Closer Look / Product Photos
The redux series products are kept in more greyish colors than brownish for the previous series or black for the chromax.black series. The cooler is also in silver-grey colors, so it fits the product line.
As always, in the case of Noctua coolers, the exterior of the box has a full product specification, so we don’t have to check any details on the manufacturer’s website.
The main redux version looks similar to previous versions, and some things suggest its lower price. The cooler is not painted in any way, and heat pipes are not soldered to the fins as in previous cooler versions. The thermal grease is also pre-applied (what you can see in the photos below). At the same time, Noctua is rating this cooler’s performance as high as that of the regular or chromax.black versions. It suggests that the performance is, in fact, high and good enough for processors up to about 200W.
The NH-U12S comes with mounting kits for all popular AMD and Intel platforms. The list is missing the TR4/TRX40 for which are dedicated coolers with a larger base, and AM3, which is already old, and I don’t think that anyone invests in this platform anymore.
The base of the cooler is made of nickel-plated copper. It’s the best option in the mass market. The base is also well-polished. It causes the contact with the CPU to be nearly perfect and, of course, affects the heat transfer.
