- Review -

04.04.2019 vswitchzero.com

It has been over ten years since I reviewed the original Noctua NH-U9 heatsink, and I’m happy to say that the new 92mm towers are even better. Both the NH-U9DX i4 and i4 3U did an excellent job cooling a toasty Xeon E5-2670 and managed to do so at very reasonable noise levels. The mounting kit that comes with the heatsinks is excellent and I especially love the fan wire clip system they use now. Not only does Noctua support narrow ILM mounting on these heatsinks, but they also include two sets of brackets for different mounting orientations. The included accessories are generous, including a large tube of their NT-H1 thermal paste, and NA-RC7 low-noise adapters. With the NA-RC7 adapters, Noctua can keep the full-speed RPM a bit higher for maximum cooling performance but still provide buyers an easy way to reduce RPM and noise if needed. The original question I was hoping to answer in this comparison was whether to buy the NH-U9DX i4 or the i4 3U heatsink for my three compute nodes. In my situation, the NH-U9DX i4 appears to be the better choice. It currently retails for slightly less than the i4 3U, includes two fans instead of one and has better RAM clearance. My mid-tower cases don’t need the shorter stance that the i4 3U provides, but if height is important, the i4 3U may be for you. Its no secret that Noctua heatsinks and fans come at a premium price, but I’d argue that you certainly get what you pay for. You don’t just pay for a brand name – the quality is very evident in all their products.

"Overall, I’d highly recommend both the NH-U9DX i4 and NH-D9DX i4 3U! For a home lab setup, you can’t go wrong." (Mike Da Costa, vswitchzero.com)