Noctua NH-L12S, Premium Low Profile CPU Cooler with Quiet 120mm PWM Fan (Brown)

Background:I needed to resurrect and cool an old AMD FX 8350 (No laughing) 125watt 8 core processor in a small case under my TV with poor airflow. M-atx board too.I needed a low height and upward firing of the heat. This fitted the bill, not the cheapest option though.Fitting:It will fit am3, am4, fm2 and most recent Intel sockets. All mounts provided and easy instructions.Fitting was a case of finding which direction to place it. One direction the heat pipes caught the 1st ram module.Turning 90 degrees solved that. (Different mounting brackets depending on which way round you place it).It mounts on the backplate you already have for your motherboard (AMD).With the fan under the heatsink, firing upward, it clears my Hyper Fury X by 2mm! Anyone with larger ram with bigger heatsinks will probably need the fan above firing down.It runs silently, literally and I haven't got the chip over 50 degrees with stress tests!!The chip runs at 4ghz, I did overclock briefly to 4.2ghz and it stayed at 50 degrees and still quiet.My tips:I didn't use the Stepdown cable, I just let the board control it.It comes with Noctua paste which I used as it appears to be better than my mx-4 by what I read.I found a long screwdriver was better than the one provided.I also turned off the low fan warning in bios as it turned too slowly on startup making my pc think it wasn't working.Summary:I'm converted! Better than expected, cooler, quieter. Quality.

I don't write reviews often but I felt this cooler was worthy of one. It arrived in good condition in very well designed packaging. There were three different instruction manuals for different socket types respectively, thermal paste was also included! Mounting system was very simple and effective, screwdriver included. Fan is very quiet even without low noise adapter, and almost silent with the adapter! Temperatures are good, with my i5 3570K @4Ghz (Boost to 4.4GHz), around 30C idle and up to ~65C under load (although this is with low noise adapter). My only gripe is that the fan mounting wires (if you choose to switch to high clearance layout) can be difficult to attach without damaging the heatsink fins.All in all a great cooler and well worth the money!

Honestly so glad I purchased this CPU cooler. It has been a night and day difference compared to my old stock cooler that came with the case. It was starting to get too noisy to bare and wasn't sufficient enough to keep my CPU cool aswell. Just on PC start up the fan would run at about 1950 RPM with an average CPU temperature of about 65°C.With this Noctua cooler, it is now much quieter, running at about 650-700 RPM on start up and it literally halfed the CPU temperature which is now running at about 32°C. Made such a clear difference and would highly recommend.

Had to cool my old trusty but toasty 8 core FX series CPU. We are talking 125W work horse, which was cooled by stock thingy (noise and heat). I decided to stay with Noctua - yes, you can call me a fan boy - as I have been using their products for years now. And I am happy to report that this cooler was excellent choice. Keeps that chip nicely cooled even under 100% load but I have swapped kit fan with NF-F12 which improved thermals even more. TIM also happens to be top quality, exactlu what one expects from Noctua. So, any cons? Well, mounting is a bit fiddly but once done properly, keeps cooler assembly securly in place. Another issue (at least for me) is the quality of machining of contact plate - could use more polishing to remove machining marks and make contact surface smooth. So... would I buy it again? Yes. Would I recommend Noctua? HELL YES!

I recently picked up the Noctua NH-L12S for my compact build and overall I'm pretty impressed with this little guy. First off, it's super low profile which is exactly what I needed considering my case has limited vertical space. It fits snugly and clears my RAM without any issues.The installation was straightforward. I appreciated the mounting hardware that came with it—it felt very well thought out. The overall build quality is top-notch too. Noctua really delivers with their design aesthetic, even if the brown and beige color scheme isn’t for everyone.Now let’s talk about performance. I've been running a Ryzen 5 and during regular usage, the NH-L12S keeps temps pretty low, even under load. I've noticed it runs incredibly quietly. I mean, when I’m gaming or doing some intense work, I can hardly hear it running. The 120mm PWM fan really does its job well.But I should mention a couple of downsides. If you're expecting this cooler to handle heavy overclocks, you might want to look for something bigger or beefier. It does have its limits with maximum thermal dissipation. Also, the fan isn’t as powerful as some larger coolers, so when the summer heat kicks in, you might see some higher temps than you would with a more robust option.Overall, for a low profile cooler, I'd say the Noctua NH-L12S is a great choice for anyone looking for great performance without the noise. Just keep in mind its cooling limits if you're planning to push your CPU hard.