Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO CPU Cooler

Pros: To say that this is "well-constructed" or "high-quality" would frankly be an understatement. This thing is built so solid and designed so precisely it could've been carved from a rock. You get your money's worth with this one. Temps are downright icy. Quiet as a ninja. Includes two fan mod options for various "silence" levels, ie. decreased fan speed. You won't need them. Includes excellent Noctua thermal grease, which you should use, rather than buying something else separately. Better than Arctic Silver. Packaging is close to luxurious. Excellent documentation. Includes a case badge made of actual solid metal.

Cons: Quite large, but fits fine in my Cooler Master HAF 922, even leaves some space to spare (between its top and the side panel). Width may interfere with two RAM slots nearest the CPU, but only if they have tall heat spreaders. I was able to barely fit my G. Skill Ripjaws, but anything taller might be a problem. Lengthy installation compared to other coolers, but you'll see that the extra hardware involved eliminates the need to put pressure on the motherboard, as installation of cheaper coolers normally requires.

Overall Review: If you're considering saving some money by going with a $30 or $40 cooler, don't. You'll see how they were a waste of money once this thing is in your hands, and when you see the temps it produces. If these fan blades and frame are made of plastic, it's incredibly high-grade plastic, because they're so dense and heavy they feel more like ceramic or anodized metal. Heat sink looks like titanium. On an i5 2500k running stock, idle temp was around 17 C. Overclocked to 4GHz: idle @ 23 C, and 36 C under stress test (Prime95 burning in all 4 cores). Haven't seen it go above 36 C yet. This is better than any of those self-contained liquid coolers on the market right now, so don't bother with them. This includes little adhesive rubber strips to cushion the contact points between the fans and the heat sink, to prevent rattling. Be sure to use these, as they're easy to miss, and see the manual for proper placement. The level of quality all products should be. I couldn't be happier.

Pros: Have a new i7-920 build asd wanted to do some OC'ing. Stock cooler was pretty good but wanted better. First bought a Cooler Master V8 because it was rated good and looked very very "cool". V8 only dropped the temps 1-2 degrees c. So did some more reseach and found this Noctua. Rather ugly in a clear case but dropped my temps under load a full 15 degrees c. That's huge! Installed both fans in a push pull configuration. Running in an Antec 1200 case so already had good ventilation. with Asus p6t deluxe v2 mobo and Antec case lines up perfectly with exhaust fans in back. Fans run at a low 1400 rpm (compared to v8 2000 rpm) and is very quite. V8 was also quite but didn't do the job. Maybe something was defective with the V8 but everything looked fine.

Cons: Ugly colors so decided to pain stakingly paint the fan housing to match my color scheme. Left the fan blades alone. Did paint the center of the fan a neon color and looks very good! I would deduct an egg because of the color but the thing worked so good I didn't have the heart. The instructions were good. Still requires a fair amount of work to install but nothing that difficult. Unlike the V8 if I ever need to re-seat the heat sink, I won't need to pull the Motherboard. Also took me some time to figre out how to mount the fans with the clips. Instructions were a little lame on how to do this. Finally saw an installed Noctua on youtube and figured it out. Also the clips scratch the heck out of any custom paint job. I wish they would come up with some better colors and the top of the heat sink is also very blah, but functional.

Overall Review: Finally reached the 4 ghz OC club on air using the Noctua! Runs at about 76-78 degrees c under full load using Prime95 (Blend test) and about 32-3 degrees c at idle. Room temp around 22 c with the box completely sealed up. Sounds high but thats at 4 ghz and full load which is unrealistic for any normal PC usage even high end gaming. Again this is coming from a first time build noob. My goal (from my reaserach) was to keep the cpu temp below 80 c. The individual cores do go a tad higher than 80 c at a CPU temp of 76-78c. To OC I simply jacked up the FSB to 190 mhz. Simpleton approach but it worked. A lot to learn. I know I can do some tweaking to increase the processor speeds and lower the temps. Can't go wrong with i7-920 (Do), Asus P6T Deluxe V2, Noctua, Antec 1200. With the Cooler Master V8 my temps were limiting my OC'ing to around 3.5'sh ghz... again using the same simpleton OC'ing approach.

Pros: I purchased two of these kits for my home office computers - one is an Intel Core i7 system and one is an AMD APU system. Both installations were very easy. With the SecuFirm2 Multi-Socket Mounting System the CPU heatsink is held firmly in place. The NF-P12 fans operate at a maximum of 1,300 rpm. Cooling is still good while the lower rpm help reduce noise. This tower style heatsink will fit in tower cases that are a minimum of 8 inches wide measured across the top of a tower case.

