It’s so nicely done that you can even access the screws with the fan installed, in between the blades of the fan. The Noctua NH-L12S uses four nickel-plated copper heatpipes, each with the standard outer diameter of 6mm. Our case compatibility list helps you to quickly identify which PC cases offer sufficient clearance for which Noctua CPU coolers.

By default the fan faces upwards but you can change that according to the airflow inside your case (due to the high airflow levels of our test rig we performed all tests as is). As you can see from the pictures above, with the heat sink installed on the motherboard with low-profile mode (the fan is on the bottom) it is blocking completely the first RAM slot, while the second is barely free. Straight to the point, this NH-L12 S is the newer and more compact version of the NH-L12, both from the same school of thought: top-down style CPU coolers. The cable of the fan is covered by synthetic high-quality sleeving, and uses a standard 4-Pin PWM connector for power. And since this is a low profile heat-sink there are cuts in the fins stack through which a screwdriver should pass to fasten these bolts.The cooler has excellent cooling performance in its class, but is not suitable for overclocking and should be used with caution on processors with more than 95W TDP (Thermal Design Power). The built-in fan supports the automatic regulation of the rotation speed through pulse width modulation (PWM).

Not that it really matters since the heat-sink is square but this will allow me to position the heat-pipes on the top side, which will provide more clearance towards the RAM modules and the VRM heat-spreaders. using the NF-A12x15 PWM fan installed on the top of the heat sink, rotating at maximum speed of 1850 revolutions per minute. The other sides of the packaging cover the highlights of the cooler in multiple languages and then the specs for the heatsink and fan. By mentioning the fan, let’s proceed with the article by checking the cooling unit added in the package.The temperature was pretty cold during the testing so just add your current delta ambient temperature. The extra cooling performance over its predecessor whilst maintaining the same quiet operation makes the Noctua NH-L12S the complete package and in my opinion the top choice sub 70mm CPU cooler best suited for the LZ7 when using an SFX PSU. While it provides first-rate performance in its class, it is not suitable for overclocking and or CPUs that create high heat loads.

Coming with a single 92mm fan, Noctua’s second generation NT-H2 thermal compound as well as the latest SecuFirm2™ multi-socket mounting system, the NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition has been customised to be an ideal companion for quiet high-end builds in Louqe’s award-winning Ghost S1 enclosure.

Of course, by being part of Noctua’s portfolio, the product follows designated high standards and for that reason all of the heat sink parts are soldiered together and nicely nickel coated to improve the overall durability and the appearance of the product. The separation of the flows being more marked at low speed, the acceleration created by the flow channels markedly reduces this dispersion phenomenon. For a dual fan configuration, if you use a standard 25 mm thick fan, then the overall footprint increases to 95 mm. The brand new NH-L12S weighs a total of 520g (390g without the fan) and measures a total of 70mm in height, 128mm in width and 146mm in depth.

Successor to the award-winning NH-L12, the NH-L12S is a compact low-profile CPU cooler that combines excellent compatibility, surprising efficiency and remarkable flexibility. The NH-L12S includes Noctua’s offset mounting bars for AM5 that make it possible to install the cooler shifted towards the south side of the socket by 7mm, thereby achieving better contact quality right above the CCD(s). First point to make about the NH-L12S is the included fan clears standard height RAM, this allows it to be fitted in any orientation so long as the heatpipes don’t interfere with other components. Due to the different thermal expansion coefficients of copper and aluminium, this fit can loosen over years of thermal cycling, which may lead to reduced performance.

The VRM’s on some motherboards benefit from airflow across their heatsinks, with the downdraft coolers such as the NH-L12 and Big Shuriken 2 they help to keep VRM temperatures nice and low. dB (A) noise is particularly quiet, yet delivers an above-average cooling performance with a flow rate of 94. The NH-L12s however, managed a more impressive (although to be expected considering the size) 20 delta on fan control mode, and 14 degrees under 12V mode. Complying with the open SecuFirm standard, the NH-C14S can be made compatible with the older LGA1366 and LGA775 sockets using the optional NM-I3 mounting kit, which is provided by Noctua free of charge. The fact that you can experiment with multi fan configurations which in turn will increase its TDP, is just a testimony of its epic versatility.