Hardware Bistro

Product: NH-U12P
Manufacturer: Noctua
Supplied by: Noctua
Price: 64.9USD/RM233
Launch Date: NA

 

We have reviewed several products from Noctua and we would like to remark that their products are always come with good quality and outstanding performance. Today we'll take a step forward to review their CPU cooler; NH-U12P which is the replacement of their previous great NH-U cooler. Let us examine this cooler further to see whether it is worth its value or not.

 

Company Profile

Noctua arises from a cooperation between the Austrian Rascom Computerdistribution Ges.m.b.H and the Taiwanese Kolink International Corporation and entertains a development partnership with the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology (Österreichisches Institut für Wärmeübertragung und Ventilatorentechnik, ÖIWV). These connections form the key to the achievement of our goal: The partnership with the ÖIWV permits the application of scientific measurement instrumentation, methods of calculation and simulation technology in the R&D process.

Rascom's long, customer-oriented experience in developing and distributing sound-optimised high-end products ensures a clear focus on the users' needs. The use of Kolink's advanced manufacturing technology and ultra-modern production plants allows us to efficiently implement our technical edge and provide solutions of the highest standard in quality and performance.

Features

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Noctua NH-U12P comes with a luxury packaging box and it is a bit bigger than those other similar tower coolers; 16.5 x 16.5 x 19.5 mm. There is a small window in front of the packaging box where the Noctua NF-P12 fan is shown. Inside the packaging box, there are two smaller boxes; one for accessories and one for heatsink and fan.

 

Besides the heatsink and fan there are plenty of accessories that are bundled together with Noctua NH-U12P such as user's manual, NT-H1 thermal compound, fan speed reduction cables, 90° mounting-tool, and mounting bracket kits for Intel LGA775 and AMD AM2. Intel Core i7 mounting bracket kit is missing here but Noctua has released another version of NH-U12P; NH-U12P SE1366 which contains this latest socket.

 

Both of the AMD and Intel mounting kits are segregated into two bags for better identification. Great to know that Noctua has included a tube of NT-H1 which is one of the top thermal compounds and this thermal compound alone already costs around 10USD. Four steel clips are included as Noctua NH-U12P can support two 120mm fans; each fan requires two clips. Low-noise adapter and ultra-low-noise adapter are provided as well to reduce the fan noise further.

 

The user's manual of NH-U12P is a very unique user's manual where the booklet can separated into two portions; left for AMD AM2+ installation guide while right for Intel LGA775+. All the installation steps are described very well with pictures; you may download the user's manual through Noctua website. The unique supplied mounting-tool is used to fasten the spring screws on the mounting bracket. Same with other Noctua products, NH-U12P also comes with six years warranty.

 

Noctua NH-U12P

 

There is no doubt that Noctua NH-U12P is a very charming CPU heatsink cooler with its shinning nickel coating. You may not surprise if you have seen any of Noctua CPU cooler before as the design of this latest series of CPU cooler are quite similar with its previous predecessors such as NH-C12P and NH-U9B. One of the major differences for NH-U12P and its predecessor is the heat pipes of NH-U12P are nickel coating which looks nicer and won't get corrupted.

 

Noctua NH-U12P's fins are made by aluminum material which has great heat dissipation factor with acceptable price. All these fins are joined at both sides of the NH-U12P heatsink to strengthenits  structure so that they will not be damaged easily. Both of the front and back sides of the heatsink are identical as they can support dual 120mm fan.

 

The dimension and weight of Noctua NH-U12P are 158 x 126 x 71 mm (without fan) and 600g. The weight is quite standard for a tower CPU cooler but you may notice that the depth is a bit smaller compare with other similar coolers as Noctua has reduced its depth so that dual fans can be supported without causing any incompatible issue. Here is the top surface of Noctua NH-U12P and there is a very nice Noctua logo on it. There are four screw holes at each side of the top surface and it is used with 90° mounting-tool to fasten the spring screw on the mounting bracket.

 

Noctua NH-U12P is a tower CPU cooler and it comes with four heat pipes which are bent into U-shape for greater efficiency. All these four heat pipes of Noctua NH-U12P are made by copper but coated with nickel surface. Besides that these heat pipes were soldered joints with the aluminum fins so that the heat will be transferred in more effective way.

Noctua NH-U12P has nickel plating and it has been improved for better compatibility with its raised fin-stack as most of the mainstream to high end motherboards have very tall chipset coolers. Noctua NH-U12P is compatible with Intel Socket LGA 775, AMD AM2 & AM2+ and Intel Intel Core i7 socket; but a standalone LGA1366 mounting-kit need be purchased separately or purchase NH-U12P SE1366 model which comes with LGA1366 mounting-kit as well as dual NF-P12.

