[SOLVED] Cooler master masterair ma612 stealth vs noctua NH-U12A

[noor-eldeen]

Can you guys help me, I need to make a decision between those two coolers on i7-12700K
Is cooler master an excellent manufacturer as Noctua ?
which one is better knowing that CM is a little bit cheaper
and how reliable are their declared numbers ?
Fans MTTF: Noctua 150000h vs CM 160,000h
warranty: Noctua 6 years vs 5y for CM
...
( if cooling performance is close, my priority is the longest lifespan.)

and also what about the fans bearing system, Noctua says (SSO self-stabilising oil-pressure bearing) and CM says (Rifle Bearing) which is better ?

 

[geofelt]

I think you would be pleased by either.
The fan is what could fail and those are easy to replace.
The ma623 is 165mm tall so the better direct comparison would be with the NH-D15.
Here is a review:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooler-master-masterair-ma624-stealth/3

If black color is not important, the noctua coolers in the traditional beige will be considerably cheaper.

 

[noor-eldeen]

I think you would be pleased by either.
The fan is what could fail and those are easy to replace.
The ma623 is 165mm tall so the better direct comparison would be with the NH-D15.
Here is a review:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooler-master-masterair-ma624-stealth/3

If black color is not important, the noctua coolers in the traditional beige will be considerably cheaper.

I'm was thinking of the (ma612) and the NH-U12A single tower coolers -120mm fans
not the bigger dual tower (ma624) vs NH-D15

 

[Phaaze88]

Fans are cheap to replace.

What's the cost between these 2 coolers?
NH-U12A just costs too darn much, IMO. NH-D15S is Noctua's most cost efficient cooler - if it fits in your case; 2mm taller than U12A.

 

[noor-eldeen]

Fans are cheap to replace.

What's the cost between these 2 coolers?
NH-U12A just costs too darn much, IMO. NH-D15S is Noctua's most cost efficient cooler - if it fits in your case; 2mm taller than U12A.

Good fans aren't cheap (noctua kept its prices fixed at 15$ for long with no good offers or
value packs)
-but I am planning to buy arctic x5 pack costs 31$ (120mm pwm) thats 6$ for the fan and I think they make good fans too with 6y warranty
NH-U12A : 120$
Master air ma612 : 105$
NH-D15S : 100$ with one fan only in the middle
(but I want to avoid all the D15 options they are unnecessarily big, ugly and the U12A gives almost the same performance)

 

[Phaaze88]

That's kind of a drop in the bucket if you get several years out of it? ¯\(ツ)/¯
Noctua fans cost as much as they do due to their more stringent quality control, and that increases production costs. They're not completely devoid of lemons, mind you.

the U12A gives almost the same performance

It actually doesn't. It falls behind the big Ds when paired with more extreme, high power cpus under all core loads.

 

[geofelt]

Good fans aren't cheap (noctua kept its prices fixed at 15$ for long with no good offers or
value packs)
-but I am planning to buy arctic x5 pack costs 31$ (120mm pwm) thats 6$ for the fan and I think they make good fans too with 6y warranty
NH-U12A : 120$
Master air ma612 : 105$
NH-D15S : 100$ with one fan only in the middle
(but I want to avoid all the D15 options they are unnecessarily big, ugly and the U12A gives almost the same performance)

My bad. I missed the 12 part.
Noctua maintains a suitability list for different processors.
Here is the one for the 12700K:
https://ncc.noctua.at/cpus/model/Intel-Core-i7-12700K-1579
It would seem that there are many ok coolers.
But, if the 12700K will be used in batch operations where all of the threads can be fully utilized, then I would favor stronger coolers.
Again, you would be happy with either.
Or, for that matter many other similar air coolers.

What case will you be using?
What graphics card?
I ask because many 120mm fans are going to be noisy and there may be better solutions.

Once past OK cooling, what do you care most about?
looks(black/rgb/...) noise, warranty? ease of install or....?

 

[Phaaze88]

Crap! I forgot this:

NH-U12A : 120$
Master air ma612 : 105$

A $15 difference? This may still be a win for Noctua.

 

[noor-eldeen]

My bad. I missed the 12 part.
Noctua maintains a suitability list for different processors.
Here is the one for the 12700K:
https://ncc.noctua.at/cpus/model/Intel-Core-i7-12700K-1579
It would seem that there are many ok coolers.
But, if the 12700K will be used in batch operations where all of the threads can be fully utilized, then I would favor stronger coolers.
Again, you would be happy with either.
Or, for that matter many other similar air coolers.

What case will you be using?
What graphics card?
I ask because many 120mm fans are going to be noisy and there may be better solutions.

Once past OK cooling, what do you care most about?
looks(black/rgb/...) noise, warranty? ease of install or....?

That's kind of a drop in the bucket if you get several years out of it? ¯\(ツ)/¯
Noctua fans cost as much as they do due to their more stringent quality control, and that increases production costs. They're not completely devoid of lemons, mind you.



It actually doesn't. It falls behind the big Ds when paired with more extreme, high power cpus under all core loads.

That's kind of a drop in the bucket if you get several years out of it? ¯\(ツ)/¯
Noctua fans cost as much as they do due to their more stringent quality control, and that increases production costs. They're not completely devoid of lemons, mind you.



It actually doesn't. It falls behind the big Ds when paired with more extreme, high power cpus under all core loads.

I know It falls behind the big Ds with more extreme cpus... that's why I choose the i7 12700k over i9 12900k
the 12900k is really hot and needs a good aio liquid cooler for sure

 

[noor-eldeen]

My bad. I missed the 12 part.
Noctua maintains a suitability list for different processors.
Here is the one for the 12700K:
https://ncc.noctua.at/cpus/model/Intel-Core-i7-12700K-1579
It would seem that there are many ok coolers.
But, if the 12700K will be used in batch operations where all of the threads can be fully utilized, then I would favor stronger coolers.
Again, you would be happy with either.
Or, for that matter many other similar air coolers.

What case will you be using?
What graphics card?
I ask because many 120mm fans are going to be noisy and there may be better solutions.

Once past OK cooling, what do you care most about?
looks(black/rgb/...) noise, warranty? ease of install or....?

If cooling performance is good, then my priority is warranty and quality

• my case is CM Master case pro 5 it's wide enough for taller coolers
• GPU asus rog strix 3080 12gb OC

I don't want D15 or D15s not only for being bulky ..... but I think from what I have read in different reviews that the bigger 140mm dual towers are not a necessity for (i7-12700k) with its maximum TDP of 190w

My first decision was to buy the noctua U12A , then I found that Cooler master gives good warranty too 5y and they claim 160000 mttf of the fans.... so I started to search again and read more reviews to compare them.