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

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.

Benchmarking

Test bench configuration and benchmarking specifics

It is quite evident that this time we received representatives of the Hi-End cooling systems, and we'll be running extensive tests to the full. We selected the most serious rivals:

• Zalman CNPS9500LED - the most powerful and product by the eminent Korean manufacturer, is one of the most popular coolers among enthusiasts and fanciers of produce manufactured under this brand name. Its design has consolidates the latest engineering advancements, so Zalman CNPS9500LED is indeed a serious opponent to heroes of today's review.
• Scythe Ninja - the second most popular cooler for enthusiasts, stands out with its impressive size and exceptional performance. Besides, the cooler can be used in the passive mode - without a fan.
• GlacialTech Igloo 5700MC/7700MC - new super coolers by GlacialTech have already demonstrated their might, and in view of the affordable price both the coolers are confident at conquering a place of dignity in the computer of the Russian PC enthusiast.

All specialists know that on Intel and AMD platforms coolers behave differently, so to run full-featured and impartial tests we assembled two different platforms:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ is probably not the hottest processor in the AMD line, but it is just this processor that has gained maximum occurrence because of its low price and superb overclocking capability.

Despite the reduced RPM of the fans, the housing of ThermalTake Xaser III provides excellent ventilation inside the housing and hot air is not kept inside, so the conditions are close to ideal.

We ran tests on the Intel platform in the same housing.

To verify the capabilities, we managed to get the latest dual-core Intel Pentium D 930 (3.0 GHz) based on the 65-nm Presler core of revision B1. This processor is among Intel's "hottest" processors and offers the nominal heat package 95 W, but after overclocking the coolers would have to dissipate much more heat, and even 150 W might seem a magic.

Now regarding the overclocking. It is absolutely funny to test Hi-End coolers with AMD Athlon 64 3200+ in the nominal mode because any cooler will cope with its heat emission of no more than 67 W. So we decided not to waste time in vain, and verified coolers on the AMD platform with the processor overclocked to 2.7 GHz, whose voltage was raised from 1.4 to 1.55 V. That is pretty standard overclocking for AMD Athlon 64 processors (Venice core).

We had to mess around with the Intel platform for quite a while - we received not the most outstanding processor specimen, so we were unable to overclock it to clock speeds higher than 3.9 GHz. But in any case it is already an impressive overclocking because batch-produced Intel Pentium D processors run at no more than 3.4 GHz (model Intel Pentium D 950). To attain 3.9 GHz, we had to raise the voltage from 1.275 to 1.400 V.

The benchmarking methodology is simple enough. The performance of coolers was verified in the three most popular modes:

2. Simple. In this mode, the computer was simply left idle for about 15-20 minutes until the temperature stabilized. In this mode the computer is used for text-editing tasks, watching films, surfing over the Internet, listening to the music, etc.
3. 3D games. This is rightfully the second most popular mode of computer utilization. No doubt, different games load the processor in different ways, but that is not critical. To verify the coolers in this mode, we launched 20x run of the "Troll`s Lair", a test from the well-known 3D Mark 2003 benchmarking suite.
4. Max load. This is more likely a "strength test", and to generate maximum load on the processors we used the latest version of the known utility S&M (v.1.8.0 alpha). There has been repeatedly mentioned that it is able heating up the processor much stronger than any working applications, so we call this mode the "strength test".

It's no good using the cooler at maximum RPM of the fan, especially when there is SUCH a cooler on the processor. So all the participants of tests were verified in the two modes: at the maximum RPMs of the fan and at a speed reduced to the noiseless level.

Tests were run in the ordinary room environment where the air temperature was about 23 C. For convenience, we took the ambient temperature as the reference point on the graphs.

Well, let's get round to business!

AMD platform

Frankly, at the beginning it was even hard to believe that during transition from the idle mode to gaming tests the temperature wouldn't go up at all(!), but that was a fact. Only in some cases the temperature was raised by 1 degree. It is rather hard to talk about leaders and outsiders here because none of the coolers allowed the processor to heat up to even 50 C, but it was easy to see that Noctua NH-U12 showed the best result and left all the competitors at least by 1 degree. So, we register one victory in favor of Noctua NH-U12.

Intel platform

At the first stage, we test coolers in the nominal mode of processor operation:

Dual-core Intel processors already in the nominal mode offer a high heat emission which exceeds even overclocked AMD Athlon 64, so the power-saving technologies remained enabled.

We intentionally mentioned above that coolers behave differently on different platforms, and in our case the situation was just like that. The former leader, Noctua NH-U12, gave in its first place to GlacialTech Igloo 5700MC, the most inexpensive and noisy of the four coolers.

The second stage of testing on the Intel platform was decisive. How will the coolers cope with the immense heat emission from the overclocked dual-core CPU by Intel? That's the way they will:

The temperatures went up sharply by 10-15 degrees! Such figures look impressive against the temperature graphs for the AMD platform, although we should make a reservation for the single-core AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU.

The overclocking didn't change but fixed the established situation: the leader is GlacialTech Igloo 5700MC as before, and Noctua coolers take the last lines in the rating list.

Nevertheless, under 1-2 C temperature difference the rating looks more formal because all the coolers are good. Only Noctua NH-U9 lags well behind the others.

