When it comes to air cooling and fans Noctua has been extremely reliable over the years and has been an easy go-to when doing builds. Especially because noise is very important to me. Keeping noise down in the office helps with testing and more importantly helps with my sanity. So with builds it's not unusual for me to change fans over to Noctua. With them having nice blacked-out fans has helped with that as well. For my wife's last PC I went with a crazy custom water cooling loop which looked amazing. But I would have to take it all apart and clean everything multiple times a year and performance would drop as the “show” coolant would fall out and clock things up. That’s fine for my PC maybe, but when it's my wife’s PC it needs to just work. So this time around I went with an air cooler, Noctua’s NH-U12A chromax.black. It was the largest cooler I could fit in her system and I knew it would meet our needs for cooling and noise performance and it has. But before doing that I did bring the NH-U12A over on to our test bench to see how it performs in an even more demanding situation. Let’s go see what the NH-U12A is all about and how it performed.

Product Name: Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black

Review Sample Provided by: Noctua

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

 

Cooler Specifications

Socket compatibility

Intel LGA1700, LGA1200, LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA2011, LGA2066 and AMD AM4, AM3(+), AM2(+), FM1, FM2(+)

Height (without fan)

158 mm

Width (without fan)

125 mm

Depth (without fan)

58 mm

Weight (without fan)

760 g

Height (with fan)

158 mm

Width (with fan)

125 mm

Depth (with fan)

112 mm

Weight (with fan)

1220 g

Material

Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminum (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating

NSPR

169

Max. TDP

see NSPR

Fan compatibility

120x120x25

Scope of delivery

Black NH-U12A heatsink

2x NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black premium fan

2x NA-RC14 Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A)

NA-YC1 4-pin PWM y-cable

NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound

Black SecuFirm2™ mounting kit

Noctua Metal Case-Badge

Warranty

6 Years

Fan Specifications

Model

Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black

Bearing

SSO2

Max. rotational speed (+/- 10%)

2000 RPM

Max. rotational speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%)

1700 RPM

Min. rotational speed (PWM, +/-20%)

450 RPM

Max. airflow

102,1 m³/h

Max. airflow with L.N.A.

84,5 m³/h

Max. acoustical noise

22,6 dB(A)

Max. acoustical noise with L.N.A.

18,8 dB(A)

Voltage range

12 V

MTTF

> 150.000 h

 


Photos and Features

The box for the NH-U12A chromax.black sticks with the same styling that all of the chromax coolers have had. They changed from the white background and brown trim of their normal coolers to a black background with an angular design on the front along the bottom then a little brown trim but much less than the normal design. The NH-U12A has all of that as well for its box. Noctua also includes a nice picture of the cooler right on the front of the box. This gets missed by a lot of companies and not just with coolers, when you are shopping in a retail store are you going to buy something when you don’t know what it looks like? The front then has a tiny Noctua logo in the bottom right corner and then the model name is in bold in the biggest font up top. They touch on its performance by mentioning the 140mm performance in a 120mm size and cover compatibility below that with LGA 1700/1200 and AM4 listed as well as ram compatibility.

image 1

 

Around on the back, Noctua has a nearly full specification breakdown. I say nearly because their website does have a few other less important details, but anything you really will care about and more is all right on the box. They explain the performance claim and the compatibility mentioned on the front with an explanation of each and then they have a second partial photo of the cooler.

image 2

 

Once you open the box up, it is just like what you would find with any Noctua cooler. Another brown cardboard box which has all of the accessories and documentation inside. They even draw everything out on the top with pictures and quantities. Then under that box, you will find the cooler sitting tightly in its own cardboard protection. Noctua uses plastic VERY sparingly with it just being used for the small accessory bags and to cover/protect the contact surface. This has been how they have done things for years, but they even do it when shipping things to us as well, using recycled cardboard. Sustainability isn’t used as a marketing tool, they just do it and have done it long before it was pushed in the industry.

