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How We Tested
Two of the Narrow ILM coolers in today’s test don’t even fit Square ILM sockets, so the only way we could test these is to put them on the board for which this article was conceived, ASRock’s X99E-ITX/ac. The rest of our standard cooling test platform remains relatively intact, minus the closed case and half the RAM.
Test System Configuration
Software And Drivers
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce 347.52 |
|---|---|
| Chipset | Intel INF 9.4.0.1017 |
Benchmark Suite
| Prime95 | v27.9, AVX FFT length 8K, continuous for at least 2 hours |
|---|---|
| RealTemp 3.70 | Maximum Temperature, All Cores Averaged |
| Galaxy CM-140 SPL Meter | Tested at 1/4 m, corrected to 1 m (-12 db), dB(A) weighting |
Comparison Coolers
Conspiracy theories and accusations fly in our response thread whenever we don’t include Noctua’s NH-D15, but it doesn’t fit Narrow ILM boards. Or does it?
While it obviously wouldn’t fit a case in this configuration, we were able to install the NH-D15 by using the bracket set from the NH-U9DX i4. Its heat pipes push against the blank side of our single-sided DIMM, but not hard enough to cause it to lose contact. Better still, if you’re using a tall cube-shaped gaming case with a side intake and lots of space, we found that the slightly-smaller NH-D14 fits in the shown orientation without pushing on the RAM, due to its ¼”-narrower heat pipe spacing. Both the D14 and D15 have adequate clearance between the heat sink and graphics card when installed as shown on the ASRock X99E-ITX/ac. Besides, Noctua loves to respond to bracket requests, or is that only when we ask (let us know)?
