Having taken a look, it looks like the Thermalright gets the fan really low because it doesn't have the bulky mounting nuts/screws limiting the fan position.
Nocuta seem to have maximised the area of the heatsink swept by the fan. And also made it quite a lot deeper.
I'd assume they have to target demand, and they've hit a huge swathe of large SFF stuff with this cooler.
I agree it'd be great to see some more innovative compact stuff from Noctua. From what I gathered from their 'work in progress' list, this cooler wasn't on the radar was it?
I think they need a cooler like the C14S, but in the 120mm size, with a cooler max height of 75mm, with the option of a 120x25 fan underneath, or on top taking it to 100mm high.
There seems to be big gaps between their small stuff and bigger stuff... I suppose it's the legacy of old big cases and then small SFF with low expectations on power.
Now SFF seems to be gaining more market with huge output processors and GPUs there is a big market for these size-optimised coolers... or that's how it seems.
