Today Noctua added a new CPU cooler to their lineup. The NH-D12L is a dual tower air cooler with improved compatibility in smaller PC cases.
At only 145mm height, the NH-D12L is on the smaller side of Noctua coolers. But it still features a 120mm fan between the two towers, which is a variation of the popular A12x25 PWM. The D12L is 13mm smaller than the NH-U12A and the NH-U12S which are both 158mm tall.
It is rated at 148 NSPR (Noctua’s Standardised Performance Rating). This is better than the NH-U12S at 129 NSPR but is behind the NH-U14S at 162 NSPR, the NH-U12A at 169 NSPR, and the NH-D15 at 183 NSPR. This is expected as the U14S and D15 use bigger fans and the U12A uses 2 fans.
Noctua uses 5 soldered copper heatpipes coming from a nickel base plate and soldered aluminum fins to dissipate the heat. Noctua claims a 100% ram compatibility with both LGA17xx and LGA1200 sockets on Intel, and the same for AM4 and the future “AM5” AMD sockets. There is an option to mount a second fan on the cooler and Noctua includes the necessary clips in the package for that.
This new cooler uses the NF-A12x25R fan, which uses a smaller frame to maximize compatibility with motherboards. The performance specifications are identical to the NF-A12x25 PWM so the performance will be the same. However, the screw holes are different and use a 93×83 mm pattern. This makes the fan incompatible with most 120mm fan mounting options including radiators or case fans.
The cooler also comes with usual Noctua accessories like a Low-Noise adapter and NT-H1 thermal compound. The warranty for this cooler is 6 years, which is the standard for Noctua air coolers.
The cooler will hit retail at 89.99USD.
