Noctua Launches Low Profile NH-L9a-AM4 Chromax Black CPU Cooler
A dark CPU cooler rises
Noctua recently launched a chromax.black edition of the low profile NH-L9a-AM4 cooler aimed at small form factor (SFF) AMD “Ryzen” systems. Clad in all-black down to the screws and anti-vibration fan mounts, the cooler is otherwise identical to the existing non-chromax series NH-L9a-AM4. Measuring 37 x 114 x 92mm and weighing 465g (with fan), Noctua claims that the cooler is fully compliant with AMD’s motherboard socket clearance specifications and does not interfere with RAM or other surrounding socket components.
The new cooler uses the same 14mm thick NF-A9x14 PWM fan as its non-chromax version save for the black coating and is rated at 600-2500 RPM (1800 with low noise adapter) and up to 23.8 dB(A) (14.8 dB(A) with LNA).
The 23mm tall heatsink features a nickel-plated copper baseplate, soldered copper heatpipes, and an aluminum fin stack. Noctua’s CPU Compatibility chart shows that the NH-L9a-AM4 cooler is enough for cooling up to a Ryzen 7 3800X.
The NH-L9a-AM4 Chromax.Black comes with Noctua’s SecuFirm2 low profile mount, NT-H1 thermal compound, and black screws and anti-vibration pads for reducing fan noise. The cooler comes with a 6-year manufacturer warranty and has a MSRP of $49.90. It is available now in the US and Europe with further availability to follow.
If you’ve been looking for a simple low-profile cooler without all the RGB for your next small form factor Ryzen build, this might be an option to consider. The NH-L9a-AM4 follows Noctua’s release of the chromax.black edition of the NH-L9i SFF Intel cooler last year. More SFF options for AMD systems is always nice to see.
“AMD’s Ryzen platform has become more and more popular over the last few months, not only for high-end builds but also for compact HTPCs and Small Form Factor systems”, says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). “We’ve already introduced the black NH-L9i low-profile cooler for Intel in October, but now we also want to give design-conscious AMD users a new option with the black version of NH-L9a-AM4!”
