Installation

Installing Noctua's NH-D12L on our AMD test bench was fairly straightforward, with no real problems to speak of. To start, you will need to remove the plastic AMD brackets. Then, keeping the AMD backplate on the motherboard, secure the mounting arms by putting the proper screws through said mounting arms and sliding the gray spacers over the screws. At this point, you can line the screws up with the backplate and secure everything in place. While I didn't have too many problems here, I would have still preferred stand-offs rather than screws or spacers. Thankfully, Noctua leaves enough play in the spacer of the SecuFirm 2 mounting hardware that it isn't nearly as difficult to work with than some competing solutions. Either way, with the mounting arms in place, you can now apply thermal paste.


At this point, you just need to line the cooler up with the CPU and get the tension screws positioned over the posts on the mounting arms. With everything lined up, you can tighten it all down, repeatedly alternating for even pressure. Once the heatsink is secure, attach the fan and plug it in. If you want a quieter cooler, use the low noise adapter to reduce the maximum fan RPM and, as a result, noise output.

Overall, the mounting hardware is easy to work with and well thought out; however, the SecuFirm 2 system is starting to feel slightly dated. Threaded stand-offs make everything easier regardless of the platform, and compared to LGA115x and LGA1200, the switch to LGA1700 means further changes to the Intel backplate as well. Essentially, to maintain as much compatibility as possible, the SecuFirm 2 system is less refined than it has been in order to adapt to changing sockets. While the build quality is superb and installation as a whole still rather easy, Noctua's mounting solution is not quite as sleek as it once was. Still considering other similar solutions on the market, SecuFirm 2 remains one of the best even now.