Noctua NH-D9L CPU Cooler Review

 

We’ve taken a look at a few Noctua CPU Coolers here at pcG in recent months, from the small but surprisingly adept Noctua NH-U9S with its single heatsink and tiny 92mm Noctua NF-A9 PWM fan, to the big a beastly Noctua NH-D15 with its massive twin towers and dual 140mm fans. But what would happen if Noctua crossbred them both? Why the Noctua NH-D9L of course! A CPU Cooler offering a similar tiny footprint to that of the NH-U9S, but with the dual tower features of its bigger brother the NH-D15. In fact it looks exactly like the NH-D15 when viewed from an appropriate distance, the only tell tale sign that it isn’t, is its single fan.

Let’s take a look a closer look at this amalgamation of two of our favourite Noctua CPU Coolers.

 

 

 

The front of a Noctua NH-D9L box follows the same white and brown classical styling as that of the rest of the Noctua product line-up. On the white border area on the left we see the product name and QR (Quick Response) code. The upper dark brown area tells us the product model number again and that the Noctua NH-D9L is a ‘D-Type Tower Cooler’, beneath which we have another brown box with the Noctua logo, an artistic image of the NH-D9L inside and a silver sticker telling us of the CPU Cooler’s ‘full 3U compliance’ (meaning it is suitable for rack-mount cases). The front also highlights the following features:

While over on the back and in the same styling we again have the model name, UK and European bar codes, then a brief description of the product inside in numerous different languages.

 

 

Again, the left and right sides of the Noctua NH-D9L box follow the same classic styling as that of the front and back. The left gives us pretty detailed descriptions of all the Noctua NH-D9L key features (see Specifications/Features below), whilst over on the right we have the heatsink and fan specifications, list of the box contents, as well as two small images of the CPU Cooler inside the box with its dimensions.

 

 

Like all of their products we’ve seen here before, the Noctua NH-D9L is very well packaged. Each set of fittings (Intel, AMD & Universal) are bagged up separately, labelled and stored in their own box, with details of its contents. The NH-D9L is very well protected within yet another box, with cardboard bumpers at the top and bottom and a plastic cover to prevent any possible damage to the baseplate, while the 92mm Noctua NF-A9 PWM is already pre-installed.

 

Box Contents

 

 

At the time of writing the Noctua NH-D9L CPU Cooler is available from Amazon for £46.95 or Overclockers UK for £44.99 and comes with a very generous 6 year warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Noctua

 

Cooler Specifications

 

 

Fan Specifications

 

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

Once out of the box, we are able to get a much closer look at the Noctua NH-D9L. Rather oddly my first impression is how cute the CPU Cooler looks. It really is like Noctua have taken a shrink ray and zapped the NH-D15. The only clear difference (apart from its size and weight) is the single fan pre-installed on the heatsink. The little dual tower Cooler measures 110mm(H) x 95mm (W) x 95mm(D) with the 92mm fan installed, while weighing just 531g. Which is certainly small enough to fit in 99.99% of Gaming Rigs out there.

 

 

From the very top we can see the capping fins of both of the heatsink towers. These have a bare aluminium finish and features a centrally placed and embossed Noctua logo. Looking closer at the towers, we can see they are both pretty much symmetrically built, with fan clip mounts either side and the ends of the four nickel plated copper heat-pipes clearly visible. Despite its dual tower appearance, the Noctua NH-D9L measures 95mm(w) x 95mm(D) with or without the pre-installed 92mm fan.

With the fan removed we can see the top end of the SecurFirm 2 mounting system. This consists of one large radial bracket which is pre-attached to the NH-D9L baseplate, which is then in turn fixed to the backplate assembly via the sprung-loaded screws either side of the cooler. Having used this system before, I can safely say it is easily one of, if not THE best in the business.

 

 

From a side view we can see a total count of 35 fins within each of the Noctua NH-D9L towers, each measuring 34mm in depth. The cooler has a total depth of 95mm regardless of fan placement. The CPU Cooler’s height without the fan is 110mm and Noctua claim the same with the fan in place?! Rather unusually for Noctua, this is in fact wrong (at least once installed into your rig). With the NF-A9 PWM fan installed the maximum height is actually 120mm.

 

 

From the front we can see the Noctua NH-D9L measures 95mm across its width (still 😉 ). While the 92mm NF-A9 PWM fan is in the typical Noctua signature colours of beige and brown.

