Have you ever thought about customizing the appearance of your CPU cooler’s heatsink? Some cooler manufacturers would paint their heatsinks before shipping to customers, but most of them are only available in black or white. That’s what the new Noctua Chromax heatsink covers (NA-HC) are able to offer you the options to pimp up your boring-looking CPU cooler.
The Chromax heatsink covers compatible with two series of Noctua’s own notable NH-U12S and NH-D15(S) series CPU coolers. There are three color options for the covers, for each series of coolers.
Unboxing
Again, the hard cardboard box for the Chromax heatsink cover is identical with other products in the Chromax product line (cables/fans). The name of the cover, “Chromax” branding and Noctua logo are printed on the mostly white box with little brown and black accent.
On the back of the box, a photo of the cover is showed with a QR code to the product’s webpage.
The model name of the cover and its compatible CPU coolers are clearly indicated at the side of the box.
The heatsink cover is securely fitted in the center of the box, with the swappable inlays in different colors right next to it. You will get three inlays for each cover, each side of the inlay has different colors (total of six colors).
No swappable inlays for other heatsink covers.
Inside the box, you will have a installation manual, three/six swappable inlays, and a bracket/fixture and one/two clip. The clip is to hold the fixture to the heatsink.
The bracket/fixture is the main component to secure the cover and the heatsink together. Once you put the fixture on the top of the heatsink, use the clip to prevent the fixture from sliding. Then, you can put the heatsink cover on top of the fixture. They will automatically attach by the magnet at the sides.
Review
There are three models of heatsink cover for the two series of CPU coolers. The covers without the swappable inlays have two colors. One of them is in a glossy white finish, while the other one is in matte black. The swappable heatsink cover is also in matte black, but with arrows cutout to show different colors.
There are rubber pads all over the corners of the heatsink covers. They help prevent direct contact and damage with the heatsink fins.
After you install the Chromax heatsink cover, you will see most of the heatsink’s sides and top are covered with that beautiful metal finish. Beware that the total height (6 mm) and width (3 mm) of the CPU cooler will increase by a couple millimeter.
Conclusion
Overall, the Chromax heatsink covers can obviously make your CPU cooler more personalized and customizable. The installation is both simple and fast, with the easy-to-read user manual. You can even pair it with the Chromax.black.swap fans to completely match the whole cooler to your PC build’s color scheme. The build quality of the heatsink covers is exceptional with a rigid aluminum construction and beautiful glossy/matte metal finish.
The heatsink covers compatible with the smaller NH-U12S series cooler cost slightly less than the bigger NH-D15(S) series compatible covers. Of course, you also get a 6-year warranty from Noctua.
You can purchase the heatsink covers from your local/online resellers or the links below from Amazon US.
Thanks Noctua for providing us the Chromax heatsink covers for review. (Review Sample)
Feel free to leave comments below, if you have any opinion about this website. Share the website around if you enjoy reading it. Subscribe to our Newsletter or follow our Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
Support this website simply by shopping in Amazon. It will give us small kickbacks, if you use the above affiliate links to make any purchases, which will help us grow.
