INTRODUCTION

   When building a brand new computer choosing the right components is directly tied to the type of use ment for it so obviously you wouldn't use the same ones you'd use with the office system as you would with the one in your living room. Needless to say the same applies for the CPU cooler since a gaming oriented system would need one with a much higher cooling efficiency compared to that of an office system or even a HTPC. The downside however with really powerful CPU coolers is their massive size so if you wanted to place one inside a mITX/mATX case chances are you'd be out of luck. Well manufacturers know this all too well so for the past 2-3 years many of them have focused a lot in the design of compact CPU coolers with impressive cooling potential (for their size always). Noctua has already released several such models in the market but with their latest NH-D9L D-Type Tower Cooler they seem to be taking things one step further.

   Designed in Austria, Noctua's premium cooling components are internationally renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality. Having received more than 3000 awards and recommendations from leading hardware websites and magazines, Noctua's fans and heatsinks are chosen by more than a hundred thousand satisfied customers around the globe.

   Usually whenever a compact size is their primary goal manufacturers turn towards the quite popular and tested top-down (C-Type) heatsink design and although Noctua has also taken that path several times in the past with the brand new NH-D9L they chose a different one since it's based on a dual tower heatsink (D/sandwich type) which they bundle with a single high-speed 92mm PWM fan placed right in the middle. The good news about this move by Noctua is that the NH-D9L is still just 110mm tall (can even fit in 3U racks) and has room for two extra 92mm fans in push & pull (Noctua says dual fan ready because they bundle only one extra set of mounting clips) a feature which i expect to be very useful for all of you looking to maximize its cooling efficiency. Unfortunately we will only be testing the NH-D9L with its bundled fan but even that should be enough for us to see what one can expect by adding two more.