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Here is what you will find inside the accessory box. Noctua has the documentation sitting on top with one folded-up color manual for Intel and another for AMD. Then under that everything is split up into sections. The Intel mounts are sitting in holes in a piece of cardboard with the intel backplate under that and the intel standoffs in a bag inside of the cardboard. The AMD brackets are in the next tray over with one bag for the different standoffs. Then you have one bag of the common parts and one L-shaped screwdriver. Noctua has always included a screwdriver and it might seem pointless, but a lot of screwdrivers aren't long enough to reach the mounting screws so including one is always nice. Every cooler, the U12A included also gets a full-sized thermal paste tube as well though I am surprised they haven’t changed over to their newer H2 paste. This is a huge addition and buying a new tube is still $9 on amazon. You get a fan splitter which is sleeved and then what they call the LNA or low noise adapter which plugs in line with your fans and will lower the fan speed if you want them to be even quieter without messing with fan profiles.

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So the NH-U12A comes in at 158mm tall which is the same height that Noctua’s older NH-U12S is which also uses 120mm fans like the NH-U12A. They have the same width at 125mm as well. But the NH-U12A is much thicker coming in at 112mm thick. This is partially because the NH-U12A adds a second fan, but the heatsink itself is also thicker as well.

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With the NH-U12A chromax.black out of the box, it looks just like the standard NH-U12A but Noctua has blacked the entire cooler out. The heatsink doesn’t have an exposed area that isn’t black. All of the mounting hardware matches even down to the thin wire brackets that hold the fans on. Then the NH-U12A has two fans, they used the NF-A12x24 PWM fans and those are Chromax.black models as well including the vibration pads which are black as well.

image 19

 

image 5

 

The only brown visible on the entire cooler can be seen on the center sticker of the NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black fan and even that is a small Noctua Owl logo up at the top of the sticker. The NF-A12x25 PWM fans are a big part of what makes the NH-U12A a big improvement over past Noctua coolers. The NF-A12x25 PWM fans are the fans that Noctua spent four and a half years on designing and they have that ultra small tip clearance which helps with airflow and more importantly static pressure which helps a lot to support the thicker heatsink on the NH-U12A.

image 7

 

Even the fan mounting area on the heatsink has a new design with less of a flat shape and slight angles.

image 34

 

To mount the dual fans the NH-U12A has the same fan mounting design that Noctua has used for as far back as I remember. Most of the side of the heatsink is folded down to not let any air flow out of the sides. Then at the ends, each individual fin has a hook shape cut into it. They then use thin metal wire brackets that hook into the fan holes and slot into the hooks on the heatsink. So to remove or install the fans you pull on the center. It is simple and easy to use and no one else does anything like it. The side view also gives us a good look at the 7 heatpipes packed into the NH-U12A which are all soldered to each fin on the heatsink. The side view also shows the offset that shifts the heatsink over for memory clearance.

image 6

 

image 8

 

When you get a good view of the heatpipes, it is amazing that Noctua was able to even fit them all together on top of the contact surface. There are seven in total with two on each side popping out and going out wider on the heatsink. I also love that Noctua goes as far as even making sure the heatpipes are black. The whole bottom of the heatsink is black except for the machined finish of the contact patch. The contact surface on the NH-U12A is better than any of the all-in-one coolers you see out there and better than a majority of heatsinks. But it isn’t a perfect mirror finish either. You can see the reflection but it is hazy. This view also gives us a good look at how they have the NH-U12A offset for memory clearance as well. The contact surface is offset to the heatsink to one side. But on top of that, the mounting brackets aren’t centers as well. This puts one side up under the left fan in the pictures below leaving room under the right fan.

image 13

 

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The top view of the NH-U12A shows off the extra thickness of the heatsink and more importantly, you can get a great look at how many heatpipes the cooler has and how Noctua has spaced them out. You can see the 7 heatpipes that run down from the top here down to near the contact surface then back up to the other side. They have them split up into pairs and spaced out from there. Then in the center of the black heatsink, the sheet metal has the Noctua logo stamped into it. The fans also have their logo as well which I don’t remember ever seeing before on past fans.

image 9

 

In addition to the NH-U12A Chromax.black Noctua also included with the cooler the rest of the Chromax accessories for the NH-U12A as well. These support both the original NH-U12A cooler and the Chromax model as well. For the cooler, they have three different heatsink covers and this isn’t the first time I’ve had Chromax heatsink covers for a Noctua cooler. Before they came out with their black heatsinks, they brought covers out for their main heatsinks alongside the rest of the Chromax lineup of fans and color swappable vibration pads. The only thing different here is that these fit the NH-U12A models. My favorite is the chromax.white cover which is bright white and only has the Chromax by Noctua logo up on top. With the chromax.black heatsink being available is the one option that helps still fill a void IMO. Even though they don’t have white fans the white cooler cover looks amazing. It is a simple setup as well, the box comes with the cover, the two components needed to install it (which I will talk about later), and the installation manual.