Cons: 1. Cost. 2. The two NF-P12 fans come with 3-pin connectors instead of 4-pin connectors. There is no pwm feature. If you need or want the pwm feature you'll have to purchase the NF-P12 PWM fan. 3. The CPU heatsink can be installed on an Intel motherboard so that hot air is exhausted out the rear panel of a case or it can be turned 90 degrees so hot air is exhausted out the top panel of a pc case. On AMD motherboards the heatsink can only be mounted so that hot air is exhausted out the top panel of a pc case. If you want to install it so that hot air is exhausted out the rear panel of a pc case you have to purchase a separate Noctua mounting kit.

Overall Review: The Noctua NH-U12P SE2 is an older model. It is an excellent cpu cooler that is reasonably quiet and suitable for typical every day use, home office use, and casual gaming. Newegg also sells the Noctua NH-U12S which is a newer model that is more appropriate for gamers and enthusiasts. The NH-U12S comes with 120mm fans that have the pwm feature and operate at a maximum of 1,500 rpm. For hardcore gaming and extreme overclocking Newegg offers Noctua models with 140mm fans operating at 1,500 rpm.

Pros: I just installed it and this thing is huge definitely make sure to get the dimensions and check to see if it will cover your ram slots on the mobo. I can only install two sticks of ram on mine. But i didnt measure it. The instructions were great and installation was easy with one exception. Other than that Good heatsink. Note: This is per installation not per running it yet. :)

Cons: Installation of fan clips is annoying at best. Instructions indicate to install fan clips after installed on cpu.... Makes it difficult to install. The motherboard i bought is listed as compatible on noctua's website but they fail to mention that it covers a ram slot. If you buy this measure first and if not plan on using only two sticks of ram instead of four. -price

Overall Review: Happy hunting fellow pc enthusiast.

Pros: This fan works wonderfully, Low Temps with OCing only running 32c very nice fan i think i got a huge bargain i would have charged more for it if i was selling it very nice fan....

Cons: none yet..so this is doing the job...good buy here from New Egg and also Noctua...5 stars for both...

Overall Review: Im running this fan with this system Cooler master HAF 932 Advanced Case Asus 990FX Sabertooth Motherboard AMD Phenom Quad core @ 3.9ghz OC from 3.4 Stable. Corsair 8gb Memory 1600 Vengeance 1tb HDD WD Cavier Black OCZ SSD 120gb Vertex Cooler Master 850w. Power supply Silent PRO M Evga GTX 580 Video Card Superclocked Asus Blu-Ray Combo Drive and best of all no noise at all ...Priceless... waiting for Bulldozer to hit the streets... this Fan is really great though you should pick it up on a few conditions 1.. if you have a large case to fit it very large Heatsink very tall...2...the instruction are a guide line... not a how to book... so you will need common sense..like if you turn the fans around and look at them you will see the arrow on which way the fans blow...and there are 2 fans woot...push-n-pull...

Pros: Cools PHENOMENALLY, seriously, this thing is a beast. I went from 3.36GHz @ ~80C with an Intel stock cooler to 4.01GHz @ ~58C. This thing is great for all you overclockers out there, and I can personally attest to that. Great thermal paste included, saved me another $5-10 on top of the already hefty price tag. Comes with two fans for a perfect push-pull config. Works well with my ASUS P7H55M-PRO Micro ATX mobo. It does block one RAM slot, but a module with a low-profile heatsink fits underneath, but one fan must be removed in order to install the module initially.

Cons: Fans might be ugly for some, but I like the unique look. It makes them stand out in my case. Obviously the size, but that's a problem with any good CPU cooler anyway. Price, although when you think about it, it comes with an amazing heatsink, two $25 fans, and a tube of ~$5 thermal paste, so it really isn't a bad value. Not to mention the performance of the entire package is totally worth the money in my opinion.

Overall Review: Granted, this is my fist aftermarket cooler, but I love it, and am very glad that I sprung for an expensive but high quality heatsink and fan setup. I would recommend this to absolutely anyone.

Pros: Easy to install. Dropped my core temp by over 20 degrees.

Cons: Big! Make sure it will fit in your case.

Pros: Price - I got it on sale a year and a half ago for like, $35. Materials - solid copper pipes. This fan is sturdy and heavy Noise - Quiet. I can't hear it over my GPU's fan Temp - I overclock my AMD CPU from 3.6 to 4.1 and I've never seen it go above 50c, and that's counting hot days.

Cons: It's really big. Unless you have a large (mid ATX +) you're going to have a hard time clipping on the fans, let alone putting it in without taking out the motherboard first. Odds are, you'll have to make a choice between having a top case fan and one of this CPU cooler's fans. See below On AMD CPU's, the fan only mounts one way. Makes it difficult to use all the case fans that I want to

Overall Review: Solid fan that will last a long time. Highly recommend it.