Noctua NH-U12A vs NH-C14s?

Hardware Cooling
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First post here,

I recently picked a silverstone RL06 GP (3x intake fans, 1x exhaust and I plan on adding 1 top exhaust fan). It appears I’m limited to 158mm cooler height i’m trying to decide between Noctua NH-U12A ($130 CAD ) vs NH-C14s ($95 CAD).

This will be cooling a ryzen 3000 or the upcoming ryzen 4000 (12c/24t to 16c/32t undecided).

The reviews I’ve read seem to give the C14s a slight edge for CPU/VRM cooling but will the downfiring airflow disrupt the GPU cooling performance? Would the use of SP fans on the exhaust/top help if this is an issue? Am i better off going with the NH-U12A?

thoughts?

thank you

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I have the NH-C14S in a mini ITX build and can tame the 3900x . But my case cannot take a cooler taller than 148mm . If you can fit it (and afford it) go for the NH-U12A - it’s even better (better even than many AIOs) …

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Not in a way that matters

2 Likes
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Hello, welcome, run while you can…
Just kidding, walk normally. If you run you may trip and hurt yourself…

Try and find U12S… It’s pretty much the same cooler as the U12A just with different fans.
I’m not 100% sure but you may be able to stuff an NH-D14 in there. The cooler is pretty much the height of 120mm cooler with 140mm fan, so there’s that.

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U12s maybe a good idea since i already have a spare NF-F12 PWM fan. I was originally planning on swapping the rear exhaust fan with my spare NF-F12

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sent the question to Noctua, i’m curious to see their thoughts on the comparison.

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"Greetings from Noctua!

Thank you very much for contacting us.

The Noctua NH-U12A cooler is our recommendation.

Kind regards,

Kadir Gürbüz

Your Noctua Support-Team"

Now i just have to decide between the Noctua NH-U12A and the NH-U12s(in push/pull since i have an extra NF-F12 PWM)

Part of me thinks the U12S would be sufficient since i’ll be using one of the highest airflow cases in the market today (RL06).

I would grab a Fuma 2 if i could find one in Canada for a reasonable price (impossible to date)

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