 

The base of Noctua NH-U12P is same with its heat pipes where it is made by copper material but nickel coated. The base's finishing of Noctua NH-U12P isn't very shinning but its finishing is considered quite good and above average compare with other similar heatsinks. Heat pipt direct contact design is being widely used on most of the latest heat sink as it can transfer the heat from the processor to the heatsink more effectively; not sure whether Noctua will design such heatsink but let us wait for it.

 

A Noctua NF-P12 is included for Noctua NH-U12P but for Noctua NH-U12P SE1366, it comes with dual NF-P12 for extreme performance. Noctua NF-P12 is a nine blades 120mm fan that comes with vortex control notches to keep the noise low while not impacting the performace. Refer here for a complete review on this fan.

 

Here are a trial installation of Noctua NH-U12P with fan, mounting components and etc. Noctua NH-U12 looks very nice especially with Noctua NF-P12 which comes with very unique and attractive coler scheme. The overall dimension and weight of this cooler with the fan will be 158 x 126 x 95 mm and 770g and if dual NF-P12 fans are used then it will be 158 x 126 x 119 mm and 940g.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

For those giant tower CPU coolers especially those can support multiple sockets, the installation process will be much complicated and this is same for Noctua NH-U12P. First of all the LGA fastening brackets (for Intel LGA775 setup) are required to be installed on Noctua NH-U12P' base with four screws before it can be fastened with the backplate and LGA mounting bars.

 

Next will be LGA mounting bars and LGA backplate installation on the motherboard with four screws. Self-adhesive washers are necessary to be placed in between the LGA mounting bars and the motherboard. Heatsink alignment is important and if the there isn't any compatible issue, Noctua NH-U12P should be installed in such way where the airflow is flowing from front case to rear case to optimize the cooling efficiency.

 

Here are the closer views of LGA mounting bars and backplate installations. The spring screws are fastened on the mounting bars with the help of supplied 90° mounting-tool. It is advisable and easier to install the naked heatsink of Noctua NH-U12P on the motherboard first without the installed fan on it.

 

Please refer to these two pictures for further detail on the fan installation on Noctua NH-U12P. Before the fan is mounted on the heatsink, it is good to apply the anti-vibration strips on the heatsink first to reduce the noise that is generated by the fan on the heatsink. After that the fan is attached on the heatsink by using 2 steel clips for each fan.

 

Here are the views of the completed installation of Noctua NH-U12P on our test bed. Everything looks perfect but the fan installation on the heatsink might take some time since we have installed the naked heatsink on the motherboard first. Installation is not very difficult but for improvement (Kaizen purpose), we hope Noctua will always improve and design better installation method that will benefit the users.

 

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3
Heatsink: NorthQ Siberian Tiger Water Cooler
Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2 Memory
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: OEM Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
PSU: In Win Commander 1200W
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW HLDS
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2
Benchmark Software: Prime95
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

For the testing purpose, we have compared Noctua NH-U12P with the rest of the popular and great tower heat pipe coolers such as Tuniq Tower120, Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer. Among all these high end CPU coolers, Noctua NH-U12P is no the champion this round with around 2° lagging behind during full load. However please bear in mind that Noctua NH-U12P that we have setup is only comes with a single 120mm fan; NF-P12 and it has smaller fin's surface in order to allow for dual 120mm fans supportability. We highly confidence that Noctua NH-U12P can achieve 2-3° better with adding another NF-P12 fan or change to stronger RPM fan based on our experience as the RPM of NF-P12 is lower than the rest of the cooler' fans (1300RPM vs 2000RPM). Last but not least, Noctua NH-U12P has noise level around 40dB during full load with a single NF-P12, this is acceptable for such good results and most of the other performance coolers are having more than 50dB which is quite annoying if it is operated in such noise level for all day long.

 

Conclusion

Overall we are happy to see that Noctua has produced another great product; NH-U12P. Noctua NH-U12P is a stylish tower heat pipe CPU cooler with great performance and acceptable noise. Besides that dual 120mm fans can be supported for extreme performance. The bundled accessories are very completed and great to see some other good products are included such as noise reducetion cables, NH-P12 (120mm fan) and NT-H1 (thermal compound). With its price of around 65USD, it is not so cheap compare with other similar CPU coolers but if you are looking for an upgradable heatsink or dual 120mm fan supportability than Noctua NH-U12P should be one of your good choices.

Pros:

* Stylish looking tower heat pipe CPU cooler
* Four U-shape heat pipes; copper material & nickel coated
* Great performance with minimal noise
* Dual 120mm fan are supported
* Comes with NH-P12; great & silent fan
* Comes with NT-H1; great thermal compound
* comes with two noise reduction adapters; low & ultra low
* SE1366 is available for purchase separately

Cons:

* Complicated installation

 

Thanks to Noctua for providing this sample for us to review.

 

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