Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4, Premium CPU Cooler for AMD AM4 (Brown)

I bought this cooler to replace the stock cooler on my AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU. I'm not a gamer so the computer is primarily for business software. I built the computer a few months back and it was very noisy. So I decided to replace the two noisiest components, the power supply and the cooler. First I replaced the power supply since that was the louder of the two. I went for “Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 750W 80+ Gold SLI/Crossfire Ready Ultra Quiet 140mm Hydraulic Bearing Smart Zero Fan Full Modular Power Supply 10 Year Warranty PS-TPD-0750FNFAGU-1 “ This is a fantastic PS, absolutely quiet..5 dB till about 60% (i.e. 450 Watts of quiet power). After replacing the PS, the stock cooler noise became even more irritating. I researched a few different coolers, most of which were in $40-50 range but had a little more noise levels. Since I wanted a very quiet one, I decided to go for Noctau brand based on reviews I had read an a few different websites. I selected Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4 primarily because it is meant for AM4 processors.. This is a BIG cooler, so I looked up for compatibility with my hardware. Even though my motherboard (Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite) did not show up on the list, I measured the space required for the cooler and found it could easily fit.The installation was pretty easy and the manual is well written. My CPU was stuck to the stock cooler when I removed it and had to be careful to pry it free. There are a few Youtube videos that helped with that and the installation. I'm using the Low Noise Adapter (L.N. A.) provided by Noctua which reduces the max speed of the cooler but so far I have not felt the need for higher fan speeds. The cooler is very efficient and QUIET!!! All I hear is a low frequency hum that is barely audible as opposed to the constantly changing noise the stock cooler made as the CPU usage changed. This even quieter than my Dell Latitude 7000 series laptop that at times gets noisy when the fan kicks in. I'm very happy that the noise is eliminated. As for the cooling performance, my CPU idle temp is around 38 deg C and with 33 % CPU usage goes to about 53 - 56 deg C. I think that is good enough for my use. Overall, it was WORTH spending extra $$ and Noctua comes with a 6 yr warranty so that’s another peace of mind.

Short reviewI've used both water cooling and air cooling and this is hands down one of the best coolers I have ever used. The cooler is a bit bigger then expected but that's alright and fits just right with my NZXT elite case. The packaging was great and came with everything needed, especially the AM4 bracket that most coolers do not include right out of the box but require a form to be filled out and a few days for the bracket to be shipped to you. This beast was able to shave off 20c and my cpu rarely goes beyond 50c even when gaming or rendering at 3.7 ghz with a Ryzen 1600x. I was so impressed with Noctuas products I bought additional fans to run a dual fan configuration and it brought normal temps down an additional 6-8c. Highly recommended and I dont miss water cooling one bit.Long reviewI lived in a very hot environment and my Ryzen spire cooler just wasn't cutting it anymore. I was using a Ryzen 1600x (1600x doesn't include the spire cooler but it's a long story) and my temperatures were pretty hot. Gaming could bring it up to 70c and rendering a video in Premiere would run it all the way to 95c before shutting down. I tried premium thermal paste and reinstalling the cooler but nothing changed so I began researching for the best replacement. I spent a couple weeks looking into many options in both water cooling and air cooling such as the Corsair AIOs and many air cooling options. Although I've used water cooling in the past I just couldn't pull the trigger because I did not want to risk any leaking because although the warranty may cover any damages I can't be without my PC for long. Originally I really wanted to purchase the DH-15 to get the biggest and baddest cooler possible I was not able as my ram was not compatible so I settled on the U12S or at least I thought I was settling. This was my first Noctua product and although they have some of the best reviews around the main reason I went with them was this cooler came with the AM4 bracket right out of the box as oppose to buying the cooler and filling out a form to have the company ship one to you. Firstly I was very impressed with the packaging, everything nicely separated making it easy to unbox. Next thing I noticed is just how big this cooler was. Although it uses 120mm fans this thing was solid and I couldn't imagine how big the DH-15 would have been. No issues from the size though and it fit nicely in my NZXT Elite case. Installation was among the easiest of all the coolers I've installed. The most impressive of all and the most important is the performance. This thing is an absolute cooling monster and cut my temperatures while gaming by 20c. I was so impressed with the performance I bought two additional Noctua fans with higher RPMs to run a dual fan configuration and brought temps even lower by about 6-8c. It feels great to game and render video on my Ryzen 1600x at 3.7 at 45c for hours. Money well spent and I'm a fully satisfied customer.