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Easier to integrate into smaller form factor builds.
We’re big fans of Noctua coolers here at PC Gamer. The company’s coolers are usually among our top air-cooling picks (opens in new tab). The NH-P1 is a particular favourite (opens in new tab) of several of the PC Gamer team, myself included.
So it’s easy to see why we’re so excited that Noctua has launched its new NH-D12L dual tower cooler (opens in new tab). Its key characteristic is its reduced height. At 145mm tall, it’s a lot easier to incorporate it into builds compared to the 160mm NH-D15. The more compact NH-D12L is still able to include round frame 120mm fan support.
While the height of the cooler prevents it from fitting into a truly small form factor build, it’s compact enough to allow compatibility with many mITX and mATX cases, as its vertical height is less than or equal to most full size graphics cards once you factor in some additional clearance for PCIe power cables. Even some ATX cases that aren’t able to accommodate very large tower coolers should be able to fit the NH-D12L.
Interestingly, Noctua mentions compatibility with AMD’s upcoming socket AM5 (opens in new tab). It states compatibility with Intel LGA1700/LGA1200/LGA115x and AMD AM4/AM5 based motherboards thanks to its highly regarded SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system.
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The NH-D12L’s twin towers are different sizes. The slimmer of the two is designed to allow compatibility with tall RAM modules. Noctua says that the NH-D12L is able to beat 92mm class coolers as well as larger 120mm designs such as the NH-U12S. All things considered, the NH-D12L looks like a very well designed and engineered cooler. If it’s as good as our Noctua favourites, then we’re sure it will do well in the market.
Noctua has set the price of the NH-D12L at EUR/USD 89.90. That’s not bad at all considering it includes the NF-A12x25r PWM fan which sells for EUR/USD 29.90 by itself. It includes up to six years of warranty and its being rolled out to various global retailers from today.
Chris’ gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an ‘educational PC’ that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he’s gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.
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