Performance Tests

AMD Test Setup
CPU	Opteron 144 @ 2.25Ghz
Cooling	Scythe Mine @ 100%
Mainboard	Asus A8N SLI Premium
Memory	2 * 512Mb PC3200 OCZ
Other	Antec 900 Gaming Case Club3D 7900 GT with Zalman VF900 Antec TruePower Trio! 650W Maxtor 200GB SATA HDD

Room temperature was ~19°C during testing, no noise levels were recorded since both the standard Asus cooling and the Noctua NC-U 6 work completely passive.

With the case cooling of the Antec (2x120mm front, 1x120mm rear, 1x200mm top) set to low the maximum temperature reached by the nForce4 chipset was identical for both coolers; The NC-U 6 kept the chipset as cool as the high end premium solution from Asus.

We did not mount a fan directly on the NC-U 6 but did a second test with the case fans running at high speed, the extra airflow gave the Noctua cooler a 2°C lead over the stock cooling.

Conclusive Thoughts

At an estimated retail price of ~$25/€25 the Noctua NC-U 6 is quite a high end solution for chipset cooling, its easy installation and 6 year warranty do justify its price if high performance and silence is what you’re after.

The tower design doesn’t prevent compatibility issues on all motherboards, depending on your chipset location you may have some or not at all, so be sure to check the dimensions of the NC-U 6 and your motherboard layout.

The NC-U 6 is a capable product, which does exactly as advertised, Noctua is successfully expanding their product range, we look forward their next creation and hope they keep the quality up as with past products.

Hope this review has been useful, thank you for reading. Special thanks to Jakob from Noctua for his patience and support.