Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U9B Testing
| Article Index |
|---|
| Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler |
| Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler Specifications |
| Noctua NH-U9B Testing |
| Final Thoughts and Conclusion |
Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler Testing and Installation:
Installation is pretty simple with the NH-U9B, although you are going to have to remove the motherboard. However, once you remove the motherboard and mount the back bracket and the top brackets (pictured below), the rest of the installation is very simple, and attaching the heatsink to the brackets is a matter or two screws, and not a lot of pressure at all.
 Noctua NH-U9B - Back Bracket |
 Noctua NH-U9B - Top Brackets |
Once you've got the back and top brackets installed you'll need to attach the side brackets to the heatsink (pictured below), then you're ready to attach the heatsink to the board.
Once you've got the brackets installed, mounting is a breeze, pretty much just set it on, and but the screws in and your done. In the pictures below you can see on the left the heatsink is set on the brackets, then on the right the screws and spring is installed, this easy mounting system makes it very easy if you every need to remove the cooler for an upgrade or to reapply thermal paste.
 Noctua NH-U9B - Heatsink on Mounting Brackets |
 Noctua NH-U9B - Heatsink Installed |
And there we go, we're all done, it's that simple.
 Noctua NH-U9B - Installed |
 Noctua NH-U9B - Installed |
Testing:
Test Setup:
Our testing of CPU coolers is pretty straight forward, we test them at stock clock speeds at both idle and full load speeds. For the overclocking results I took temperatures at idle and full load. All temperatures were taken after the processor had been running for 12 hours on each test to ensure a consistent result.
I have taken all temperatures using CoreTemp. CoreTemp takes a temperature from the CPU core, and allows for much more uniform results across different motherboard and CPU platforms. These temperatures may seem higher than other temperature recordings; because chances are they are taking temperature recordings using the diode underneath the CPU, which isn't able to be as accurate, and can really fluctuate between different brands of motherboards.
For stock tests the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU ran at stock speeds of 1.86Ghz, for Overclocked tests the CPU was running at 2.13Ghz.
For all tests I used Arctic Cooling MX-2 High-Performance Thermal Compound.
Test System
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86Ghz)
- MSI P965 Neo - Provided by Memory Express
- ATI Radeon HD2600 - Provided by Memory Express
- 2 GB Kit of Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 - Provided by Crucial
- Western Digital 250 gig (16 MB Cache)
I have included in the first chart the NH-U9B as well as a few other similar coolers for comparison purposes. In the second chart I have included approximately 16 different coolers of all shapes and sizes and methods of cooling for comparison purposes.
Click on Chart for Larger View
Well there we go, when comparing the NH-U9B to its big brother (NH-U12P) it does drop a bit in performance, but since it's a much smaller cooler that is to be expected. When compared to other coolers such as the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (which is a similar sized cooler), it keeps up pretty good. While it might not have the best performance, you have to remember that it does this while being pretty much silent and it's not really aimed at the high-performance overclocking market, so with that in mind I'm very satisfied with the performance.
In the next chart I've included all the results from the last 16 cooler reviews we've done at BCCHardware, and gives you an idea of how it compares to all the coolers we've taken a look at lately.
Click on Chart for Larger View (Warning - Large Size)
