Noctua already offers Nehalem coolers

Austrian designer of silent coolers, Noctua, will soon offer LGA1366 mounting kits not only for the current range of coolers, but for all Noctua products dating back to 2005. Not only that, but they will be simpler to use – the bolts will be pre-attached to the brace-plate, and they'll simply use thumbscrews to ready the mount, before using larger sprung screws for the compression.

Noctua hasn’t yet decided, but the mounting kits might be offered from anything from free to a small, few-euro service charge to current customers who want it. We certainly can’t fault the company’s excellent service here – especially since it now means upgrading will cost you next to nothing rather than a whole new cooler.

There’s also a new silent fan to come too: the NF-S12B features the same high quality the company has become known for, but now incorporates the clipped edges of the new performance fan too. The NF-S12B should be available around the October to November time-frame.

Finally, if you’re a Xeon user (like Tim and I are), you’ll know the choice of 3rd party coolers is extremely thin, yet the stock Intel heatsinks produce some crazy, ear-bleeding noise. Noctua now has a specially sized pair of 92mm or 120mm coolers that work in tandem for dual Xeon setups, because normally the sockets are pretty close together. The fans act in a push-pull fashion between the two heatsinks to duct the air through both sets of fins. Noctua claims the noise level drop can be massive, whilst the cooling is yet improved further – this is partly due to the improved mounting mechanism too.

Do you already own an Noctua heatsink, or will this sway a future purchase for the Nehalem support and good service? Do you have a workstation that desperately needs quietening as well? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.