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They also have black options which I think are targeted a little more to the standard NH-U12A cooler, but do work with the black model as well. There is one the NA-HC8 which is just like the white version but black with white font on top. Then there is the NA-HC7 which is black with white font but has an arrow design on it as well. That arrow design is cut out of the steel cover and lets you see whatever color you put behind it. They include three color cards with the HC7 with colors on each side. You have red, blue, green, white, yellow, and black. The same colors Noctua uses with all of their Chromax line. Sadly no orange, which I would love. But the design is simple enough that you can put any color in place of the cards with a piece of vinyl or even paint the cards. You could even print a colorful design and use it.

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So like I said, the installation is very easy. You take the included plastic mount which has magnets inside and you clip it to the heatsink. The mount has holes for all of the heatpipes which keep it from moving around and then the clip holds it down. Then you slide the cover down on to the heatsink.

image 35

 

Each of the covers looks great. Like I said before I do like the white one the most. But that is mostly because I also think that the NH-U12A Chromax.black itself looks good and doesn’t need a cover to look good. These covers do give a cleaner look with the flat top and with the HC7 you can also color match your heatsink to your build. This was what I was thinking I would do for my wife's PC but I will talk about that in the fitment section.

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Test Bench

Testing Hardware

Live Pricing

Case

Primochill Wetbench

HERE

Motherboard

Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme

HERE

CPUs

Intel i9-12900K w/ PL2 set to 250W

HERE

Ram

Crucial 2x32GB 64GB Kit

HERE

Power Supply

Corsair AX1200w

HERE

Thermal Paste

Noctua NT-H2

HERE

SSD

Sabrent Rocket Q4 2TB

HERE

OS

Windows 11 Pro

HERE

 


Noise Testing, Fitment, and Installation

So normally because I am testing on our test bench, most of my fitment discussion is talking about motherboard clearance and having room for your memory. But this time around I did test on our bench but was also using the NH-U12A in my wife's new PC as well. So I was able to get a few pictures of the installation in the Cooler Master NR200P, an SFF build which shouldn’t be able to fit the U12A but does if you do one big thing. You basically can only run this cooler in the NR200P if you are planning on using the vented steel side panel. The thickness of the glass window side panel was enough to cause things to not fit. Sadly the fit was so tight that even though the covers only add a few mm to the height it was too much in the Cooler Master NR200P.

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The size of the U12A gets interesting to check out when we compare it with the older NH-U12S which has been the classic 120mm Noctua cooler for years now. The NH-U12S is a single fan design that can support two fans if you add one whereas the NH-U12A is always a dual-fan design. They have the same height and width with both coming in at 158mm tall and 125mm wide. But the depth or thickness of the cooler is different. The U12S is 71mm and the U1A2A is 112mm. Some of that is the 25mm from the second fan. But there is also another 16mm on the heatsink thickness as well. You would think this would cause memory fitment issues, but Noctua has offset the heatsink to the side to allow for full height memory so you don’t have to worry about that.

Cooler

Height

Width

Depth

Fits Tall Memory

Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black

158 mm

125 mm

112 mm

Yes

Noctua NH-U12S

158 mm

125 mm

71 mm

Yes

 

Noctua coolers were always my go-to for our test benches and while the noise and cooling helped, it was their mounting designs that kept me using them. Noctua somehow always manages to make the installation easier than anyone else. Especially when you have to run a backplate. The NH-12A isn’t any different. Well, it is a little different, this is my first chance at checking out their new LGA1700 bracket design. Previously, because Intel has had the same mounting hole spacing for so long the Noctua backplate came with the studs attached to the backplate. Which made getting it lined up for the holes easier and quicker. Now we do have to juggle two different socket sizes for a while. So Noctua’s new design doesn’t preinstall the studs, you now get plastic c-clips and the studs have a triangle shape on the end that will fit LGA1700 if installed one direction and everything else the other way. You also get special new blue plastic standoffs to get the thickness right as well. Once you have the studs installed, installation is just like in the past. You push the backplate through the holes. Then put the plastic spacers on the studs. Then you put the two brackets and use the four thumb nuts on top to hold it all together. Then the heatsink itself goes down after you put the thermal paste and use the included long screwdriver to tighten the preinstalled nuts which have springs built in to make sure you don’t overtighten things. For the chromax.black cooler this also means all-black hardware to match.

