- Review -

02.01.2013 Bjorn3D.com

The NH-L9 continues with the excellent built quality and a quiet operation that we have come to love and expected from Noctua. Make no mistake, the NH-L9 is not meant for extreme overclockers. Its low profile design and small foot-print is meant to be used in slim profile PC and HTPC systems. It is designed for compact systems that need decent cooling performance and low operational noise level. With support for maximum 77W TDP CPUs, the Intel model NH-L9i would let gamers to build a high-end gaming PC with Intel Core i7 3770K in a very small system that can be lugged around for LAN Parties provided that you have good enough ventilation system that can properly dissipate the heat from the GPU. The AMD version, the NH-L9a, is good for many current generation of APUs up to quad core that are 65W TDP and as our tests shown that it can handle 100W fine provided you have additional cooling and are using just the integrated GPU. Obviously, do not expect that the cooler will offer you much overclocking headroom out of them. The extremely low profile of just 37mm in height is great for fitting into tight space; however, it potentially can pose some clearance issue if the area near the CPU has taller components or is crammed like many mini-ITX board. Considering how small of an area most mini-ITX boards have to begin with, you should definitely check before you go out and purchase the heatsink.

"We are pretty pleased with the performance especially the noise-level of the cooler and we think that they would make a great choice for HTPC if you choose the right components." (Victor Wu, Bjorn3D.com)