Noctua NH-U9S Overview
The NH-U9S is a smaller cooler than what we are used to seeing from Noctua. We previously reviewed the NH-U9B SE2, which was 120mm deep with its two stock fans, the NH-U9S is asymmetrically built and measures only 95mm with its single, more efficient NF-A9 fan, thus providing better performance and compatibility at the same time.
The cooler features a single tower design, but one that is more like a square than the typical rectangle shape. The heatsink tower has the official dimensions of 125 x 95 x 65 mm (HxWxD), that is without the fan installed. The heatsink by itself weighs 524 g and with the fan attached it is 618 g.
Taking a closer look at the fan it has the same Noctua colors that you are either going to hate or love. The NF-A9 is a 92 mm fan that has a max speed of 2000 RPM (+/- 10%). This will give it airflow level of 43.4 CFM at only 22.8 dBA of noise. The fan easily connects to the heatsink of the cooler by using fan clips.
The top of the heatsink has a Noctua logo on it that will show out if you happen to have a window in your case. You can also see the five heatpipes coming out of the top of the heatsink.
Taking a look at the cooler from the side you can see just how wide it is. Because of its smaller size Noctua guarantees RAM and PCI-Express compatibility on most motherboards, even smaller mini-ITX motherboards.
Looking at the back of the cooler we can see all of the aluminum fins and how they are spaced. You can also install a secondary fan back here and Noctua even includes the extra fan clips to do so.
As I mentioned there are 5 heatpipes on this cooler that are made of copper and are nickel plated. These heatpipes start at the base of the cooler and go up in a “U” shape, so actually you have 10 pipes going up into the heatsink itself.
The base of the cooler is also made of copper and is nickel plated. It has a mirror-like finish and there are no evident machining marks, which means it will make good contact with our CPU.
