Revisiting Noctua’s Best Coolers – NHD15S and U12A 2023 Re-Review

A Closer Look

Noctua NH-D15S Chromax Black

Now, I’m not looking at the original D15, as it’s largely incompatible with a lot of motherboards that use the first PCIe slot. The D15S is offset, and is by far the most popular choice of the two, but is largely the same cooler. Even then, I first reviewed this over eight years ago, and you can read that review here. Back then it was tested on an i5-3570K, which is a far cry from the i9-12900K it will be contending with today. However, it still packs that mighty six-heatpipe design with a mirror-like contact plate, and two huge cooling towers paired with their premium 140mm cooling fan.

Features

• Proven premium heatsink (more than 150 awards and recommendations from international hardware websites), now available in an all-black design that goes great with many colour schemes and RGB LEDs
• Asymmetrical, single-fan design for dual-tower performance with high compatibility: 160mm height fits most tower cases, 65mm RAM clearance, does not block the PCIe slot on most ATX & Micro-ATX boards
• Renowned, award-winning NF-A15 140mm fan with Low-Noise Adaptor and PWM for automatic speed control: full cooling performance under load, whisper quiet at idle!
• Includes high-end NT-H1 thermal paste and SecuFirm2 mounting system for easy installation on Intel LGA1700 (LGA17xx family) LGA1200, LGA115x, LGA2011, LGA2066 and AMD AM4 & AM5
• Renowned Noctua quality backed up by a 6-year manufacturer’s warranty, deluxe choice for Intel Core i9, i7, i5, i3 (e.g. 13900, 13700, 13600) and AMD Ryzen (e.g. 7950X3D, 7900X3D, 7800X3D, 7700)

Noctua NH-U12A

This is much newer, and with a much more advanced fan on it, the NHJ-U12A dazzled us four years ago and still does today. You can check Mike’s review from over four years ago here. The single tower is extremely capable for its size, and those two incredible NF-A12 120mm fans are still regarded as some of the best fans money can buy, although they now have a lot of competition much like their coolers, but that’s for another day. It has much better RAM and case compatibility compared to the D15S too, which makes it very popular.

Features

• 140mm class performance in 120mm size: 7 heatpipes, more surface area and a dual fan configuration with state-of-the-art NF-A12x25 fans allow the NH-U12A to rival many 140mm size coolers!
• Excellent case, RAM and PCIe compatibility: Fits most tower cases (158mm height), doesn’t overhang the RAM slots on LGA17xx, LGA1200 and AM4, doesn’t block the PCIe on most ATX and Micro-ATX motherboards.
• Quiet, state-of-the-art NF-A12x25 120mm fans with Low-Noise Adaptors and PWM for automatic speed control: Full cooling performance under load, virtually silent at idle!
• Includes high-end NT-H1 thermal paste and SecuFirm2 mounting system for easy installation on Intel LGA1700 (LGA17xx family) LGA1200, LGA115x, LGA2011, LGA2066 and AMD AM4 & AM5
• Renowned Noctua quality backed up by a 6-year manufacturer’s warranty, deluxe choice for Intel Core i9, i7, i5, i3 (e.g. 13900, 13700, 13600) and AMD Ryzen (e.g. 7950X3D, 7900X3D, 7800X3D, 7700)

Mounting Kit

One thing that has always been great for Noctua is its mounting system. It’s so easy to work with, all the main components are durable metal, and largely supported by all their product range. They’ve regularly offered free mounting kit upgrades for new sockets to their customers too, which is just fantastic. I’ve yet to see a single brand do a better job.