Noctua NH-U12F CPU Heatsink... opinions?

Caporegime
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Well... just pushed the button on one of these babies, should arrive tommorrow or the day after. Looking forward to installing it, should be a decent improvement over my current SI-120. :D

Can't decide to mount it with the fan going to the rear vent or up towards the top vents though... I guess straight up makes the most sense considering heat rises... and the top two fans do shift a lot more air together than the single rear fan...
 
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seems like the thermalright ultral 120 extreme is the best heatsink around.
 
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Sorry but it'll take more than an Anandtech review for me to take that as gospel, their reviews have gone seriously downhill in the last couple of years. The noctua wasnt even in the test lol, and even so does 1c difference really matter? The Ultra extreme doesnt come with a fan, and the Noctua comes with an almost silent and very high quality one. It's a better buy imo.
 
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I was just gonna say the Noctua wasn't in that test, look at the temp differences in that test also, they are a few here and there. What is the benchmark? How was it conducted?
 
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Wow... just received the Noctua at work and I have to say 10/10 for quality. The item was packaged beautifully, and the manual is so clear, polished and of such high quality that I am genuinely surprised by it, considering I am used to the bare-bones packaging and instructions that you get with the Thermalrights of the world.

The heatsink seems sturdy and well-constructed, and the fan is meant to be one of the best. It's a nicetouch that its' cable is sleeved too.

Can't wait to install it at the weekend... might give dual-fan a go too just for ships and giggles. :)
 
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mishima said:
I was just gonna say the Noctua wasn't in that test, look at the temp differences in that test also, they are a few here and there. What is the benchmark? How was it conducted?


all that really needs to be known is that all heatsinks were tested in the same way on the same cpu with the same ambient temps. so the only differences seen in the graph above would be the differences caused by the heatsinks themselves, and the ultra extreme is the best. either way if i was going out to buy a new heatsink, id spend my 25 quid on the thermalright ultra120 extreme.
 
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Cyber-Mav said:
all that really needs to be known is that all heatsinks were tested in the same way on the same cpu with the same ambient temps. so the only differences seen in the graph above would be the differences caused by the heatsinks themselves, and the ultra extreme is the best. either way if i was going out to buy a new heatsink, id spend my 25 quid on the thermalright ultra120 extreme.

Good for you... and where would you find it for £25 considering the original Ultra 120 is still £35 minus the cost of a good fan? :)
 
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Richdog said:
Wow... just received the Noctua at work and I have to say 10/10 for quality. The item was packaged beautifully, and the manual is so clear, polished and of such high quality that I am genuinely surprised by it, considering I am used to the bare-bones packaging and instructions that you get with the Thermalrights of the world.

The heatsink seems sturdy and well-constructed, and the fan is meant to be one of the best. It's a nicetouch that its' cable is sleeved too.

Can't wait to install it at the weekend... might give dual-fan a go too just for ships and giggles. :)
I'm going to shove another Noctua S12 on the other side of my NH-U12F too, give it a bit more potential and see what results I can get ;)
 
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You won't get an Ultra-120 Extreme for £25 I'm afraid. The indication I was given by the UK distributor was £40-ish with a fan bracket, but no fan, and June or July delivery apparently. They are very bullish about it though - they reckon it's a good as water cooling. Looking at those graphs you'd have to pretty much agree too.
 
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Richdog said:
A lot of air-coolers are as good as watercooling... just not good watercooling.

Well, I have good watercooling (EK block/Laing pump/0.5" tubing/120.3 radiator)and it doesn't cool my CPU down to 31C under load, so when the extreme comes out, I'll get one and we'll see.
 
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WJA96 said:
Well, I have good watercooling (EK block/Laing pump/0.5" tubing/120.3 radiator)and it doesn't cool my CPU down to 31C under load, so when the extreme comes out, I'll get one and we'll see.

Come on use your noggin mate... your conditions are likely to be VERY different to the ones that Anandtech tested in. Of course the Ultra 120 Extreme isn't going to be better than a high-end watercooling kit... it cools 1 maybe 2c higher than a TT120 at the max...
 
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WJA96 said:
No. That's actually the big advantage with air. Water is great for spot cooling, but most components are still have to be cooled with air.

Eh? A good water loop can cool CPU and GPU no problem... much more effectively than air...
 
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Richdog said:
Eh? A good water loop can cool CPU and GPU no problem... much more effectively than air...

Yeah, but a lot of components aside from the cpu/gpu still get hot. There's HDD's, NB, SB, voltage regulators, ramsinks on graphics, otherside of the core on the graphics card, there's loads of heat outputting devices. With watercooling, you might only need a small amount of airflow in the case, but you still need it.
 
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cobxx said:
Yeah, but a lot of components aside from the cpu/gpu still get hot. There's HDD's, NB, SB, voltage regulators, ramsinks on graphics, otherside of the core on the graphics card, there's loads of heat outputting devices. With watercooling, you might only need a small amount of airflow in the case, but you still need it.

Surely this is just basic common sense? :confused:

No-one suggested watercooling in your case could replace all need for air cooling in terms of airflow over other components...that would be silly. But RAM, HDD's etc certainly don't need active cooling over them other than that generated by the case fans.
 
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