X-bit labs

Two Towers: Noctua Heatpipe Coolers Review

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 04/17/2006 | 04:09 PM ]

Today we are going to introduce to you two great competitors in the CPU heatpipe cooling segment: the NH-U9 and NH-U12 from the Austrian Noctua. These babies are ready to cope with the huge amount of heat produced by overclocked processors. They boast an impressively high CPU cooling efficiency with little dependence on the fan speed which is an indication of an ingenious and well-implemented design of the heatsinks. Read more in our detailed review!

Table of contents:

• Noctua NH-U9 and NH-U12: Package and Accessories
  
• Noctua NH-U9 and NH-U12: Closer Look
  
• Installing Noctua coolers on Socket 939 (754/940) and Socket T (LGA775)
  
• Technical Characteristics of Noctua NH-U9 and NH-U12 Coolers
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Test Results and Analysis
  
• Conclusion
  

Just what do you know about Austria anyway? Mozart, the soccer club Sturm, the ex-F1 racing track A1 Ring, superb skiing resorts, and Gösser beer. Well, that’s about all I could recall at the moment. Of course, there’s a lot more fascinating things about Austria, but you will hardly produce a name that has anything to do with computer coolers even if you think hard. We’ve all got used to the fact that manufacturers of cooling systems mostly reside in Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan and, a few of them, in the USA. That’s why we were somewhat surprised to get two heatsinks on heat pipes from an Austria-headquartered Noctua for our tests.

Before I got down to test the received coolers, I dropped in on the Noctua website and learned that the company had been founded as a joint venture of the Austrian Rascom Computerdistribution Ges.m.b.H and the Taiwanese Kolink International Corporation (so, it’s not absolutely without Asians anyway).

Noctua was formed on the basis of the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology, and this looks like a guarantee of a very serious, scientific approach to the subject. By the way, a Noctua is a little owl, the symbol of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, sciences and strategy. Noctua Company sees its mission in putting intellect above brute force and embodying this concept in its products.

Getting closer to the actual products, the official website currently names two models of cooling systems for the CPU: Noctua NH-U9 and Noctua NH-U12. I will examine and test them both in this review.