Noctua NH-U12S - Manual

Required mounting parts:
Dear customer,
Congratulations on choosing the Noctua NH-U12S.
The NH-U12S is the latest version of Noctua’s award-winning NH-
U12 coolers. First introduced in 2005, the NH-U series has become
a standard choice for premium quality quiet CPU coolers and won
more than 400 awards and recommendations from leading inter-
national hardware websites and magazines. Enjoy your NH-U12S!
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. 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 [email protected]. Noctua cannot be held responsible
for any damage or losses caused by compatibility issues.
Multilingual versions of this manual are available on our website:
www.noctua.at/manuals
Removing the mainboard
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 mainboard
tray, you first have to remove the mainboard from the case in
order to be able to install the supplied backplate.
Step 1
Caution: Make sure that the curved sides of the mounting bars are
pointing outwards.
2x NM-IMB3 Mounting Bars 1x NM-IBP2 Backplate
4x NM-ITS1 Thumbscrews 4x NM-IPS1 Spacers
Applying 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
(4-5mm diameter) of NT-H1 onto the centre of the heatspreader.
Caution: Applying too much thermal paste will lower heat
conductivity and cooling performance!
Step 4
Place the backplate on the rear side of the mainboard so that the
bolts stick through the mounting holes.
Caution: Please make sure that the three cut-outs in the sup-
plied backplate align with the screws of the mainboard’s stock
backplate.
Installing the mounting bars
Caution:
Choose the alignment of the mounting bars according to the desired
final orientation of the cooler:
Step 3
First put the plastic spacers onto the bolts of the backplate, then
add the mounting bars.
Fix the mounting bars using the 4 thumb screws.
Caution: Gently tighten the screws until they stop, but don’t use
excessive force.
Attaching the backplate
Caution: The supplied backplate will install over the mainboard’s
stock backplate, so the mainboard’s stock backplate must not be
taken off.
Step 2
Orientation A Orientation B
Fastening the heatsink to the CPU
Caution: Please first take off the fan as well as the protection cover
at the bottom side of the heatsink.
Step 5
Noctua NH-U12S | Installation Manual | LGA115x
LGA115x