NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler Review

Installation
When I first picked up the Havik 140 to review I thought I would be in for a treat, since the package said “easy installation” on the front. Well, this wasn’t the case, at least for our AMD installation. I found this to be a very time consuming process for a CPU cooler.  For starters you have to remove the four black tabs on the Intel side of the backplate before you even begin an AMD installation.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

Once you get the black tabs removed you have to apply the clear insulation film on the four corners of the AMD side of the back bracket and then attach the black spacer; not overly difficult.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

You then have to insert the screws into the AMD holes, place your motherboard over the backplate and then secure with four black pillars; again, not overly difficult.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

Now come the difficult part, which requires you to use the AMD clips and the Intel clips to secure together to create one large support plate. This wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s difficult to attach the eight screws in the correct position to create the support plate.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

You then have to secure the new bracket with four nuts and apply your thermal grease.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

You can then begin to attach the cooler, which is where I started to have more problems. Since all of the supports for the bracket were tight, it was very difficult to actually install the cooler. The directions say you can install the heatsink on the motherboard either vertically or horizontally. We chose vertically because it provides the best airflow out of the case, plus it the horizontal way wouldn’t fit on our motherboard.  After aligning the heatsink on the motherboard you’re supposed to take the crossbar and fasten the two screws to the support bracket; easier said than done. For some reason, there was a large clearance between the crossbar and the support bracket screws which it was supposed to be secured too. I could attach one side, but it was near impossible to attach the other because the heatsink base was in the way. After countless attempts of trying to get it attached I figured I would loosen up some of the nuts that held the support bracket to the motherboard. After several loosens I managed to get the crossbar attached, but you can see from the pictures that there’s a large gap between the black spacers and the support bracket.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

After the time spent trying to get the heatsink installed to the cooler I thought I was in the home stretch, but began to find some more problems trying to attach the fans. I thought okay cool, I don’t have to worry about pesky metal brackets to secure the fans to the chassis, instead I have some rubber ones which are flexible and should be easy to install.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

This wasn’t the case. It was easy to install the rubber fasteners to the fan, but more difficult to attach them to the heatsink. As you can see on the heatsink there are four slots to secure the rubber fasteners to.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

According to the directions you’re supposed to attach the rubber inside of the top and bottom two fins for each rubber fastener. They also show the rubber being attached at a 90 degree angle, which isn’t very easy with rubber. I tried many times, but was unsuccessful in trying to squeeze the rubber between the top and bottom gaps, so I just used the top and bottom of the heatsink instead, which wasn’t that easy either.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

Once you get the first one on you can follow the same steps to get the second one on, making sure you have the airflow going in the right direction.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

There was a right enough squeeze, but I managed to get both fans on the heatsink with little room to work with on either side. On the left side there’s a large heatsink I had to contend with, and on the other I had to worry about the RAM, which has high heatspreaders.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

Luckily I only had two sticks of RAM and the motherboard actually recommends installing in the white slots, rather than the blue slots first, which also gave me more room.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

After installing the motherboard back in the case there was a very tight clearance on some sides, including where the left side panel would be. Luckily the rubber fasteners have some lee-way, so you can move them around slightly. There are two 140mm fans attached to this heatsink, so it’s not going to fit in every case.

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler