Noctua NH-U12DX i4, Premium CPU Cooler for Intel Xeon LGA20xx (Brown)

I bought these to use on a dual-socket ATX (not SSI-CEB or even "E-ATX") LGA2011-3 board, the X10DRL-i from Supermicro. I contacted Noctua to ask about options and they gave me this and another (92mm fan) option, they even informed me that the dual 92mm could only work front to back and not up and down, I figured a larger single fan would be close in thermals (possibly better) and definitely quieter than 2x92mm. Mounting was very easy, I had an old NH-D14 I used on a Sandy Bridge E HEDT chip awhile ago and this was just as easy. Very quiet and have had no issue installing 2 of them on the very narrow spacing between the sockets. Even with both 2660v3 (10c/20t) CPUs in Prime95 (which is power virus level heat generation), hottest core never exceeded the mid 50s (Celcius) with these coolers in my fractal design r5 with all the HDD bays packed obstructing intake and two 140mm 1000RPM intakes and one more as exhaust in back. Mega impressed with Noctua's customer service, quality, noise, and thermals. I ended up buying Noctua fans for my server all around as well as my other two rigs, definitely earned my business, a little pricier but they make good stuff and this was easily worth what I paid.

Easy to install. Had to order this CUP cooler because my AIO closed loop water cooler gave up the ghost after 10 loyal years of service. Keeps my processor cores below 110°F even at higher than normal processing tasks, and around 80 to 85°F at idle.

I'm using these in our Television editing bay computer builds. Quietness is paramount and these fit the bill. They also shed the heat from the Core i9 9980-XE 18 core CPUs (not overclocked) without a problem. There are two small nits to pick. One is the fact that the cooling tower/fan is LARGE. You need to put it in a large case. I'm using Define R6 cases (also awesome!!!). The other is that you have to pull the fan off the heat exchanger to install so that you can get to two of the mounting screws. Very small nits. Barely worth the 1 star I dinged it.

This review is for the Noctua NH-U12DX i4, the 120mm workstation/server version of Noctua's NH-U__S slim line of heatsinks. There is also a 90mm version available (NH-U9DX i4). The NH-U12DX i4 comes in the box ready to be mounted to a standard square ILM LGA2011 socket, but has interchangeable brackets provided to fit a narrow ILM LGA2011 socket. The narrow ILM compatibility is why I purchased this product. This product comes in plain brown cardboard box OEM-style packaging, in contrast to the retail packaging found on Noctua's standard, non-workstation/server lineup. Another difference is that the accessories package is just lumped loosely in the box under a built-in cardboard divider, unlike the standard versions that have accessories neatly organized into separate small boxes within the packaging depending on the purpose. The accessories include: - silencing pads and mounting clips to mount a second 120mm fan for push/pull - low noise adapter (NA-RC6) - two sets of narrow ILM brackets, to mount heatsink along (NM-XFB4) or across (NM-XFB5) the length of narrow ILM - small tube of NT-H1 thermal compound - long-neck allen wrench - wrench and head have mechanism to help keep wrench in place during tightening/loosening, but a typical 3mm hex should also work - 4 screws for mounting to LGA1356/1366 The heatsink/fan portion of the NH-U12DX i4 looks identical to that of the NH-U12S. The difference is in the mounting mechanism. Those that have installed the normal, non-server/workstation Noctua's know that those models have a bracket that is mounted onto the motherboard; the heatsink has two screw arms that are then used to mount the heatsink onto the bracket. This product is designed to have interchangeable brackets that screw directly onto the heatsink; the entire heatsink is then screwed into the LGA2011 mounts on the motherboard. Changing out the brackets is a simple task, as each bracket is attached to the heatsink by two Phillips screws. The heatsink comes packaged with fan attached; installation onto the motherboard does require removal of the fan to access the mounting screws on that side of the heatsink. I use the NH-U12 DX i4 in single-fan configuration in a quad CPU system, and at full load, reported temps were 12.4C cooler on average compared to the OEM 90mm fan/heatsink. As expected, the NF-F12 fan is also much quieter than the OEM solution even without the LNA installed. The NH-U12DX i4 does have some shortcomings. First off, when the heatsink is mounted across the narrow ILM, the heatpipes don't come close to clearing adjacent RAM slots that have standard "low profile" (30mm) RAM installed. There's a chance that "very low profile" RAM (~18mm) will clear, but it'll be close. This is a disappointing design problem as it basically means one of the provided brackets is completely useless if there are adjacent populated RAM slots, so the heatsink can only be mounted in one direction. Most narrow ILM motherboards use narrow ILM in order to cram in as much stuff onto the motherboard as possible, and typically it's RAM slots next to the CPU so I have to imagine this is a problem with many motherboards on the market. Additionally, I've noticed airflow on server boards is usually designed to go along the length of the narrow ILM socket (as RAM and passive mobo heatsinks are also aligned in that direction), which is perpendicular to the only way the NH-U12DX i4 can be mounted on boards that have the RAM clearing problem. Second, I bought eight of these units (for two quad-CPU systems). Five of eight came with a transparent hard plastic tray protector over the heatsink base that is typical of Noctua heatsinks (every other Noctua heatsink I've bought had this). The other three came with only a thin white peel-off protective film. On two of those, the film had already come off when I unboxed them; on the last one, the film was "attached" but displaced enough that it only covered part of the base. I guess the idea behind the protective film is that it can be left on while the end user swaps out the brackets (the clear tray protector covers the bracket screws, so must be removed to switch brackets). IMO this is still only an OK idea since it's tough to reapply the peel-off protector should the end user ever need to repackage the unit. In any case, whether good idea or not, it's poorly executed. All in all, I think 4* is fair. This is your typical, easy-to-install, high-performance product that we expect from Noctua, albeit with a few shortcomings we don't expect.

