Noctua NH-U12F

Somewhere on teh interweb Howard Goldstein typed:


<snip>

Thanks for the report/review. It's always good getting first-hand reviews
from people who actually paid for their products. I mean, Toms, Anand et al
review quite a few products but only if they don't have to pay for them.
I've seen a few 'riders' saying that they didn't review x as the suppliers
wouldn't send them one.

> Thermal: Lapped Q6600

Then:

> my case ventilation is still awful

LOL!! You lapped your CPU IHS but you won't take a nibbler to your case?
Hehee!

BTW, did you do a "before and after" when you lapped it? Do you think that
lapping it improved heat transfer? I have a Thermalright bolt-thru kit ("X"
bracket, spring-loaded screws) ordered to replace the push-pins on my
otherwise excellent Thermaltake Mini Typhoon. I've been debating whether to
lap the CPU IHS when I'm pulling the systen down to fit the bracket.

Thanks,
--
Shaun.
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Somewhere on teh interweb Howard Goldstein typed:


Oh, forgot to mention, the very attrative redhead thing, that'd do it for
me. I have a weakness for redheads. Who gives a damn about the cooler? <g>
--
TTFN,

Shaun.
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On 23 Nov, 01:15, hgold... RemoveThis @mpcs.com (Howard Goldstein) wrote:
> A very short commentary on the Noctua NH-U12F I picked up off of ebay
> to replace an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro for my striker.


Just my mileage.. I had an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro... and it was
rubbish. When under load CPU temp did rise a great deal.
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Howard Goldstein wrote:

> The NH-U12F comes with the heatsink, a 120mm three pin fan, and
> mounting brackets for the LGA 775 two AMD styles. The heatsink
> feels as heavy as the Ultra 120 eXtreme and resembles it in its lateral
> dimensions. The base is flat but machine-grooved.

I thought I might try one of those next time, but with a different fan. I
had purchased several 12 cm fans for my Thermalright Ultra Extreme
(whatever it's called), one of which was the Noctua. So much air was
escaping around the blade tips, I thought I had it on backwards and
actually took it off. I settled on the 1600 RPM Nexus, which required
surgery to work with the Thermalright as the mounting holes are shrouded
for the full thickness. This makes it strong but wrong for this application.

I thought the Thermalright mounting system was bogus for the amount
of weight it supported and how it allowed the assembly to twist. The
bottom was seriously not flat, so I pretty much lapped all the nickel off.
Nickel, thought non-reactive, is not a good conductor, anyway. It seems
there is a thin sheet of copper which covers the bottom and that is in effect
another thermal interface that we don't need. The fan mounting wires kept
coming out of the little holes while I was installing the fan, which made for
a very frustrating experience each time I removed and reinstalled it. Overall,
I am not impressed with thisThermalright product. Perhaps the prototypes
from China were better than the actual production models.
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Somewhere on teh interweb Howard Goldstein typed:
> On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:08:59 +1300, ~misfit~
> <misfit61nz RemoveThis @yahoot.com.au> wrote:
>> Somewhere on teh interweb Howard Goldstein typed:
>>
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> Thanks for the report/review. It's always good getting first-hand
>> reviews from people who actually paid for their products. I mean,
>> Toms, Anand et al review quite a few products but only if they
>> don't have to pay for them. I've seen a few 'riders' saying that
>> they didn't review x as the suppliers wouldn't send them one.
>>
>
> You've got them dead to rights. Last week I was reading a review on
> one of the Asus premium boards and the reviewer was whinging about
> that exact problem, oh I'm not going to bother reviewing anything they
> don't send me for free. That's *so frustrating*.

I agree. You'd thing that, with the amount of advertising revenue these
bigger review sites pull in, and for impartiality's sake, they'd buy an
off-the-shelf unit to review huh? Yet it seems that all of them only review
what they've been 'given' by the supplier. It brings into question the
legitimacy of the reviews IMO.

> Besides the reports of disgruntled users from the web forums and a few
> vendor sites like newegg just where does one find reliable comments?

Here.

>>> Thermal: Lapped Q6600
>>
>> Then:
>>
>>> my case ventilation is still awful
>>
>> LOL!! You lapped your CPU IHS but you won't take a nibbler to your
>> case? Hehee!
>
> I will be an endless source of amusement on this.
>
> 1) that case with the 2 meter-diameter fan you pointed me to isn't
> over here yet and 2) I'm wary anyway about increasing the noise level
> from the drives. There's an array of 4 satas in here and a rotten IDE
> for backups. 2+ hours next to the box and I start losing it. Yes, I
> am cranky in my old age. Perhaps I should mosey on over to the silent
> PC review old folks home and commiserate with them...

LOL. As I pointed out to another poster (?) a week or so back, overclocking
and silent PCs aren't exactly <senility sets in and the word escapes me>.

If you're pushing the limits then you're also going to have to push the hot
air away. Good case design can make this quieter but it's never going to be
whisper-quiet. My current system is a joy to sit next to compared to my
previous OC'ed Barton/Thermaltake Xaser case. That thing sounded like I was
living next door to a large office block and all their airconditioning units
were just outside my window.

> It does raise the question of what should be sufficient. If I have
> two fans exhausting 49CFM each and assuming no meaningful intake
> obstructions shouldn't that be enough to exchanging the case's sultry
> warm air with still sultry but not as warm Florida ambient air a
> couple of times per minute (assume 3x3x1 ft case), and solve the
> problem without attaching a Lycoming or Continental driven prop plane
> engine to the side?

Brute force isn't as efficient as intelligent design. Is the air in your
case flowing optimally? If you have two fans moving that much air out then
you need vents of roughly twice the size, positioned preferably in front of
the HDDs (with maybe a couple slot covers under the graphics card removed to
allow cool air egress into that area).

> I'm missing something or things...but what? Infrared from the hot
> bits working its evil on poorly ventilated interior case bits?

You have to watch out for that.

>> BTW, did you do a "before and after" when you lapped it? Do you
>> think that lapping it improved heat transfer? I have a Thermalright
>> bolt-thru kit ("X" bracket, spring-loaded screws) ordered to
>> replace the push-pins on my otherwise excellent Thermaltake Mini
>> Typhoon. I've been debating whether to lap the CPU IHS when I'm
>> pulling the systen down to fit the bracket.
>
> Yes I did do before and after but with the Arctic Cooling, not the
> noctua. I only captured the coretemps. Idle and loaded with the
> lapping knocked off 3C both. The heatspreader had a depression in it
> deep enough I could have fed my cat from it.

Hmmm, a nano-cat huh? <g> Ok, I'm convinced, I'll lap my IHS when I pull my
system down to fit the bracket.

Thanks for the benefit of your experience.
--
TTFN,

Shaun.
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~misfit~ wrote:
> Somewhere on teh interweb Fishface typed:
>> ~misfit~ wrote:

>> Good idea. I can see the board flex visibly with the stock mounting
>> system.
>
> Yeah, nasty huh? I mean, a mobo is a complex thing, lots of really fine
> traces, six layer construction... Yet inserting the stock Intel HS causes
> the thing to flex several millimeters. Can't be good for it. I often wonder
> how many "DOA" mobo's are due to them flexing too much when either the CPU
> retaining clips or the RAM is inserted.
>

There was enough concern about the bending in the past, for
Intel to do a slide deck about it. Their explanation is, the
bending is OK, if the outside solder joints are under
compressive forces. But they didn't make a believer out
of me, and I still don't like to see the bending.

ftp://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/guides/29072801.pdf

Paul
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