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Noctua NH-U12A | Installation Manual | LGA115x

LGA115x

Caution: The supplied backplate will install over the mother-
board’s stock backplate, so the motherboard’s stock backplate 
must not be taken off.

  Attaching the backplate

2

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.

First put the plastic spacers onto the bolts of the backplate, then 
add the mounting bars. 

  Installing the mounting bars

3

Caution: Choose the alignment of the mounting bars according to 
the desired final orientation of the cooler: 

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).

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. 

  Applying the thermal paste

Caution: Applying too much thermal paste will lower heat  
conductivity and cooling performance! 

4

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 [email protected].

Multilingual versions of this manual are available on our
website: www.noctua.at/manuals

Required mounting parts:

2x NM-IMB3 mounting bars

1x NM-IBP2 backplate

4x NM-ITS1 thumb screws

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.

  Removing the motherboard

1

4x NM-IPS1 plastic spacers

Orientation A

Orientation B

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