Installation of NH-U12F Heatsink and Fan

As with any heatsink that sits on a chip core, care must be taken when removing the standard heatsink and fan and then extra care when placing a new CPU cooler on it, the last thing you would want to do is crush the core or break the plastic clips.

The Noctua NH-U12F comes with three sets of fitting kits, one for LGA775, one for AMD AM2 and one set for AMD 754, 939, 940. Unfortunately they don't have a fitting kit for socket 478. Each set came in its own packet so finding the correct components was easy.

However, when it came to fitting the components on the motherboard it was more complicated, so a read of the manual is a must. Here's a collection of photos of what fitting the LGA775 was like:

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The Noctua NH-U12F did not have a polished copper base, which seemed odd but some research on their website explained that they incorporated some micro groves on the copper base to allow even dispersion of the thermal paste.

"The micro-grooves on the surface of the NH-U coolers' base ensure that high-viscosity thermal compounds are dispersed to a uniform thin layer across the whole contact area and that no air pockets remain between the cooler and the CPU. With a polished, mirror like surface, the risk of uneven dispersion is much higher. As too thick layers of thermal paste and air pockets drastically deteriorate heat transmission, the micro-grooves are is of vital importance to the overall cooling performance of the NH-U coolers when used with today's high-viscosity thermal pastes."

For extra information visit the Noctua NH-U12F FAQ.

Installation of NF-S12 Sound Optimised Fans

As stated earlier, Noctua kindly supplied us with two extra fans, and extra 1200RPM fan and also a silent 800RPM fan. Installing these fans couldn't be any easier. with just two clips and some anti-vibration rubber strips. They also had these special ULNA (Ultra Low Noise Adaptors) for the power connection which has a resistor that limits the power fed into the fan which in turn reduces the RPM of the fan.

here is a couple of photos on how we installed our fan:

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