A Closer Look:

    Both the NH-U9 and NH-U12 coolers have copper base plates with heat-pipes. 4 heat-pipes bent in a U shape for a total of 8 vertical pipes. These heat-pipes pass thru the aluminum fins on the coolers and seem to be held in place by a friction fit on the heat pipes. The only real different between the 2 coolers is the size of the aluminum fins.  The copper base plate and heat-pipes are identical on each unit even the thickness of the fins are the same. The NH-U9 has a total surface area of 3800cm2 and on the NH-U12 a total of 5000cm2 surface area.

Retail Front	Retail Rear
Contents	Manual

    The Noctua coolers are not supplied with fans, but the layout of the box has a space for fans. The possibility is there for fans to be included in future releases. Noctua mentions the possibility going fanless, saying their products can be used effectively in some situations without a fan. Of course that will be extremely dependant on case ventilation and airflow. We shall see what happens during the testing phase.

Side by Side	Comparison
Top	Heat Pipes mating with copper base

  Speaking of fans: Noctua also sent me 5 fans. Yup, 5! One 80mm, two 92mm, and two 120mm fans. Interesting. So I'm going to use the maximum size fan that the cooler can handle. The fans are Coolink silent fans with fan speed control that mounts on a PCI bracket.

plethora of fan	Coolink silent fan
Clamp for Heat pipes	Heat Pipes into Fins
Follow these instructions	Copper goodness

    The items included with the fans are the appropriate brackets and clamps to mount the cooler to the CPU, instruction manual, and thermal compound.

Braces

K8 Brace installed

K8 hardware