Noctua NH-U12A install success in PO5-640-UB11

chugzilla

ok whew finally done it took me awhile because i needed a few parts to hook the CPU fan up top for exhaust that do not come with the noctua cooler.... keep that in mind you will need 4 screws and nuts thank God i had some laying around Haha. i used the screws that originally attached the CPU fan to the stock cooler as reference for length and it worked out well. And no need to cut any zip ties etc i put the CPU cooler fan right above where it was So after i got that hooked up and plugged in and removed the cooler and cleaned the old paste of with noctua wipes i bought along with the cooler they worked awesome i recommend them...then 2nd mistake i didn't read the owner's manual and originally used the black bushing spacers when i was supposed to be using the blue ones Haha so after i swapped them out and reattached the base plates and got them lined up in the middle number 2 spot that was fun also Geesh i decided to add the paste and for that i read the owner's manual and did it like they showed and said then i attached the cooler that was easy just make sure you have the longer tab on the bottom to the right then carefully screw it in until they don't move then i attached the fans and that was kind of tricky because there was and is not a lot of room on either side but after a while i got them both but it was a mother <bleep> to say the least Haha lol so then i originally used the splitter on the rear fan and upper case fan and plugged the 2 noctua fans into the dual slot 3 it worked but in predator sense the CPU read 0 lol....so i went hmmm shut it down and used the splitter for the noctua fans and plugged that into the same number 4 spot the stock cooler was in then put the rear back into its spot and plugged the upper case fan into slot 3 on the right and then predator sense showed the speed at 2050 the original fan read 2250. so, all in all it wasn't bad, but it took me a few hours maybe like 3 or so i didn't time myself. but use this as a reference so you have everything you need ahead of time and be careful mounting the fan on the top i almost over tightened the first screw and when i looked i had the corner slightly bent so i backed it off, they are not that strong, and u can easily break them. re plugging the fans back in was fun i had to use long nose pliers carefully so i didn't break anything lol. now until i got this installed myself i found it hard to believe how much the temps would fall but they are all right Days Gone was 57-61 before 40-44 after RDR2 was 63 before 40-44 after Terminator Resistance was 53-57 before 38 after and Tomb Raider was 61 before 40-44 after played Poppy Playtime chapter 1 it was like 53 before and 40 after so yeah it's been a few hours and it's still running awesome if i can think of anything else to add i shall and i did take before and after pics i will upload soon but they look like the others here and idle speed is about the same at 28. now i noticed on all my games my GPU temp is always at 50 or below now I'm not sure if that's good or bad for my NVidia 3070 and all game setting are set to optimal using the game settings inside of the GeForce Experience app but it is odd to see the GPU temps higher than the CPU now lol. anyways tc all and be safe.

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

chugzilla

yes, the extra fan mounted up top has to be done first Haha wait until you try and clip the fans on use a thin open end wrench no room for fingers really. i was taking um on and off like a pro last night using my guitar wrench lol. trying to figure out what way was best for the wiring. and when Ya mount that fan up top i had to have the number 2 bit in one hand and the socket for the nut in the other no room for a screwdriver let alone anything else lol. an offset screwdriver might work if it's a short one but i didn't have one and did Ya see what i said about getting another y cable splitter? otherwise the fan up top runs full speed 24/7 so i ordered another from amazon and I'll put it with the rear fan. and if Ya think of anything else ask away.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/678746/noctua-nh-u12a-install-success

Great work but, what is the Acer desktop model number that you fitted this Noctua cpu cooler to and also it would be very helpful if you posted some photos too😁 sorry but its a bit confusing reading your post and not to know the model Acer desktop PC that this detailed post relates to.

Anyway, that is great that you went to the effort to explain this to all us community member that there is an alternative for a bigger CPU cooler and to modify the spaces so that this cooler will fit this bigger Noctua cpu cooling fan. The Noctua NH-U12A (High 158 mm X Wide 125 mm X Deep 112 mm) when compared to the smaller Noctua NH-U9S (High 125 mm X Wide 95 mm X Deep 68 mm) is much bigger as I also presume you fitted this to the Acer Predator POx-6xx desktop? As usually the Noctua cpu cooler suitable for these Nitro and Predator desktops are the Noctua NH-U9S chromax.black that is much smaller and allot of community members have fitted this excellent cpu cooler to their desktops.

chugzilla

PO5-640-UB11 and yeah ill post pics asap there on my phone but they are no different from the other users who have posted pics of the same model noctua in their 5000 series desktops and thx StevenGen i tried to add as much detail and were i went wrong or what went wrong for me Haha i won't lie i was shaking when i got done lmfao it was intense lol. i have never done anything like this before the only pc upgrades i ever did ever was ram and that's easy compared to this heh.

