Noctua is highly regarded for its exceptional build quality and some of the best large heatpipe air coolers around. But how does the compact Noctua NH-L9x65 brother, armed with a 14mm thin fan with a diameter of just 90mm, perform on small system builds while occupying a space of only 95mm x 95mm square and only 65mm ( 3.74 x 3.74 x 2.56 in) long squeeze? Most of Noctua’s line focuses on large, near-silent cooling giants like the NH-D15but is the same possible in a pint-sized package?
Specifications:
| Height | 2.0″ / 51mm |
| (2.55″ / 65mm with fan) | |
| Width | 3.75″ / 95mm |
| Depth | 3.75″ / 95mm |
| Empty memory | No limit |
| Assy. offset | 0 |
| fans | (1x) 90mm x 14mm |
| Connectors | (1x) 4-pin PWM |
| Weight | 15.0oz / 425g |
| Intel sockets | 115x, 1200, |
| 2011x (square ILM), 2066 | |
| AMD sockets | AM2(+), AM3(+), AM4, |
| FM1, FM2(+) | |
| (some AMD sockets may require a back plate) | |
| Guarantee | 6 years |
| web price | $55 |
Function
The Noctua NH-L9x65 may be incredibly compact, but the contents of the box contain a wide variety of components to fit most Intel and AMD desktop processor sockets, although some AMD chips may require a suitable backplate (see Noctua .’s product site for details). Most mounting hardware is nickel-plated and a 4-pin PWM speed reducer cable and an angle screwdriver are included in the box.
Also by the Noctua standard, a decal and nickel-plated metal logo badge are supplied as standard, as well as a tube of the company’s NT-H1 thermal compound. Noctua covers the NH-L9x65 with a generous 6-year warranty.
The NH-L9x65’s heatsink features four heatpipes angled tightly to wrap in the stack of 50 overhead cooling fins. This design gives the cooler a compact footprint, but also means that due to the 95mm cooler length and width, the overall cooling fin stack has less surface area to dissipate heat than larger downdraft coolers.
The airflow is routed over the NH-L9x65 or NF-A9-x14 PWM fan (90mm x 14mm). This small, narrow fan is rated at up to 2500 RPM, has built-in rubber mounting pads and uses a 4-pin PWM header. A pair of wire clamps secure and support the fan during use.
The base of the NH-L9x65 features a milled, nickel-plated base, which clamps each of the four heatpipes to the cooler’s integrated mounting plate. On either side of the mounting plate is a spring machine screw that is used to properly tension the cooler to the mounting crossbars and facilitate alignment over the CPU during installation.
The base of the NH-L9x65 is milled flat, preventing light from peeking under our steel ruler, which is held flat against the base. Also visible from this angle is a look at the tight tolerances between the cooler base, heatpipes and the cooling fins themselves, showing just how compact this part really is.
Assembling and disassembling the NH-L9x65 gives us a universal thermal composition of our standard MX-4 test paste. Concentric circles give us an idea of how the cooler is centered and the mounting ensures equal tension, provided the installer takes the time and applies pressure evenly on each side.
With the mounting hardware installed and the cooler positioned above the crossbars, positioning the Noctua NH-L9x65 is as easy as aligning the machine’s turnbuckles over the threaded mounting posts. We can also see the cooler claim unlimited memory DIMM clearance by removing just a few millimeters of installed system RAM.
The fan snaps onto the heat sink to complete the down-flow design of the NH-L9x65.