Noctua NH-U9DX 1366 Dual Heat-pipe SSO Bearing Quiet CPU Cooler

Pros: Looks like I accidently reviewed this one instead of the AMD G34 version (NH-U9DO A3 AMD Opteron). so my previous review with the two stars applies to that one not this one.

Cons: not sure, never tried it.

Pros: Looks great, other than that I cannot tell because I cannot assemble it. But it looks really really cool so 2 eggs for style.

Cons: the screws holding the brackets to the heatsink are extremely difficult to put in, in fact I cannot put them in.

Other Thoughts: I have been screwing things together all my life. I r a mechanic and engineer and they just didnt leave enough room to use a tool on them. its necessary to use your fingers to run them down to the point that you can get the allen wrench on them to finish but then cannot be started. you, know - if you just knurled the ends of the screws and put pilot tips on them it might make it possible to put them in. 45 minutes I have been screwing with these screws and not one yet.

Pros: Excellent Construction.
Good installation manual
Very quiet, due to large fans.
Extra fan supplied

Cons: Correct fan orientation could be more clear.

Other Thoughts: Even though this cooler is large, I was able to install two of them on a Supermicro X8DTH-IF motherboard, which is an ATX form factor server mother board.

Pros: If you have a backplate already on your mainboard, it might work just fine.

Cons: "The NH-U9DX 1366 doesn't come with a backplate and thus requires a mainboard with a backplate." My mainboard didn't have a backplate, and so now I just have scrap metal. Make sure your board has a backplate before you order this, or you won't be able to screw the cooler into anything.

Pros: super easy install. comes mostly assembled. very quiet. i have two of these on my sr-2 motherboard atop 2 xeon 2.4 ghz six cores and it runs about 40 celsius. couldnt be happier.

Cons: none.

Other Thoughts: easy easy easy. if you cant figure this out go practice on a lego set for five year olds and youll have it down.

Pros: This thing is HUGE! definitely a good heatsink for the SR2 or any dual motherboard. The fans included are very quiet with decent cfm. The clips are easy...and don't stick out IF you put them on right. Also...when I put them on I put the bottom part of the clip on first because of the lack of space between the cooler and ram. basically, If you use your noggin the clips are not a problem--and are wayyy better than screws.

Cons: This thing is HUGE! -- which is good for air and bad for small cases/boards. I won't take away an egg for this because its a cpu cooler -- It does its job better with that massive surface area. Also, the fan. I'm not a fan of the color, I would have preferred black. Its not a big deal though, because the clips fit any 92mm fan -- so I replaced the fans with loud 100cfm ones (because I'm crazy and want more powa).

Other Thoughts: Unless you're crazy, like me, this cpu cooler is perfect.

Pros: I give this a 5, but not a "perfect" 5.

It gets a '6' for quality:

4 heat pipe bores, a very solid machined finish thermal interface plate, high quality and stiff U brackets to transfer the load to the LGA1366 mounting holes, high quality spring fasteners (socket head cap screws) with an extra long hex wrench to screw them down. All the aluminum has a nickel plated finish. Fans have anti-vibration strips. Super high-quality Noctua SSO fans. This kit comes with one fan but has the clips to mount another 92 mm fan to the other side of the cooler (this is perfect because the long PCI support bracket on my Lian Li case would not allow a 120 mm cooler to be installed). Just top notch quality.

Cons: However I give it a '4' for installability.

I have a 2 CPU Supermicro motherboard. And the cooler on CPU unit 1 installed like a breeze. The clip design is very clever, and as long as you have room to get your fingers in, you can install the fan with no problem.

Not so easy with CPU #2. The 2nd CPU socket is biased to the top of the MB. You have to install the Heat sink without the fans first, since you have to access the screws from the top. The install the clips to hold the fans. On the top side of the cooler this gives no room to the top of the case. Fortunately I was able to unbolt the top rail of my case (it was riveted at the other end) to move it aside just enough to get my finger in. And with a pair of needle nosed pliers I was able to grab the bottom of the fan clips and move them into place.

Other Thoughts: If Noctua reads this and would consider a slight redesign:

make the mounting screws have a allen wrench insert like they have now, and a hex head top so you can use a small wrench so that you can screw the fasteners in from the side, not the top. This way you would have the option of either installing it using the current method (screw from the top and then attach fans) or an alternative method (attach the fans first then screw in from the side with a small wrench).

It was not a big deal though. I was able to get it installed with after about 20 minutes of aggravation. But the coolers work like a dream.

I have two 5620s and under full load they stay nice and cool with these Coolers (and quiet too!). Super high-quality and definitely worth the price IMO.

Pros: Very quiet and effective at cooling.

Cons: If you're building a dual-processor machine, watch out.

These heatsinks are so big that in a dual-xeon ATX motherboard such as the asus z8na-d6, the two fans can't be mounted on the same side of the heatsinks, because the wire fan clasps stick out quite a bit on each side.

Solution is to have fans blowing in opposite directions, which seems like a bad idea, or to use different hardware to attach the fan to the heatsink.

Also, 3 -pin fans (no pwm), if that matters.

Pros: These things are beautiful and quiet heatsinks. Much quieter than the stock coolers I've dealt with in the past. Once you figure out how the fans attach (no screws!), you really appreciate the design.

Cons: Figuring out how the fans attach took me a good hour (there were a few different ways it seemed like it could work, and the instructions weren't clear enough for me). An extra pair of hands would be very handy to keep the clips in place as you slide the ends into the screwholds.

Other Thoughts: Only fits Xeon motherboards (heatsink screws into the mobo instead of clipping in), just like the specifications say. Already comes with thermal paste (bottom of the box. Open it all the way before you go out and buy more like I did. :()

Pros: I purchased two of these fans to cool my ASUS Z8NA-D6C Server machine. They fit perfectly on the motherboard with some room to spare, and have just enough clearance with the bracing bar in the Rosewill RSV-R4000 case I am using. Almost like they were ment to be together.

Cons: The hooking clips can be a bit of a challange. I got three of the clips installed in roughly a minute but the fourth one (last one on the second processor) took me almost ten minutes to get it in. This was not an issue with the fan however but a space issue with the motherboard.

Other Thoughts: I would recommend these fans to anyone building a server machine using the same motherboard I purchased. I used the "loud" (high speed) fan cables but you cannot hear them over the chassis fans in my server.