Noctua today expanded its family of low-profile CPU coolers with the LGA 1700-bound NH-L9i.  The NH-L9i-17xx and NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black join the legendary NH-U12A chromax.black in bringing Noctua coolers to Intel's latest 12th gen, Alder Lake CPUs. At 37mm height, the low-profile nature of these coolers make them particularly apt for building ultra-compact HTPCs and Small Form Factor (SFF) systems.

The NH-L9i-17xx follows Noctua's design philosophy, with a two-tone brown fan assembly on top of a silver cooler. The NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black, however, brings a more inconspicuous (and easier to color-coordinate) all-black design. Packing Noctua's NF-A9x14 92mm fan, the NH-L9i-17xx support automatic fan speed control via PWM for a cooling system that adapts to on-the-fly, or it can be modified according to a users' preferred sound profile.

The NH-L9i-17xx has been designed to stay out of the way of your RAM and PCIe components even on tightly packed motherboards. Noctua's custom-designed SecuFirm2 mounting system (especially developed for the new LGA1700 socket) simplifies installation and extends compatibility to multi-socket mounting system. NH-L9i-17xx is compatible with all modern Intel (LGA1700, LGA1200, LGA115x, LGA2011, LGA2066) and most AMD sockets (AM4, AM3, AM2, FM1, FM2).

Besides the new NH-L9i-17xx coolers, Noctua is also launching a new fan duct accessory kit. The NA-FD1 fan duct kit enables users to create a corridor through which cool air can be more easily pulled from outside. According to Noctua, the new fan duct kit measurably improves cooling performance of the NH-L9i-17xx coolers - Noctua mentions a 5 Celsius lower operating temperatures in its materials). The duct is particularly effective on systems with a minimum 5mm gap between the top of the cooler (37mm) and the casing (a minimum of 42mm is thus required for optimal performance), up to a limit of 45mm height. The duct itself is made of EVA foam spacers, which can be stacked in 1mm increments up to the maximum 45 mm height.

“For Small Form Factor builds, we now highly recommend the optional NA-FD1 fan duct kit, both to customers choosing the new NH-L9i-17xx models and to users of the existing NH-L9i and NH-L9a heatsinks”, explains Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. “It’s a simple yet highly effective way of boosting the performance of these coolers in compact cases. Tech-savvy enthusiasts have been creating similar ducts with their 3D printers for quite some time, but not everyone has the capabilities to do this, so we thought it would be great to offer an affordable, flexible duct kit that doesn’t require any special equipment or skills to set up.“

All of the products are already available through Noctua's website. Noctua's suggested retail prices are set at EUR/USD 44.90 for the NH-L9i-17xx; EUR/USD 54.90 for the all-black NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black; and EUR/USD 12.90 for the NA-FD1 duct kit.