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Noctua NH-U9 and NH-U12


Date
: 05/23/06 – 02:06:47 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer:
Noctua

Price:
Noctua NH-U9 – $70

Price:
Noctua NH-U12 – $50

Noctua, a new name for us here at Overclockers Online, first launched their website late October of 2005 and since then, they have been targeting users who demand superior cooling performance and silence alike. To make this possible, Noctua partnered with the Austrian Rascom Computer distribution, the Taiwanese Kolink International Corporation, and the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology to develop high-end sound-conscious cooling products at a low price.

Tower or vertical style coolers are extremely popular among enthusiasts and for a good reason too! Vertical coolers have numerous advantages over conventional coolers, a major one being the ability to directly expel hot air dissipated from the heatsink. The nature of vertical coolers allows the heatsink to be aligned in a manner that removes air that has been heated by the heatsink through an exhaust fan or auxiliary power supply fan instead of recycling it. This type of cooler can also be very tall which increases surface area while leaving only a small footprint. Today, we are going to take a look at two heatsinks from this Austrian company: the NH-U12 which harnesses the power of two 120mm fans and, its sibling, the NH-U9 which utilizes two 92mm fans.

Page 2 : Package

Like Noctua's color scheme, the boxes in which the stars of today's review arrived in are brown, white, and black.

The main panel of the box gives key features, compatibility information, and the product name.

The back of the box sports a more in-depth description of the product including key features in four languages, various pictures, size specifications, weight, socket types, box content, and fan type.

Inside the box, the contents are secured with thick folded cardboard.

Also included are a color manual, backplates, various mounting hardware, and four fan clips. Before we get into the installation, let us first take a look at both coolers' specifications.

Page 3 : Specifications

First, we will start by hearing what Noctua has to say about the NH-U9:

Socket compatibility:
Intel Sockel 478 & LGA 775, AMD K8

Height (without fan):
128 mm

Width (without fan):
95 mm

Depth (without fan):
70 mm

Height (with fan):
128 mm

Width (with fan):
95 mm

Depth (with fan):
95 mm

Weight:
570 g

Material
Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminum (cooling fins), soldered joints

Application:
P4 all frequencies, AMD all frequencies

Fan size:
92x92x25mm / 80x80x25mm

Fan:
none

And then the NH-U12:

Socket compatibility:
Intel Socket 478 & LGA 775, AMD K8

Height (without fan):
155 mm

Width (without fan):
124 mm

Depth (without fan):
70 mm

Height (with fan):
155 mm

Width (with fan):
124 mm

Depth (with fan):
95 mm

Weight:
700 g

Material
Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminum (cooling fins), soldered joints

Application:
P4 all frequencies, AMD all frequencies

Fan size:
120x120x25mm, 120x120x35mm (2 fans mountable)

Fan:
none

Both of these heatsinks utilize four U-shaped heatpipes to transfer heat from the base of the heatsink up to the 38 aluminum fins attached to the heatpipes with soldered joints where fans attached with wire clips and anti-vibration strips can dissipate the heat. Like the vast majority of vertical heatsinks, though tall, they leave a relatively small footprint so there should be no compatibility issues with surrounding components.

Page 4 : Package Contents

Now that we have taken a look at the features and specifications, lets jump straight into the review! Included inside both packages is a bag of hardware, thermal paste, a manual, and the heatsink itself.

If the NH-U9 isn't big enough already, the NH-U12 which towers over the NH-U9 is sure to please even the most demanding overclocker.

At first glance these heatsinks may be mistaken as passive heatsinks due to their size and the absence of mounting holes for fans, but these are by no means passive heatsinks! These heatsinks are designed to harness the power of two fans in order to maximize their cooling abilities. Fan clips which were made popular by Thermalright are adopted and implemented into these coolers enabling the user to quickly, and tool-lessly attach fans.

Vertical style coolers rely heavily on heatpipes to transfer heat from the base up to the numerous fins hovering above; that is why the contact between the base and heatpipes can be no less than superb. Noctua has soldered the heatpipes to the copper base in order to ensure excellent thermal conductivity.

