Hi, I just got my zalman 120mm performa cooler today and its REALLY loud and I am going to return it. I want to find a good cpu cooler that is quiet and cools the cpu well.
This noctua is massive, and exspensive, but its the best and quietest cooler you can get. Short of the megahalems or TRUE copper and some expensive fans might be a bit better, but good fans would be $20 a piece and those heatsinks are already expensive. You also have to watch which ram you have, corsair, and Gskill with tall heatsinks will not fit with this cooler. You will also have to take off the inside fan on your case's side panel, though some cases you may not have to. Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks
Honestly you should RMA it. Send it back, its not a good cooler, if you wanted something cheap look at the core contact freezer, its a very good value/performance cooler.
I looked at the heatsink of the noctua NH-U12P and my heatsink has more heatpipes than it. I would return it but newegg charges you a 15% restocking fee and I dont want to do that. I think that I should just get two noctua 120mm fans and attach them to my heatsink.