 

 

From beneath we get to see the heat-pipes and base plate more clearly. All of which are made of copper and nickel plated. You can also see the base is very nicely milled and reflective, but it doesn’t have the same mirror finish as many other CPU coolers out there. Viewing the outer edges of the fins also looks (kind of) like the Noctua owl logo with its furrowed brow (or perhaps I’m tired and seeing things?!).

 

 

Here we have some comparisons of the NH-D9L and our regular test CPU cooler the Raijintek Themis. The NH-D9L as mentioned before, is 120mm(H) x 95mm(W) x 95mm(D) Vs 158mm(H) x 122mm(W) x 50mm(D) of the Themis. The NH-D9L is not only smaller in total size, but is also slightly lighter weighing in at 428g (without fan) Vs 448g (without fan) for the Themis.

 

 

Overall, the Noctua NH-D9L looks like a cuter and smaller version of the NH-D15 (which is certainly no bad thing, personally I rather like it), with the ever familiar high build quality we have become accustomed to from Noctua. Yet how will it compare to their previous outstanding CPU Coolers? We best get it in the Test Rig to find out!

 

Hardware Installation

 

Test Rig Setup

Case	Cooler Master HAF XB	Power Supply	Corsair Professional Series AX 760i
Motherboard	ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer	CPU	Intel Core i5-4690K
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-D9L	RAM	HyperX Savage 2400MHz 8GB Kit
Graphics Card	XFX AMD Radeon R9 290X DD Black Edition	SSD	HyperX FURY 120GB

 

 

Installing the Noctua NH-D9L is an incredibly easy task. This was largely due to the incredibly fast and easy to fit SecureFirm2 mounting system, the fittings being grouped and bagged individually, the trademark Noctua screwdriver and the cooler itself being very well designed.

First up is the backplate. This has the uprights pre-installed, so all you need to do is line them up with and guide them through the motherboard CPU mount holes, a nylon spacer is then placed over each upright, the two mounting plates are then placed over each pair of uprights (left & right), then secured using the included thumb-screw nuts. That’s the SecureFirm2 mounting system taken care of and it’s literally just a five minute job!

Then we add a little thermal compound (Arctic Cooling MX-4) to the top of the i5-4690K (I personally use the squishy pea method), the Noctua NH-D9L heatsink is lined up above it and then slowly fixed into place using the two pre-fitted and sprung loaded screws either side. The Noctua NF-A9 PWM fan is then fixed in between the dual towers of the heatsink using one set of the included fan-clips, then plugged into the CPU_FAN1 header of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer motherboard.

That’s it! Not even a ten minute job. Let’s see how it performs in the Test Rig!

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

* Please note: To ascertain the maximum and minimum noise levels produced by our CPU test coolers. The dB is recorded at a distance of 1 metre from the cooler, with all case fans unplugged to isolate the sound in question.

 

 

Processor speed is set using the OC Tweaker tab of the UEFI, “Disabled” for stock speeds (3.5GHz) and “Turbo 4.0GHz” for the minor overclock tests. It should be noted that changing the OC settings resets the Fan Speeds, so these are checked on the next reboot and reset to “Full Speed” (see below).

 

 

All the fans installed in the system are set to 100% speed using the displayed settings, this is simple with the ASROCK UEFI with the option of “Full Speed” being available for all system fans (bar the Power Fan header).

 

 

Hardware Performance

 

As stated above, to make our performance tests easier to follow and to get the most accurate recordings, all of the following tests have been carried out with case fans set at 100% and the Noctua NH-U9S fan also set at 100%.

 

• Intel Core i5-4690K – 3.5GHz (stock)

 

 

CPU Cooler	Fan Speed	Ambient Temperature	Max CPU Temperature (core average)	Delta Temperature	Noise Level
Scythe Mugen Max	100%	22.00	47.00	25.00	36dB
Noctua NH-U9S	100%	24.00	50.00	26.00	38dB
Raijintek Themis	100%	21.50	50.75	29.25	47dB
Noctua NH-D9L	100%	25.00	55.75	30.75	33dB
SilverStone Argon AR06	100%	23.50	79.50	56.00	28dB

* Thermals Explained

 

The Noctua NH-D9L is small, in fact the only CPU Cooler tested here at pcG that has a smaller footprint is the SilverStone Argon AR06. The miniature dual tower cooler doesn’t do a bad job of cooling our i5-4690K at its 3.5GHz stock speed, with a maximum average core temperature of 55.75C (30.75C Delta). This may be a full 5.00C higher than the maximum average core temperature of our regular Raijintek Themis test cooler, but is just 1.50C higher on the Delta which isn’t bad at all. For my own curiosity I also benched the Noctua NH-D9L with a second Noctua NF-A9 PWM fan, this gave a far more impressive maximum average core temperature of 52.50C (27.50C Delta). Despite this I can’t help myself from being a little disappointed when comparing it to the other little Noctua CPU Cooler the Noctua NH-U9S.

