NoctuaNH-D12L chromax.Black, Low-Height Dual-Tower CPU Cooler (120mm, Black)

This is legit ten times better than expected. I went with this cpu cooler because I had heard Noctua was worth the price and so far it seems correct. Not only do you get two different options for mounting hardware but you also get thermal paste and a metal Noctua badge that you can put on the case if you'd like. It is really quiet too which surprised me with how big it is. I haven't had any issues with overheating during my several hour long gaming sessions and temps seem to be very stable. The mounting hardware comes with instructions incase you aren't sure which option to go with and also lets you know how tight to fix it. It fit better than I thought it would in an atx sized case with the large size of it but I probably still have 2 inches from the side panel. Also with my motherboard its shorter on the intake side so it doesn't block access to the ram. Very good value for what you pay for.

A new PC build in a Silverstone 4U RM46-502 using a Proart x870E MB, 9950X3D and RTX 5070Ti 16GB OC card required a low profile CPU cooler. Noctua was one of the few that allowed proper 4U case clearance and air flow through case. Heat pipe stubs clear case cover by 4mm. Single 120mm fan and at 1200 rpm, CPU at 95C with 30 CPU threads enabled, 10% overclock and 96% utilization during an hourlong 15000 x 12500 rendering run. With these high temps using only CPU to render, a water block may be a better choice. Using RTX5070Ti 16GB OC 10% with 99% utilization on GPU 58C GPU temp , CPU remained at 76C with 10% utilization during same rendering run using Open CL with GPU only render taking about 10 minutes longer to render same image.

Put this on a Ryzen 5950, non-overclocked, in a SFF case, and it works like a charm. Pretty much as good as the AIO cooler that finally gave out (pump died) after 4 years. Having had a "wet" failure on another brand of AIO that killed the MB and GPU, it's nice to have an option to just use a simple heatsink and fan.

Worked better than my liquid cooler, very impressive and excellent quality

Easy to follow instructions but at the same time easy to misread. The notches the cooler attaches to should be highlighted better. Other than that its super quiet can't hear anything running. The thermal paste that comes with it...while it may be good....the applicator is a mess. It doesn't push the paste out in a drop fashion at all; instead it pushes it out in lines and not slow either. Had to clean up once and reapply. The second application wasn't much better. I did order different paste however they were delivered separately and I had the time today. It should be listed in the product description that it does come with thermal paste.

Ordered this cooler/heatsink because I use them alot on servers as they fit the rack cases we use. Always a great product and they work well.The reason for the 1 star rating is that I paid good money for a NEW unit, but they sent me someone else's garbage return.The heatsink had compound all over it, even on the cooling tubes. But that's not the worst problem. When I opened the harware box, half the mounting hardware and screws were missing. I can clean the heatsink, but at this point this kit is useless.Now I have order another unit and waste another day or two to get this server finished. Hopefully the next one won't be garbage.QUIT SENDING USED RETURNS AS NEW PRODUCTS. IT IS DECEPTIVE AND BASICALLY IT'S FRAUD.

I bought to air cool my AMD 5950X. I had water block on my CPU but my LianLi O11 case only has space for 360 mm radiator top because I use 3 PCIe card (including GPU) so only space for a 120 mm radiator on the bottom. So everything was too hot. My build is intake on bottom and back, air cool the CPU, and water loop radiator for the GPU on the top of the case. My GPU pulls 500W so water cool is more important for that.So far not many cooler options for under 15 cm CPU fan height, but then I saw this NH-D12L... Honestly reviews suggest it's not the best cooler out there but nothing else really fits in this case. So far experience is good. It came with this off-set mounting bracket so it slides down 7 mm to sit on AMD chiplets better. As usual get all the hardware I needed and good thermal paste. If I had suggestion I think should come with spatula to spread the paste. I don't like the dots method that a lot of companies suggest now. But not a huge as matter I have a lot of old gift cards I keep around for this.I'm content with temperature; I think good enough considering my limited options. Before with CPU and CPU in same loop, I was looking at 75°C at least for GPU and I was hitting 90°C on CPU so not great. Now we're at most 50°C for the GPU and 65°C for the CPU.

First time using a Noctua Heatsink, did not know what to expect.At first was worried about the Mounting procedure, but that was a bit easier once I read the instructions.Once it was on the Motherboard (MB), hand tightened without much force on last turns, added the fan back on Plugged it into the MB's CPU Fan header, and then installed everything else.Once I was able to get into Bios, for a heat stress test, turned off my other fans so only this heatsink was available, I let the system get warmer and warmer, so almost 58C, then connected my fans power back and maxed out the cooling in the Bios and in less than 1 minute, it went from 58C to 38C, so literally a 20 degree difference in mere moments.Though I do not recommend doing a heat stress test as that can damage PC parts, I just had to know what this Heatsink could do.I am actually quite happy, also a bonus is that even on full power, I did not hear that much noise, that is this heatsink and 5 Noctua Case fans all at maxed RPM's.The CPU I am using is a Ryzen 9 7950x, so wanted a really good Air Heatsink, and this product delivered.