Discussion New Noctua cooler - NH D12L

[Mr Whippy]

https://noctua.at/en/noctua-presents-nh-d12l-low-height-120mm-dual-tower-cpu-cooler

Looks great for bigger SFF stuff.

The step between the bigger coolers and then the U9 was so large, so it's great to see they've got one in the middle now!

 

[riba2233]

This is a great addition to the market, was waiting for this one.

 

[tinyitx]

145mm is too short to compete in a larger size build and is still a little too tall for SFF, IMHO.
One might argue that it nicely fills the void in between but I think it just falls between two stools.
If it is 135mm, it can go deep into the SFF territory, IMHO, and challenges/dethrones everybody (eg Thermalright Silver Soul 135).
If it is 130mm, it might do the same to TR Silver Arrow 130.
Nonetheless, it is good to have one more choice among others.

 

[Mr Whippy]

I suppose 135mm or even 130mm would mean a 120mm fan wouldn't fit.

145mm seems the limit of a low-mounted 120mm fan in this orientation.

The next step is then the 90mm fan, which is then down at the U9 size.



Any way, I've ordered one. It has 20% more heat pipe, and I'd say a good 25% more surface area than my Cryorig Quad Lumi, plus it has soldered fins which has to be worth a fair bit in conductivity.

Only downside for now is the brown haha... though I'm not keen on black coolers either. Silver cooler with black fan for the win.


Dave

 

[tinyitx]

I suppose 135mm or even 130mm would mean a 120mm fan wouldn't fit.

145mm seems the limit of a low-mounted 120mm fan in this orientation.

Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 is 130mm tall and fits a 120mm fan, and needless to say TR Silver Soul fits too.
As both of them and this new NH-D12L have 120mm fan, NH-D12L would have more fin areas, thus likely to cool better (if fin areas is the bottleneck). But, this, of course, comes at the expense of having a taller profile.
I think, at the end of the day, the real limiting factor is the height allowance of various SFF cases available in the market.
This factor will either make it or break it for this cooler.

 

[robbee]

Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 is 130mm tall and fits a 120mm fan, and needless to say TR Silver Soul fits too.
As both of them and this new NH-D12L have 120mm fan, NH-D12L would have more fin areas, thus likely to cool better (if fin areas is the bottleneck). But, this, of course, comes at the expense of having a taller profile.
I think, at the end of the day, the real limiting factor is the height allowance of various SFF cases available in the market.
This factor will either make it or break it for this cooler.

I expect this cooler to perform a lot better than the Thermalright alternatives though. With it fitting nicely in the CM NR200 and the upcoming Dan C4-SFX, I can see it becoming very popular.

 

[Neathdrawls]

I expect this cooler to perform a lot better than the Thermalright alternatives though. With it fitting nicely in the CM NR200 and the upcoming Dan C4-SFX, I can see it becoming very popular.

I can see it being very popular, solely based on the fact that it is a Noctua heatsink, even without comparing it to Thermalright’s offerings.

Undoubtedly, i think that it will outperform others too, with a bigger heatsink and fin stack , with a NF-A12x25 that is high performance, and low noise to boot.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 is 130mm tall and fits a 120mm fan, and needless to say TR Silver Soul fits too.
As both of them and this new NH-D12L have 120mm fan, NH-D12L would have more fin areas, thus likely to cool better (if fin areas is the bottleneck). But, this, of course, comes at the expense of having a taller profile.
I think, at the end of the day, the real limiting factor is the height allowance of various SFF cases available in the market.
This factor will either make it or break it for this cooler.

Having taken a look, it looks like the Thermalright gets the fan really low because it doesn't have the bulky mounting nuts/screws limiting the fan position.

Nocuta seem to have maximised the area of the heatsink swept by the fan. And also made it quite a lot deeper.

I'd assume they have to target demand, and they've hit a huge swathe of large SFF stuff with this cooler.