Looks nice, great design and the fan is very quiet. Future versions could use an updated color scheme for the fan or LED's but otherwise it's a great product.

I purchased this as a replacement for a cheaper generic cooler for my Haswell 5820 CPU OC'd to 4.2 GHZ. I do quite a bit of HD video encoding and with all 12 cores at 100% utilization, the core temp never got above 70 C. Now this was just a tad high for my liking, so I backed it down to 4.0 GHZ, and it stays around 67 C. The fan noise is virtually non existent. This is a rather large cooler, and rather than having a horizontal orientation which would most likely cause it to partially obstruct a couple of memory slots, it perches vertically on the processor, and in my NZXT Phantom mid tower case, almost touches the left side panel. The heat sink allen head mount screws are easily accessible (with the included long allen wrench) once the fan is removed which is a very simple operation, and mounted to my ASRock 2011 v3 board without needing any of the included adaptors. Also included is a tube of thermal paste, which was nice since I didn't have to hunt down my tube of Arctic Silver. The only drawback to this unit, is that it's not as aesthetically appealing as some coolers on the market..it has a very utilitarian look about it, which was fine for me, I like my builds to look clean, bling isn't an absolute necessity, but it does what it's supposed to. And very well. Highly recommended.

This is so efficient that it trips my motherboards warning that the cpu fan is too slow at first startup. I _did_ purchase a second fan to keep it this low, but still, it was a good size to fit between my memory installation, and does a great job at keeping the cpu cool (i7 4930K, Asus Sabertooth X79 MB, Corsair 500R case)

For supermicro X10SR and probably many other supermicro MB this is only logical choice. Pay attention : - You will receive also good thermal paste, do not need to buy other - If you want super low noise reduction and planing on high TDP (135W+ for at this moment available E5-26xx CPU) buy with this also another 120 mm Noctua fan to install on both side and lower fan speed. - This is for 2011-3 only with 3 installation options : 1. Square 2. Narrow 1 3. Narrow 2 (90 degree rotation) Only one negative rating for this purchase is shipping info but this all because of local shipping company and culture, I am even surprised with shipping speed, better than expected but information is wrong in many steps. This even show delivery on some random location at end.