Noise Normalized results
Finding the right balance between fan noise levels and cooling performance is important. While running fans at full speed can improve cooling capacity to some extent, the benefits are usually limited and most users prefer a quiet system.
For our SFF noise normalized tests, Acoustics were limited to 38.9 dBA. This level of noise is a low, but slightly audible, volume level. The NH-D9L and the NH-L12S did very well here, with CPU temperatures of 71-72C degrees.
You might notice that in addition to normalizing the noise levels, I also limited the power levels. I had originally planned to run this test without power limits, but the Gigabyte motherboard used for this testing forces fans to run at full speed when the CPU reaches TJMax. To get around this inconvenience, I limited the CPU power consumption. I was forced to use a lower limit of 95W because the L9i-17xx will reach TJMax in hotter workloads.
Full Power Thermal Results
Even with full-size CPU air coolers, Intel’s i9-13900K will hit its peak temperature and thermally throttle to some extent. In this test, we measure the total amount of watts the cooler is able to dissipate from the CPU.
As these are smaller-sized coolers, I didn’t expect them to handle a maximum-watt load. That said, I was very impressed with the performance of the NH-D9L here. Cooling 193W means that in most common scenarios, you won’t see any performance loss when using Intel’s i9-13900K.
There will be some performance loss compared to a cooler that can handle the full heat of Intel’s i9-13900K, but it’s not as much as you might think. I’ve previously tested power scaling on my personal blog, shown below, to see just how much power Intel’s i9-13900K really needs.
The NH-D9L’s performance will be similar to my results with a 200W power limit enforced, where only an 11% performance loss was observed, compared to running the CPU without power limits. The L9i-17xx’s performance will be similar to my results with a 125W power limit, which resulted in a 23% performance loss.
Maximum Noise Levels
While most of the coolers run fairly quietly, the NH-L9x65’s volume is notable at 46.6 dBA. I generally prefer coolers to run at 43dBA or lower. Depending on your comfort levels, you may consider this a loud noise level. But I do think 46.6dBA is tolerable.
Conclusion
While you can’t expect cooling performance comparable to full-size desktops, Noctua has an SFF cooler that will fit your PC form factor no matter how small of a space you’re working with. And despite encountering compatibility issues with multiple SFF coolers from competing coolers, each of Noctua’s offerings fit our SFF testing rig with no problems and provided adequate cooling dissipation.
While all the coolers we tested here were able to handle Intel’s Core i9-13900K to some degree, you’ll probably want to stick with lower-end CPUs if opting for more compact coolers. Because even if your cooler can technically move a high amount of heat away from your CPU, that heat still needs to escape from your case quickly, or it’s just going to be heating up your other components. And if your case requires one of the smallest SFF coolers, there’s a good chance its internal airflow is also likely to be limited compared to larger cases.
