News Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 and NH-L12S!

Anoucement Page
NH_L9a-AM4 Product Page
NH-L12S Product Page

Both products are hard replacements of the L9a and the L12 respectively

Stats:

NH-L9aM4
Height, Outline, TDP: virtually identical

Out-Of-Box Compatibility:
  • L9a: AM2/+ AM3/+ FM1 FM2/+
  • L9aM4: AM4



NH-L12S
Height:
  • Low Profile (without fan on top)
    • L12: 66mm
    • L12S: 70mm
  • High Profile
    • L12: 93mm
    • L12S: 87mm (A12x15) / 97mm (regular NF 120mm fan, theoretically)
      • second fan clip may not be included
Outline:
  • L12: 128x150 centered
  • L12S: 128x146mm centered
RAM clearance:
  • L12: 43mm
  • L12S??: 30.75mm fan at bottom / 45.75mm fan not at bottom (estimated from drawing)
TDP:
  • L12: 95W LP mode / 140W both fans (no overclocking)
  • L12S: 95W-you-might-do-higher-sort-of. No mention of dual fans


 
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Thehack

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To be honest, I feel like this is a bit of a step backwards in low-profile coolers concerning the NH-L12S.

  1. It has 45mm of below cooler clearance. With a 120mm fan attached below, it has 30mm of clearance. This means pretty much only naked RAM will work. In comparison to the current NH-L12 which uses the 92mm, giving you 43mm of clearance. The Big Shuriken 2 has 38mm of clearance for RAM.

  2. Even in the low-profile configuration, it is 70mm tall. This will not fit SFF cases like the Lone Industries L4, Firefly Mi-6, Ghost S1, which are built around the NH-L12 or NH-L9x65 as standards.

  3. With fan on top, using the 15mm width fan, you're still paying for 4mm in clearance. It probably won't matter if you have the clearance for 81mm you'd have clearance for 85mm... but it's a point of progress for us.
I'm not sure if they'll allow the 92mm fan to be used with the NH-L12S to increase compatibility but those two points makes the NH-L12 original a better buy for us SFFpc enthusiasts. The 4mm increase in height especially hurts some of the case compatibility.
 
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VegetableStu

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I'm not sure if they'll allow the 92mm fan to be used with the NH-L12S
there might be I think. There's that gap between the fan and the finstack if you see the front view above. it's not mentioned in the page, but only one way to find out

EDIT: still has to be a slim fan though. the screws to the frame are in the way
 

Nemix

Cable Smoosher
Sep 17, 2017
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Would have waited for the NH-L9a-AM4 cooler to be available at retailers but I just placed a few orders a couple days ago for my entire build alongside a L9a with AM4 mounting kit (free of charge) and the cooler/mounting kit has already been shipped.
 
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ignsvn

By Toutatis!
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Apr 4, 2016
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Simple answer: product / market placement.

Perhaps Noctua wants to have NH-L9 & NH-L9x65 on the low profile markets, and moves NH-L12 to the.. well.. taller market :p
 
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VegetableStu

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Would have waited for the NH-L9a-AM4 cooler to be available at retailers but I just placed a few orders a couple days ago for my entire build alongside a L9a with AM4 mounting kit (free of charge) and the cooler/mounting kit has already been shipped.
Nah you'd be missing out on nothing. Or put it the other way, you've got legacy mounting support now compared to the new one
 

K888D

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I'm pretty sure the NH-L12S will still work with a 120mm under the heatsink and standard height RAM such as the Vengeance LPX.

If it doesn't then you may still be able to mount a 92mm fan under the heatsink like with the previous NH-L12 to give you that extra bit of room.
 
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VegetableStu

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If it doesn't then you may still be able to mount a 92mm fan under the heatsink like with the previous NH-L12 to give you that extra bit of room.
Noctua revised the mounting mechanism for the L12S. The screw poles might interfere wih a normal-height 92mm fan

Also no indicator if they'd include any spare or alternative fan mounting clips, but maybe bend steel wires from scratch?
 
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theGryphon

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 15, 2015
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NHL12S

According to my measurements, it has ~31mm from the CPU surface to fan edge with the fan edge but you can safely subtract 1mm due to the fan clip. So that's 30mm from the CPU.

Assuming the CPU surface is 8mm from the motherboard surface and DDR4 standard is that the installed DIMM starts at 2.4mm from the motherboard surface, it gives you 30+8-2.4=35.6mm as the maximum DIMM height, which covers parts like Corsair LPX.

