Installation

If there is one area which a lot of after market CPU cooling solution providers get wrong it has to be instruction manuals or to be more specific most instruction pamphlets we see (to call them "manuals" would be over inflating the already overinflated) are either poorly written in Engrish or they have been padded under false assumption that quantity can somehow make up for lack of quality. Luckily, Noctua is one of the few exceptions that get it totally and completely right. In fact, we would go so far as to say the installation instructions which come with the Noctua NH-U12P can (and should) be used as shinning examples of what a good manual looks like. The instructions are clearly worded and are backed up with loads of easy too understand pictographs. This combination makes what could be considered a slightly difficult installation process and turns it into a relatively easy one.

As with most aftermarket coolers, the first step in installing the Noctua NH-U12P is to remove your motherboard from the case. When this is completed, one simply tips the motherboard up on its side and places the backplate in position so that its four posts stick up into the four CPU mounting socket holes. Then one simply has to lay the motherboard back down. This quiet honestly is the only difficult part of the whole procedure. But once it is done you are home free.

When the backplate is in position, the next thing one must decide is what orientation one wants the cooler to be in. If you want the heatpipes running from top to bottom you install the two brackets so they are running in a top to bottom orientation. Conversely, if one wants the heatpipes running in a front to back orientation one simply installs the brackets in a front to back orientation. Fairly simple idea isn’t it? However, to make things a little bit more tricky, you have to make sure to install a small red washer between the mounting bracket screw and the motherboard. What this means is as you install each screw (there is two screws to each of the two mounting brackets) you must first thread a washer over the screw and then into the hole so that it can screw into the backplate. It may take a few times for you to get the first one because if the backplate is not lined up perfectly the screw will not “catch” on its threads.


When this is done for the first bracket you simply repeat the now easier procedure for the second bracket. Unlike some other coolers which would have you then install the cooler, with the Noctua one first must install the two mounting “wings” to the bottom of the NH-U12P so that it can be securely fastened to the two mounting brackets. This is easily accomplished by using the four included screws.


When the cooler is ready for installation one simply has to then apply some TIM to the CPU and gently position the two attachment brackets over the mounting brackets and secure them with the included spring retention screws.


To install the fan, you are going to have to install the rubber vibration dampeners unto each side of the heatsink, position the fan over it and then using the two retaining wire brackets hold the fan in place. The wires themselves go into groves in the heatsink itself and while it may look like a kludge but it actually is a very secure way of mounting a fan; better still is the fact both installation and removal is very easy and in the end what more could you ask for than that combination?


In all honesty, if you have never installed a tower style cooler which uses the double bracket mounting option this install may be time consuming and may even border on the frustrating. However, where we installed and reinstalled it eight times over the course of testing it became almost second nature to us, and if one was to time the whole installation process it would clock in at about 11 minutes.