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New coolers Noctua NH-U9 and NH-U12 - quiet and effective cooling

Author: Date: 23.05.2006

Introduction

Looking at the stores of computer shops, many are at a loss thinking why such huge cooling systems are needed is small boxed cooler does its job well enough! It doesn't make much noise, and what's so big about it? There is one thing to know. Some people start up the PC like a "magic box" and are absolutely not surprised by that the computer makes sounds similar to a Boeing getting ready for a take-off - if it's roaring, it works! Others power on the PC as if it is a vacuum cleaner or a washing machine - as a household appliance. You haven't noticed the new trends in the adverts of washing machines: "Noise-free operation, nothing will disturb your calm..." , or something like that, have you? The same applies to vacuum-cleaners and other household appliances. Since these became ordinary household items, people have been increasingly exigent to the qualities of these devices. Including the noise levels. So the struggle for quietness of the CPU unit has been in full sway for the past several years.

Best of all is to reduce the heat emission of the computer, but that problem can't be solved in a day. That is why noiseless systems for cooling processors and video cards have gained enormous popularity. A noiseless cooler should have a well thought out radiator of large dissipation area - one that would provide effective cooling with slight blowing. Besides, it's better to us fans of large types and sizes - they are capable of generating sufficient air flow with minimum rotational speed and thus with minimum noise.

But if you are into overclocking but hate too much noise, then you requirements to the cooler rise substantially. So, if you see a huge 120 mm in the shop window, don't be surprised - it will certainly find its amateur of quietness.

Powerful cooling systems are sort of a "trademark" of the manufacturing company which builds awareness in the consumers' eyes. That is probably the reason why the Austrian company Noctua decided to make its debut just on the market of powerful cooling systems.

A powerful cooling system is a high-tech product whose design should be meticulously thought out. It is hard to make a debut on this field, and few companies are capable of that. But with Noctua it is a special case because Noctua is actively cooperating with the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology - it's just the developments and experience of this institute that helped the young company to provide Hi-End coolers onto the market in one go. These coolers are called Noctua NH-U9 and Noctua NH-U12.

For a start, get familiarized with their specifications:

Evidently, these are high-performance coolers of really impressive specifications. And the price fully meets the status of a hi-end product. Let's take a closer look at them.

Package bundle

The coolers are shipped in large square boxes of proprietary cherry color:

On the reverse side of the box, there are photos taken in various perspectives and a brief description and specifications in four languages. Under the color cover, there is a regular black cardboard box where the cooler is placed. This is what we found inside the box with Noctua NH-U9:

Let's look at the cooler and the whole package bundle. The bundled items are sealed in a weighty polyethylene bag. There is no wonder about that because it offers all the required fasteners for three supported platforms:

• A thrust plate to fasten on LGA775;
• A thrust plate to fasten on Socket 754/939/940;
• A thrust plate to fasten on Socket 478;
• A syringe with thermo paste;
• A pack with parts for fastening: brackets, screws, washers, springs;
• 2 white washers to damp vibrations from the fan;
• 4 wire braces to fasten a fan.

Amusingly, engineers at Noctua decided not to rack their brains over the method of fastening on various platforms - instead, they simply made a separate thrust plate for every platform, separate fastening brackets and a separate kit of screws. Needless to say, the method is easy enough but far not the best - such approach adds to the prime cost of the cooler and thus its market price. There are many examples of easy and universal methods for fastening on all platforms - perhaps Noctua simply decided not to make haste shipping its produce onto the market? Who knows … It's just the abundance of bundle items the package proved so weighty.

By the way, has anyone noticed that there is no fan on the photo with a radiator? Right you are - there wasn't one in the box. For now, Noctua is manufacturing its coolers as passive radiators which provide installation of one or two fans: one of "92х25х25" size for model NH-U9, and one for "120х25х25" size for model NH-U12. But the fans themselves are not included in the bundle. No need to worry - every box has a vacant empty compartment whose dimensions precisely match those of the required fan, so it is quite possible that soon both cooler will be equipped with fans from the start. Besides, Noctua hinted to that explicitly through sending a kit of Coollink fans as bundled items with the coolers.

