It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Well, at least for those of us that want a Noctua CPU cooler but don’t like their color scheme. Noctua is introducing three classic CPU coolers as chromax.black variants: the renown NH-D15, NH-U12S, and the NH-L9i. With this release, Noctua covers the enthusiast, mid-tier, and low-profile sizes, so there should be something here for most folks.
The chromax.black series of CPU coolers are for all intents and purposes identical to their original counterparts, with the only difference being that their heatsinks are coated in black, and the fans are blacked out too. Stealthy!
“Our customers have been asking us for all-black coolers for a long time, but we’re soldering the fins to the heatpipes in order to guarantee optimal performance over many years of usage and this production process is difficult to combine with coatings,” explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). “It took a lot of time and engineering work to find an appropriate coating material and production process that gave us satisfactory thermal performance and consistent visual appearance. Now, we’re proud with the end result and confident that the new chromax.black coolers will meet the high standards Noctua users have come to expect.”
If you’re wondering what took so long, having spoken with Noctua on multiple occasions, it’s become clear that they don’t settle for anything less than perfection. The company would rather take years to work on perfecting a product than to rush it to the market prematurely simply because everyone wants it. This also makes sense with the chromax.black series: coatings on heatsinks typically reduce their thermal conduction.
| NH-D15 | NH-U12S | NH-L9i | |
| Fan Size | 140mm | 120mm | 92mm |
| Fan RPM | 300 – 1500RPM | 300 – 1500RPM | 600 – 2500RPM |
| Noise Level | 24.6dBA | 22.4dBA | 23.6dBA |
| Heatpipes | 6 | 5 | 2 |
| Height | 160mm | 158mm | 37mm |
| Warranty | 6 Years | 6 Years | 6 Years |
| Price | $99.90 | $69.90 | S49.90 |
All the units come with low-noise adapters that reduce the fan’s maximum fan speed to 1200RPM (1800 for the NH-L9i), as well as a tube of Noctua’s NT-H1 thermal compound, the SecuFirm2 mounting kit, black screws for the fans, and a metal case badge. The units also all have compatibility with most modern sockets including Intel LGA2066, LGA2011-0, LGA2011-3 (Square ILM), and AMD AM4.
The first 5000 units each of the NH-D15 and the NH-U12S shipped worldwide will come as ‘Linus Tech Tips’ limited edition, which means they come with extra orange anti-vibration pads. Don’t worry; the black ones are included, too. All of the units are available immediately, and if you’re interested, you’ll also be able to purchase the anti-vibration pads in black, blue, green, red, white, and yellow.