Noctua is not pumping out coolers each time at the crack of dawn, however this attitude  truly reflects the dedication and craftmanship their cooler series have. Very innovative ideas and concepts to maximize the cooling performance, yet everything is done to keep the noise level down. At their Computex 2013 booth, Noctua  already displayed some of their new innovative upcoming projects, how about a diamond/copper based base solution ?

But back to the two classic U shaped tower coolers of today: the NH-U12S is a great performer. For it's size and even being equipped with just a single 120mm PWM Fan, it's able to match and even surpass the performance of some of the competitors bigger sized offerings. Motherboard and RAM compatibility, are due to the dimensions of this cooler, excellent. The NH-U12S will be more than sufficient enough to cool down your daily overclocked setups. Even on our 4500MHz running Hexacore Intel i7-3960X the NH-U12S remained stiff competition for the other air coolers in the roundup. Testing the Push and Pull configuration showed there's some minimal gain to achieve. However this at the cost of around 20 euros for a 2nd F12 PWM fan, which in my honest opinion does not weigh up to the performance gain and it might be better to opt straight for it's bigger brother the NH-U14S.

PROS:

• great cooling performance for it's dimensions
• memory and heatsink compatibility
• included silent high pressure fan
• high quality
• 6 year warranty

CONS:

• price is a tad to steep compared to the NH-U14S (5 euros less)
• Other fan colours plz :)

The NH-U14S has performed admirably on our testbed. Topping all the current air coolers we have tested and even coming close to some of the closed and prefilled watercooling solutions. Take note that the latter are running at a far more audible noise level then the silent Noctua solutions. Noctua did great with out of the box RAM compatibility. However we ran into issues when installing the 2nd fan on our LGA 2011 platform, albeit due to the usage of the thicker anti-viration pad. When using the standard pads there was no clearance issue at all. Top notch performance is what you can expect and there will be no doubt, this Noctua NH-U14S does deliver.

PROS:

• high performance cooler
• high quality build
• good compatibility
• silent but powerful Fan
• 6 year warranty
• Great price/performance ratio

CONS:

• LGA2011 compatibility with full slot occupation and PnP setup
  

Noctua has added two great performing cooolers in their lineup. It all starts with the packaging; very classy executed and everything imaginable is in the box, from the cooling paste to voltage reducers to make the setup totally inaudible. The SecuFirm2 mounting mechanism leaves no options open either, being very sturdy and easy to assemble. Optional mounts for legacy platforms are available free of charge via your Noctua contact.

Both coolers are excellent performers, offering good compatibility with most modern hardware. Adding a second optional fan is not a real requirement, but if you want to maximize the performance it will never hurt. These S series coolers again reflect the high quality and innovative engineering from the Austrian Noctua team. Performance at minimal noise level is awaiting you !

I wish to thank Jakob from Noctua for the samples

Sven from ASUS for the X79 Sabretooth motherboard

Gareth Ogden from Corsair for the years of support, good luck man at ASUS UK !

The Team from Tones.be for the years of support !