News Noctua Introduces Intel Alder Lake Low-Profile Coolers

[Admin]

Noctua has increased its lineup of LGA 1700-compatible coolers. The new NH-L9i Low-Profile cooler is available in two distinct models catering to different color coordinations, bringing Noctua's cooling expertise to SFF systems. The new NA-FD1 fan-duct kit also promises to improve thermal performance.

Noctua Introduces Intel Alder Lake Low-Profile Coolers : Read more

 

[-Fran-]

I hate to say this, but it smells like BS.

Look at the ratings they use for the L9i and how it stacks up and then their own somewhat contradictory information in the page. Their internal score is 59 vs 183 for the NH-D15 which was proven to throttle the i9 12900K. Here's the link to how they calculate that: https://noctua.at/en/noctua-standardised-performance-rating

So, in their own page (here: https://ncc.noctua.at/coolers/NH-L9i-17xx-71/cpus/Intel/LGA 1700) it says it works better to boost the 12900K over the 12700K? How does that work? How can this thing help boost the 241W monster and not thee 190W one at the same level? The wattage differences among those CPUs are not trivial or small enough to ignore their information.

You guys should ask for some clarification, because even if it's Noctua, this smells really fishy.

Regards.

 

[TerryLaze]

So, in their own page (here: https://ncc.noctua.at/coolers/NH-L9i-17xx-71/cpus/Intel/LGA 1700) it says it works better to boost the 12900K over the 12700K? How does that work? How can this thing help boost the 241W monster and not thee 190W one at the same level? The wattage differences among those CPUs are not trivial or small enough to ignore their information.

The 12700k has 400Mhz more on the p-cores and 300Mhz more on the e-cores under all core so it needs a better cooler because it creates more heat in the same space.
Also as you can see by the little turbo icon that the cooler is for medium turbo boosting and not for the "balls to the walls i don't care" setting.
it's not for 240 all the time it's for close to that some times or lower than that all the times.
According to computerbase you don't need 240 anyway to get extremely good performance out of the 12900k.

 

[-Fran-]

The 12700k has 400Mhz more on the p-cores and 300Mhz more on the e-cores under all core so it needs a better cooler because it creates more heat in the same space.
Also as you can see by the little turbo icon that the cooler is for medium turbo boosting and not for the "balls to the walls i don't care" setting.
it's not for 240 all the time it's for close to that some times or lower than that all the times.
According to computerbase you don't need 240 anyway to get extremely good performance out of the 12900k.

Christ...

This is not about Intel, it's about their product (Noctua's) and how they're portraying its capabilities. Go read it before you make any comments.

Regards.

 

[TerryLaze]

Christ...

This is not about Intel, it's about their product (Noctua's) and how they're portraying its capabilities. Go read it before you make any comments.

Regards.

Yes, and noctua says that it's not made for the full 240W, what's your problem?!

 

[-Fran-]

Yes, and noctua says that it's not made for the full 240W, what's your problem?!

I explained it in my first post.

I'll stop here.

Regards.

 

[TerryLaze]

I explained it in my first post.

I'll stop here.

Regards.

Are you like forgetting the things you write before you end the post or something?
I was answering your questions.

So, in their own page (here: https://ncc.noctua.at/coolers/NH-L9i-17xx-71/cpus/Intel/LGA 1700) it says it works better to boost the 12900K over the 12700K? How does that work? How can this thing help boost the 241W monster and not thee 190W one at the same level? The wattage differences among those CPUs are not trivial or small enough to ignore their information.

" it says it works better to boost the 12900K over the 12700K? How does that work? "
By the 12700K having higher clocks at the same size surface.
"How can this thing help boost the 241W monster and not thee 190W one at the same level? "
By not cooling for the full TMP in the first place, and stating a medium turbo/overclocking headroom and not the full turbo power.

 

[Deleted member 1353997]

According to Noctua:

“We’re very happy with the performance of the NH-L9i-17xx coolers on Intel’s new LGA1700 CPUs”, says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). “We have managed to dissipate up to around 160W on the Core i9-12900K, pushing it to over 4.2GHz, and up to 125W on the Core i5-12600K running at 4.3GHz. These are excellent results for such small coolers, making them fantastic options for highly compact Intel Z690 builds that pack a lot of processing power!”

Emphasis mine.

So the new cooler cools better the hotter the CPU is.
How does that work? I don't know, I'm not a physicist, and thermodynamics is way outside my expertise.

 

[TerryLaze]

According to Noctua:

Emphasis mine.

So the new cooler cools better the hotter the CPU is.
How does that work? I don't know, I'm not a physicist, and thermodynamics is way outside my expertise.

These are not overclocking fans so it stands to reason that they did use the base power settings, we also don't know what they ran, the 12600k has fewer cores so if they ran the same workload on both, not the max heaviest stuff, the 12600k could have maxed out at 125.
They DO say pushed for the 12900k while they just say running for the 12600k.

 

[bolweval]

All ya need is a 15,000 rpm fan and you're good!

 

[peachpuff]

That's a cute cooler... how menu e-cores can it cool? 😂

 

[Co BIY]

"works better to boost the 12900K over the 12700K?"

I read that as Noctua claiming that this cooler has a enough capacity to allow the performance of the 12900K to exceed the 12700K where a less capable cooler would limit the 12900K to the performance level of a 12700K because of thermal throttling.

So the new cooler cools better the hotter the CPU is.
How does that work?

Technically all coolers work better on a hotter CPU. They are able to transfer more total energy with a higher temperature differential. (yes, that is a thermodynamic concept)

 

[-Fran-]

Technically all coolers work better on a hotter CPU. They are able to transfer more total energy with a higher temperature differential. (yes, that is a thermodynamic concept)

It's a bit more complicated than that... Only if you have enough differential at the "ends" and the metal is not saturated what you said is kind of true. At the end of the day, surface area is what you want when your transport is the same (as in, same metal composition). Also, the temperature differential the fan makes is non-trivial either. You can "force" a differential with a bigger fan up to a point.

Regardless, it doesn't make sense to me for the exact same cooler and fan to perform better on a CPU that produces more heat per area than another which doesn't. We're not talking about low power either. If it was, say 15W vs 25W, sure, the 25W will saturate the surface area of the heat spreader better and move more heat out, but we're talking about parts which are over 125W for a cooler that's, more or less, rated for 95W, so it'll be saturated from the get go.

Regards.

 

[mdd1963]

Something this small might work for some of the future 25-45W models, but, mark my words, some misguided soul is likely planning on one at this very moment for his 12900K he has on order!

(It'll be a glorious throttle-fest!)

 

[TerryLaze]

(It'll be a glorious throttle-fest!)

That's the whole point, you don't want to use 240w in a sff.
The 160W that this cools will give you more than 90% of the 12900k performance.
So you get at most 10% of throttlefest...big deal. And that's only if you want your sff as a render box, if you use it for anything else you won't get any loss.