Cooling

Noctua NH-L9i chromax.black Cooler Review

Performance

Before you go racing off to look at the performance charts, there is a factor we should emphasize with the Noctua NH-L9i. Namely, that this is a low-profile design cooler. As such, it shouldn’t be competing (nor strictly compared) with larger air coolers or AIO designs. Put simply, you have to adjust your expectations based upon this key fact; its primary design function is to be small and potent, but not high-performance.

So, with that little disclaimer out of the way, how did it do? Well, for a low-profile design, remarkably well. Yes, in terms of temperature control it’s hardly amazing and, quite honestly, offers very little in terms of overclocking potential. Don’t forget though that Noctua themselves pointed out that this design is not for overclocking. Something that very few other manufacturers would specify in their cooling products and, as such, you have to credit them for that!

As can be seen below, however, the Noctua NH-L9i provides an excellent level of temperature performance at stock levels. Particularly for such a small package. Don’t think that this performance comes at the cost of fan speed in the thousands of RPMs either! When combined with the excellently quiet noise performance, this is, without a doubt, one of the best low-profile coolers currently available on the market.