NeoGeo

@chugzilla

That's awesome buddy, looking forward to seeing the build pictures!

chugzilla

ok i tried the fans one way with their connection wires in the back and there wasn't a lot of room, and they were right under the exhaust fan touching it i didn't like that so i put them in the front there are not many options seemed like less stress on everything. and some pics enjoy lol. i didn't do any step-by-step pictures because there were too many steps Haha. and sorry for the bad angle on the pics it was 2am couldn't hold the phone straight lol. and i found out using a small open-end wrench like something for a guitar works best for taking the fans on and off with the clips.

chugzilla

ok another thing i noticed is by having the <extra fan> now up top plugged into slot 3 it runs full rpm always, i put it on auto and that was the only one that didn't slow down so I'll be getting another noctua y cable to plug in with the rear fan. oh and one thing i didn't mention in the main article was to get 4-3mx10mm screws for the mounting brackets those also do not come with the kit.

Ol_Snapper

What is the difference between using the black and blue spacers? Just curious.

chugzilla

black is for AMD blue for Intel. glad i opened the owner's manual and caught that. Ya can't tell what the difference is other than the color, but it must be a height issue and maybe diameter i assume. i just did what the manual told me like a good boy Haha.

Ol_Snapper

Oh gotcha. Yeah good catch! Was it easier to mount the extra frostblade fan up top first before installing the noctua cpu cooler? I had always pictured installing the noctua first then mounting the top case fan. But whatever works!

chugzilla

yes, the extra fan mounted up top has to be done first Haha wait until you try and clip the fans on use a thin open end wrench no room for fingers really. i was taking um on and off like a pro last night using my guitar wrench lol. trying to figure out what way was best for the wiring. and when Ya mount that fan up top i had to have the number 2 bit in one hand and the socket for the nut in the other no room for a screwdriver let alone anything else lol. an offset screwdriver might work if it's a short one but i didn't have one and did Ya see what i said about getting another y cable splitter? otherwise the fan up top runs full speed 24/7 so i ordered another from amazon and I'll put it with the rear fan. and if Ya think of anything else ask away.

NeoGeo

@chugzilla

Went through them install pics chugzilla, looks awesome , and the temperatures are so good too! nice job definitely looks worth it.

chugzilla

thx NeoGeo as always but it's nothing like yours Haha you really decked yours out and there isn't much more i can do other than one more fan up top for exhaust but I'm not sure if that would even help any. and i saw some pics here where somebody put one above the power supply i assume another exhaust for the GFX card. so, who knows I'm happy and yeah nice cool temps and it's nice to feel cool air coming out the back instead of hot what a difference it made.

patches0311

Good stuff man congrats!

Aadan

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1177634#Comment_1177634

Could you tell me the predator sense type " number" I'm using type 7, an it doesn't show gpu

chugzilla

i have a 5000 series and I'm not sure what you're talking about. all I know if on my MB if anything is plugged into the dual ports on 3 they don't read in predator sense nor do they adjust speeds there always full bore. i assume you have a 3000 series now i vaguely remember reading something about this. someone posted it somewhere you have to edit some file i think in notepad or something like that do a search here and you should find your answer.

Quick420

Good work.One more thing you could look into is removing the HD Caddy.It blocks most of the front case fan from blowing into the case.It's held by 4 screws and 4 pop rivits.I drilled out the rivits super easily and tossed the caddy aside.I layed my sdds on the botton where the caddy was and attached them with zipties using the holes from the rivits.Now the front fan is 100% unobstructed and my video card gets lots of fresh air drastically lowering temps in the process.I'm doing this mod next,again good work m8.

chugzilla

yeah, i saw that with the HDD caddy its partially in the way and i wasn't sure how to remove it and figures they have rivets ugh they can't make it easy on us can they lol. are the rivets on the side panel? and screws the bottom?

Quick420

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1180023#Comment_1180023

The rivits are easy-peasy to drill out from the bottom,and if you remove the harddrives and look in the caddy you will see 4 small screws you need to remove.With the rivits you dont need to drill all the way through,just remove the round rivit head(from the bottom) and the rest of the rivit will pop out.Once the caddy is out,blow out any fragments(if any)and lay your hdd's sideways on the bottom of the case.I have a 3.5,with 2 ssd's stacked on top and ziptied with the holes from the rivits.The fan is 100% unobstructed still.

chugzilla

ok sounds easy enough I'll do that one day and i don't use hdd so I'm good there and i just have the one 1 tb SSD that came with the pc and an external 1tb SSD. and I'm thinking about putting a fan between the gfx card and power supply to bring in more cool air also i saw a picture posted here or on reddit i can't remember where someone did that and said it helped. it shouldn't be that hard to do.

Ol_Snapper

@chugzilla how are your temps holding up? That noctua upgrade still paying off?

chugzilla

yeah man its awesome well worth it i love this computer even more now and i also have 2 frost blade fans up top now for exhaust it's even better !!@!! i have a few more minor things I'm going to do, and I'm done lol i also wanted to let Ya know 01_Snapper i took out the 2x8 Samsung that came with my pc and I'm just running the 2x16 crucial and it runs even smoother now. i wasn't a true believer until i ran the 3dmark tests through steam and wow it was almost 1000 points higher with only 32. i ran the tests with 48 then 32 and wow i have pictures here of the results so yeah now I'm a believer. now as far as temps go i don't have any games like most here that put up high temps so with the stock cooler my hottest game ran at 63 BUT when i ran the Cinebenchr23 tests the CPU hit over 80 now that runs at 63-64 and the games that ran at 63 now run at 40-46 so yes, it's well worth it.