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.

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.