8.4 out of 10

Noctua NH-U12P

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Great Deal: $63.00

User Score (95)

9.5
Expert Score (27)

8.6
Performance (2)

8.9
Lifespan (2)

7.5

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Pros & Cons

performance, quiet, quality construction, stylish, easy installation

overpriced

Score Distribution

Experts:

9-10		(17)
7-8		(8)
5-6		(1)
3-4		(1)
1-2		(0)

Users:

9-10		(84)
7-8		(10)
5-6		(0)
3-4		(0)
1-2		(1)

Expert Reviews

Testfreaks blog

9.0/10

19 July 2008
The Noctua NH-U12P performs admirably well. You can run the NH-U12P without fans and still get very good cooling performance, but you’ve got to remember to have good airflow in your case to achieve this. Not everyone will see the same results as I achieved in my testing. The NH-U12P can be used to easily overclock the Corei5 750 on air, I’m sure I could have easily achieved even more of a higher overclock with this cooler. Read more
- +Decent cooling performance, +Fairly easy to install, +Very well made
- Back plate is rather thick, Not much difference using one or two fans
maximum pc

9.0/10

4 September 2009
Cool and quietly competent Read more
- Great performance, multiple speed options, quiet at any setting.
- Flimsy fan clips; bulky. Additional fans don't give better performance.
Elite Bastards

6 November 2009
With the CPU cooling market now so saturated, and with myriad companies all with their own products and thinking on the best way to cool a processor, choosing which solution to plump for is becoming as much a case of weighing up your budgetary requirements and personal preferences as anything else. As far as cost goes, Noctua's NH-U12P is certainly up there in the range of more expensive coolers, with a recommended retail price in the UK of over £40. Read more
Overclockers Online

5 March 2010
The Noctua NH-U12P SE2 is a great cooler. I was already impressed by its predecessor, the NH-U12P and Noctua has managed to improve on it with the inclusion of an extra NF-P12 fan. The build quality and design are excellent and compatibility is a non-issue. Installation was also extremely simple – the clearly illustrated manual was a big help. In terms of performance, I have no complaints. This is a cooler that performs very well. Read more
- Top notch performance, Universal compatibility and easy installation, Two NF-P12 fans included, Bundle includes noise-reduction adaptors for the fans
- Somewhat expensive
CPU3D

10/10

18 February 2009
Ever since the first Noctua coolers we've tested way back in 2005, we've been eagerly waiting for their next one. Well, I'm glad the wait is over ... and it didn't disappoint either.In fact, I was extremely pleased with the thermal performance of the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU cooler. It produced very good temperatures both during idle and at full load. It performs slightly better than Spire's TherMax II, and easily matched our favourite OCZ Gladiator Max. Read more
- - Very good thermal performance, - Supports Intel LGA1366, - NT-H1 Thermal compound included, - Extremely quiet, - 2 types of low-noise adaptors, - 2 x NF-P12 120mm su...
- - Expensive, - Only one fan can be used on certain motherboards
Bjorn3d.com

12 December 2007
As we move into the age of multi-core CPU's the importance of using a quality heatsink increases exponentially. The days of sticking any old hunk of metal on top of your CPU are long gone. CPU's have begun to put out enough heat to warm a small room and you need a serious cooler to dissapate that heat. This is where Noctua comes in. Noctua may not be a household name here stateside but they posses a lot of expertise when it comes to keeping PC's cool and quiet. Read more
Pro-Clockers

26 June 2008
The Noctua is one of my favorite companies when it comes to cooling as they don't flood the market with a ton of coolers. Just a few coolers that do a really good job. For the Core i7 generation, the first cooler from Noctua to hit the shelves is the NH-U12P SE1366. The SE1366 is not a totally new cooler but a revision of an older cooler that performed pretty damn well. Read more
DragonSteelMods

10/10

26 February 2009
The Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 performed as expected, producing the stellar cooling performance that we expect from Noctua coolers. With the ability to add a second Noctua NF-P12 fan, you can improve your cooling performance by a few more degrees. The cooler is fairly tall, so that is something to keep in mind when building your system. Surprisingly using a Noctua NH-C12P with a x58 mother board produced slightly better temperatures decreases than the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 . Read more
- Excellent construction, Outstanding performance, Includes two Noctua NF-P12 fans and NT-H1 Thermal compound, Simple to install, Whisper quiet at low temperatures,...
- Not natively sold for Socket 1366 systems, Mounting screws can be frustrating in tight spaces
mad shrimps

21 February 2008
Noctua improved the design of the original NH-U12 to make it fit more motherboards, at the same time they decided to bundle it with a low noise 120mm fan. Can this refreshed product stand a chance against heavy competition? Read more
XtremeComputing

21 June 2011
Noctua aims at establishing a new level of quality and performance "Designed in Austria" through paying attention to the users' needs in a market burdened with all kinds of frills and furbelows and providing sound-optimised premium components, which serve their purpose in a smart, precise and reliable manner. Read more
- Very quiet, Very cool, Second fan mounting bracket included, NF-P12 Fan included, NT-H1 Thermal paste included
- Heavy, Expensive