Noctua NH-U9, U12S, U14S TR4-SP3 Threadripper cooler review - Product Showcase Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3

Product Gallery Noctua Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3

Right then. We'll look at the three tested coolers individually first in a photo-shoot. Everything is packaged and bundled safely in the carton, the boxes clearly indicate the contents. So yeah, even the boxes ooze detail. As you can see the U9 is configured in a push-pull fan design. it is a somewhat more compact cooler, not compatible with full hight DIMM DDR4 memory btw, low profile only.

 Included in the package are:

• Cooler + fans
• Thermal Grease
• User Manual
• long screwdriver
• Everything else needed

Once unboxed you'll spot the cooling unit consisting of the heatsink assembly, fan, and brackets. A little thermal paste is included as well. Also included is a special screwdriver to mount the unit, we'll show you why later on in the article.

Above the cooler, it has a nickel plated base plate, it uses six copper based (nickel plated) heatpipes arranged in a C-shape design. The pure copper fins (nickel plated) effectively disperse heat away from the CPU via composite heatpipes, while the dual 90mm fans to cool the fins.  It weighs 895 g with fans. The fans can be used in PWM mode controlled by your motherboard. 

When we flip the unit it around we see the heatpipes a little more up-close. Six of them making this product nice and efficient. The huge base doesn't have a 100% mirror flat finish, though it's very flat and by far good enough + it covers the entire Threadripper baseplate.
 

So, I mentioned already that out of the three cooler tested today,m this one does not like full height DDR4 memory, you'll need to go with a low profile DDR4 DIMM. As you can see the fans are blocked by memory.  For testing purposes this isn't bothersome though, we'll remove two DIMMs and go dual-channel.

 
Once installed this is what your setup would look like. Again, this one needs low-profile memory. Also, make note of how easy it is to install these units, you apply thermal paste (included), position the cooler and mount it. That's all.