Noctua NH-U12P SE 1366 Review

Testing:

To put the NH-12P to the test I will be making a comparison of the temperatures at idle and under load, both while the CPU is at the stock voltages and clock speeds, as well as when the CPU is overclocked and over-volted to show what kind of performance the best Noctua has to offer, compared to the Thermalright TRUE. These two heatsinks will be tested head-to-head as they are delivered from the manufacturer. I could throw in a bunch of testing variables, but it is not what the products are capable of as delivered. To test the idle temperatures I will allow the computer to stay idle for 30 minutes and take the idle temperature at this point. For the load testing I will use Prime95 version 25.7 and choose the blend testing and allow the processor and memory control to heat up to the maximum temperatures. The time frame is a four hour run to allow the temperature to peak usually in test 14. Hyperthreading will be enabled to generate the most possible heat with 8 threads running. I will use Real temp 2.70 to take the high and low temperatures and average the temperatures generated over the 4 cores as my temperature.

Testing Setup:

• Processor: Intel Core I7 965 133x24 Stock voltages
• Processor: Overclocked Intel Core I7 965 203x19 1.4125 volts
• Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition
• Memory: Mushkin HP3 12800 7-7-7-20
• Video Card(s): Nvidia Geforce GTX 260
• Power Supply: Mushkin 800 watt Modular power supply
• Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 1TB SATA
• Optical Drive: NEC DV5700
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition SP1 64bit
• Ambient Temperature 77F

Comparison Cooler:

• Thermalright TRUE

Lower Temperatures = Better

The results at idle were fairly close between the two heatsinks. When it came time to load up the heat the NH-12P 1366 at stock took a nice 9 degree Celsius lead from what is usually regarded as the standard bearer for high performance cooling. Now when I put the screws to the poor 965, the Noctua and Thermalright were neck and neck. 1.4125 volts is just a bit too much for either heatsink to handle for the long term. The other option is to of course, set my sights a little lower with the voltages.