Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Review

Installation

Noctua is making use of their SecuFirm2 mounting system on this cooler, which is one of the best out there when you are dealing with large coolers.

We will be doing our installation on an Intel Z490 system so this installation would be pretty much the same for Intel LGA 1200, 1150, 1151, and 1155 sockets.

The first thing you want to do is take the backplate and place it through the back of your motherboard.

Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler

Next install the black spacers, then the mounting bars on top of them securing them with the included thumbscrews. Depending on the orientation you want the cooler you can either install the mounting bars on the top and bottom or sides of the CPU socket.

Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler

Apply the included thermal paste and carefully place the cooler on top of your CPU lining up the screws with the threads on the mounting bars. With the included screwdriver secure the cooler. It is interesting Noctua went with a sort of Torx bolt instead of a normal screw on the mounting system, at least they included a screwdriver though.

Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler

Installation of the cooler couldn’t have been easier, but we did run into an issue when we went to install our motherboard back in our case. The heatpipes on the cooler actually were rubbing against the rear fan in our case. The case we use for CPU cooler testing is the be quiet! Pure Base 500DX, which is definitely on the smaller side, but this is something you should keep in mind. So keep things as uniform as possible in our testing we actually installed our rear fan on the outside of the case.

Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler

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