Noctua NL-LC1-36 AIO Water Cooler Review

Noctua has been knocking things out of the park lately.  A couple years ago they partnered with ASUS to provide Noctua fans for their RTX 50-Series graphics cards.  Later they started providing fans the Seasonic Prime tx-1600 Noctua Edition power supply and earlier this year I did a review of the Antec Flux Pro Antec Edition.  For the most part these are factory components that have been treated with some Noctua flair, colors and fans.  Of course, we all know Noctua as a premier designer of high-end air coolers which begged the question, “When will we see a Noctua Edition AIO?”

Well, the wait is over.  During Computex 2026 I was introduced to the Noctua NL-LC1-36 AIO Watercooler.  Under the covers this is an Asetek AIO that has been treated with several Noctua upgrades.

The most obvious of upgrades is the inclusion of the NF-A12x25 G2 PWM fans.  These are the latest generation of rotational air movers and are some of the best fans on the market when it comes to cooling efficiency and noise suppression.

To upgrade the pump block you will find a variety of changes.  The most obvious is the pump cover that is a decorative stand for the NL-ACF1 Auxiliary Cooling Fan allowing the fan to be positioned high enough away from the motherboard to provide VRM and system cooling and low enough to still be out of the way.  Of course, if you don’t have a ACF1 fan you can install the metal Noctua decorative logo and make sure it is positioned in the right orientation.  Under the pump cover you will find an acoustic damper designed to reduce pump noise for quieter operation.

In addition, the mounting system has been upgraded to the proven SecuFirm2+ mounting system which supports multiple sockets and allow for future upgrades similar to the popular air-cooled line of products.

In this review I tested the cooler in its default configuration.  You see at the back of the pump block between the hoses there is a three-position switch.  Think of this as a RPM speed controller for the AIO pump.  From the factory this switch is set to “Quiet” and will limit the speed of the pump motor to around 2000 rpm.  That still provides decent performance while also making the LC1 extremely quiet. 

During my testing I noticed two things.  First, the efficiency of the pump block and radiator is extremely good and with the system under load you can feel the heat on one side of the radiator while the other side is completely cool.  Sadly, due to the low water flow the thermals suffered.  This was further amplified during the overclocking test with a C/W rating of 0.3, which is quite bad for a 360mm AIO.  Moving the switch from Quiet to Manual allowed the pump to ramp up to 3500 rpm and lowered the Overclocked load temps to just 5 degrees more than the default clocks.  More flow, better performance.  The drawback, the pump was quite loud and could be heard over the faster moving G2 fans.

Overall, I am pleasantly surprised to see the first generation AIO from Noctua.  It has all of the technology you would expect from Noctua and is faithful to their design aesthetic and principles to minimize noise and maximize efficiency.  I did find that overall thermal performance did suffer in the default pump configuration but the middle position switch does a great job at splitting the difference and is further enhanced by PWM speed controls.  The new NL-LC1 is available in three different sizes, 360mm, 240mm and 420mm supporting all major builds and configurations.  Combine any one of those coolers with the excellent Noctua G2 fans and the NL-ACF1 accessory fan and you have a really nice AIO setup for any build.

Noctua Quality
NF-A12x25 G2 Fans
Pump Noise Absorber
NL-ACF1 Auxiliary Fan Option
Three Speed Pump Control

Quiet speed option is quite warm
Pump is noticeably loud on high speeds