Noctua NH-U12F: Quiet Air Cooling from Austria
by Wesley Fink on April 25, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Scaling of Cooling Performance
Scaling charts plot the performance of a cooler as the overclock is increased. This begins to provide a picture of the areas of most efficient performance for each cooler. It also provides a graphic way to compare performance curves for the various tested coolers. The lower the line for a cooler (representing lower temperatures), the more efficient that cooler is at cooling. |
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At 2.93GHz the retail HSF is running at 41C, compared to 30C with the stock Noctua and 29C with the push-pull fans. This is not the best performance seen in our tests at idle, but it is competitive with the top coolers tested so far. This is a delta of 11C. The delta becomes greater as the overclock increases. At 3.73GHz the idle with the retail fan is 56C compared to the Noctua at 42C/39C dual - a delta of 14C/17C dual. While the cooling performance of the Noctua is much better than the Intel retail cooler at idle, it must be said that the Noctua still does not reach the same cooling levels seen in the Thermalrights or Tuniq 120.
Cooling efficiency of the NH-U12F under load conditions was compared to the retail HSF and other recently tested CPU coolers. Load testing can be very revealing of a cooler's efficiency. A basically flat line, particularly from 3.73GHz upward, indicates the cooler is still in its best cooling range. A line that is increasing rapidly indicates a cooler nearing the end of its ability to cool efficiently. Lines which parallel the best coolers over a range of values are showing similar efficiency slopes.
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The Noctua is very efficient in cooling in the 2.93GHz to 3.73GHz overclock range, particularly with push-pull fans. It continues on to a highest overclock of 3.88GHz, which is just short of the 3.90GHz most of the top coolers in our testing have achieved. However, the sharp slope of the line from 3.73GHz to 3.88GHz indicates the Noctua is rapidly losing its ability to cool effectively at these higher overclocks. Compare this, for example, to the lines for the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and the Monsoon II Lite hybrid air/TEC cooler. Both these coolers have very flat stress performance lines as the overclock rises above 3.73GHz, which suggests they are still efficiently cooling and the CPU ran out of overclock ability rather than the cooler reaching the limit of what it could effectively cool.
As stated many times, the overclocking abilities of the CPU will vary at the top, depending on the CPU. This particular CPU does higher FSB speeds than any X6800 we have tested, but the 3.9GHz top speed with the top tier heatpipe towers is pretty average among the X6800 processors we have tested with Tuniq cooling. A few of the other processors tested with the best air coolers reach just over 4 GHz, but the range has been 3.8 to 4.0GHz. Stock cooling generally tops out 200 to 400 MHz lower, depending on the CPU, on the processors tested in our lab.
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Hulk - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
1. Equip all fans with a variable speed controller and adjust the speed so that the decibel level is exactly 40dB, 45dB, etc... Record the temps. This would isolate the thermal transfer efficiency of the cooler. For better isolation of cooler thermal efficiency you could use the same fan on all coolers.2. This time adjust the fan speed to acheive the same load temperature. This time record the fan RPM and the noise level. Of course some units might not even make the temp at full speed but that would be okay. As it is right now you have to take into account cooling performance when looking at noise. It be nice to see how much noise they make when they are all drawing away the same amount of heat from the processor.
3. In order to really give these coolers a workout how about adding an overclocked quad core to the tests?
I enjoy reading these reviews. Great job!
yacoub - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
No word on fitment again. Fitment is really the number one thing people want to know: Will this fit on my board? If it doesn't fit their board, it doesn't really matter to them how well it cools. Would be great to hear if it does or doesn't clear a variety of boards you have around the testing labs, particularly a couple 680i, 650i, P965, and 975. Pick one that's fairly reference in design and a couple of the ones people tend to purchase that often have passive cooling heatsink/pipe configurations on the northbridge and MOSFETS, and let us know how well the darn thing clears it all, especially if it requires a back brace and some boards have stuff on the back beneath the CPU socket (like the MSi P6N-SLI Platinum) and whether or not it still fits.Thanks.
Wesley Fink - Thursday, April 26, 2007 - link
The Noctua is narrower than most heatpipe towers, but as wide as a thermalright. The shape is much like a thermalright. The top plate can be installed in two directions and the cooler can be turned 90 degrees if necessary, so mounting is very flexible.The Noctua fit the EVGA 680i (barely, due to width and very tall chipset cooler near the socket), Asus, Striker, Asus Commando, and Asus P5W-DH Deluxe. We did not have the MSI board you specify in the lab to check, but the back plate has an open center and is designed to clear back components.
yacoub - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Any word on fitment on an MSi P6N-SLI Platinum? This is important as the board supposedly has a few items on the back such that certain backplates do not fit too well and it would be important to know if this hsf can clear them alright.mostlyprudent - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
Very nice. I like the balance of low noise and above average performance. Any plans to look at the Thermalright HR-01 fanless cooler with the ducting that can connect to a rear case fan? I would love to see the cooling abilities of such a configuration.xsilver - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
hey wes; how many more hsf setups are still in the pipeline for review? care to list?is the thermalright ultra 90 one of them?
or anything else that is of the "cheaper" level?
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
We have a few more top-line HSFs and then we will do an "under $30" HSF roundup. We also have a wide assortment of 120mm fans in the labs for a fan roundup.xsilver - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
oh also, was there any plans to put some "classic" coolers in the chart as a control reference?Im thinking thermalright xp-90/120
zalman 7000/7700
how do these type of coolers compare to the ones currently being reviewed? no full review is really needed but putting them in the charts would be nice.
puffpio - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
The 'Final Words' page is actually a duplicate of the 'Noise' pageWesley Fink - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - link
The posting error on Final Words has been corrected.