I agree it'd be great to see some more innovative compact stuff from Noctua. From what I gathered from their 'work in progress' list, this cooler wasn't on the radar was it?

I think they need a cooler like the C14S, but in the 120mm size, with a cooler max height of 75mm, with the option of a 120x25 fan underneath, or on top taking it to 100mm high.

There seems to be big gaps between their small stuff and bigger stuff... I suppose it's the legacy of old big cases and then small SFF with low expectations on power.
Now SFF seems to be gaining more market with huge output processors and GPUs there is a big market for these size-optimised coolers... or that's how it seems.

 

[robbee]

I think they need a cooler like the C14S, but in the 120mm size, with a cooler max height of 75mm, with the option of a 120x25 fan underneath, or on top taking it to 100mm high.

NH-L12S is 72mm high and already has some compatibility issues on modern ITX motherboards. Adding 3mm won't fix that I'm afraid, especially when using a 25mm thick fan, effectively worsening compatibility.

 

[Mr Whippy]

NH-L12S is 72mm high and already has some compatibility issues on modern ITX motherboards. Adding 3mm won't fix that I'm afraid, especially when using a 25mm thick fan, effectively worsening compatibility.

I'm just using my Alpenfohn Black Ridge as a guide to be fair. It's not the most compatible cooler.

It's 75mm high with the fan on top, but anyone using a fan sucking in over SFF perforations will enjoy the most horrible turbulent noise.

Having the same 'block out' space for a 25mm fan and X depth heatsink, it becomes irrelevant if it's a top mounted fan or underneath mounted fan, it just allows you to have the fan away from the side perforations where it's noisy.


I'd rather see these coolers where the expectation is to have them in low profile positions sucking in through perforations, to have the fan under the heatsink and the flow through the perforations being more laminar and through the heatsink, rather than being chopped up by the fan and causing a racket.

Dimensionally it's almost irrelevant, but from a noise perspective in situ it makes a big difference.



I suppose the point is, we can all ask for a cooler perfect for our needs.

The NR200 has probably prompted this cooler to come into existence, and it's also captured Streacom DA2 users in that height category too.



I've just unboxed mine to take a look and it's really very nice. It's probably going to give me a realistic 20%+ cooling capacity again vs the next best cooler (Quad Lumi) at the 145mm height.

 

[Mr Whippy]

I had a chance to fit this Noctua NH D12L to my Streacom DA2 v1 today.

In the East to West configuration it wouldn't fit due to the IEC cable. It's probably about 1-2mm too large. I think pushing the back-plate and mounting parts, and then screwing down the cooler all to the North as far as possible might give the required clearance... something for me to try tomorrow.

The DA2 v2 cable probably fixes this clearance issue.

IEC Extension Cable

IEC C14 PSU Extension Cable (or passthrough cable) suitable for cases where the PSU power socket is not directly accessible

shop.streacom.com

From quick checking though, all other orientations should work... I plan to try S to N any way.



It's a very nice solidly made cooler. The box packing is really nice if you were to safely want to store or resell and post the item later.

It appears it's a decent step up from the Cryorig Quad Lumi, but not as big as the U9S to Quad Lumi was. I'd say there was another 4-5degC in it at a similar noise level.

 

[Mark13]

NH-L12S is 72mm high and already has some compatibility issues on modern ITX motherboards. Adding 3mm won't fix that I'm afraid, especially when using a 25mm thick fan, effectively worsening compatibility.

NH-L12S is 72mm high and already has some compatibility issues on modern ITX motherboards. Adding 3mm won't fix that I'm afraid, especially when using a 25mm thick fan, effectively worsening compatibility.

NH-L12 Ghost Edition is 66mm tall. Plus 25mm fan = 91mm. Noctua will supply fan clips for 25mm fans free with proof of purchase. I replaced the included older 92mm fan with the Noctua A9x25 fan for dual down draft operation.