Page 4 - Conclusion
The NH-L12Sx77 continues Noctua's great reputation as a manufacturer of excellent PC cooling hardware, this time in a compact form factor. To start with, the heatsink is built from great materials, mainly aluminum and copper, to provide the best balance between heat transfer, weight, and cost. The nickel plating provides an extra layer of protection for all the components to help with longevity while also hiding color differences between the materials. The fan, as well, has great build quality, and performed reasonably well in our tests. Its bearings are not only quiet, but have a lengthy rated lifespan. The heatsink performed well in our testing. As expected, the temperatures were higher than large AIO liquid coolers, but this is to be expected. On the other hand, compared to the stock AMD cooler, the Noctua NH-L12Sx77 is a great improvement in keeping temperatures down. The design of the cooler, as well as the flexible installation options, means it should have compatibility in a wide range of small form factor builds. The offset of the design and low height means it can sit over the top of most RAM sticks, but the fan can be moved above make a bit more room. However, installation of the Noctua NH-L12Sx77 is a bit of a pain. The only way to tighten it down onto the CPU is by lining everything up perfectly through small holes, fan blades, and into the screw. This is a bit of a challenge, especially since you cannot remove the RAM sticks to install the fan afterwards. At the time of the review, the Noctua NH-L12Sx77 comes in at $75 USD. This is on the pricier side, but you pay for the performance of a low-profile unit. Considering it provides solid cooling performance improvement over stock and is great for small form factor builds, the NH-L12Sx77 is yet another solid offering from Noctua.
Noctua provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks, but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 7.4/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The Noctua NH-L12Sx77 CPU cooler provides great cooling and excellent build quality in a slim form factor.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
