Introduction

It has happened to me more times than I prefer - I’ll go out and purchase a high end heatsink for my system and about three to four months later, build a new system just to find out that my heatsink is not compatible with the new socket. Usually what happens is, I call the manufacturer to see if there is a mounting kit for the heatsink I own, only to find out that they have no intentions on manufacturing a mounting kit to make my heatsink compatible.

What I find most frustrating, other than having to spend more of my hard earned money, is that these manufacturers could produce a mounting kit but the reason why they aren’t is because they want to sell more product. There have also been times when I have gone out to buy a new heatsink and found out that, although under a different name, the same heatsink was being sold with a compatible mounting kit for my new system. The same cooler that they would not sell me a mounting kit for!

This does not seem to be the case with Noctua. A while back, we reviewed the “Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler Review “ but shortly after the review I found myself in need of a mounting kit to make it compatible with my new Intel LGA1366 system. I contacted Noctua and found that with proof of purchase (for the heatsink and new socket) they will send the mounting kit for free. Named the Noctua LGA1366 mounting kit, it was available as an upgrade until recently, when the Intel LGA1156 was launched. Knowing what Noctua had provided in the past, I contacted them again after I received my first LGA1156 kit. Sure enough, they had a bracket for it and also the same offer as the last.

The new mounting kit is called the Noctua NM-I3 Mounting Kit and it is now triple compatible, unlike the LGA1366 kit. The Noctua NM-I3 Mounting Kit, with its universal hole structure, will fit on LGA1156, 1366 and 775 sockets.