Noctua's been making waves in the PC hardware space with its exceptional quality air coolers. A handful of Noctua coolers have made it into our collection of the best CPU coolers you can buy in the marketplace. Well, the company is further expanding its family of air coolers with the addition of two new low-profile CPU coolers. Noctua is bringing the NH-L9i-17xx and NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black to Intel's latest 12th gen Alder Lake CPUs. These low-profile CPU coolers, for those of you who don't know, are perfect for building compact HTPCs and Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs.

Noctua NH-L9i-17xx & NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black

The NH-L9i-17xx features a Noctua NF-A9x14 92mm fan with support for automatic fan speed control via PWM. As an end-user, you'll be able to modify the fan speed based on the sound profile you select. It's pretty handy for running a system in quiet environments. In typical Noctua's fashion, the fans run remarkably quiet thanks to the NA-RC7 Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A). The NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black is essentially the NH-L9i-17xx with an all-black aesthetics for those who're not necessarily fans of Noctua's dual-tone design.

The low-profile design of the NH-L9i-17xx allows the fan to stay out of the way of your RAM and PCIe components. This is crucial for small form factor PCs with tightly packed motherboards. This particular cooler takes advantage of Noctua's custom-designed SecuFirm2 mounting system, meaning it's easy to install and is also compatible with multiple sockets with the right mounting bracket. The new Noctua NH-L9i-17xx is an LGA 1700-specific cooler that's going straight into our recommendation of the CPU coolers for the LGA 1700 socket.

Noctua NA-FD1 duct kit

In addition to a couple of new low-profile CPU coolers, Noctua has also launched a new fan duct accessory kit. This particular accessory, as the name suggests, creates a corridor to push the air outside. It bridges the gap between the fan and perforated case panel for improved cooling performance. Noctua says the new duct kit can reduce the operating temperatures by up to 5°C or more, which is excellent. The duct is made out of EVA foam spacers and it can be stacked in 1mm increments. The max height you can achieve with these ducts stacked on top of each other is 45mm.

Pricing & Availability

Both new NH-L9i-17xx & NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black fans and the NA-FD1 duct kit accessory are already up for grabs. Noctua is suggesting a retail price of $44.90 for the NH-L9i-17xx and $54.90 for the all-black NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black. The NA-FD1 duct kit, on the other hand, is up for $12.90. Remember, the NH-L9i-17xx is the LGA 1700-specific version of the cooler. AMD users will have to buy the AMD-specific variant that supports the AM4 socket. You can the new Noctua NH-L9i-17xx coolers and the NA-FD1 duct kit using the links below.