A review arrived today btw, showing it beating the Raijintek Pallas, with 34C above ambient on a stock 4770K:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?294844-Noctua-NH-L12S

Very good indeed, pretty much the NH-L12 performance with a single slim fan...
 
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Thehack

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NHL12S

According to my measurements, it has ~31mm from the CPU surface to fan edge with the fan edge but you can safely subtract 1mm due to the fan clip. So that's 30mm from the CPU.

Assuming the CPU surface is 8mm from the motherboard surface and DDR4 standard is that the installed DIMM starts at 2.4mm from the motherboard surface, it gives you 30+8-2.4=35.6mm as the maximum DIMM height, which covers parts like Corsair LPX.

A review arrived today btw, showing it beating the Raijintek Pallas, with 34C above ambient on a stock 4770K:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?294844-Noctua-NH-L12S

Very good indeed, pretty much the NH-L12 performance with a single slim fan...

Beating it by 1C isn't much.

But on another note these metrics don't really make sense without a control. It should be Delta Ambient @ fixed measured dB.

The noctua does have superior quality and mounting solution.
 

QuantumBraced

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I personally like the revision. Yes, it extends the total height by 4mm, but it also allows for the NF-A12x15 to be installed under the heatsink while still supporting normal height RAM. The NF-A12x15 pushes more air, is quieter, and covers the whole heatsink compared to the NF-B9, so I think it's worth the tradeoff.
 
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Thehack

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I personally like the revision. Yes, it extends the total height by 4mm, but it also allows for the NF-A12x15 to be installed under the heatsink while still supporting normal height RAM. The NF-A12x15 pushes more air, is quieter, and covers the whole heatsink compared to the NF-B9, so I think it's worth the tradeoff.

You also lose huge trade offs in fitting a large number of our beloved cases.

They could've just updated it by adding the new 120x15 fan in instead of the 25mm it already comes with. As well as updating the mounting compatibility.
 

QuantumBraced

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But then you can't use it with standard RAM in the 70mm config. We needed a cooler like this. The Dan HSLP-48 is a great concept, but using VLP RAM is asking too much, and not using a 120mm fan sacrifices cooling performance and noise. You want to cover the entire finstack if you'll have a large cooler like this.

It is a shame that it won't fit in those cases anymore, I agree. They'll either have to extend 4mm in future revisions or perhaps drop a few mm to only support L9x65.
 

K888D

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The only way they could of kept this cooler at 66mm height and supported a 120mm slim fan under the heatsink would have been to reduce the thickness of the heat sink section by about 3mm, which would probably reduce its performance more than the gain of moving up to a 120mm fan in the first place.
 

theGryphon

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 15, 2015
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The only way they could of kept this cooler at 66mm height and supported a 120mm slim fan under the heatsink would have been to reduce the thickness of the heat sink section by about 3mm, which would probably reduce its performance more than the gain of moving up to a 120mm fan in the first place.

Not that I measured, but from what I see, it looks like the new S model has increased the fin height by 2mm.

I haven't seen a direct comparison review, but I feel like the S model can match the older model with both fans.
 

VegetableStu

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I haven't seen a direct comparison review
yeah, come to think of it... It's been out for some time now o_o

EDIT: I found a review in english of the L12s (off Noctua's reviews list), but (other than the potato quality framing of pictures) the tester didn't have the L12 in hand. So....
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?294844-Noctua-NH-L12S&p=5261588#post5261588



EDITx2:

Okay screw the finstack comment I made previously. The RAM has to be regular height because it'd be under the fan if it's too close to the CPU socket keepout.

Or maybe might still be too close. I'm basing this off this photo
 
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Thehack

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The only way they could of kept this cooler at 66mm height and supported a 120mm slim fan under the heatsink would have been to reduce the thickness of the heat sink section by about 3mm, which would probably reduce its performance more than the gain of moving up to a 120mm fan in the first place.
I meant have both fans. A 92mm and a slim 120mm as the NH L12 already has.
 

VegetableStu

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Okay, checklist for soon-to-be reviewers (after going through the reviews on Noctua's page so far):
  • L12 vs L12S. The price point and TDP thing I'm assuming you guys already have it
  • RAM Clearance. show. a. clear. pic. of. what. WOULD. fit. UNDER. there. No G-Skill RGB you bright knobheads.
  • regular 25mm 120mm fan on top of the L12S for comparison.
  • DELTA-T. or at the very least describe how warm the room is.
 
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