CONCLUSION

   The people over at Noctua have designed and manufactured many CPU Coolers and fans during their 7 years in the market targeted towards pretty much every user out there from enthusiasts and overclockers and up to casual users, gamers and HTPC owners. Now normally that alone would never be impressive enough, however what makes Noctua stand out from most other manufacturers is that almost each and every one of their products has won awards around the globe, some due to their excellent build quality, some due to their awesome performance, some due to their extremely low noise levels and some (actually most) for all three. Now numbers don't lie so the NH-L9i (and generally the L9 line) is a small CPU cooler designed for people with extremely small PC cases (HTPC ones) who want something better than the default Intel HSF (performance wise) without extra noise levels. Of course although the NH-L9i outperformed the stock Intel HSF by 22 degrees (!!!) Celsius it did output 2.9dBA more and that is actually what initially surprised me since Noctua is well known for their very quiet solutions. In the end however the performance gap between the stock Intel HSF and the Noctua NH-L9i is so huge that 2.9dBA more is nothing. Also we may not have managed to test the NH-L9a but it uses the same 92mm fan and it's even larger than the NH-L9i so you can expect similar performance levels (if not better ones).

   Noctua is not your average CPU cooler/Fan manufacturer nor are their products and that is easily reflected on their prices so the NH-L9 Low-Profile CPU Cooler line (NH-L9i/9a) currently retails for around USD50 inside the USA (Amazon) and 45Euros inside the EU. Granted you can find many other low-profile CPU coolers in the market (like the NH-C14/NH-C12/NH-L12 by Noctua) but to my knowledge the NH-L9 is currently the lowest/smallest one around and once you combine that with its performance, build quality and low noise levels it's really not hard to understand how impressive it is which is also why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size/Performance Ratio
- Extremely Low-Profile
- Low Noise Levels 

CONS

- Price (For Some)