Noctua NH-L12 Review Cases and Cooling   Page 1

Reviewer: Tyler Bernath Article Publish Date: 3/5/2012

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

        If you haven’t heard of Noctua by now, you have either never built a pc with your bare hands or you have been under a rock since 2005. Noctua is a well-known manufacturer of some of the most advanced and well thought out CPU coolers on the market. Since the first coolers to roll out and be branded with the Noctua Owl that’s so recognizable today, they have been focused on delivering the most silent, clean looking coolers available. Noctua started out 7 years ago as a joint venture between Rascom and Kolink and has grown to be the number one choice for the enthusiast’s looking to push their systems to the max while maintaining silence.

        I don’t know about you but every time I hold a Noctua cooler for the first time I can’t help but get butterflies in my stomach. From my first NH-U12 until my latest NH-D14 every time is like the first time.  The last few cooling solutions to come out of the labs at Noctua were massive coolers including the previously mentioned NH-D14. As of late Noctua has been focused on re-releasing there previous generations of fans with the updated PWM specification. One of these fans has made its way into our review today in the NF-F12PWM.

       The cooler we are going to take a look at today is the newest release from Noctua. The NH-L12 takes on a new path in that it is made for low profile applications. While most of the other review sites will throw this cooler on their standard test bed, I have decided to take a different route. We are going to utilize the Noctua in the environment it was designed for in our HTPC setup. So stick around and see what this cooler can do in the real world.