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As for the noise testing. I have the NH-U12A included with all of the all-in-one coolers that I have recently tested and I also tested the older NH-U12S as well for at least one heatsink comparison. I tested at 50% fan speed and 100% fan speeds using both A and C weighting. Then I tested under load which is done while running AIDA64’s Stress Test with the “CPU” workload for a half hour to wait for the temperature to level off. Both Noctua coolers did well with the 50% fan speed test with the NH-U12A coming in a half of a decibel higher than the NH-U12S which isn’t bad with twice the fans. This was well under all of the AIO coolers in both A and C weights. The 100% fan speed test was also quiet but the NH-U12S was much quieter here with having just one fan, plus its NF-F12 PWM fan runs at 1500 RPM where the two NF-A12x25 PWM fans on the NH-U12A run at 2000 RPM each. This put the NH-U12A up closer to the all-in-one coolers but still nearly 2 decibels in the closest comparison at A weight. With C-weighting the NH-U12A was a little below the NH-U12S and I suspect that extra low-end noise might be from our older well used NH-U12S’s fan. Then under load things evened out a little more with one all-in-one cooler coming in quieter than the NH-U12A. I will talk more about it in the cooling performance section, but you can see that the PL240 Flux was quieter under load than with the fans set at 50% meaning it was running at a much lower speed where the NH-U12A had to run at a much higher fan speed and was louder than its 50% speed result.

Noise Testing

50% Fan Speed A-Weighted

50% Fan Speed C Weighted

100% Fan Speed A-Weighted

100% Fan Speed C Weighted

Under Load A-Weighted

Under Load C Weighted

Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE LCD Liquid CPU Cooler

36.5

56.1

48.3

58.4

44.2

58.7

MSI MAG CoreLiquid C280

36.2

51.7

46.9

57.4

43.9

56.7

Sapphire Nitro+ S240-A

35.7

54

50.8

58.1

37.8

56.5

Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux

35.2

53.8

45.2

58.6

34.4

54.5

Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black

33.8

51.1

43.9

58.2

35.6

55.4

Noctua NH-U12S

33.3

51.1

37.9

58.6

34.5

55.3

 


Cooling Performance

For cooling testing, I first just have to point out that our new test suite is throwing most air cooling options in with the wolves. Our new testbench is running the 12900K which thermally puts out a TON of heat. This is a worst case scenario and it is hard to keep cool with ANY cooling option. But it does push the two 120mm heatsinks to their limits. So to start things off we have the real worst case scenario test which uses AIDA64’s Stress Test using the FPU workload which puts a workload that is more demanding than everyday tasks. This is basically like rendering. All of the AIO coolers tested struggled with their huge dual 120mm and dual 140mm radiators and with the stock fan profile none of them kept the i9-12900K under 90c. The NH-U12A ended up landing at 97c and the NH-U12S pegged at 100c. While this was too much for both coolers, it does show that there is a big difference between the two 120mm Noctua designs. Turning the fan to 100% didn’t do anything with the NH-U12A because it was already running at that with the stock profile so the results are the same for both.

AIDA64 FPU Stress Test

Stock Fan Profile

100% Fan Speed

Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE LCD Liquid CPU Cooler

93c

90c

MSI MAG CoreLiquid C280

91c

90c

Sapphire Nitro+ S240-A

91c

89c

Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux

90c

89c

Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black

97c

97c

Noctua NH-U12S

100c

100c

 

Using that same AIDA64 FPU Stress Test I also went back in and uncapped our PL2 settings. This time only focusing on the wattage being pulled shown in HWMonitor. The goal here is to see how much overclocking each cooler can offer but with the NH-U12S it also helped show the gap between it and the NH-U12A. The NH-U12A was stuck right at 250 watts which is also the same wattage that is suggested for the 12900K. The NH-U12S came in under that with it underclocking the CPU down to 233 watts. The AIO coolers did offer a little more here, but I was surprised that the NH-U12A was able to handle the 12900K with the FPU workload without it underclocking it under the official recommended wattage.

