Noctua NH-U12F: Quiet Air Cooling from Austria
by Wesley Fink on April 25, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Installation
The installation instructions for the Noctua are so good they should be a model for other cooler manufactures. Details and photographs are in the included manual and they are also available at the Noctua website. You first decide the mount kit you will use and then consider how you want the cooler to be oriented on the motherboard.
Noctua clearly spells out that the motherboard needs to be removed from the case to mount the cooler. For socket 775 the adapter mount can be attached with the mount holes in either direction.
You can use whichever configuration fits your board the best, since Noctua includes two sets of universal mount clips that allow any of the installations to be turned 90 degrees if necessary.
Universal mounting clips, which work with all mount adapters, are then screwed to the heatsink base. Shown are the standard universal mounts, but also included are optional horseshoe or u-shaped mounts, which install on the heatpipe sides and allow the Noctua cooler to be "turned" 90 degrees for mounting.
Self-adhesive elastomeric anti-vibration strips are then attached to the fan side mount(s) as shown.
For most configurations it is much easier to mount the heatsink to the motherboard before installing the fan(s). With the standard universal clips the fan covers the screw used for mounting. With the "horseshoe" shape mounts the supplied screwdriver fits the round holes near the end of the long direction of the heatsink. This allows mounting the cooler even though the heatsink covers the mounting screws.
All of this does not mean the mounting of the Noctua is any easier than some other heatsinks. Manipulating and aligning the under-the-board brace and the aboveboard washers/clips/screws is frankly a pain. The good news is that the only thing you need to install at that step are the small clips - not the huge heatsink. However, the clear instructions make a difficult task more bearable and there's a little less urge to throw things out the window.
While the Noctua NH-U12F is undeniably heavy and large, the back brace and very secure feel of the finished installation does inspire confidence that the cooler is not going to fall off the motherboard. However, as with any large and heavy cooler, you probably should avoid moving the mounted cooler around a great deal, as it could stress the board. None of the large heatpipe towers are really designed for a LAN party computer that is frequently transported.
UPDATE: Noctua has provided the following information on transporting the NH-U12F: "The mounting system of the NH-U12F was designed with LAN gamers in mind and we encourage users not to take the cooler off during transport. With many thousands of coolers sold, we haven't had one single problem from transporting a system with the Noctua cooler."
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tk11 - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Enough with the heat sink reviews. They make something hot, cool... big deal... they're all virtually identical. Please review an interesting or useful technology before we all loose interest in the site.poohbear - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
lol they're all virtually identical eh? u obviously do NOT overclock.tk11 - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Actually I do overclock... by identical I was referring to the lack of innovation. The main differences between these coolers are size and styling, neither of which require technical analysis. Being a long time reader I was simply expressing my lack of interest in the latest series of reviews in hopes that anandtech will return to covering some of the more interesting technologies.LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Speak for thyself, not others. Plenty of people read these; if you don't, feel free to move on.Jesse3G - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
I'm amused that you freely speak for others, but presume to restrict the privlege from another? Your post flirts with hypocrisy and the person you addressed brought up a valid opinion.Personally I'm surprised at the management decision on this cooling coverage. Why handle one at a time when this topic can clearly be consolidated into a comprehensive discussion of cooling??? A true "round-up" would compile all of these reviews into an inclusive article for each major cooling system category, with Anantech's enclosed suggestions of the best setups available.
SurJector - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
That would be nice to have those noise ratings: how does the stock fan compares with the SilenX and how much more noise the push-pull configuration makes ?Thanks for the reviews.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
We did try SilenX with push pull and the noise ratings were still below the system noise floor set by the power supply. Cooling performance was roughly the same as the stock Noctua fans in push-pull and the overclock was not extended, so we saw no reason to pursue it further. The Noctua ultra low noise fan appears to push a lot of air and apparently generates high air pressure compared to some other low noise solutions.puffpio - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
So then..the ultimate review would probably be these Noctua 120mm fans on an Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme in a push pull?poohbear - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
well can u guys bug thermalright for an advance review of their IFX-14? u guys managed to review the TR ultra 120+ early, maybe u can do the same w/ the monstrous IFX-14?Wesley Fink - Friday, April 27, 2007 - link
Thermalright has just advised us that the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme is in full production. The problem with the mounting plate has been corrected in the release cooler."The 775 bracket issue has been addressed and Ultra-120 eXtreme is now in full production. We think it’s even better than the engineering piece you received back then. Would you be able to verify that if we were to send you the “production” sample with its own packaging and all? I think you’ll be pleased to see the results and the improvements."
We have a final production sample with improvements on the way. We also have requested an IFX-14 for review.