Page 4 - Conclusion
With the latest heatsink given the chromax.black experience, the Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black is a stunning heatsink that offers the same Noctua experience in a cleaner color. Minus the appearance, everything on the NH-U12A is still impressive as its original. For one, its build quality with prime material choices is made even more stunning in its fully black exterior. From the heatsink to the their NF-A12x25 PWM fans and mounting accessories, everything has been given the chromax.black treatment. If you want to further spruce up its appearance, you can easily add a cover from Noctua for a cleaner or matched appearance with the rest of your system. These heatsink covers sit nicely on top of the NH-U12A and stays there with a hidden plastic bracket and magnets for a nice finished look. Installation is an ease as with any Noctua heatsink, and the NH-U12A chromax.black is no different in its simplicity and effectiveness. I also appreciate the fact Noctua has included support for the most recent LGA1700 socket out of the box. As for its performance, the Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black performs admirably with excellent performance compared to other 120mm and even 140mm coolers. Furthermore, this cooler achieved these temperatures with a lower noise output than some of its competition, which is another good point. In reality, my only wish is that Noctua would include their NT-H2 thermal paste with all of their heatsinks. Currently, the retail price of the Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black is $110 USD, which represents a $10 premium over the vanilla variant. This does make the NH-U12A, both its original and all-black version today, a bit pricier than some of its competition, but you truly are paying for the intangibles, like build quality, installation ease, and quiet but effective cooling performance. All in all, the Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black is everything great the original one was, except now in a more sleek color.
Noctua provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH:Renewal Award | 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 7.8/10
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-U12A chromax.black cooler brings back all of the excellent qualities of the original in a clean and refreshing finish.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