Design of the coolers

The cooler itself appears to be a classical "tower on heat pipes" design.

Many aluminum fins are threaded on 4 U-shaped copper heat pipes. On the side, the ends of fins are bent downwards to impart rigidity to the structure, as well as to direct air flow along the fins.

This allows minimizing air losses and using air flow at greater efficiency.

Both the coolers NH-U9 and NH-U12 are of the same design, with the differences in only the width of fins and distanced between them. So, we'll be examining them in parallel, accentuating the differences.

Even the number of fins in them is the same - 38 pieces in each. Therefore, the distance between fins is also different: in NH-U9 it is about 2 mm, and in NH-U12 - about 3 mm. It turns out that when designing the radiator for NH-U12, Noctua bade not on the radiator's maximum area of dissipation but the reduction in resistance to the air flow (i.e. better blowing capacity).

Such a move allows using quiet low-RPM 120 mm fans to blow about this radiator or even using it as a passive cooler without a fan at all. The 3 mm distance between the plates is already quite enough for effective cooling of the radiator by natural air flows within the housing and by convection. We'll come back to that later.

As regards the fins themselves, it should be noted that they are a bit too thick, which anyway provides a more efficient heat conductivity from the heat pipes to the fin edges. It is important to note that the fins are connected to heat pipes by the most efficient method - soldering; it ensures the best heat transfer as compared to ordinary unriveting or use of thermal glues.

The shape of radiators merits a detailed consideration.

The fin edge has a complex profiled shape which is meant to provide minimum resistance to air flow from the fan. This approach has long been practices in many powerful coolers. The notches and holes in the fins are made for technological purposes: some of them are used for mounting fins on top of heat pipes, but the purpose of round holes is unclear - they probably are used in the manufacture.

On this photo it is also seen distinctly that all the 4 heat pipes are not ranked classically by are displaced relative to one another, which allows transferring heat uniformly from heat pipes to the radiator surface. This technology should be best seen on the radiator NH-U12 because its fins are of greater area.

In the copper base of the cooler, there are four chutes for heat pipes.

This provides maximum area of contact between the heat spreader and the heat pipes. They are linked also with solder, and the solder traces are distinctly seen on the photo in the points of contact between heat pipes and the base. The base itself is also thick - 7.5 mm. During designing the base, the most difficult part was just finding the balance between the thickness, efficiency, and rigidity of the structure. Let's hope that the engineers at Noctua succeeded in finding this balance. The surface of the base is protected against damage by a rather thick protective film.

The bright red label reminds that prior to using the cooler the film must be removed. After that, it is recommended to wipe the base with a piece of cloth wetted with alcohol to remove all the traces of the sticky film. The base cleared of the film caused quite mixed feelings. Just see for yourselves:

On the other hand, it is nice to see the excusive uniformity of the base - it is indeed smooth; on the other hand - on the surface there are distinct radial grooves left after polishing. It can't be said that the grooves are deep but they are seen to the eye and are distinct to touch. Frankly, for a Hi-End cooler this approach to polishing is prone to substantial loss of performance, because for this class of coolers the overall heat conductivity from the processor to fins is extremely important. Anyway, conclusions should be made in the end.

In the beginning, we mentioned that together with the coolers Noctua sent us a kit of three fans made by Coolink.

We received models of dimensions 80х80х25, 92х92х25, and 120х120х25, but in the tests we'll be using the maximum admissible fans for each cooler model. That is, for Noctua NH-U9 we took a SWiF 922 fan, and for the Noctua NH-U12 cooler we took a SWiF 1202 fan. The specifications of both fans are presented in the below table:

This is how Noctua cooler look with the fans fitted in place:

While describing the package bundle, we mentioned special washers to reduce vibration, they have a sticky side protected by a film. This film must be removed, and on the very edge of the fan a rubber washer should be glued on. Therefore, the fan contacts with the radiator strictly through a rubber washer, which reduces vibrations. In practice, we were unable to hear the difference by ear - the cooler structure is rigid enough due to the thick fins and good assembly, the wire braces firmly press the fan to the fins, so there were no vibrations at all.