AIDA64 FPU Stress Test With PL2 uncapped and 100% Fan Speed

CPU Wattage

Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE LCD Liquid CPU Cooler

262

MSI MAG CoreLiquid C280

272

Sapphire Nitro+ S240-A

258

Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux

261

Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black

250

Noctua NH-U12S

233

 

Now the AIDA64 Stress Test with the “CPU” workload is a lot more like the normal load you will put your system on. This is comparable to gaming, browsing the internet, and other normal use. This also shows that when you aren’t running crazy workloads like rendering the air coolers can hold their own. The NH-U12A came in at 70c which was 2c higher than the H100i and 5c under the NH-U12S. Turning the fan all the way up was similar with the NH-U12A being within just 1c with two of the AIO’s and 5c above the best performing ones.

AIDA64 CPU Stress Test

Stock Fan Profile

100% Fan Speed

Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE LCD Liquid CPU Cooler

68c

62c

MSI MAG CoreLiquid C280

63c

62c

Sapphire Nitro+ S240-A

65c

57c

Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux

63c

57c

Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black

70c

63c

Noctua NH-U12S

75c

70c

 

So like I mentioned before, the FPU workload is a lot like rendering. I did also use Blender to do some rendering and while I can’t run the render as long as I can with AIDA64 you can see the results are similar.

Blender Stress Test

Stock Fan Profile

100% Fan Speed

Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE LCD Liquid CPU Cooler

90c

88c

MSI MAG CoreLiquid C280

90c

89c

Sapphire Nitro+ S240-A

86c

86c

Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL240 Flux

83c

89c

Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black

96c

96c

Noctua NH-U12S

100c

100c

 


Overall and Final Verdict

It’s easy to just throw an all-in-one cooler into your build and you are going to see at least moderately good cooling. But with that, you do take on the risks that water cooling has and in my experience, you also have to deal a lot more with the reliability issues that often come with it. Pumps fail, performance drops as the coolant levels get lower, and with your standard AIO kit, you can’t do much about any of that. The same goes with custom cooling as well which is what lead to me looking at air cooling for my wife's latest build. When you need reliability air cooling is still the best option and when it comes to noise Noctua is still at the top of the list for me. What Noctua has done with the NH-U12A is increase the cooling potential of a 120mm cooler to be capable of handling modern CPUs. The 12900K that I tested with is as bad as it gets and the NH-U12A was able to handle it. The cooling performance wasn’t up on the same level as a large all-in-one cooler but the NH-U12A was close enough to keep it from underclocking which is something an older 120mm cooler like the NH-U12S couldn’t do.

That said if you were planning on running a 12900K and pushing it by rendering ALL of the time this isn’t going to be the best option for you. But with gaming, the performance will be solid. Or in my case for my wife’s PC, I’m running a CPU that is a few steps down and I don’t have to worry about it at all. Noise levels are great, especially when it isn’t paired with a monster like the 12900K. But it is in the details that Noctua stands out. Things like with the NH-U12A coming with a full tube of thermal paste, a long screwdriver included, installation being so simple even with the new LGA1700 socket. Then on top of all of that the chromax.black version of the NH-U12A looks great. I love that it is completely blacked out all the way down to the mounting hardware. Noctua does also have the Chromax options with the covers which I also took a look at, but the cooler itself looks great.

Fitment issues shouldn’t be too big of a concern as well. They pack a lot into a small package and Noctua’s claim of getting 140mm cooler performance in a 120mm cooler package is true.  Being a 120mm cooler is important because there are a lot of cases the larger 140mm coolers can’t fit in. I was even able to fit the NH-U12A into the NR200P SFF case.

I think the biggest issue that Noctua has with the NH-U12A chromax.black comes down to its pricing. It has an MSRP of $119 which for an air cooler is a lot of money. You can find at least competent 120mm air coolers in the $40ish range and at that price, you are getting into the pricing of the all-in-one coolers. Noctua coolers have always been more expensive, but this is a new level with the NH-U12A Chromax.black running more than the larger NH-D15. Some of that can be justified by just the two NF-A12x25 chromax.black fans which are $30 each to buy on their own and you also get a full tube of thermal paste. But beyond that, you are paying more because this is compact for its cooling capabilities. If you are in a situation like me where you need a system to be ultra-reliable and quiet this is still the way to go. It won’t be cheap, but you won’t have to worry about it.

fv5recommended

Live Pricing: HERE

 

 

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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