Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler Review

Heatsink Construction & Design

In the past we have seen some big coolers that have weighed way more than this one (take the Scythe Copper Ninja for instance at 1.1KG!) and we have even seen some taller downdraft coolers like the Thermaltake Big Typhoon, and wider ones as well (the Thermaltake DuOrb); but when you add its dimensions all up and then throw in its weight this cooler truly becomes a giant among CPU cooling solutions, downdraft and tower style alike.


All in all the NH-C12P is a 6 heatpipe cooler that is 91mm high (without the fan on it) by 126mm wide by a jaw dropping 152mm deep and weighs in at about 550g (without fan, with the fan its 730grams), so its safe to say this is not some 98lb weakling that gets sand thrown in its face at the beach!


As we said in the beginning of this review this may truly be the first “perfect” downdraft cooler, and the simple reason for this is how it has been designed. Most downdraft coolers are shaped like a giant “C” (this is why Noctua refers to this as their C-series) but this looks like a giant D or F. In a standard downdraft cooler, the heatpipes themselves are expected to take the full weight of the fin assembly as well as their own, this separates the base of the unit from the rest and is the reason we here at HWC usually refer to them as Hybrids (in that they look like a tower cooler that has been bent 90°). Some companies mount small secondary heatsinks on the top of the base to allow the heatpipes and fin cooling assembly to rest on top, but this does little to address the inherent weakness of the design and stop all that metal fatiguing flexing from happening.

What Noctua has done is to incorporate the usually separate base back into the overall design of the cooler. This cooler truly is designed from the ground up to be a downdraft cooler. Now it may sound simple and you may be saying “big deal” but what this has done is to make the NF-C12P one big homogenous unit. This in a nutshell means that there should be no flexing of the assembly and more important any heat that is not sucked away from the base of the unit by the heatpipes can be moved away from it via the approximately 40mm wide section of fins that have been soldered to the base!