Noctua’s newly released NH-C12P is up for review today, this is Noctua’s first ‘down-draft’ cooler. Find out whether this new cooler is a success or a flop!
Noctua’s newly released NH-C12P is up for review today, this is Noctua’s first ‘down-draft’ cooler. Find out whether this new cooler is a success or a flop!
Noctua is a company that is located in Austria. They produce high-performance cooling solutions for PC enthusiasts. I have had the pleasure of reviewing many of their products and I regard the company highly because I know that they are a company with very high standards. Noctua have a great lineup of CPU Coolers and it falls on me today to review one of their newest additions – the NH-C12P.
The NH-C12P differs from any previous CPU Cooler from Noctua in that it doesn’t adhere to the usual pattern of being a tower heatsink. The NH-C12P has a new design, with new physics. This new design is called a down-draft heatsink. The following is an extract from the Noctua website:
Sporting 6 heat pipes and the award-winning, psycho-acoustically optimized NF-P12 120mm fan, the NH-C12P achieves excellent performance and outstanding quietness. The down-facing c-type design doesn’t only allow for optimal motherboard and case compatibility, but also provides additional cooling for motherboard components through two Airflow-Gaps. Outfitted with the professional SecuFirm™ mounting system and Noctua’s much acclaimed NT-H1 thermal compound, the NH-C12P is a premium-class silent cooler through and through.
So the objective of this cooler is to maintain high-performance cooler whilst providing maximum compatibility for motherboards and cases – in particular media cases and HTPC chassis’ which are quite compact and cannot host tower type heatsinks quite as easily. The common construction of the tower heatsink causes air to be lifted directly from the CPU and then driven off, and through an exhaust and hopefully out of the case itself. This isolates the CPU temperature and focuses solely on just this – whilst the down-draft design seeks to not only cool the CPU by drawing off temperature off it, but also cooling motherboard VRM components which the tower heatsinks shy away from. This should give an overall temperature drop throughout the case which is very pleasing.
Packaging and Closer Look
Website: www.noctua.atPrice: £47-£55
Dimensions and full specification can be found HERE.
The NH-C12P is packaged in the usual way that Noctua CPU coolers are, the packaging has a small window displaying the award-winning P12 fan. There is plenty of information on the packaging, detailing the features of this cooler, and other specifications. Packaging is typically of a high standard following on from previous products. Inside the box you will find as already mentioned – the P12 fan, the heatsink itself, mounting kit for both socket 775 and AM2, NT-N1 thermal paste and an instructions manual.
The aluminum fins on the NH-C12P are spaced apart a lot wider than other heatsinks on the market. This allows the heat to dissipate quicker, if the fins are too close together the cooling ability will be hindered. One of the interesting features on the C12P is the ability for it to flush air over the motherboard components via the airflow gaps which are on the sides of the heatsink. It will be interesting to see if this aspect will enhance the cooling ability and perhaps drop a few degrees off the overall motherboard temperatures.
The NH-C12P takes advantage of 6 aluminum heatpipes. Comparing the NH-U12P which we reviewed some time a go, the C12P has 2 additional heatpipes. You will notice that the heatpipes bend in a “C” shaped fashion, this how the C12P gets its name.
Installation
Installation was very straight forward. Thanks to the secuFirm method of securing the heatsink, things went very smoothly and the Noctua manual is very helpful.It was nice to see that the cooler left plenty of clearance, as you can see in the picture there is a good couple of inches. This is a definate improvement over having a tower heatsink.
I did come across one difficulty, at a certain orientation the heatsink touched my PSU. Switched it round 180 degrees was still a slight issue. I have to make sure the orientation was facing the exhaust fan to avoid any contact. This is probably due to the size of the case I was using. The PSU is quite close to any heatsink installed inside the case.
Results and Conclusion
The system used to test the C12P comprised of the following:E2160 (1.8GHz)
OCZ PC2-6400 DDR2 2GB
Asus P5KC Motherboard
550W Antec True Power Trio
Coolermaster Centurion 532
To test the C12P I compared it against a group of coolers. I recorded the idle and load temperatures of the CPU both at stock and with a 3GHz overclock which is a 67% overclock. The load temperatures were obtained by loading orthos with “Blend – stress CPU and RAM” for over 30 minutes.
The other test I did was to observe the motherboard temperature recorded both whilst idle/loaded and without overclock/with overclock.
The results were as follows:
Very impressive results from the C12P. It’s certainly up there with the U12P but not only that it clearly shows from the results that the airflow slots at the sides of the heatsink on the C12P do actually perform what they are intended for. There is a significant reduction in temperature – especially whilst under load.
The C12P matches the quality and performance of the award-winning U12P, whilst offering a nice extra – motherboard cooling.
Conclusion
The NH-C12P is most definately an achievement. Noctua have once again impressed us with another outstanding CPU Cooler. It’s also worth noting that this company does not shy away from change, they have developed a brand new design here and this has been to their victory. Change is something which many withdraw from, because it means altering something which has been routine and well known. Noctua have ventured onto new ground and produced something that they can be proud of, and this is a significant accomplishment.
The NH-C12P matches the performance of the NH-U12P, but offers better compatibility and improved overall cooling of the system components such as the VRM chips. This will suit those looking to upgrade to a HTPC style chassis. It’s in there as one of the most expensive air coolers on the market but you have to weigh up just what you receive in the package – Heatsink, premium P12 fan, award-winning thermal paste and the SecuFirm mounting kit. For the money you will own one of the best coolers on the market – you very much get what you pay for.
Noctua can add the NH-C12P to their list of achievements for extremely good quality CPU coolers, and I’m sure this cooler will receive many awards in the near future. We would like to thank Noctua for supplying us with the C12P.
