Cooling [SFF Network] High End Downdraft - How Does the Noctua NH-L12 Compare?

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
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Sometimes, downdraft cooling is the best option for a SFF build. Tower coolers don't cool memory, chipset or any other board components particularly well. Downdraft coolers also have the added advantage of being able to act as an intake for slimmer cases - enabling you to use one less fan - making for a quieter system. Noctua has many downdraft style coolers, but the NH-L12 is one of their largest, second only to the not so small NH-C14S (which can hit 142mm tall!).

Read more here..
 
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GuilleAcoustic

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The Noctua NH-C14 with only the bottom fan is "only" 105mm tall. It is the same height than a PCIe bracket:



 
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Phuncz

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I have the NH-L12 too, using VLP memory is almost required to be more flexible in mounting or sometimes required.


Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP in that picture.

Though I have yet to see VLP memory for DDR4, technically there are no issues to make it.
 
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Phuncz

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Yeah I've seen those too, the problem is:

Specs: DDR4 PC4-19200 • CL=17 • Single Ranked • x4 based • Registered ECC • DDR4-2400 • 1.2V • 2048Meg x 72 •

So you'll need a server chipset and Xeon CPU to use these. While some H170/Z170 boards support ECC on Skylake CPUs, these seem to function without ECC enabled which is only an issue if you need ECC support. But the Registered type (RDIMM) is only supported on the Xeon platform and Cxxx chipset series if I'm correct.
 

ignsvn

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I use this NH-L12. A bit overkill for my 84 watt i5, but oh well :)

Built quality is superb, & installation is easy.

Mine came with wrong LGA1150 installation screws. I emailed them and they sent me the correct screws for free. No need to show recipe etc.
 

XeaLouS

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Dec 29, 2015
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I think it should be noted that you *can* fit the 120mm fan UNDERNEATH the cooler, but you'll need ultra low profile ram, and it is highly dependant on motherboard layout.
 
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confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
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Jun 19, 2015
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Not something I've tried, but in saying that, the test platform board has pretty bad layout issues!