Page 4 - Conclusion
The Noctua NH-U12S redux is one of the most affordable 120mm CPU coolers from this renowed Austrian brand and I think they have made smart cuts in the right places. Starting at the top, everything included here is precisely sufficient for installing into your system and forgetting about it. This means we have pre-installed NT-H1 thermal paste and mounting parts for modern sockets. The overall design of the NH-U12S redux keeps a lot of similar elements from other versions of the NH-U12S, including the shape and fins, as well as the overall build quality in materials used. The installation process is the exact same as previous Noctua coolers, which is to say it is still excellent. In the process of making this heatsink more affordable, we have lost a heatpipe and soldering between the pipes and the fins, but the performance results do not seem to reflect this change as much. The Noctua NH-U12S redux was capable of keeping up with the other 120mm air coolers in our tests. On the other hand, this performance may have been a result of the faster spinning fans. The Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM fan here was louder than the fans included on the vanilla or chromax.black versions of this cooler. We do still miss out on some helpful accessories like the low-noise adapter, but this can be added back with their NA-FK1 second fan kit. If there is one thing I would want included, it would be a tube of their NT-H1 thermal paste, because I think it is still useful to provide it for future installations. Taking a look at the price, the Noctua NH-U12S redux is available for $50 USD, which is $20 less than the original and $30 less than the chromax.black variant. The second fan kit is available for $17 USD, which means the whole package with a second fan would still be cheaper than buying the vanilla NH-U12S. As such, I think Noctua has done an excellent job in providing competitive performance and an easy installation process at an accessible price point, making the NH-U12S redux a great value option.
Noctua provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH equal.balance 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 7.5/10
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-U12S redux is a no-frills Noctua cooler that can perform almost as well as its premium counterparts.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
