Noctua NH-C12P SE14 Review

Item: Noctua NH-C12P SE14
Author: Tom Logan

Introduction

Published: 11th May 2010 | Source: Noctua | Price: £55.10 | Author: Tom Logan

Introduction

The Introduction is the hardest part of any reviews, Ive not spoken to one member of our team who hasn't had difficulties let alone actually enjoys this part. We rattle on about the same old details about the manufacturer in question, with larger companies the details hardly really change much.

We recently had the Noctua NH-D14 the flagship of their heatsink range and it won many fans here on the OC3D team, so it could be seen as brave that Noctua found it in their interests to send us the NH-C12P SE14. We actually have reviewed the NH-C12P cooler before so you may find it strange we find the need to review it again albeit with a different fan? Can it make that's much difference to performance? We will have to wait for the results to find out. One thing we can test though is the coolers abilities to be able to cope with the sudden surge of new hardware that has been released since this cooler originally emerged.

So with completely clean sheet we will be looking at the NH-C12P SE14 on our new test bench and maybe a few others as well. So here comes the time to copy and paste some specifications from the Noctua website:

Socket compatibility Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775 & AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3 (backplate required)

Height (without fan) 90 mm

Width (without fan) 126 mm

Depth (without fan) 152 mm

Height (with fan) 114 mm

Width (with fan) 140 mm

Depth (with fan) 152 mm

Weight (without fan) 550 g

Weight (with fan) 730 g

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

Fan compatibility 140x140x25mm / 120x120x25mm

Scope of Delivery NF-P14 premium fan
Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound
SecuFirm2™ Mounting Kits
Noctua Metal Case-Badge

Warranty 6 Years

	Proven 6 heatpipe design Recommended by more than 100 international hardware websites and magazines, the NH-C12P heatsink is renowned for its excellent quality and thermal performance.
	C-type design with Airflow-Gaps Due to the down-facing design, two large Airflow-Gaps and the oversize 140mm fan, the NH-C12P SE14 provides superior cooling for near-socket motherboard components.
	NF-P14 140mm premium fan Further improving the original NH-C12P’s much acclaimed quiet cooling performance, the NF-P14 is a highly optimised, premium quality 140mm fan with Vortex-Control Notches for superb quietness and outstanding aerodynamic efficiency.
	High compatibility The down-facing c-type design allows for low height as well as excellent motherboard and case compatibility, making the NH-C12P SE14 suitable for many smaller or desktop style cases.
	SecuFirm2™ multi-socket mounting system Noctua’s enthusiast grade SecuFirm2™ multi-socket mounting provides broad socket compatibility (LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775, AM2, AM2+ and AM3) and meets the highest demands in safety, performance and ease-of-use.
	Noctua NT-H1 high-end thermal compound Noctua's much-acclaimed NT-H1 is a well proven pro-grade TIM solution that provides minimum thermal resistance, excellent ease-of-use and outstanding reliability.

Lets move on and get our second first look at this cooler!

Most Recent Comments

11-05-2010, 18:27:41

Steve-O-

Looks like another quality product from Noctua. Thanks for the review. How do you think it would fair with a 775 chipset? Are those hotter or cooler than an i3?Quote

11-05-2010, 18:58:40

tinytomlogan

Id say its hotter but really depends on your clocks and vcore fella. The i3's are 32nm so run a good chunk cooler.Quote

11-05-2010, 20:18:00

Steve-O-

Ok cool. I was just wondering because at the same vcore as an i7 920 or even a little higher I was running cooler with the NH-D14 with a Q6700. Maybe case airflow? Sorry if this is off topic. Just trying to judge performance on this new cooler based on my results with another. If that's even valid :P.Quote

22-06-2010, 09:57:21

Goran

tom you say 'gob smacking' about 40 times in this haha