all of which are sleeved. The list of accessories conclude with an L shaped Philips screwdriver, and if you’re like me this slender tool will prove itself invaluable. Underneath all of this is the Noctua NH-L12 in all its shiny glory.  Mounted on top of the L-shaped heatsink is the Noctua NF-F12 120mm PWM fan. This fan is designed specifically to be used with heatsinks and retails for $29.99 on its own. Located on the underside of the heatsink is the 92mm Noctua NF-B9 PWM fan. Both of these fans carry the beige/brown color scheme. It is always a welcomed sight to see such quality accessories as sleeved cables and premium fans accompanying a new heatsink. Noctua has never ceased to amaze me in this respect.

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Installation

Installation of the Nactua NH-L12 is a fairly simple process; however, I did run into a few common problems along the way. The AMD setup is extremely simple for an AM3/AM3+ chipset you simply screw the mounts to the preexisting back plate. The curved metal mounts are arranged with the curved side resting closet to the CPU socket. The heatsink simply screws onto the mounts via two access holes located on the top of the heatsink’s aluminum fins. Unfortunately, like most AMD heatink mounts you can only install the NH-L12 horizontally. This can be a problem if you have Ram with tall fins for cooling. The Intel installation is standard fare as well. The main difference is installing the included backplate labeled for LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775.  No matter what socket type you have installation is made simple just by following the included corresponding manual, and I expect you will encounter few hiccups throughout the installation.

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Test Rig

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz

Asus Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX Motherboard

Ocz Vertex 3 120GB SATA III SSD

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 RPM

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition 2GB

Mushkin Enhanced Redline 8GB DDR3 1600

Corsair HX Series HX850 850W Power Supply

Cooler Master HAF X 942 (no side intake fan)

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit

This cooler was tested on an AMD 1090T 3.2GHZ processor. The max temps for this particular processor is 60 degrees Celsius. I used Passmark’s BurnIn Test standard edition v.7 to stress the CPU and monitor temps. All tests were performed at an ambient temperature of 72F or 22.2C


Performance 

Now for the important question, how does the Noctua NH-L12 perform? I believe before diving right into results I need to address some facts about the NH-F12. The Noctua NH-F12 is intended to be a cooling solution for small form factor case or HTPC. It’s a low-profile CPU cooler that will perform where the larger more powerful heatsinks can not fit. I am going to compare results of the benchmarks to the 1090t stock cooler.

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I am pleased to report that the Noctua NH-L12 performed well throughout the test. The stock cooler idles at a temp of 36C, but under maximum load the temps reached 63C breaking the recommended maximum temps for the CPU by 3C. The Noctua NH-L12 at a mere 66mm high and with only the 92mm NF-B9 fan attached register temps at idle of 31C and under max load the temps only reached 54C. This is an improvement of 5c at idle and 9c at maximum load. Although, the most impressive part of this test for me was the drop in fan noise. With the side panel on the case, the high pitch whine of the stock cooler completely disappeared after installing the NH-F12 in this configuration.  It was only after I removed the side panel, I could hear the NF-B9 spinning and even at its small size (92mm) the noise level is much improved.

In its dual fan configuration the Noctua NH-F12 really begins to impress. At a height of 93mm, this low-profile powerhouse is able to achieve 24C at idle and 43C at max load. This understandably crushed the stock cooler by 7C at idle and an impressive 20C under maximum load. Another pleasant surprise is the noise levels are still very quite compared to the stock cooler. With the side panel on, I have to intentionally listen for this extremely quiet CPU cooler.


Overall and Final Verdict 

They say big things come in small packages and the Noctua NH-L12 embodies this. At its largest dual fan configuration, this CPU cooler boasts temperature readings equal to its competitor’s much larger CPU coolers. In its single fan setup, it dominates stock CPU heatsink temperatures. On top of this Noctua maintains it reputation for having some of the quietest cooling solutions on the market. This is Ideal for Home Theater PCs. This CPU cooler’s fans would never distract you from you favorite show or film even at distances of three to four feet. The Noctua NH-F12 unfortunately does not come cheap. At an MSRP of $69.99 there are larger coolers in that price range that outperform the NH-F12, but not at its Low-profile form factor.  If you are looking for superior air cooling in your Lan PC or if you want something to finally quite that noisy HTPC, you will be hard pressed to find a better CPU cooler than the Noctua NH-L12.

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Author Bio
Author: Brock

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