Noctua NH-C12P CPU cooler review

Page 4 - Performance tests

Now that we've placed the cooler, we can continue with the tests, but first some info about the important hardware used in the test.

• CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8500
• Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E WIFI-AP

We will use the following coolers in comparison:

• Intel box cooler for the E8500
• Evercool Buffalo
• Noctua NH-U12P
• Cooler Master Hyper Z600

For the testing of Noctua NH-C12P we checked how the cooler will manage cooling the CPU at it's standard FSB, as well as after a good overclocking.

To test in IDLE mode, we left it running 6-7 minutes after the stress test w/o any load. For the stress test we used the RealTemp 2.70 data (probably the best software to measure temperature for 45nm CPUs), and after 30 mins of working with OCCT 2.0. this is what we got. As you can see the temperature is in CELSIUS above room temperature, and with that we exclude the influence of the environment which makes for better and more accurate tests.

The first test is a bit disappointing because the cooler performed just like the Evercool Buffalo, which is 4 times cheaper, but was somewhat loud, whereas the Noctua cooler you'd have to check to see if it's running...it's so quiet.

A little voltage and a little FSB and NH-C12P is back in the game.

The higher the heat becomes, the more in front the Noctua NH-C12P is. This explains the first two tests (at default and at 3750MHz) ,because the radiator of NH-C12P is lighter than the Noctua NH-U12P with about 20% and about 50% lighter then the Z600, and at the same time the Evercool Buffalo has a powerful and noisy fan which cools the radiator better at low FSB. That way the cooler retains more heat, gives slightly higher temp readings, but still has the capacity to cool more.

For 4250MHz a much higher voltage is needed - 1.4V for the CPU to be stable during the tests. Noctua NH-C12P performed brilliantly, and was only one degree behind Cooler Master Hyper Z600 which weighs half a kilo more!