- Review -

04.11.2013 Frostytech.com

For the sake of easy comparison, the Evercool HPL-815 posts slightly lower temps at 150W/full fan speed, but with a large noise penalty. Overall, the Noctua NH-L9i is the better heatsink of the two for two reasons; it may be 2-3°C warmer in our test scenario at full fan speed, but it's nearly 7dBA quieter, and at low fan speed the NH-L9i is 21.5°C cooler than Evercool's low profile heatsink! In fact, at low fan speed, the NH-L9i is roughly 25-35°C cooler than all five other sub-45mm low profile heatsinks in the heatsink reference chart. Given the choice between a Evercool HPL-815, Scythe Kozuti, Thermolab TLI-U, Silverstone NT07-775 and Zalman CNPS2X, the Noctua NH-L9i is our recommendation.

"Ultimately, Noctua's 36mm tall NH-L9i heatsink offers excellent cooling performance among the half-dozen sub-45mm low profile CPU coolers Frostytech as tested." (Max Page, Frostytech.com)