NH-U14S:

The Basics (continued):

The final two images in this section show the base of the cooler. As we saw with the NH-U12S, the bottom surface of the NH-U14S is extremely smooth, flat, and features a matte finish.



In the two pictures you can see the pre-installed, spring-loaded bolts will be used to connect the cooler to the rentention mechanism to be mounted to your motherboard. The process for installing either cooler is the same (and simple), and you can even share the mounting hardware between the two.

Installation:

We're back on the Biostar H61 based Mini-ITX motherboard running an Intel G620 processor we saw earlier with the NH-U12S. Inside the Bitfenix Prodigy mini-ITX case, we have even less room to operate when going for an even larger CPU cooler. This time around, turning the cooler in order to keep the PCI Express slot free was not an option, as the system's exhaust fan, memory, and drive cage were all in the way. But, giving up on a discrete video card allowed for the NH-U14S to fit. The below left image actually shows two NF-A15 PWM fans (including the case's exhaust fan), but the one on the CPU cooler needed a bit of adjusting. As installed initially, the fan was too low to clear this standard DDR3 memory, so the fan and wire clip had to be slid upward a few millimeters. Not a big deal, but if you are in this situation be sure to move slowly so you don't damage your memory or motherboard.



A look down from above shows there is actually plenty of room between the cooler and both the exhaust fan and drive cage in this arrangement. But, between the top of the cooler and the roof of the case there is but a fraction of an inch.