Review on 🌬️ Noctua NH-U12DX i4: Premium CPU Cooler for Intel Xeon LGA20xx | Brown Color by Troy Rotermund

This review relates to the Noctua NH-U12DX i4, the 120mm version of the Noctua NH-U__S range of workstation/server radiators. A 90mm version (NH-U9DX i4) is also available. The NH-U12DX i4 comes in a box ready to be mounted on a standard ILM-LGA2011 square base, but has interchangeable brackets for mounting on a narrow ILM-LGA2011 base. I bought this product because of its close compatibility with ILM. This product comes in a plain OEM-style brown cardboard box, as opposed to the retail packaging of Noctua's standard non-workstation/server line. Another difference is that the accessory pack simply lies loosely folded inside the box under the built-in cardboard divider, as opposed to the standard versions where the accessories are neatly organized in separate small boxes within the packaging depending on their purpose. Accessories include: - Noise isolation pads and mounting clips for installing a second 120mm fan for the low noise push-pull adapter (NA-RC6) - Two sets of slim ILM brackets for mounting the heatsink either lengthways (NM-XFB4) or transverse (NM-XFB5) narrow length ILM - small tube of thermal grease NT-H1 - long neck hex wrench - wrench and socket have a mechanism to hold the wrench in place when tightening/loosening, but a regular 3mm -Hex works too - 4 screws to attach to LGA1356/1366. The heatsink/fan part of the NH-U12DX i4 looks the same as the NH-U12S. The difference lies in the fastening mechanism. Those who have installed regular Noctuas that aren't designed for servers/workstations know that these models have a bracket that attaches to the motherboard; The heatsink has two screw arms which are then used to attach the heatsink to the bracket. This product has interchangeable brackets that bolt directly onto the radiator; The entire heatsink is then screwed into the LGA2011 mounts on the motherboard. Replacing the brackets is an easy task as each bracket is secured to the heatsink with two Phillips screws. The cooler comes with an attached fan; When installing on a motherboard, the fan must be removed to access the mounting screws on this side of the heatsink. I am using the NH-U12 DX i4 in a single fan configuration on a 4 CPU system and at full load the quoted temperature was 12.4. The C cooler is average compared to the OEM 90mm fan/radiator. As expected, the NF-F12 fan is significantly quieter than the OEM solution even without a built-in LNA. The NH-U12DX i4 has some disadvantages. First, when a heatsink is mounted over a narrow ILM, the heat pipes don't come close to clearing adjacent RAM slots that have standard "low-profile" (30mm) RAM installed. There is a chance that the "very low" RAM (18mm) will be erased, but it will be close. This is a frustrating design issue as it basically means that one of the included brackets is utterly useless when there are adjacent full RAM slots, allowing the heatsink to only be installed one way. Most slim ILM motherboards use a slim ILM to cram as many things onto the motherboard as possible, and it's usually the RAM slots next to the CPU, so I have to imagine that on a lot of motherboards on the market this is a Problem is. Also, I've noticed that the airflow on server boards is usually designed to run the length of the narrow ILM connector (because the RAM and passive mobile heatsinks are also oriented in that direction), which is perpendicular to the NH's single path -U12DX i4 runs . can be installed on boards that have a problem with clearing RAM. Second, I bought eight of these units (for two four-processor systems). Five of the eight came with a clear hard plastic protective cover over the base of the heatsink, typical of Noctua heatsinks (all other Noctua heatsinks I've bought had these). The other three only came with a thin white peel-off protective film. With two, the film had already come loose when unpacking; On the latter, the film was "attached" but shifted far enough to only cover part of the base. I suspect the idea behind the protective film is that it can be left on while the end user changes the mounts (the tablet's clear protective film covers the mount screws and therefore needs to be removed to change the mounts). It's still not a bad idea IMO as it's difficult to reapply the screen protector if the end user ever needs to repackage the device. Either way, a good idea or not, it's poorly executed. Overall I think 4* is fair. It's the typical easy-to-install, high-performance product we've come to expect from Noctua, albeit with some flaws we didn't expect.