Noctua NF-R8 and NF-S12 Fans, NC-U6 Chipset Cooler

The Noctua NC-U6 chipset cooler looks much like any heatpipe cooler that one would use to either keep their chipset cooler or quiet a noisy fan. Regardless of the reasoning behind upgrading, the benefits to upgrading are there.

Packaged in a simply blister pack, the cooler is easily seen alongside its accessories. Flanked by its installation adapters, we can see that the NC-U6 is a simple vertical heatpipe cooler that can capture air form either a case fan or the CPU fan. It’s a simple design but one that has been proven to work in various other models from various other companies.

Out of the packaging, Noctua has included the bare essentials to getting this cooler installed. Included with the NC-U6 is a simple but precise manual, a pair of mounts for push pin and hook mount motherboards, a small amount of thermal paste that most likely will never get used unless I’m in a bind, a foam spacer, and a small screw to attach said mounts to the cooler.

Taking a closer look at the cooler itself, we see that it uses a pair of heatpipes to pull the heat away from the copper block and dissipate it out among the aluminum fins. Notice the small hole on top of the block. This is threaded to allow the included screw to be tightened down, holding the mounts in place.

From the top, we can see a hold running all the way down the entire length of the cooler. This allows easy access to tighten down the mounting screw. There are also, what appear to be, grooves on the ends of the sinks to apparently attach a 60mm fan should one be needed.

Interestingly enough, Noctua does not provide fan mounting hardware, nor do they even manufacture a small enough fan to work on this cooler. The exclusion of the fan mounting hardware is unfortunate but not a deal breaker in our opinion. Regardless, we are hoping that the performance of this cooler will be good enough to not need a directly attached fan.

Knocking the NC-U6 over, we see the base in all its glory. While not the smoothest base that we have see, it’s certainly not the worst and when used with quality thermal paste, should provide a solid surface against the chipset.