Noctua NH-L9a-AM5 Low-Profile Heatsink Works Great For 2U AMD Ryzen AM5 Servers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Noctua NH-L9a-AM5 Low-Profile Heatsink Works Great For 2U AMD Ryzen AM5 Servers

Noctua at the end of January announced the NH-L9a-AM5 and the all-black NH-L9a-AM5 chromax.black heatsinks as their new ultra low-profile active CPU coolers for the AMD AM5 socket that support AMD's recently announced Ryzen 7000 series 65 Watt CPUs. The height with fan at only 37 mm makes the new NH-L9a-AM5 heatsinks work out very well for small form factor (SFF) builds and for our case at Phoronix an instant hit for running the new AMD Ryzen processors within 2U rackmount enclosures.

https://www.phoronix.com/review/noctua-nh-l9a-am5

[CochainComplex]

I really love their performance but I really hate the design.

[johanb]

I really love their performance but I really hate the design.

Just buy the black one then, as mentioned in the article.

[Teggs]

I might like to use one of these, but a small cooler has to have a drawback somewhere amongst performance, price, and noise. The article passes it for performance, and gives the (premium) price, but I wonder how loud it is.

[Michael]

I might like to use one of these, but a small cooler has to have a drawback somewhere amongst performance, price, and noise. The article passes it for performance, and gives the (premium) price, but I wonder how loud it is.

Whoops. Not loud at all.... Good amongst Noctua fans. Just forgot to mention it since I like focusing on my quantitative measurements but unfortunately no equipment/setup for accurate noise level comparison metrics with heatsinks/fans not being a common review focus.

[Chugworth]

I really love their performance but I really hate the design.

No, it stands out from the crowd and let's you know that you've got a quality fan.

[NotMine999]

Noctua is one of those products that is worth the money that you pay for it.

[jaxa]

Now we need A620 motherboards and AM5 APUs.

[polarathene]

I like focusing on my quantitative measurements

It'd be good to see how it compares with a 7700X with ECO mode. That can run at 65W TDP, but some motherboards also allow a configurable PPT wattage value to lower it from the 105W TDP (142-ish PPT if I recall), greatly reducing thermals but keeping performance nearly the same instead of the 10% hit the 7700 takes at 65W. The 7700X also has the higher boost clocks.

This is the only Noctua cooler that is compatible within my mobo and case choice, not even the NH-L9ax65 will fit sadly. Last I looked there was a lack of information on how well a fan cooler like this one could impact the performance of the X models.

I am opting for AIO, but if anyone knows how well the NH-L9a-AM5 handles a 7700X or better along with noise compared to an AIO that'd be great

[CochainComplex]

Just buy the black one then, as mentioned in the article.

Of course. Doesnt change the fact that their corporate design is still this chocolatebar colorcode. Black models are a rather recent upgrade of their product lineup (and I'm quute sure this was only because of external pressure by customers complaining about it.