Noctua NH-U9B SE2 CPU Cooler

Product(s): Noctua NH-U9B Special Edition SE2 CPU Cooler
Provided By: Noctua
Price:

Introduction: 

Let's quickly take a trip waaaaaaay back to 2008 in the BCCHardware archives when we took a look at the Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler, ahh memories! Today we are going to look at the same cooler with a little different spin to it, the Noctua NH-U9B SE2, and see how it compares to other coolers on the Intel LGA1336 platform.

Even though two years have passed since we first took a look at this cooler it is still one of the more popular coolers we've ever covered (and for good reason). The NH-U9B cooler was much smaller than most of the other heatpipe coolers available and was able to fit into cases where the rest just couldn't and still offer great quality and great performance.

The NH-U9B SE2 cooler is pretty much identical to its original counterpart (as you will see in the pictures in the next section), however Noctua has added some new mounting brackets to fit the new CPU sockets (LGA1336 and LGA1156) so now i7 users are in luck as well as a second 92mm Noctua fan. The rest of the package is pretty similar with a few minor differences so we won't spend too much time looking at the fine details (if you want the fine details you can read our original review right here).

First Impressions:

This section could probably be considered "second impressions" as we take a close look at the Noctua NH-U9B SE2 cooler.

I have included pictures from the original NH-U9B and compared them to the new and improved NH-U9B SE2 so you can see the differences (or lack of differences). I'm not going to go into much detail about the NH-U9B SE2 because it is very similar to the original and if you want to take a closer look you can just read our original review (which can be found here).

Noctua NH-U9B SE2 - Top View

Noctua NH-U9B (Original)- Top View

 

Ok, so the first comparison is identical, the heatsink is identical to the original. Both heatsinks were capable of handling two 92mm fans (the NH-U9B SE2 comes with 2 in the package, the original only came with one).


 

Noctua NH-U9B SE2 - New Mounting Bracket

Noctua NH-U9B (Original)- Mounting Bracket

The biggest physical difference is the mounting system, as you might be able to see Noctua has changed it up a little (it's now even easier to install then the original). With the NH-U9B you get mounting brackets for the LGA775, LGA1336, LGA1156 from Intel, and the AM, AM2, AM2+ sockets from AMD which should pretty much cover the good majority of CPU's produced in the past few years.

Noctua NH-U9B SE2 - Installed

Noctua NH-U9B (Original)- Installed

 

So there we go, the comparison section is now officially complete. It was intentionally short due to the lack of differences from the original (you can read our full review of the NH-U9B cooler here).