Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile CPU Cooler Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging & Bundle3. The Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler4. Testing Methodology5. Thermal Performance6. Acoustic Performance 7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Thermal Performance Test Procedures:

• Idle temperatures are obtained after sitting at the desktop for 15 minutes.
• Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95 in the ‘Small FFTs' mode for 15 minutes.
• We repeated testing with our CPU overclocked to 4.0GHz (40x multiplier, 100MHz base clock) using a BIOS-set voltage of 1.200V.
• The cooler's fan(s) are set to 100% to eliminate inaccuracies due to dynamic PWM fan speed adjustments.
• The supplied thermal paste is used to provide an accurate interpretation of the cooler's out-of-the-box performance.
• We use HWMonitor to measure the CPU temperature.
• CPU temperature recording is accurate to +/- 0.5°C.
• Ambient temperature recording is accurate to +/- 0.05°C.
• Ambient temperature was maintained at 19°C.

Acoustic Performance Test Procedures:

• We measure the noise output of our entire system from a distance of 1m while the CPU cooler's fan(s) operate at 100% (indicating the maximum noise output).
• We set the case fans to minimum speed (hence noise) and avoid using a discrete GPU to isolate the CPU cooler's noise output.

Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K.
• Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V.
• Memory: 8GB DDR3 1333MHz.
• Case: NZXT Phantom.
• Cooling Fans: 1x 120mm 1900 RPM Scythe Kaze Jyuni (front intake), 1x 120mm NZXT (side intake), 1x 120mm NZXT (rear exhaust), 1x 200mm NZXT (roof exhaust)
• Graphics card: On-board.
• Power supply: 1000W Seasonic Platinum-1000.
• Storage drives: 128GB Kingston V100 (OS), 1TB Samsung F3, 300GB Western Digital Caviar.
• Thermal Paste: Supplied Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound.

Software:

• CPUID HWMonitor.
• Core Temp (additional certification).
• Prime95.
• Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Become a Patron!