The base of the heatsink is extremely well done, which is fairly uncommon nowadays; the finish is mirror-like and the surface is extremely flat and smooth.

If you have been carefully looking at the pictures, you are probably wondering how these coolers are mounted. If you look closely at the base, you will see two threaded holes, these are for the metal U plates. We will discuss this further in the installation section.

Though neither of the two Noctua heatsinks are shipped with fans, Noctua included two Coolink 92mm and 120mm fans for us.

An expansion slot bracket, a potentiometer, and screws are included with each fan.

Now, head on over to the next section and we will get right into the installation process!

Page 5 : Installation

Both the Noctua NH-U9 and NH-U12 are mounted with screws – because of this, a custom back plate needs to be installed and a complete system disassembly is required. First, begin by removing the retention module, and then remove the motherboard.

With the motherboard removed, replace the current back plate with the appropriate Noctua back plate.

Next, apply a pea sized drop of thermal compound on top of the CPU and spread it with the base of the heatsink.

In order to mount the heatsink onto the back plate the metal U plates will have to first be attached to the heatsink.

Then, place the heatsink on top of the CPU and secure it in place with the included screws.

Lastly, attach your choice of fans, plug them into either a 3 pin motherboard header or power supply, and you're set!

If your case has a removable motherboard tray, it may be a good idea when installing the NH-U12 to have the motherboard tray inside the case first. The height of the heatsink may physically obstruct the installation of the motherboard tray.

In comparison to the NH-U12, the NH-U9 is relatively small and should pose no space or compatibility problems, however with the NH-U12, I did encounter a slight problem. The NH-U12 is by no means a small cooler – it towers over the motherboard…

…and hangs over the RAM slots. This may pose a problem when removing or installing memory modules while the cooler is installed, especially when installing memory modules with heat spreaders.

Regardless, these minor issues can be overcome by simply removing the cooler prior to the installation or removal of memory modules. Now, head on over the next page for some performance numbers.

Page 6 : Testing Setup

To ensure thermal saturation, load temperatures will be measured after a 24 hour period of Folding@Home and Prime 95. Then, the system will be left to idle for two hours with all unnecessary tasks ended. Temperatures will be measured with both a CompuNurse digital thermometer which is accurate within two degrees and resolves to the tenth of a digit and Motherboard Monitor 5. Throughout testing, ambient temperatures remained at 21 degrees Celsius.

First, we will start with system specifications:

Both the NH-U9 and the NH-U12 performed extraordinarily well, originally my intentions were to pair the NH-U9 with the XP90 and the NH-U12 with the XP120, but even the NH-U9 ended up performing better than the XP120 which was equipped with a 120mm fan!

As expected, the Noctua heatsinks gave both highly regarded Thermalright heatsinks quite a run for their money; the increased surface area, airflow pattern, and heatpipes definitely played a major role here!

In this review we did not do any actual sound level tests because sound level depends entirely on the choice of fans. However, as the graph suggests, there is little performance change between low output and high output fans. Depending on the choice of fans, these heatsinks can be virtually inaudible!

Page 7 : Conclusion

So what is the final verdict? Performance, sound level, compatibility, and the installation process are among some of the most important factors involved with a heatsink. Both of these vertical style heatsinks by Noctua excelled in these areas; anything short of spectacular would be an understatement.

It is rare to come across a heatsink that not only performs astoundingly well, but is extremely quiet as well. It is also remarkable when a cooler embarrasses a Thermalright heatsink, and it's an incredible feat when all this is accomplished by a company only entering the performance cooling market. Noctua did it all. Noctua may be a new company, but they are here to stay and have entered with quite a bang! I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what else Noctua has up their sleeves.

NH-U12

Advantages:

• Performance
• Efficiency
• Easy secure installation
• Large size and surface area

  Disadvantages:

• Price
• Availability

  NH-U9

  Advantages:

• Performance
• Efficiency
• Easy secure installation

  Disadvantages:

• Availability

  Overclockers Online would like to thank Noctua for making this review possible.