Page 3 - Test Results
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Motherboard: ASUS Prime X470-Pro
RAM: Patriot Viper RGB DDR4-3600 2x16GB
Graphics: EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 ULTRA GAMING
Chassis: Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN500 NVMe SSD 500GB, OCZ ARC 100 240GB, Patriot P200 512GB
Power: FSP Hydro PTM Pro 1200W
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Compared hardware:
- Noctua NH-D12L
- Cooler Master MasterAir MA624 Stealth
- DeepCool AK620
- Noctua NH-U12A
- Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black
- SilverStone AR12-TUF
- Thermaltake TOUGHLIQUID Ultra 240
- Thermaltake TOUGHLIQUID Ultra 360
All tests were run in our custom-built computer to best reflect real life performance. The computer remained in the same location in the same room throughout all tests. The room temperature in our testing lab was around 22c. Stock thermal paste respective to all coolers were used to rate its performance; all thermal pastes were given a proper amount of time for them to fully settle. The fans on all heatsinks were connected to the motherboard's CPU 4-pin fan header. The test computer was turned on and idling for at least one hour for the idling tests. High CPU load results were obtained using the Prime95 in-place large FFTs test with a maximum number of worker threads for the tested CPU for a minimum of 10 minutes or until the temperature was deemed stable. Temperature results were measured with HWiNFO, which reports the CPU's integrated digital thermal sensor for maximum accuracy. Each temperature result was calculated by taking the maximum value of the cores inside the CPU.
After idling for a while, I checked the temperatures of my processor. You can see from here that the Noctua NH-D12L is a decent contender with an idle temperature of 34c with two fans or 35c for one fan. This matched other 120mm-based coolers, such as the NH-U12A. Even so, these are idle results and are generally not interesting, so I kicked off Prime95 and ran the tests to simulate a full load experience.
With a sufficient amount of time to load the processor, you can see how all of the coolers performed with the peak temperatures recorded. From here, you can once again see the NH-D12L was a good air cooler overall, although there were some concessions to make. For one, with a single fan attached, it reached 67c under load, which is a couple degrees warmer than the NH-U12A. With two fans attached, this was further reduced down to 64c. The NF-A12x25r PWM fans worked well, whether by itself or in tandem, to generally keep temperatures lower, but the NH-U12A was still a notably better performer. Even so, the NH-D12L was still very capable at keeping this processor cool while having enough headroom for the CPU to maintain its boost frequencies.
As for the sound analysis section of the Noctua NH-D12L, on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is silence, and 10 is the definition of loud, I would rate the NH-D12L at 2.5/10 during idle and around 3.5/10 under full load. With a second fan attached, the noise increased to around 4.0/10. Once again, the NF-A12x25r PWM fan, on a day-to-day use, is very quiet and rotates about without much noise. When you push your computer to greater loads, as we did in Prime95, you will start hearing the fans whirring on, but this is not much louder than even some of our single-fan competition. The noise that it does emit is lower in frequency and thus is not as noticeable to the ear as some of its competition, which again shows Noctua's expertise in cooling.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
