The Noctua NH-D12L can be found online at various Amazon web stores and retails around EUR/USD 89.90 making it affordable for this category of high end CPU cooler. The product supports almost all Intel and AMD released sockets like Intel LGA1700 (LGA17xx family), LGA1200, LGA115x (LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156) and LGA20xx (LGA2066, LGA2011), as well as AMD AM4, and AM5 upcoming platform. Great choice from Noctua supporting most sold CPU sockets. The NH-D12L can be made compatible with the older LGA1366 and LGA775 sockets using the optional NM-I3 mounting kit, which is provided free of charge. If technically possible, Noctua will also provide upgrade kits for future sockets, which makes the NH-D12L a safe long-term investment.

Before buying this CPU cooler its best to visit the CPU compatibility list for the best possible information. As was expected the CPU cooler supports even the most demanding CPUs, like AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. The next area users should look is the motherboard compatibility. In our case the Asus X570 E-Gaming motherboard is fully supported, no problems will be faced during system installation. The last step for users should be checking their case compatibility. This product shouldn't have much problems even with medium sized cases since it has lower height of 145mm from the CPU cooler base up to the top of the fan.

Passing to the retail box, it’s a medium sized box.

Opening the box unveils the contents, the CPU cooler is at the middle and accessories and everything is well organized and protected

Users will get inside the retail box:

• NF-A12x25r PWM premium fan
• NA-RC14 Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A)
• NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound
• Fan-clips for second NF-A12x25r
• SecuFirm2™ mounting kit
• Noctua metal case-badge

The Noctua NH-D12L is a medium sized CPU cooler. Its height (without fan) is 145mm, its Width (without fan) 125 mm and it’s Depth (without fan) 113mm. The weight of the CPU cooler reaches (without fans) 700gr, while with fan installed reaches 890gr. The building material are Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating.

Top view of the CPU cooler

The front view of the CPU cooler

The side area of the CPU cooler

Another view of the CPU cooler

The base includes 5 heatpipes and everything is made out of copper (base and heat-pipes).

Noctua has included with this product the Noctua NF-A12x25r PWM fan. It has bearing SSO2 technology with Max. rotation speed (+/- 10%) 2000 RPM and with the included adapters (L.N.A.) (+/- 10%) 1700 RPM, while the minimum rotational speed (PWM, +/-20%) is 450 RPM. The acoustical noise is 22.6db (A) while with the L.N.A. adapter goes down to 18.8 dB (A).

Installing the CPU cooler requires several steps. The retail box includes all the needed information in order to install the CPU cooler either with Intel or AMD platform. For our tests we used the AMD Ryzen 5600X, so we had to unpack the AMD labeled plastic sleeve. There are two mounting bars and four (4) plastic spacers with long screws to attach to the motherboard backplate. Afterwards you need to remove both CPU fans and after placing the included thermal compound secure the CPU cooler to the already pre-installed base brackets. Using the included screwdriver secure the fan, by turning 2-3 times the screwdriver to put even pressure to both sides. Placing again back the both fans and you are ready to go. Make sure that both should have the SAME fan rotation direction (air blows towards outside the case).

Connect the fan(s) to the motherboard’s CPU fan header(s). If necessary, use the supplied NA-YC1 y-cable to connect both fans to one fan header. There is lot of clearance for the memory modules. In case you need to install additional CPU cooler at the front, the overall height would be increased since you will have the height of the memory banks + the CPU fan height..