The following system was installed and used to gather temperatures:

• Control

• CPU: Intel i5 760
• MB: MSI P55-GD65
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB Dual Channel DDR3(CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B)
• PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
• SSD: Patriot Torqx 2 128GB
• DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
• Case: AZZA Fusion 3000
• OS: Microsoft Windows 7
• Ambient Temperature: 25-26C

• Comparison Coolers:

• Noctua NH-L12
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
• Stock Intel cooler

For idle temperatures, the system was allowed to stand at idle for 3 hours before temperatures were taken. To achieve load temps, four instances of Orthos blend were run for three hours and the average peak temperature was recorded using CPUID HWMonitor.

I tested the NH-L12 in both dual and single fan configurations with fans running at full speed. Fan noise was never noticeable and I can only imagine the only time you might want to use the Low Noise Adapters would be in maybe a HTPC situation where the device is close to your location. Now let’s see how the NH-L12 performs.

With the i5-760 left at stock settings the NH-L12 easily outperforms the stock Intel cooler even without the NF-F12 installed.

While the NH-L12 is not really designed with overclocking in mind I of course had to test it to see how it performs. With dual load temperatures hitting 83C I did not try with just a single fan. The NH-L12 might be up for a mild overclock but is not ready for anything intensive.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7