How should I clean my product?
Dust
Fans and heatsinks inside computer cases tend to accumulate dust over longer periods of usage. To maintain maximum performance, please clean your fan and heatsink regularly. For cleaning, please first remove the fan from the heatsink and clean it using a duster, slightly moist tissue or canned air. Please be careful not to use too much force to prevent any damage to the fan. Please do not use a vacuum cleaner as this may apply excessive force to the fan and do not put the fan under running water as water residues inside the motor may lead to short-circuits. To ensure flawless operation over many years of usage, Noctua’s premium grade SSO bearings are fully sealed to prevent the entering of fine dust particles. Please note that the fan is not designed to be taken apart by the user. Removing the impeller from the frame will break the sealing of the bearing and results in a loss of warranty. Before reinstalling the fan, clean the heatsink itself with a duster or vacuum cleaner. Do not use water to clean the cooler. Finally, put the fan back on and connect it to your motherboard fan header or fan controller.
Thermal paste residues
Whenever you take off the heatsink from the CPU, we recommend cleaning the CPU as well as the base of the cooler before re-applying thermal paste and re-installing the cooler. You can either just wipe the base and the CPU clean with a dry, lint-free tissue or, for more thorough cleaning, use a lint-free tissue moistened with either a mild solution of washing-up liquid.
I’ve used all the thermal compound that came with the cooler, can you send me more?
Please kindly note that the thermal compound supplied with our coolers is a consumable item, so our manufacturer’s warranty does not include providing additional thermal compound. You can purchase that from our resellers.
My cooler comes with pre-applied thermal paste. Should I add more?
The pre-applied thermal paste is the proper amount of thermal paste that should be used for your installation. Adding more paste is not necessary, and can actually introduce other issues involved with using excessive thermal paste. You would just need to replace the thermal paste after every year of usage.
What is Overclocking?
The term ‘overclocking‘ describes the process of running your CPU at a clock and/or bus speed that the CPU hasn’t been specified for – logically, that speed is usually higher.