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Noctua NH-U12P CPU Heatsink with/ Additional Fan
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Packing
Do not let the exterior of the packaging throw you off. Although the exterior appears to be plain, the interior is packed with many goodies. Inside of the box, there are two boxes, one with the heatsink and the fan, and the other with the AMD and Intel installation kits, a screw driver, and the thermal compound. The thing that attracted me the most about this packaging was the labeling. Although it was already apparent which kit was to go on which socket, it was nice for Noctua to label the bags so that there would be no confusion over which kit goes in whichever socket.
Installation
Overall the installation was quite smooth. The cross shaped X went fit perfectly into over the holes around the processor and because of the thermal adhesive, it was fixed in place thus making it much easier to fit in the rails and screws on the other side. Once that was over, the Heatsink fit on top of the rails that were secured by the screws. The folks over at Noctua included a screw driver with the kit to make your life much easier in this step. Because of the size of the cooler and the location of the screws for the heatsink, it would have been much more difficult to affix the heatsink on the delicate processor.
Please be forewarned that because of the size of its size, this heatsink might not fit on some motherboards, or it might not fit in the configuration that you want. If you are using a small case, there might also be an issue with the installation of the power supply. Simply put after I have installed the motherboard into the Ultra Wizard case, I was unable to fit the power supply. To those who are wondering why I chose that particular orientation on the motherboard is because it would not fit in the other direction because of the heatsinks on the motherboard itself.
Testing Rig:
- Tagan Monolize 2 Chassis
- XFX 680i LT Motherboard
- Socket 775 - Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz
- Noctua NH-U12P
- Kingston HYPER-X 1200 MHz RAM @ 800 MHz 4-4-4-12
- WD Raptor 10,000 RPM - 150 GB
- Radeon X550
| Idle (Max) | Load (Max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Noctua | 44 C |
55 C |
As I was finishing up the testing, one particular thought hit, at which point I realized why Noctua sent us an extra fan. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with monster time 2! Two 120mm fans attached in series with the the case fan; and of course, here are the results
| Idle (Max) | Load (Max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Noctua with the extra fan | 42 C |
56 C |
Conclusion
Surprisingly enough there was almost no difference between the 2 fan and 1 fan setup. The 2 fan setup seemed to perform better under idle conditions, however, did not perform up to par with the 1 fan setup under load. In terms of overclocking results where I ran the Q6600 at 3.285 GHz, the 2 fan setup produced 66 C (Max) and 45 C (Max) at load and idle respectively. Overall this is an excellent cooler for performing stock and light overclocked operations. However if you are looking to do more extreme overclocking this setup might limit your options. The 1 fan setup is available at heatsinkfactory.com for 59.99 and the extra fan is available for and extra 20.99 you can buy an additional fan. As far as air heatsinks go, paying $60 plus shipping is considerably expensive and the extra fan does not seem to be very helpful and does make the system louder although, by not much.