The mounting plates are attached to the motherboard which means you don’t have to have three hands to hold the motherboard, backplate and cooler. Once on the cooler can be screwed into the mounts on the motherboard.

The cooler mount mechanism provides a secure mount with even pressure via the spring tension screws. The silicon noise/vibration dampening strips are applied to the edges of the cooler to stop fan vibration making more noise.

The fans are clipped on and we’re good to go. Let’s get on with the testing.

The cooler has the same clearance as before, and here’s another case where it’s a close fit but doesn’t require any bending or brute force to get the door back on.

And here’s the setup fully installed

Here is the test rig, and testing methodology:

• Mainboard - Asus P6T Deluxe V2
• CPU - Intel Core i7 920
• GFX - XFX 7950GT XT
• CPU Cooling - On Review
• Memory - 3GB 1333Mhz DDR3 Patriot Viper
• Disks - 2x160GB WD caviar (RAID 0)
• DVD burner - Stock DVDRW
• Case - ThermalTake Spedo
• PSU - PC Power and Cooling 750W Quad Silencer
• On Review - Noctua NH-U12P LGA1366.

Testing and Results

The coolers were measured at idle and at load, the idle temperatures were taken after the computer had sat at the desktop doing nothing for 30 minutes, and the load temperatures were taken while running ORTHOS for 30 minutes. Temperatures were recorded using SpeedFan

The results were then calculated as the difference (delta) between the ambient temperature and the idle/load temperature to erase differences in room temperature affecting the results. Delta Temps Explained Here

Well the NH-U12P 1366 seems to have done just as well as the NH-U12P did on LGA775, it jumps straight to the top of the LGA1366 coolers that we have tested. Even though intel processors generally use very little power during idle, it’s still a difference enough for the Noctua cooler to jump a couple of degrees ahead of the competition.

And putting the heat up on load just lets the NH-U12P 1366 run away from the other coolers tested here even more. It’s close to being twice as good as the stock Intel cooler (this one was pushing 80oC on the CPU we had!), so if you’re running on a stock Intel cooler it’s going to make a huge difference to get an aftermarket cooler.

Next Page – Conclusion