Noctua NH-U12A Packs High-End 140mm Performance into a 120mm form factor

Noctua NH-U12A Packs High-End 140mm Performance into a 120mm form factor

Noctua NH-U12A Packs High-End 140mm Performance into a 120mm form factor

Too many PC builders, CPU coolers are of little interest. Yes, they keep your processors cool and your overclocks high, but to most of us they are simply a means to an end. Most PC builders would sacrifice a little performance in the names of looks and other aesthetic considerations. 

When discussing well-engineered CPU cooling solutions, the first brand to come to mind is Noctua. As a company, Noctua has earned its reputation within the PC cooling market, offering a focus on the cutting-edge that few others can match. 

Today, Noctua has launched a new CPU cooler called the NH-U12A, a cooling solution that acts as their 5th generation offering within their long-lived U12 series of coolers, with this iteration offering the series’ best performance to date.

With the NH-U12A, Noctua plans to deliver performance levels that can rival many larger 140mm offerings, all while offering full memory compatibility with AMD and LGA 115X series motherboards and full access to the top PCIe slot on any motherboard. With their latest U12 series cooler, Noctua plans to pack high-end performance into a small form factor cooler, leveraging multiple industry innovations to do so. 

For starters, the NH-U12A uses an “optimised 7 heatpipe layout”, and offers a fin area that is 37% larger than the NH-U12S. These design tweaks grant the cooler the ability to transfer heat more efficiently to its fin-stack while also offering a larger surface area for heat dissipation.  

The design changes don’t end there, with Noctua utilising two of their latest NF-A12x25 series fans in a push-pull configuration to provide optimal cooling performance. Noctua states that these fans are designed to offer “unprecedented quiet cooling performance” and an “ultra-tight tip clearance” ensuring high levels of static pressure. More information about these high-end fans is available here.   

In the video below, Noctua will give a brief overview of the design chops that enable the NH-U12A’s impressive cooling performance. 
 

  

Noctua’s NH-U12A is available starting today for $/€99.9 in the US/EU and £89.95 in the UK. 

You can join the discussion on Noctua’s NH-U12A CPU cooler on the OC3D Forums.Â