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.
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The Noctua NH-D9L
| HEATSINK SPECIFICATION | |
|---|---|
| Dimension ( with fan ) | L95 mm x W95 mm x H110 mm |
| Weight ( with fan ) | 531 g |
| Weight ( without fan ) | 428 g |
| Heat pipes | copper heatpipe x 4 |
| Fin Material | Aluminium |
| Fin Count | 50 pcs |
| Copper Base | Copper nickel plated |
| RAM Height Limit | Unlimited |
| TDP | 100w AMD (plus OC), Varies on Intel. More information here. |
| Replaceable Fan? | Yes |
| FAN SPECIFICATION | |
|---|---|
| Dimension | L92 mm x W92 mm x H25 mm |
| Connector | 4 Pin PWM |
| Rated Speed | 400 ~ 2000 RPM |
| Noise Level | 16.3 ~ 22.8 dBA |
| Air Flow | 36.8 – 46.4 CFM |
| Voltage | 12V |
| Power Consumption | 1.2W |
This product supports Intel LGA2011-0 & LGA2011-3(Square ILM), LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1151, LGA1150, and AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, FM2, FM2+ (backplate required).
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Unboxing
The usual Noctua styling is seen here. Noticable is the ‘Full 3U Compliance’ sticker. This cooler can be used in 3U servers – in fact a well known Youtube tech channel uses these coolers in quite a few of their production servers!
The feature list is expanded on the side of the box, further explaining the various features of this cooler.
On the rear of the box is the usual marketing, in various languages for multiple markets.
A speclist and packing list is to be found on the other side of the box. We have reproduced the tables above.
The top of the box is almost identical to the front.
The accessory kit is extensive. The Secufirm2 kit covers sockets LGA775, 1366 and 115x, as well as AMx (excluding AM1) and FM2x. Also included in the accessories kit is a screwdriver, two extra fan clips for mounting a second fan, and a Low Noise Adapter (L.N.A.).
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The NH-D9L
The cooler! The twin tower design is evident here, with the included 92mm fan slotted right in the middle. 35 aluminium fins are soldered on to 4 nickel plated heatpipes.
Using the included clips and another 92mm fan (purchased separately), a second fan can be added to the cooler to increase performance.
Mounted to the board, we can see that on our thermal test system there are no conflicts. This is one of the advantages of tower coolers – they are much less likely than their downdraft relatives to conflict with motherboard slots and coolers.
Once again, no conflicts to be seen. To install a second fan on the front, you will need to sit it above the ram, adding to the height of the cooler.
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Testing
To test this cooler, we used the SmallFormFactor.net test bench and methodology, as detailed here.
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Results
As you can see, the NH-D9L is a mid-range performer here. Note that the idle temps seem high – at low, BIOS controlled, fan speed, it doesn’t seem like much air is being pushed through the dense fin stack. At 12v, the cooler is significantly louder, with the fan samples that I have introducing a strange harmonic that was distracting. However, performance improved dramatically in this mode.
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Conclusion
The Noctua NH-D9L is a great product, designed for those who need a front to back airflow without compromising on aural performance. Dual fan mode on our 65w test system wasn’t spectacular, but at higher wattages, I expect the cost to benefit ratio of the second fan to be worth it.
The cooler is manufactured to the highest standard, as per usual for Noctua. It is well packaged and comes with a fully featured accessory kit. If you need a mini-tower cooler, this might be the option for you.
Pros
- Lower profile mini tower
- Multiple adjustable fan mounting
- SecuFirm 2.0 mounting
Cons
- Mid-range performance
- Fans may have a strange resonance at full speed
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This cooler is currently available for around US$54.95 on Amazon.com
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Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.
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Review sample provided by Noctua.
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