Install Continued:

And here is a view of the back with both the power supply and the NF-S12-1200 installed.

     This picture shows the motherboard with the Noctua fans and the HX620 installed.  I have used some simple wire management on the non-modular cabling to help with airflow.  Never underestimate the power of proper airflow on system performance!  Good airflow means your cooling doesn't have to work as hard resulting in less noise!

     And here is the finished build!  Total time to finish the job was about 2 hours including fussing over the motherboard and the different heatsink options.  Not bad!

     Remember our baseline setup?  Here is that stock setup running with the side off.  Today's OEM cooling is light years beyond what we had to put up with even a year ago.  But every OEM decision is based around balancing performance and budget.  Even AMD knows that wimpy little heatsink isn't the best choice for cooling your AM2 setup, but it is the best at that price.