Noctua NC-U6 chipset cooler review

When we talk about building quiet, cool systems, our focus naturally tends to remain on the 'big hitters' with regard to noise and heat output such as GPU and CPU coolers, and beyond that power supplies and chassis fans.  One item that we've never really covered here at Elite Bastards is motherboard chipset cooling - This is an area that is becoming ever more important, as the speeds and functionality of motherboards increase, also seeing an increase in heat output from north and southbridges.  This has given rise to the need for either hefty passive cooling or, in some cases, an active cooling solution.  As these often feature small fans spinning at high speeds, they can create an exorbitant amount of noise while not always being particularly efficient - Indeed, NVIDIA's nForce series chipsets have often been some of the more notable parts to generate a lot of heat and find themselves with active coolers as their stock cooling solution.

Thus, enter Noctua, and more specifically their NC-U6 chipset cooler.  To wrap up this cooler in a nutshell - It's passive, and it's big, making it suitable to silently cool even the most demanding of motherboard chipsets.  Is that description enough to pique your interest?  Then let's dive in and take a look at this part.