Reviews & awards

You see, Noctua just doesn't roll out products based on hype; they take their time fine-tuning and optimizing every bit of their solutions until it's perfect. That's why the company is known to delay its products by several years if not months, but each of those times is an opportunity for the engineers to work towards a product that promises to deliver the Noctua experience that we have come to know over the decades.

So the company finally rolled out the NL-LC1 series, its first AIO in 25+ years since its inception as a cooling manufacturer, and boy oh boy, these coolers are seriously impressive. From the build quality to the engineering on display, Noctua has left nothing unchecked.

When I state the Noctua Experience, it starts right when you open the box, from the premium packaging to the countless accessories, it's all perfect. Noctua's use of its latest fans, on Asetek's latest pump, with its latest sound-cancelling technologies, is a work of art.

In our tests, the 360mm radiator offered the best performance across all other 360 variants that we tested, and the 420mm then adds some more of that cooling expertise to the mix. Both AIOs offered superb noise levels, the lowest that we have ever witnessed across multiple AIOs that we have tested in the past. SecuFirm+ also offers an easy installation procedure, and the fact that the NL-LC1 is compatible with Intel's next-gen socket makes it a great choice. Noctua coolers have always adopted a forward-looking approach with existing AM5 and LGA 1851 sockets, and the NL-LC1 continues with that approach.

The separately sold VRM fans also proved to offer 4-6C lower VRM temps while producing noise that was almost inaudible.

Surely, the price is set at a premium with the 420mm retailing for $279 and the 360mm retailing at $249, plus a further $19.90 for the NL-ACF1 add-on. But Noctua has once again proved that it was just waiting for the right time to enter a very crowded market with a premium product that will cause some head scratching in the AIO segment. Rivaling Noctua's engineering is going to be a huge task for the competitors, and Noctua has made a statement with its first entry, a powerful and low-noise solution, backed by a 6-year warranty, and the promise of quality from a brand that is at the top of the cooling game.