Noctua NH-P1 Passive CPU Cooler Review

Installation

Offering you individual manuals depending on your socket type, Noctua has made the installation of the NH-P1 as straightforward as possible and, dare I say, despite its rather intimidating size, this is honestly no more complex than your average ‘easy’ CPU cooler.

The manual/s are excellent both in terms of written instructions and diagrams. Put simply, if you’re even mildly familiar with Noctua’s installation methods, you should find no difficulties here.

Getting back to a point we raised earlier in this review, we have the screwdriver. Now, why has Noctua provided you with one? Is it necessary? Well, the short answer to that question is yes, but perhaps not for the reasons you are thinking. It’s not unusual that many Noctua CPU coolers come with screwdrivers are you are often required to screw them down via a small and slender hole in the radiator. And while that is true here, there is something ‘new’ to consider.

Unlike traditional Noctua coolers (and pretty much everyone else) that utilise Phillips head screws, the Noctua NH-P1 is entirely fitted using a hex fixture. In other words, ‘normal’ screwdrivers will be of no use here. As such, it was clearly important that Noctua provided you with one as not many people have these more ‘engineering’ based sets to hand. Well, not unless you have the handy dandy eTeknix maintenance tool kit (shameless link here!).

In terms of quality though, this is way better than what you usually get from a Noctua cooler with its nice easy to grip rubber handle and screw point that fits nice and snuggly into the various fixtures (albeit, you should only have 6 things total to screw down to fit this).

Mounting

Aside from the change in screw fixture, the installation method is entirely straightforward and, quite frankly, exactly what you would expect from a Noctua product. As you may be aware, Noctua does choose a fairly standard installation method that’s easy and, put simply, just works. It’s uncomplicated and, overall, although this is certainly a very big cooler, installing this is about as easy as it gets with the only exception being push-pin designs seen on stock Intel CPU coolers.

Overall Thoughts

From out of the box and onto our test bench, the Noctua NH-P1 took me roughly 7 minutes to install. Possibly one of the quickest installation times we have ever encountered and admittedly that was largely due to the fact that without any fans to fiddle around with or hook up, there was clearly a lot less work to do.

Another handy bonus, however, is undoubtedly seen in those thick and chunky fin stacks. Those who have encountered other Noctua coolers will undoubtedly be aware that the smaller thinner fins are usually razer sharp. At best, you have a bit of a rash from handling the cooler and, at worse, it might even give you a small cut. Worse though, they often have the habit of bending out of place when attempting to fit the fan/s and, with this being a totally passive design, there’s no risk of that here! – Not even if you choose to utilise the optional fan!

RAM compatibility with our test bench proved no problem at all. Admittedly, we have rather slim and friendly modules, but even in terms of something like the Corsair Vengeance, while the radiator placement will almost certainly obscure any RGB on offer, overall this cooler shouldn’t (albeit, not in all cases) provide you with any difficulties in this regard.

Although not part of the ‘passive’ base design of the NH-P1, Noctua does give you a dedicated cooling option with the NF-A12x25 LS-PWM fan (sold separately). Although not specifically designed for this cooler as any sort of ‘upgraded’ version, Noctua has provided you with a pretty clever mounting system that can allow this 120mm fan to be set up in a number of different configurations. Will it have an impact on the overall performance? Well, in terms of CPU temperatures, probably. In terms of noise, though? Well, the inclusion of a compatible fan ‘option’ does, at least in my view, does seem like a bit of a weird stance. Surely the point of a passive cooler is that it has been designed primarily to run passively. As such, giving consumers the option for a dedicated air flow source is a little strange, to say the least.

If you thought it was big before though, well… With the fan installed this gets even bigger and will undoubtedly raise even more issues in terms of space and system compatibility. Fortunately, Noctua has thought about this and with a number of different configurations available, we are fairly sure that in the vast majority of cases the owner should find somewhere to put the fan that will allow it to have a reasonable level of performance (without any restriction of airflow from other components).

With it all installed and set-up though, just how good is the Noctua NH-P1? Well, with the NF-A12x25 LS-PWM fan in our possession, we decided to test it both in it’s standard passive mode and with the optional fan attached. This is going to be interesting…