INTRODUCTION

   Regular CPU Air Coolers may lead the market in terms of sales (mainly because of cost) but since there aren't many that offer high-cooling efficiency levels they are basically not as ideal for demanding consumers as water cooling solutions (both AIO and complete/custom loops). Now we have seen quite a few exceptions to that rule over the years but not nearly enough to "challenge" the increasing number of high-performance AIO liquid coolers in the market. Noctua is without doubt recognized as the leading manufacturer of CPU air coolers and fans worldwide but it's been long since they last released a model capable of rivalling AIO liquid CPU coolers so when they announced their latest product called the NH-U12A we just had to take a look and we did.

   Designed in Austria, Noctua’s premium cooling components are internationally renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality. Having received more than 6000 awards and recommendations from leading hardware websites and magazines, Noctua’s fans and heatsinks are serving hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers around the globe.

   The brand new NH-U12A is the 5th generation CPU air cooler by Noctua in their long NH-U12 line of CPU air coolers which as some of you may know was first launched almost 14 years ago. Now although technologically there's really not much room for improvement when it comes to air coolers Noctua managed to further improve cooling efficiency not only by adding two of their latest high-performance NF-A12x25 120mm PWM fans (2000RPM/60CFM/2.34mmH2O/22.6dBA) in push and pull configuration and by redesigning the heatsink to provide increased fin surface area (increased heat dissipation) but also by using a total of 7 all-copper 6mm thick nickel-plated heatpipes soldered with the main body of the heatsink. Of course, just like with previous models by Noctua the NH-U12A is bundled with their NT-H1 thermal compound and is covered by a 6 year limited warranty.