Interesting is the fact that the temperature difference between the maximum RPMs of the fan and the reduced RPMs for Noctua NH-U12 amounts to merely 1 C albeit at the maximum load. This tells to the low air resistance (good blowing capacity) of the radiator, which is a definite plus. Such a cooler does not need a fan, so it doesn't make any noise.

A bit confusing are the too high temperatures - actually, we expected lower values. The cause of such figures is evident. Have you often noticed the trace of thermo paste left on the cooler base after dismantling the cooling system? If you have seen such a picture, then know that you were unlucky with the processor specimen:

Non-uniformity of the heat-spreading processor lid is a common problem of modern processors.

What catches the eye is that during tests on the AMD platform the Noctua NH-U12 cooler confidently took the first place, and on transition to the Intel platform it dropped to the last but one place. Most likely, that was caused by a combination of the two facts: poor contact with the Intel processor was aggravated by not the best polishing of the base in Noctua coolers. Under the intensive heat emission generated by the "hot" dual-core Intel CPU, the quality of contact between the CPU and the base is a very important parameter. Probably, it is just that which caused such poor results. On the other hand, the 1-3C temperature difference is not critical.

The package bundle of Noctua coolers contains two pair of wire braces to fasten a fan, i.e. it is possible to install not one but two fans on the cooler - one for air suction, the other for air expulsion. Of course, we tried this mode either. For that, we took two quiet 120 mm GlacialTech fans whose rotational speed does not exceed 950 RPM. In view of the extremely low air resistance of Noctua NH-U12, use of two quiet fans may prove quite useful. But practice proved different: the temperature difference reached 1 C only in the "Max load" mode, so the conclusion is self-evident. Use of two fans does not bring a noticeable effect from using a radiator of good blowing capacity, which was just the case we had. A remarkable result!

So, our tests are coming to an end. We have found out the leaders and explored their specifics. We suggest that you should recall this line from the description for Scythe Ninja cooler: "Besides, the cooler can be used in the passive mode - without a fan". And then let's recall that Noctua NH-U12 also offers parameters sufficient for effective use in the passive mode. Shall we try it?

Tests of two giants in the passive mode. Scythe Ninja versus Noctua NH-U12

A cooler for passive cooling should first offer a large area and a distance between the fins sufficient to create a minimum resistance to air flow in the housing. Both rivals offer these qualities to the full. On the other hand, Scythe Ninja has a clear superiority: it offers more heat pipes (not 4 but 6) and the distance between fins is greater (not 3 mm but 5 mm).

Tests were run on the same test benches and under the same conditions. To make it possible for you to imagine all this structure in action, look at the photo of our test bench:

The Scythe Ninja looks simply huge, it takes up almost the whole depth of the housing. But that is just the plus for a passive cooler - air flows in the housing are directed from the front panel where "suction" fans are positioned towards the rear wall with "expulsion" fans. The PSU also pushes air upwards. In the end, it turns out that the major air flow is passed mostly through the radiator of the passive cooler. Noctua NH-U12 is not so wide, but is also on the main channel of air movement because the conditions are practically equal.

Having set standard frequencies on both platforms, we succeeded in attaining the following results:

Both coolers run on par, with Scythe Ninja running at a negligible superiority.

It is absolutely evident that for both monsters the CPU AMD Athlon 64 3200+ is not a load at at all, such temperatures are no more than "fun". But Intel Pentium D has once again proved its "hot" character.

The AMD processor has confidently coped with passive cooling while overclocking it to 2600 MHz (1.55 V), which is a bit lower than before, but anyway excellent. The Intel processor is hot at even the nominal frequency, but we anyway ran the risk to try overclocking - this time without raising voltage. The result proved really impressive - 3600 MHz!

The raise of frequency by 600 MHz has added merely 4-5 C to the temperature of the Intel processor and preserved stability. At the same time, let's not forget that we were able to heat up the CPU to such a temperature only with S&M, because real applications are not able doing such "brutality". So we shouldn't feel any doubts in the stability.

The temperature of AMD Athlon 64 rose quite noticeably, but it is no wonder about that because we already raised voltage, so it is expectable.

It is quite evident that Scythe Ninja is a bit more efficient in the passive mode, which was expectable, its structure was originally calculated for operation in the passive mode, whereas Noctua NH-U12 is "cut out for" operation with a quiet 120 mm fan. Nevertheless, Noctua NH-U12 simply did a fantastic job of fan-free cooling of overclocked processors, and the 3 C lag behind the best passive cooler does not count.

Conclusion

Well, we have come to the end of a review of debut coolers by Noctua. As we can see, engineers at the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology have used their skills and abilities to the best. The radiators offer a well thought out design and very low resistance to air flow. Therefore, quiet fans can be used in combination with them without noticeable loss of performance. That is a very important point - Noctua coolers are able cooling efficiently and quietly. There were of course some shortcomings, but so far we have not yet come across an ideal cooler without a single issue. Let's briefly list the major advantages and shortcomings of Noctua's novelties:

Pros:

• Excellent efficiency;
• Compatibility to all the popular platforms;
• Possibility to run effectively with quiet fans;
• High efficiency in the passive mode (for Noctua NH-U12 cooler).

Cons:

• Not completely polished base;
• Lack of fan in the package bundle;
• Dependence of the cooler direction on positioning the processor socket on motherboards for Sockets 754/939/940.

It's a pity that such coolers are not yet available in Russia, but Noctua is actively looking for partners and distributors, so it is quite possible that in a few months we will see the familiar box of cherry color.