Noctua NH-L9a-AM4, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler for AMD AM4 (Brown)

Will it fit?This is obviously a very low profile cooler. But please do check out the dimensions. It fit even on my mini-ITX motherboard (that's TINY), but do have some oversight with how things are spaced on your motherboard. The heatsink is short, but fairly spread out.Temperature talk/overclocking:Firstly, let me address something at least I was concerned with while I was researching this. YES, you can lightly overclock your APU while using this, just test stuff out until you find something that works. And please do be careful, your computer is a sacred baby, go easy on it. Anyway, for example, I overclocked my Ryzen 3200g CPU to 4000mhz, and my GPU to 1500mhz. At least in games I play (GMOD at 1080p full settings, Payday 2 1080p medium), I get 60fps while also staying around 55 degrees Celcius. That's about 30 degrees BELOW what would be considered ALMOST dangerous for an APU.But what about idle/light workloads for non-gamers? IdleNoise and the noise adapter:The fan is much more quiet than any stock AMD cooler, and although it can be made even more quiet with the noise adapter, that's because the adapter slows the fan down. In essence, the adapter WILL affect cooling performance, but most often that's not even necessary. The fan is very quiet and cool on idle or with light workspace stuff.Installation:Installation is easily the only "flaw" this cooler had in my case (even then I still gave it five stars). To install it, I recommend taking the fan off the heatsink, place the heatsink upside down atop a well balanced, sturdy cylindrical object. Apply thermal paste to your CPU (or APU ; ) ), then with your motherboard upside down, line up the heatsink holes with the holes on your motherboard. Keep your motherboard pressed down and balanced on the heatsink. Then take that metal plate included and put the PLASTIC side on your motherboard's bottom. Keep it balanced, and lightly screw it in the with "cross" method. Once the heatsink is secure, flip your motherboard. Not which direction the fan blows the air. You can screw the fan back into the heatsink so that it will blow the majority of air where you want it to.Now, clearly, that's much more complicated, and arguably more risky than a standard installation. But with patience, top-of-the-line thermal paste, and some luck, it will be so worth it.Appearance:People say Noctua fans are ugly, but there's a charming, almost nostalgic look to the fan. It will hardly match any color scheme at all (for instance, mine is red and black, and this fan looks like the nerdy kid at a party), but there's an eccentric, signature feel to that.Extras:You get some extra fan screws and a cool little metal Noctua pin. This looks quite nice and adds character to a PC case. Mine is proudly located above my Ryzen 3 and Vega Graphics stickers.

If you’re looking to build in a super compact case, this fan won’t disappoint! In fact, it’s in a class of its own size wise and may be your only option if you have extremely low head room. It’s whisper quiet once setup and provides adequate, although not trend setting cooling.My daughter was excited to build her first PC with me and wanted to go for a Mac Mini look because they have those at school, and she thinks they look cool.This unit was easy to install, although, having to flip the motherboard over and go in with the screws from the opposite side from what I’m accustomed to threw me a little bit of a curve ball.Once setup, temps were in the 40s and lower 50s, which isn’t great, but it’s within the range of acceptable. Setting the performance to power saver mode brought temps down to upper 30s and 40s which is a good range to be in if you’re looking to extend the life of your CPU and keep electrostatic levels down.***Pros***• Extremely small and compact• Whisper quiet• Unbeatable life-span estimated arrival 150,000 hours***Cons***• A tad pricey for what it is, but there’s really nothing to compare it with at the moment• Only provides adequate cooling under normal operation. I wouldn’t dream of overclocking with this

Used this to replace the AMD supplied cooler in a small home media server. Seems to keep the CPU p,entry cool, but it is only a 65W AMD CPU.Pros: Super quiet. At the speed it normally runs I can’t even hear it and barely noticeable even at full speed. Low profile, plenty of clearance with the top of the case in this small server case. Plenty of cooling for this CPU and could probably handle COUs in the 125 watt range just fine as well.Cons: Nothing major but kind of awkward to install. You need to take the mother board out of the case since unlike other AMD coolers which mount from the top (though the stealth wraith that came with the COU dies need a new bottom plate under the mother board. This one screws in from the bottom. Not a big deal, especially if you’re just building things anyway. Unlike most coolers I’ve used, this one comes with a tube of heat transfer compound you need to apply rather than pre-applied to the cooler. Again, not a big deal, just something to be aware of.Overall, I like it and plan to buy another one for another server I’m building.

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