Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Cooler and NF-P14 FLX 140mm Fan

Packaging

Noctua NH-U12P Special Edition 2 CPU cooler arrives in a cardboard box packed with everything necessary to cool any modern CPU that you may buy.  Here is the box from a couple of angles.  As you can see, the specifications and features are printed right on the box.  The Noctua NH-U12P SE 2 CPU cooler is pictured and we can see that it is “universal” – engineered to fit any modern Intel or AMD CPU’s cooling needs – overclocked or stock.

Here we can see how it is engineered to easily fit any modern socket and it is held simply and securely in place.

The box also proudly displays international awards galore and it will get another richly deserved one or two today from ABT.

The cooler and its accessories are safely packaged in a two smaller boxes inside the shipping/display box.

And now everything is out of the box. There are “common parts” and also packages included specifically for both Intel and AMD CPUs.

The instructions are excellent, well written, and easy to follow.  We had no difficulty following them for installing the Noctua NH-U12P SE 2 CPU cooler on either an Intel or AMD CPU platform.

In the next photo, you can see that the backplate on the Noctua NH-U12P SE 2 CPU cooler fits over the backplate of our Core i7 Gigabyte X58 motherboard.  There are specific and just as easy to follow procedures for Intel Penryn, Core i5 or even AMD motherboards.  Noctua uses a very clever design that is totally user friendly.  If you have a Cooler Master case similar to our Gladiator 600 (pictured), you do not even have to remove the motherboard as a hole is cut into the plate to allow easy access to the back.  If not, you will have to remove your motherboard to install it.

Here is our Noctua CPU cooler out of the case and ready for installation:

This Noctua CPU cooler is beginning to look like quite a bargain for only $75.  But is it quiet and effective?  Let’s look at the specifications.

Specifications and Features

The Noctua NH-U12P SE 2 CPU cooler’s specifications are printed right on the top of the box and are also listed below:

Now for an easier to read chart:

These are truly outstanding specifications.  How do they achieve the incredibly low noise?  Well, take a good close look at one of the fans, the 140mm fan; they all share the same characteristics:

Notice the notches in each fan blade.  They are called “Vortex-Control” notches and the trailing edge of each fan blade’s vortices are split up into several smaller vortices with each one producing noise in different frequencies.  In this manner, the noise produced by the spinning blades is spread over several frequencies thus making it much less perceptible and annoying to the ear.

Here is the illustration on the box to explain and illustrate it:

Of course, the static pressure of each fan will be lowered somewhat by having the notches, but this is compensated for by having two fans in push-pull configuration which completely covers for any lack of pressure by a single fan.  If you like quiet and cool, this is the air-cooling solution for your hottest Core i7 air overclock.

To cool well, there has to be a great contact surface.  In our last CPU cooler review, we pointed out the weaknesses of the machined surface of the Hyper 212 Plus that needed a lot of thermal paste to fill in the gaps.  Well, take a close look at the mirrorlike surface of the Noctua’s contact plate into which 4 heat pipes whisk the heat away from the CPU into the Noctua NH-U12P SE 2’s heatsink of densely packed cooling fins which allow the fan’s forced air to pass through to cool them quickly.

Noctua recommends that you only use a dab of their supplied pro-grade thermal compound; specifically, a drop 4-5 mm in diameter in the center of the HS contact plate.  They warn that applying too much compound will lower the thermal conductivity and adversely affect the cooling performance of your CPU cooler.

We do not recommend polishing this cooler’s base.  It already has a mirror finish and it is completely true for a perfect fit to your CPU’s contact plate. It looks like Noctua has a performance cool and quiet winner by the specifications and the “look” and feel of this precision built CPU cooler.  Especially attractive are the very low noise levels, 12-20 dB(A). We like the Noctua NH-U12P SE 2 CPU cooler so far, so let’s install it.