Home / Component / Cooling / Noctua NH-U12P Special Edition SE2 Review

Noctua NH-U12P Special Edition SE2 Review

Today we are going to show the installation procedure on a new 1155 slot motherboard. The first stage is to open the plastic bag labelled ‘Intel'. If you get stuck at this stage then you can always try this link.

The Intel backplate handles Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775 motherboards. In this case we push through four mounting pins into the middle hole, ensuring the fitting is flush to the backplate. The  soft middle section on the backplate is for LGA775 boards and should be removed for other socket sizes.

When the backplate is in place, there are four plastic retainers which slot over the pins to hold the heatsink at the correct distance from the socket.

I have fitted Noctua coolers to motherboards now at least 200 times over the course of the last year and the images above highlight how easy it is to make a mistake during this phase of the install. Both mounting brackets should be pointing outwards. In the images above both of them are pointing in the same direction. It is easy enough to remove the bracket and flip it around, but it saves time to get it right now.

The next phase is to screw two small brackets into the CPU block as seen above. This is done by positioning the brackets over the top of the sides and screwing into position from underneath. Noctua give detailed images in their install guide, but it might confuse some people first time.

At this point we apply the ‘anti vibration strips' (basically rubberised sticky strips) to each corner of both sides of the heatsink. When the fans are mounted this stops them from vibrating and can lower noise emissions.

Both fans can be fitted, then locked into place with metal clips. This can be fiddly, but its not that difficult if you take a little time.

The cooler installed with both fans. It is a hefty design, but not as big as the monster D14.

Become a Patron!

Check Also

Ducky One 3 Pro Nazca Line Keyboard Review

The One 3 Pro Nazca Line keyboard from Ducky feature the revamped Cherry MX2A switches

8 comments

  1. Only problem I see is the pricing, while you can get the coolers at the prices you mention, the D14 is as cheap as £63 and the U12P SE2 as expensive as £57.

    It becomes a tougher sell thanks to the UK pricing of D14 atm.

  2. Why do you have the heatsink pictured with a Gigabyte P67 mobo when the system specs show an Asus Rampage III Black Edition X58 mobo?

  3. Sometimes we show installation on different slot configurations (especially as people want to see there no fitting problems with 1155), even though we tend to test on 1366 (to generate the most heat). Variety is the spice of life.

  4. Good coolers. expensive mind you

  5. Great coolers, my concern is the size. I prefer all in one coolers now from antec, corsair etc. they leave so much room free for an install, especially at memory slots.

    REckon Noctua will make an all in one liquid cooler sometime?

  6. Im quite happy with my Corsair H50, very quiet too 🙂

  7. Skeleton Muncher

    Awesome cooler, had mine for 6 months now. ive a 2600k with it at 4.8ghz. hits 67c under load 🙂

  8. Tyranade Pentifex

    I’ve had this running for five years in my Fractal Design R4 Case and it’s never missed a beat. Fantastic cooler. It’s no longer on sale here and I’m now looking at Noctua NH-U14S for my new build.