You’ll get more details on the NH-U12P’s key features on the back of the box. A graph of the NF-P12 Fan’s unique qualifications for providing maximum cooling power with minimum noise, thanks to its Nine-Blade Design with Vortex-Control Notches, is directly below. If you’re looking for a blow-by-blow description of the heatsink and fan specs, they’re right on top of the box. Overall, there’s plenty of information on the box that allows you to make an informed decision about purchasing the Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler and feel confident, thanks to Noctua’s no-nonsense marketing approach, that you’re making the right choice and have picked the right cooler for the job.

Noctua’s well-known commitment to quality and attention to detail becomes even more apparent once you open the box. Usually inner boxes that store the cooler and its accessories are made of thinner cardboard. Not the NH-U12P. Noctua uses the same heavy cardboard for its inner boxes as the outside box to provide extra protection for the contents—not an unreasonable precaution when you take into account the potential hazards of national and international shipping, and how little it takes to bend a cooler’s fins.

The accessory box has a set of finger holes making it easy for you to pull it out. Open it, and you’ll find three separate bags that are labeled. One contains the mounting hardware for Socket LGA775 Intel motherboards. Another for AMD Socket AM2+/AM2 and K8 (Socket 754/940/939) boards. And one tagged Common Parts which contains Mounting Screws, Fan Clips, a tube of NT-H1 Compound, Anti-Vibration Strips, and an pair of U. L. N.A.s (Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptors) for controlling fan speeds. Noctua has even included a Screwdriver designed to make installing the NH-U12P easier. The Installation Manual is made like a small book. Open it, and on one side, you’ll find the LGA775 instruction sheet attached, with the AMD on the other. Each sheet folds out the size of a small poster, are well written and illustrated, and easy enough for both novice and pro system builders to follow. Both are written in English. Multilingual versions are available on Noctua’s website.

When you open the box containing the NH-U12P, which is compartmentalized to protect the fan and cooler, you get a true sense of the precision engineering that Noctua has put into the unit. Upon examining how snugly the NF-P12 fan fits against the heatsink and how the fins hold it in place, you might be fooled into thinking that the included wire clips really aren’t needed. Once you discover that the fan is merely pressed against the heatsink, you realize that’s not so. Even though it has no pre-applied thermal compound, a see-through, snap-on plastic cover provides shipping protection for the base of the NH-U12P’s heatsink.

You can read the entire article at BRnR.