Review: Noctua NH-U12S redux

by Parm Mann on 7 May 2021, 14:01

Tags: Noctua

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaeqjw

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Test Methodology

Comparison Coolers

Category Model HEXUS Review Reviewed Price Warranty Product Page
Air Noctua NH-U12A May 2019 £90 6 Years noctua.at
Noctua NH-U12S redux May 2021 £44 6 Years noctua.at
Liquid Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420 May 2021 £110 6 Years arctic.de
be quiet! Silent Loop 2 280mm April 2021 £130 3 Years bequiet.com
Corsair iCue H115i Elite Capellix September 2020 £160 5 Years corsair.com
G.Skill Enki 280 AIO April 2021 £130 5 Years gskill.com

HEXUS 2021 Test Platform

Component Product Page
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X amd.com
Motherboard Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula asus.com
Graphics Card Sapphire Nitro+ RX 5700 XT 8G GDDR6 SE sapphiretech.com
Memory G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3200 (2x16GB) gskill.com
Storage 2TB Corsair MP600 corsair.com
Power Supply be quiet! Straight Power 11 Platinum 1,000W bequiet.com
Network Card Asus XG-C100C 10GBase-T PCIe Adapter asus.com
Chassis Fractal Design Define 7 Clear Tempered Glass fractal-design.com
Monitor Philips Momentum 436M6VBPAB philips.co.uk
Keyboard Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Low Profile Rapidfire corsair.com
Mouse Corsair Ironclaw RGB corsair.com
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro microsoft.com

Notes

Our trusty test platform has been given an interim upgrade for 2021, with the faithful Ryzen 9 3950X having been swapped out in favour of the newer, more impressive Ryzen 9 5950X. As before, the 16-core, 32-thread processor is joined by 32GB of dual-channel G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 memory set to run at 3,200 using the built-in profile.

A Fractal Design Define 7 chassis is configured with its three stock Dynamic X2 140mm fans connected to the integrated hub and attached to a single motherboard header. Coolers are tested using default out-the-box settings, and to intensify the challenge while minimising noise, all fan headers are set to the 'Silent' profile within the Asus BIOS.

When testing liquid coolers, the pump is connected to the motherboard's dedicated AIO header, and the radiator is installed in the roof of the chassis with fans configured to push air up through the radiator and out of the enclosure. Fractal Design's vented top panel is used with liquid coolers, and the sound-dampened solid panel is in place when testing traditional air coolers.

Actual CPU temperature is recorded during an extended run of Cinebench R23 and we also graph the delta temperature (CPU temperature minus ambient temperature). Last but not least, to give you an idea of cooler acoustics, we use a PCE-318 decibel meter to measure overall system noise in both idle and load states.