To test the performance of the Noctua NH-U12P 1366 we will be putting it up against 2 other CPU coolers currently available for the Intel i7 platform. The coolers to be tested will be:

~ Noctua NH-U12P SE1366
~ Noctua NH-C12P (with SE1366 mounting kit)
~ Intel i7 Reference Cooler

We will be seeing how the NH-U12P SE1366 performs during idle and load operations. The load will be applied by using OCCT 3.0.1. The application used to monitor the temperatures during this test will be Lavalys Everest ULTIMATE and CoreTemp. Idle temperatures will be observed from a cold bootup after 15 minutes of idle time. None of the included adaptors for the fans will be used. So the fans mounted will be operating on the NH-U12P SE1366 at 1350RPM.

The system used in the testing stage of this review is:



Results





A very pleasing set of results from both Noctua counterparts. The SE1366 in particular delivers some blistering performance figures. The Intel i7 chips are well known for getting rather hot under load compared to the previous Core 2 family, the intel stock cooler quite clearly indicates this - when I overclocked the i7 920 to 3.8GHz the stock cooler gave out readings that approached the 90C mark.

I would imagine that the results above instill some confidence in the cooling ability of the SE1366, and provides not only confidence but reassurance that what is under the hood will be kept cool enough for you to execute some rather intense overclocking.

The overclock that I ran was 42% above that of the stock clock speeds, and when you cast your eyes at the graph the temperatures only just reach 64C. A very impressve and satisfying set of results.