- Apr 7, 2009
- 59
- 0
- 18,630
Hi all, just wanted to share my experience with my first aftermarket cooler. I got a great boxing day deal on the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 ($30 at NCIX, I waited in the cold for an hour and a half for it). I installed it over the weekend, and it was a bit of a hassle . Thought I would share in case anybody else is considering the same combo.
My relevant specs: I'm running a Phenom II X3 720 on an ASUS M4A78T-E motherboard (that's the 790GX chipset), with OCZ Reaper PC12800 RAM, in a CoolerMaster 690 case.
-------------------
1. Removing motherboard: First of all, installing the NH-U12P requires taking out the motherboard, which is a bit of a hassle. The hassle was made worse by the fact that I hadn't put the standoffs in tight enough, so they came up when I unscrewed the board (my bad). The upside is that the mounting system is very stable once it's on.
2. Processor nightmare: Second, the stock heatsink was stuck to my processor, so the processor got torn of its socket when I pulled up the heatsink. I lucked out and none of the pins were bent. Obviously that has nothing to do with the U12P, but it was hella scary. Remember to warm up the processor a bit beforehand and twist rather than pulling straight up!
3. Thermal paste: Once I got the processor cleaned off and back in place, I had a bit of trouble applying the thermal paste that came with the cooler. You have to poke a hole in the end of the syringe (I think?), but it didn't say that anywhere so I had to tinker with it a bit and got my hands dirty before I figured it out.
4. Mounting: Actually mounting the heatsink was no problem, and it feels very secure on my board. All the parts I needed were there and the instructions were clear.
5. Orientation: I expected to be able to mount the heatsink so it blew front-to-back. Turns out this is possible on Intel systems, but the AMD mounting system only allows one orientation: bottom-to-top.
6. Blocked RAM Having to orient the heatsink this way means that the fattest part of the fin assembly goes completely across the first two memory slots. My OCZ Reaper RAM has tall heatpipes so there was no chance they'd have clearance. Not sure if there would be clearance under the fins for any RAM, but maybe. Anyway, I moved my sticks to the second pair of slots, but this is not ideal performance-wise.
7. Cooling: On the upside, my temps are now way down - I topped out at 37C after running Prime95 for 6 hours @ 3.6 GHz. With the stock cooler it was pushing 60C on a 3.4GHz clock. Basically my overclocking is limited by core stability rather than temps now, and 3.6GHz seems to be the limit.
8. Noise: However, the two premium fans that came with the cooler are not as quiet as I expected when running at full power. I think I'll attach the low-noise adapter to cut the speed and noise a bit. Since Noctua fans are supposed to be some of the most quiet available, this was a bit disappointing.
9. Conclusion: If you have a system like mine, the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 is a pretty good choice but not a perfect one. It includes two premium fans and all the mounting hardware needed for AMD motherboards (even a little screwdriver). However, you have to unscrew the motherboard to install it, it can only be oriented to move air vertically in AMD systems, and it blocks the first pair of memory slots (at least if you have big heatsinks on your RAM). It is built well and achieves awesome cooling that goes beyond the needs of my hardware. So, for $30, I still feel like it was a good buy, but I'm not sure I would pay the regular $80+ for this much hassle and compromise.
Disclaimer: This was my first aftermarket cooler, so I have nothing to compare it with. I'm also aware that many of the problems I had were my own fault due to lack of preparation and my choice of RAM with big heatsinks (I got an amazing price on them for their speed). I don't count my opinion as authoritative and I'm happy to be corrected if I could have done something differently. However, I hope that people with similar hardware and experience level will benefit from my experience. Thanks for reading.
My relevant specs: I'm running a Phenom II X3 720 on an ASUS M4A78T-E motherboard (that's the 790GX chipset), with OCZ Reaper PC12800 RAM, in a CoolerMaster 690 case.
-------------------
1. Removing motherboard: First of all, installing the NH-U12P requires taking out the motherboard, which is a bit of a hassle. The hassle was made worse by the fact that I hadn't put the standoffs in tight enough, so they came up when I unscrewed the board (my bad). The upside is that the mounting system is very stable once it's on.
2. Processor nightmare: Second, the stock heatsink was stuck to my processor, so the processor got torn of its socket when I pulled up the heatsink. I lucked out and none of the pins were bent. Obviously that has nothing to do with the U12P, but it was hella scary. Remember to warm up the processor a bit beforehand and twist rather than pulling straight up!
3. Thermal paste: Once I got the processor cleaned off and back in place, I had a bit of trouble applying the thermal paste that came with the cooler. You have to poke a hole in the end of the syringe (I think?), but it didn't say that anywhere so I had to tinker with it a bit and got my hands dirty before I figured it out.
4. Mounting: Actually mounting the heatsink was no problem, and it feels very secure on my board. All the parts I needed were there and the instructions were clear.
5. Orientation: I expected to be able to mount the heatsink so it blew front-to-back. Turns out this is possible on Intel systems, but the AMD mounting system only allows one orientation: bottom-to-top.
6. Blocked RAM Having to orient the heatsink this way means that the fattest part of the fin assembly goes completely across the first two memory slots. My OCZ Reaper RAM has tall heatpipes so there was no chance they'd have clearance. Not sure if there would be clearance under the fins for any RAM, but maybe. Anyway, I moved my sticks to the second pair of slots, but this is not ideal performance-wise.
7. Cooling: On the upside, my temps are now way down - I topped out at 37C after running Prime95 for 6 hours @ 3.6 GHz. With the stock cooler it was pushing 60C on a 3.4GHz clock. Basically my overclocking is limited by core stability rather than temps now, and 3.6GHz seems to be the limit.
8. Noise: However, the two premium fans that came with the cooler are not as quiet as I expected when running at full power. I think I'll attach the low-noise adapter to cut the speed and noise a bit. Since Noctua fans are supposed to be some of the most quiet available, this was a bit disappointing.
9. Conclusion: If you have a system like mine, the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 is a pretty good choice but not a perfect one. It includes two premium fans and all the mounting hardware needed for AMD motherboards (even a little screwdriver). However, you have to unscrew the motherboard to install it, it can only be oriented to move air vertically in AMD systems, and it blocks the first pair of memory slots (at least if you have big heatsinks on your RAM). It is built well and achieves awesome cooling that goes beyond the needs of my hardware. So, for $30, I still feel like it was a good buy, but I'm not sure I would pay the regular $80+ for this much hassle and compromise.
Disclaimer: This was my first aftermarket cooler, so I have nothing to compare it with. I'm also aware that many of the problems I had were my own fault due to lack of preparation and my choice of RAM with big heatsinks (I got an amazing price on them for their speed). I don't count my opinion as authoritative and I'm happy to be corrected if I could have done something differently. However, I hope that people with similar hardware and experience level will benefit from my experience. Thanks for reading.
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