Noctua NH-U12S REDUX CPU Cooler (and Upgrade Kit) Review

Exterior Packaging

The front packaging of the NH-12S REDUX doesn’t exactly jump out at you with any notable information nor indeed any actual images of the cooler. Given that this is such a compact design, however, that’s neither surprising nor entirely unusual.

The rear of the packaging goes into the technical details, key features of the design, and also the specifications for the fan. While the information is well presented and easy on the eye, there is a lot of blank space to the left that is crying out for just one picture of this cooler!

The side of the box goes into more detail on the product features for the NH-U12S REDUX and certainly conveys a lot of excellent information. Similar to everything else, however, we can’t help but feel that, overall, despite the limited space, it hasn’t been particularly well utilized.

In regards to the NA-FK1 REDUX fan kit, while the packaging is pretty much exactly the same, it is more than a little interesting to take a look at the back. Not only does it contain all of the technical specifications, but it also basically doubles up as the instruction manual with useful details regarding the installation and how to correctly use the noise-reduction cabling.

Accessories!

As this is a relatively small air cooler design, you clearly don’t expect to find too many parts and components within the box and that is certainly the case here. Noctua provides you with everything you need to successfully install this cooler. Although it should be noted, there is one interesting omission (and no, it’s not a screwdriver. Although no, you don’t get one of them).

Usually, Noctua cooling products tend to come with noise-reduction cabling and, in something of a moderate surprise, you don’t see that here. There is, however, a reason for that!

So, what’s going on? Well, when looking inside the secondary fan kit, it would appear that Noctua is looking to push the noise-canceling cables as something of a useful option if you do plan to go down the ‘dual fan’ route. Admittedly, they’re not required (as Noctua fans are usually quite quiet anyway), but nether-the-less, I’m not entirely certain I like seeing them here effectively sold separately from the main cooler.