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.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The features of the NH-D9L are listed at the front of the box right alongside the company logo and a large picture of the heatpipes as background.

An in-depth explanation of the product features is present on the right side.

On the opposite side we find the product specifications and the contents of the bundle.

Noctua speaks about the NH-D9L at the rear of the box in 8 languages.

Once again the entire bundle is placed in thick cardboard boxes.

As usual Noctua bundles many things so along with the NH-D9L and the mounted 92mm fan you are also getting two fan mounting clips, NT-H1 thermal paste tube, low noise adapter, Noctua case badge, screwdriver, backplate and all the necessary bits and pieces required to install the cooler onto Intel LGA1150/1151/1155/1156/2011/2011-3 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2/FM2+ mainboards.

THE NH-D9L

The 110mm tall NH-D9L is also just 92mm thick and wide and weighs just 531g (with the fan).

As you can all see part of the fins is bend on the sides in order to increase airflow by keeping the air in.

Each heatsink has a total of 35 aluminum fins.

The NF-A9 92mm PWM fan can spin up to 2000RPM in order to produce up to 46.43CFM of airflow with just 22.8dBA of noise.

Four 6mm nickel plated copper heatpipes pass from the base of the cooler and through all 70 fins of both heatsinks.

The nickel plated copper base has a nice mirror like finish.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   As we have stated in the past the Intel I7-3770k system is not placed in our lab and so it's obviously not our primary choice when testing CPU Coolers. Still since HTPC oriented models shouldn’t be used with our overclocked Core I7-3930k we have decided to take this path whenever one such model lands at our doorstep. As always our first concern is ambient temperatures so once again we keep the room temperature to around 21-23 degrees (not really hard but unfortunately not 100% accurate as in our lab) and as always to successfully record the load temperatures we use the latest OCCT application (for around 6-10 minutes) to push the processor to its limits so we can record its temperatures. After that is done we wait for about 10-20 minutes for the CPU to cool down and record the idle temperatures. This is done to allow time for the thermal conductive material to achieve the optimal performance level. Same procedure was then repeated with the Passmark BurnIn Test as a failsafe just in case the OCCT results were off. As many of you have pointed out time and again this procedure takes a lot more time than the usual peltier/thermometer tests but this way not only can we deliver real world results based on real CPUs but we can also triple check the results using a variety of programs. Last but not least the temperatures are recorded using both the latest versions of AIDA64 and RealTemp while the noise level tests are performed using a high precision ExTech HD600 Decibel Meter placed about 10-15cm above the CPU Cooler.

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   When i took the NH-D9L out of the box i was quite impressed to see that Noctua managed to manufacture such a compact D-Type dual heatsink tower and of course i was quite interested to see how it would perform. As a matter of fact i liked the dual heatsink design so much that i really thought the NH-D9L would likely surpass the Macho 90 by Thermalright something which as you can clearly tell didn't happen. The reason of course for this is size so since the Macho 90 is quite a bit larger compared to the NH-D9L (135x102x102mm/110x95x95mm) it manages to offer increased cooling efficiency. The fan of the NH-D9L is also slight noisier compared to the one of the Macho 90 but that was to be expected since although both models can spin up to 2000RPM the NF-A9 fan by Noctua can produce higher airflow levels (39.36CFM/46.43CFM). Also let’s not forget that although you can also add a second fan to the Macho 90 you can easily add a 3rd one to the NH-D9L to close the gap in performance although i expect most people will not even add a 2nd one to the mix.

   Price is perhaps the only thing wrong with the NH-D9L D-Type CPU Cooler by Noctua since it currently retails for USD59.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 55Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Now normally for a high-quality product by Noctua i wouldn't consider this to be a high price tag (you pay a premium when you get a premium product after all) but when the Macho 90 retails for quite a bit less especially in the EU i really do think that Noctua should consider lowering the price of this particular model even a little bit. With that out of the way however the NH-D9L is not only one of the tiniest CPU coolers one can find in the market but it's also very good at what it does and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Small Size (no clearance issues)
- Very Good Performance (for its size)
- Noise Levels
- Tri-Fan Solution
- Socket Compatibility
- Bundle
- 6 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)