Cooling [SFF Network] NH-D9L - Mini Tower for your Mini Tower

[confusis]

Sometimes, you just need a tower cooler. Maybe the airflow design of your case needs front to back cooling, or maybe you just need to get the heat out of the top of the chassis. The problem we come across in the world of SFF is that a full sized tower cooler will quite likely not fit! In walks the Noctua NH-D9L, a shorter tower cooler that will fit in a lot more cases than the usual 120mm or bigger towers.

Featuring a single 92mm fan, the NH-D9L will of course not outperform it's larger brethren, but with the included accessories, and the ability to fit in smaller cases, the cooler makes for a valid option in a crowded cooler market. Lets see how it performs.

Read more here.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

I was picking between this and the U9S for my build, but I saw the U9S outperforms it a small bit and still has an option for a 2nd fan. Love these small Noctua coolers either way though!

I haven't tried the 2nd fan on the U9S so might be interesting to see if it makes a difference. I guess maybe not since the two 80mm exhaust fans are already only a few cm away. I see it didn't make a huge difference on the D9L

 

[Phuncz]

Another Noctua product catering to SFF builds, it's no wonder they're mentioned here regularly.

 

[veryrarium]

What happened to the "temps vs fan RPM" graphs that was described in the test methodology article?

When Necere brought the topic on Alpenfoehn's "92mm fan category" twin tower cooler in this forum, I think I wrote in that thread that high-end downdraft coolers usually beat 92mm-fan tower coolers, and when comparing dual-fan-equipped D9L with dual-fan-equipped L12 in Confusis's results it seems to support my claim (well, not really my claim but observations thru years of reading CPU cooler reviews) though the difference may not be so significant and I can't tell which was quieter between the two aformentioned configs.

 

[confusis]

the Temps vs rpm graph is on hold while I sort out fan control. I found that my fan controller has issues with controlling some fans. I am working on a solution.

the l12 will be the quieter cooler of the two based on the samples I have.