Design and Functionality

It wouldn’t be quite correct to claim that Noctua NH-C12P features an originally designed heatsink. Nevertheless, I have to point out that the engineers from the Austrian Institute of Heat Transmission and Fan Technology were very meticulous about every little detail of the new cooler design. As a result, C-type heatsink appeared. It is also called top-oriented heatsink, i.e. with the airflow directed from the cooler fan to the mainboard surface.

Noctua NH-C12P heatsink is relatively small for today’s standards and measures 91 x 126 x 152mm. It weighs 550g:

If you add a 120 x 120 x 25mm fan the total height of the cooler will equal 114mm and its weight will increase to 730g.

The cooler heatsink is made of three aluminum plate arrays using two types of plates. If you look at the cooler from the side where the heatpipes end, then you will first see the largest array of 20 trapezoid-shaped plates. Then comes another array of 15 narrower but at the same time taller plates that contact the cooler base. And then another array of 9 trapezoid-shaped plates:

The gap between the heatsink plates is 2mm bi in each heatsink array and all plates are ~0.5mm thick. So, we calculated the heat dissipating surface area and it equals about 4300sq.cm.

The central array forms two gaps in the heatsink, so that some of the heatpipes remained “naked”:

According to the info we found on the official company web-site, these gaps have been designed specifically to direct some of the airflow right towards the components in around-the-socket area of the mainboard. In my opinion, it is a doubtful solution, because two side heatpipes simply lose about 40% of their cooling capacity in this case.

There are six copper nickel-plated heatpipes 6mm in diameter coming out of the cooler base. They pierce the heatsink and curve inside it:

Note that the upper ends of the heatsink array are of different height. These “waves” are about 4mm deep and serve the well-known purpose or reducing the fan airflow resistance, which in its turn allows using fans with low rotation speed and low level of generated noise without losing any of the efficiency. The bottom of the heatsink also has a few “waves”. Here, however, they ensure mostly acoustic comfort.

The heatpipes lies in special grooves cut out in the copper base of the cooler. As a result, there is bigger heat exchanging contact area between the cooler base and the heatpipes. So there will be more efficient heat transfer than in case of contact with flat surfaces, like in Scythe coolers, for instance. Here I would also like to add that all parts are soldered, not glued.