Performance
Our test platform contains the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X processor, X399M Taichi motherboard, 32GB Patriot Viper 4 DDR4-3733 memory kit, Enermax Platimax D.F 750W 80+ Platinum PSU and Patriot Hellfire 240GB NVMe SSD as OS drive.
The temperature outside is quite high in last days and also ambient temperature for tests isn’t low. All tests were performed in about 25°C ambient temperature.
The first test is a typical load for out processor so up to 180W, at default settings. HWInfo64 reads load as nearly 180W.
At default settings, the processor runs between 3.5GHz and 4.15GHz in most tests. It’s clearly above average chip which overclocks better than a typical first generation Ryzen, even though it has 12 cores.
The maximum temperature for the TR 1920X is 68°C. I’m not sure why so low as it runs without problems up to 90°C. It doesn’t change the fact, it’s official specification.
The NH-U9 TR4-SP3 handles our CPU without issues and everything is within’ declared values. Maximum temperature after about one hour of AIDA64 was 66.25°C. Still below the maximum temperature in AMD specification. At the same time, fans were quiet. Maybe not silent but clearly quiet. There were no additional sounds like vibrations. I wouldn’t expect so high culture of work from so fast spinning dual 92mm fans.
The mixed test is based on PCMark 10 where we can see typical load during work for home or office PC. In this benchmark, we can’t hear the fans which are spinning at about half of maximum speed so about 1000 rpm.
One more thing I wouldn’t expect is performance comparing to other Noctua coolers. Even though the NH-U9 is the smallest one, it’s not much worse under load than the larger models.
The second test is overclocking and much higher load – maximum wattage near 320W.
In this test, all coolers exceeded the maximum temperature which we can find in AMD general specification. At the same time, we were able to stabilize our CPU at 4.1GHz which is a great result for air cooling on all 12 cores.
The difference between all coolers remain about the same so the best performing NH-U14S is about 5°C better than the NH-U9. Under full load at overclocked settings, we can also hear the fans some more. If we wish absolute silence then I recommend looking at the larger coolers from Noctua line. We will present them all in next days while results in tests you can already see in this review.
Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 is for sure interesting cooler. Not many brands decide to release so small coolers for so high TDP processors. Even if we wish to build small mATX PC then we are able to do so with the NH-U9 cooler. With ASRock X399M Taichi it’s really interesting combo and gives some ideas about small, high-performance workstation or gaming PC.
