The NH-L9a-AM5 can be found online at various Amazon web stores and retails for around EUR/USD 52.00 making it a high-priced product for this particular category.

The product has a re-designed Noctua SecuFirm2 mounting system for the AMD AM5 platform, and with an extra SecuFirm2™ mounting kit for AMD AM4 can also mount to AM4 sockets.

Since this product has small dimensions and therefore limited cooling abilities, Noctua suggests before buying this product visit the CPU compatibility list for the best possible information. The supported AMD AM5 processors are limited, fully supported are Ryzen 5 7600/7600X, Ryzen 7 7700/7900, while the higher end 7800X3D,7900X,7900X3D,7950X/7950X3D are not supported at all (meaning cooler cannot stand even the base clock). Due to small dimensions, you will not have any problem with motherboard compatibility, or case compatibility.

Passing the retail box, it’s a small-sized box.

Opening the box unveils the contents, the CPU cooler is in the middle, and accessories and everything are well organized and protected

Users will get inside the retail box:

• NF-A9x14 PWM premium fan
• NA-RC7 Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A)
• NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound
• SecuFirm2™ AM5 mounting kit
• Screws for 92x92x25mm fans
• Noctua Metal Case-Badge

The Noctua NH-D12L is a very small-sized CPU cooler. Its height (without a fan) is 23mm, its Width (without a fan) is 114mm, and its Depth (without a fan) is 92mm. The weight of the CPU cooler reaches (with fan) 465gr. The building material is copper (base and heat pipes), aluminum (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating

The front view of the CPU cooler

Another view of the CPU cooler

The base includes is made out of copper (base and heat-pipes) with nickel plating and the mounting mechanism for the AMD AM5 socket.

Noctua has included a Noctua NF-A9x14 HS-PWM fan It has bearing SSO2 technology with Max. rotation speed (+/- 10%) 2500 RPM and with the included adapters (L.N.A.) (+/- 10%) 1800 RPM, while the minimum rotational speed (PWM, +/-20%) is 600 RPM. The acoustical noise is 23.6 dB (A) while the L.N.A. adapter goes down to 14.8 dB (A).

Installing the CPU cooler at an AM5 motherboard is rather easy and it's all explained in the included printed manual.

- Conclusion

The Noctua NH-L9a-AM5 version comes to complete the lineup of Noctua air coolers for small to very small PC cases that need extra cooling and are based on the AMD AM5 platform. This product is based on the already known NH-L9a low-profile CPU cooler for AMD Ryzen-based HTPCs and Small Form Factor (SFF) systems. Its low height for sure makes this product appealing to specific users who are looking for small dimensions and increased performance.

The compatibility list isn't very long, since only Ryzen 5 7600/7600X, and Ryzen 7 7700/7900 are supported. Since our AM5 system was based on AMD 7950X we couldn't test this product, but for sure low specked AM5 processors can be handled without serious issues. Overall this product is a little gem for users who need it and are looking for increased performance at a small package. Did we mention that as with all Noctua products, it has 6 years of warranty and its (increased) retail price is ~52 Euro, great work Noctua!