 

• Intel Core i5-4690K – 4.0GHz (OC Tweaker)

 

 

CPU Cooler	Fan Speed	Ambient Temperature	Max CPU Temperature (core average)	Delta Temperature	Noise Level
Scythe Mugen Max	100%	22.00	55.75	33.75	36dB
Noctua NH-U9S	100%	23.50	60.25	36.75	38dB
Raijintek Themis	100%	21.00	59.50	38.50	47dB
Noctua NH-D9L	100%	24.50	67.00	42.50	33dB
SilverStone Argon AR06	100%	23.50	92.50	69.00	28dB

* Thermals Explained

 

With a relatively minor overclock courtesy of the ASROCK OC Tweaker within the UEFI, the i5-4690K is set to 4.0GHz and things start to get a little toastier. The dual tower Noctua NH-D9L once again does its job of keeping the CPU on the right side of 70.00C with a maximum average core temperature of 67.00C (42.50C Delta). Although it still falters against the Raijintek Themis by 7.50C (4.00C Delta). However running the same benchmark with the additional fan gives us an i5-4690K with a maximum average core temperature of 62.25C (37.25C Delta) which is certainly more impressive. Sadly this still lags behind the very impressive Noctua NH-U9S.

 

Acoustics

 

Surprisingly for a dual tower cooler, even despite its tiny size, the Noctua NH-D9L produces little in the way of noise. With its single 92mm Noctua NF-A9 PWM at its very lowest setting, just 22dB is produced rising to 33dB when running at 100%. Introducing a second fan has a pretty significant impact whilst running at 100%, with the sound produced jumping up to 45dB.

 

Final Thoughts

 

I always look forward to seeing a new Noctua product here at pcG. Not only do they offer phenomenal build quality and high performance, but they also use the quite frankly brilliant SecurFirm 2 mounting system. But can we expect to see the same from their latest, the Noctua NH-D9L?

The unmistakable and classically styled brown on white Noctua packaging is becoming very familiar at pcG now, but this doesn’t mean we tire of their appearance. In fact quite the opposite, it usually equates to a rather pleasant unboxing experience of yet another quality Noctua product. An area where the Noctua NH-D9L does not disappoint. With its stately outer packaging removed, we found the CPU Cooler itself to be very well protected within a secondary box with large cardboard bumpers, whilst the fixtures and fittings were grouped, bagged, tagged and stowed within their own separate box. With all its cardboard protection removed, the Noctua NH-D9L proves to be a slightly odd looking cooler, owing to its small stature measuring just 120mm(H) x 95mm (W) x 95mm(D) (including the pre-installed 92mm Noctua NF-A9 PWM fan), aided by its dual tower design. This could very well be the smallest CPU Cooler of this design currently available and is sure to fit in almost any case on the market. The NH-D9L features the typical build quality that we have come to associate with that of a Noctua product (being very good), as well as the signature beige and brown fan.

Installing the Noctua NH-D9L was an easy and painless task, due to the SecureFirm 2 mounting system (easily one of the best (if not THE best) in the industry), while the tiny size of the Noctua NH-D9L just helps to benefit this.

In the area of thermal performance, the Noctua NH-D9L is certainly up to the task. Keeping our stock (3.5GHz) i5-4690K well cooled with a maximum average core temperature of 55.75C (30.75C Delta), rising to 67.00C (42.50C Delta) when the CPU receives a modest 4.0GHz overclock. All whilst with the 92mm NF-A9 PWM fan running at 100% and producing just 33dB of noise. Despite being a capable little CPU Cooler, I have to admit my slight disappointment. It may be a little bit quieter and slightly cheaper than the similarly sized Noctua NH-U9S, but the cooling performance isn’t nearly as good. In order for it to give similar comparative thermal results, the NH-D9L really needs an additional fan, which then makes it slightly larger, more expensive and louder…

With a current price of approximately £40, the tiny Noctua NH-D9L is sure to fit within almost any Gaming Rig set-up you can think of, it’s quiet and performs well enough for the task at hand. But when you factor in its similarly priced, similarly sized and better performing sibling, the Noctua NH-U9S, you can’t help but wonder who exactly the NH-9DL is aimed at?

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to Noctua for providing this sample for review