Hints for installation of coolers on various platforms

The method of fastening coolers on various platforms is rather simple and offers no sophistications: through the holes on the base, two crowfeet are screwed into. For Socket 478 and LGA775 sockets, crowfeet of one type are used, and for Socket 754/939/940 - of the other type.

The crowfeet are fastened tightly to produce a really rigid structure in the end. The further stage is to install the whole structure on top of the processor. For AMD K8 (Socket 754/939/940), there is a special thrust plate that resembles those which come as bundled items for ASUS motherboards of A8N series. The cooler is simply fastened to this frame with spring-loaded screws (the longest from the package)

The screws are tightened to the stop, and at that the process of radiator installation is over. At the next step, we fasten the fan with wire braces and .. here you are!

With standard positioning of the processor socket on motherboard for AMD K8, the flow of hot air can be directed upwards or downwards only. Of course, upwards is better. But it is desirable that there be a PSU with one large 120 mm fan installed inside the housing - this will let the flow of hot air from the processor cooler be directed right to the impellers and leave the housing space quickly.

For the Intel Socket 478 and LGA775 platforms, the installation is somehow different: other braces and shorter screws are used. The first thing, positioning posts are attached to the thrust plate through mounting holes on the reverse side.

Here we note that for Socket 478 there is a separate kit of screws, poles and plates, as well as for LGA775. As we already stated, Noctua decided not to invent a universal fastener. It is good that the manual gives a detailed description of where screws, poles and braces should be used, so it is easy to find ways.

The LGA775 platform offers geometrically square positioning of mounting holes, so the hot air from the cooler can be directed to any of the four sides. That is an important advantage, since the experience suggests that the best efficiency is attained if the cooler is installed in such a way that the hot air is directed towards the rear wall of the housing where the "expulsion" fan is positioned traditionally.

In view of the large dimensions of Noctua NH-U12, there naturally arises the question: will it rest against the RAM modules or the radiator of the north bridge? The answer is - No; the radiator is raised on heat pipes at a height so it touches neither RAM modules nor the chipset radiator.

While installing the cooler Noctua NH-U12 on LGA775 motherboards with the air flow directed towards the rear wall, it should be remembered that on some boards the processor socket itself is positioned very close to the board's upper part, and the cooler will strongly project outside the boundaries. According to Noctua's statement, to install a cooler it suffices that a 25 mm gap be between the motherboard's edge and the PSU.

So, we have examined all the special features of debut cooler of the young Austrian company Noctua. We must admit, they left a pleasant enough impression, although there are some minor shortcomings in the processing quality of the base and in the primitive system of fastening. But all that is not critical - it's high time we tried them in action, and the tests will show the worth of each.

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	Content:
	Design of the coolers Benchmarking Top Stories: MoBo: ECS X58B-A (Intel X58) ASUS Rampage II Extreme (Intel X58) MSI DKA790GX and ECS A780GM-A Ultra MSI P7NGM (NVIDIA GeForce 9300) Intel X58 and ASUS P6T Deluxe MSI P45 Neo2 (Intel P45) Foxconn A7GMX-K (AMD 780G) VGA Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 – a new leader in 3D graphics! ECS HYDRA GeForce 9800GTX+. Water-cooled and SLI "all-in-one" Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire - better than Radeon HD 4870! XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition in the SLI mode Leadtek WinFast PX9500 GT DDR2 – better than GeForce 9500GT DDR-3 Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic: exclusive, with unusual features Palit HD 4850 Sonic: almost Radeon HD 4870, priced as HD 4850 CPU & Memory: GSkill high-capacity memory modules CPU Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield) DDR3 memory: late 2008 CPU AMD Phenom X3 8750 (Toliman) AMD Phenom X4 9850 – a top-end CPU at affordable price CPU Intel Atom 230 (Diamondville) Chaintech Apogee GT DDR3 1600