Noctua NH-U12A Installation Manual

Dear customer,
Thank you very much for choosing the Noctua NH-U12A.
First introduced in 2005, our NH-U12 series has won more than
600 awards and recommendations from leading international
hardware websites and magazines. The NH-U12A is the latest
addition to this prestigious series and I'm confident that you will be
able to sense some of the research, attention and care we've put
into making this product.
Enjoy your Noctua NH-U12A!
Yours sincerely,
Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO
This manual will guide you through the installation process of the
SecuFirm2™ mounting system step by step.
Prior to installing the cooler, please consult the compatibility list
on our website (www.noctua.at/compatibility) and verify that the
cooler is fully compatible with your motherboard. Please also make
sure that your PC case offers sufficient clearance for the cooler and
that there are no compatibility issues with any other components
(e.g. tall RAM modules). Double check that the heatsink and fan
clips do not make contact with the VGA card or other PCIe cards.
Noctua cannot be held responsible for any damage or losses
caused by compatibility issues.
Should you encounter any difficulties, please check the FAQs on
our website (www.noctua.at/faqs) and don't hesitate to contact our
support team at support@noctua.at.
Multilingual versions of this manual are available on our
website: www.noctua.at/manuals
Required mounting parts:
1x NM-IBP2 backplate 2x NM-IMB3 mounting bars
4x NM-IPS1 plastic spacers 4x NM-ITS1 thumb screws
1 Removing the motherboard
In case you want to use the cooler on an assembled system and
your case doesn't have a cut-out at the rear side of the mother-
board tray, you first have to remove the motherboard from the
case in order to be able to install the supplied backplate.
Noctua NH-U12A | Installation Manual | LGA115x
2 Attaching the backplate
Caution: The supplied backplate will install over the mother-
board's stock backplate, so the motherboard's stock backplate
must not be taken off.
Place the backplate on the rear side of the motherboard so that
the bolts stick through the mounting holes.
Caution: Please make sure that the three cut-outs in the
supplied backplate align with the screws of the motherboard's
stock backplate.
3 Installing the mounting bars
First put the plastic spacers onto the bolts of the backplate, then
add the mounting bars.
Caution: Choose the alignment of the mounting bars according to
the desired final orientation of the cooler:
Orientation A Orientation B
Caution: Make sure that the curved sides of the mounting bars are
pointing outwards.
Fix the mounting bars using the 4 thumb screws.
Caution: Gently tighten the screws until they stop, but don't use
excessive force (max. torque 0.6 Nm).
4 Applying the thermal paste
If there are residual traces of thermal paste or thermal pads on
your CPU, please clean them off first. Then press a small drop
(3-4mm diameter) of NT-H1 onto the centre of the heatspreader.
Caution: Applying too much thermal paste will lower heat
conductivity and cooling performance!