THE COOLER TOWER
The cooling tower is made up of 36 Aluminum plates, which are placed about 2.8mm apart.
The plates have several modifications which improve heat dissipation & air flow.
The plates have a serrated design which helps reduce air turbulence and improve air flow and decrease noise generated as air moves across it.
The heat plates have several opening in them which improve the tower’s ventilation. These run through out the entire length of the cooler tower.
The heat pipes run in pairs of two through the cooling towers. Each pair is slightly offset from the other to improve heat dissipation further.
The top heat plate bears the “Noctua” logo.
The sides of the heat plate have recesses. The clips used to mount the fan go into these.
Each heat plate has an area of about 75 cm2. The total heat dissipation area provided by the cooling tower is about 5400 cm2. In contrast Venomous-X has an area of 3500 cm2 and the mighty NH-D14 has an area of about 10000cm2.
The cooling tower is very well constructed –the edges are not going to shave off your skin. The heat pipes are soldered to the heat plates in the cooling tower. Overall A+ for construction
THE HEAT PIPES
The cooler is equipped with 4 Nickel plated heat pipes with a diameter of 4mm. They exit the base in line, but run offset in the cooling tower.
The heat pipes are soldered to the base as well as the cooing tower plates. The joints are very well ground off, with nary a sight of excess solder.
About the only thing that I can say that Noctua can improve on is the diameter (to 6mm) and number (to 6) of the heat pipes. Perhaps another revision of the NH-U12 is in order sometime in the future?
THE HEAT SINK BASE
The base is again made of Copper and is Nickel Plated. It has a “matte” finish and is almost flat. Surface optical characteristics don’t really affect performance, but base topology does. (I.e. flat base is better than a shiny base)
The heat pipes are neatly soldered to the base.
The base also provides screw holes for mounting the fastening brackets. These are used to fix the heat sink to the mounting mechanism on the motherboard.
HEAT SINK –THOUGHTS
The heat sink is solid in design and construction. It takes a traditional design and adds Noctua’s own modifications to improve noise and cooling characteristics. The attention to detail (the embossed logo, ventilation holes, Nickel plating, smoothed edges etc) is trademark Noctua. Only addition of 6 x 6mm heat pipes could make this product better.
FANS
The cooler comes with two Noctua NF-P12 fans. Unlike many of its competitors, which do not bundle any fans with their coolers, Noctua ships the unit with a pair. And these are premium quality fans. This is the same 120mm fan that is shipped with the NH-D14.
The fans have the traditional “earthen” color tone (cream colored frame with a brown propeller). They come with a decently long sleeved cable.
Both fans share design improvements that help improve air flow, lower noise and enhance life span. These include:
1. Self Stabilizing Oil-pressure (SSO) Bearing
Helps lower noise and enhance the life span of the fan
2. Vortex Control Notches
Noctua uses a 9 blade design for its fan. This enhances air pressure and air flow but at the same time also increases the noise generated by the fan. The vortex control notches help to reduce air turbulence and help lower the noise generated by air flow.
3. Smooth Commutation Drive Technology
Another source of potential noise is the fan motor itself. To reduce the noise generated by the motor Noctua employs a “Smooth Commutation Drive” technology which provides a greater continuous switching of the coils in the motor. This helps to reduce noise generated by the motor.
The fan is rated at 1300 rpm and move about 93m3/h of air while generating about 20db(A) of noise. As you will find out later, the cooler comes with a special connector which can help lower the speed and thus the noise generated.
The fans are used in a traditional “push”, “pull” configuration. It is possible to run the cooler with just one fan as well.
The fans bundled with the NH-U12 are quality fans and are worth quiet a bit on their own. The addition of sleeve to the fan cable is a definite plus. It is generous of Noctua to bundle not one but two fans with the price of admission!
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