Noctua NH-U9S CPU Cooler Review

Noctua come with a simple fitted cover for the shiny contact plate that takes the heat away from the CPU. They always arrive intact and have a little more protection that the usual sticky film.

The plate is shiny and smooth to Noctua standards, but it can always be taken further if required. If you rub thermal paste into the contact plate before mounting, this will fill a good number of scratches or imperfections that may cause performance issues.

Below is a close up of the surface; You can still see the manufacturing process but it is ultra fine and the shot was difficult to achieve. Again, rub some thermal paste into the surface, it’s a little old school but it always does the trick for us.

Test Set Up

We tested the Noctua NH-U9S for sound and cooling performance using an i7 LGA2011 set up. We tested two configurations, stock with turbo and over clock with turbo.

• Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
• Processor: Intel i7-5820K
• Motherboard: Asus Rampage V Extreme Motherboard
• Graphics: PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 770
• Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666Mhz
• Drives: 2 x 128GB SSDs OS RAID 0 (SanDisk SSD SATA III 128GB)
• PSU: Corsair HX1000i
• Chassis: MicroCool Banchetto 101 Chassis

Software used for load tests and temperature capture;

• HWiNFO64
• AIDA64 Extreme

We ran the AIDA64 Extreme stability test in 30 minute batches and recorded the results. We used the Core Max result as there was typically a variance across the cores of a couple of degrees. We only selected the cache, FPU and CPU tests, so no other component would generate impacting heat during the tests.

Fitting

Installing the Noctua NH-U9S wasn’t hard at all. You need to remove the fan and use the supplied screwdriver but due to the small foot print, it doesn’t have access issues and it doesn’t clash with the surrounding motherboard and memory. We can’t really say much more about it, it was trouble-free.

BIOS Setting

We used the default PWM setting and left it alone!

Sound Level Testing

We used a standard generic digital sound level meter at 15 inches. It is important to note we used the MicroCool Banchetto 101 Chassis for testing which is an open chassis. This means you are hearing the CPU coolers fan unobstructed.

Thermal Paste

We use Arctic MX-2 for all heatsink cooler tests and in fact we use it for all builds, test or otherwise. We run the AIDA64 Extreme stability test as our burn in programme for thermal paste, which allows the paste to spread out and share the love across the mating surfaces. It is worth doing, we noted a drop in throttling after 30 minutes of burn in, and we don’t like throttling!

Next, results.