Legit Reviews

Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler Review

The Austrian company Noctua has sent us their newest cooler the NH-C12P. This time around the folks at Noctua made the cooler smaller, lighter, and squeezed in 2 more heat pipes for a total of 6. Noctua has been shaking up the CPU cooling market with their silent yet efficient coolers all year. Join us as we put the NH-C12P CPU cooler through the paces and see if it can dethrone its predecessor from the top of our performance charts.



Article Title: Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler Review
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/723/1/
Pricing At Time of Print: $69.90 plus shipping

Sorry in advance for sounding critical and pointing out mistakes, but i'd rather they got pointed out and corrected than left alone:

A point on paragraph number 3 (Page 4); even with the mounting gear the other way round (at least on my NH-U12P) you still can't change the CPU out, as the mounting bar stops the CPU socket release arm thing from lifting all the way, which means the retaining plate can't lift up. Is the NH-C12P mounting the same as the NH-U12P in this respect?

You wouldn't actually need a complete tear-down to swap out the CPU in either mounting setup, as you can unscrew one side of a mounting bar and swing it out of the way to allow the release arm to lift up (I've done it on my NH-U12P before).

Other than those small things, great review ^_^

Shame that it couldn't compete, but I'm not moaning as it means my NH-U12P is still good

One thing that i wonder is: would using the fan the other way round impact performance? If you have a case vent over the CPU area it would allow the heat to actually escape and could improve the performance.

Dan

DMB2000uk wrote:- Page 2 (What's in the Box): In the paragraph under the picture "noctua_nh-c12p-004.jpg" noctua has an s instead of an a.

Really? You actually checked the picture names? You, sir, are not normal

EDIT: Just realized you were talking about the text under the picture, not the picture itself...Still...

I assume you choose which way to mount the fan on the cooler as it doesn't come connected but does it change the performance to have it blowing up and out instead of pulling air down to the cpu? Don't most heat sinks blow it up and out of the case usually? Looking at the picture that's what I noticed.

Alathald: I only checked the picture name so I could tell them where to look for the mistake

Dgood: And I think that fan down is actually standard, but I was wondering (and I guess you were too) if it would make a difference fan up.

Dan

The typo and font issue are fixed!

You can get the CPU out with out removing the bracket, or swing it out of the way. I loosened the screws a couple turns and it allowed the arm to open fully.

Didn't think about reversing the cooler to pull up rather than push down. Here in a couple days I may give it a shot and see if it changes anything. I don't think it will as its the same amount of air going across the heatpipes.

Can we get some CFM numbers on the fan? the only ones on there are m^3/s. great review, the u shape still seems to regin supreme

Full speed = 54.3 CFM
Med (L.N.A.) = 46.2 CFM
Low (U.L.N.A.) = 37.3 CFM

1 cubic meter per hour = 0.5885778 cubic foot per minute

The primary thing I have noticed with the review is the orientation of the heatsink itself. With every heatsink I've installed it was recommended that you do not mount it with the heatpipes facing upwards (as shown in the review). You may want to look at the noctua site regarding the recommended orientation.
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=faqs ... 8&lng=en#4
I don't know why it is recommended, and if you tested using the other orientations as well and there wasn't a difference i should STFU, but if not, you might want to try as there might be a performance increase.

bump.