The heatpipe cooling tower is by far one of the most popular aftermarket heatsinks you can buy. It is efficient and rather simple in terms of design and operation. Because of this you can find a variety of different designs from ultra thin towers to some rather large heatsinks comprised of multiple cooling towers, a maze of heatpipes and contorted fan positions. While this kind of diversity is normally a good thing it can also be a breeding ground for inappropriate coolers.

In this review we will be looking at a very unique U-Type cooler from Noctua called the NH-U9S. This is a smaller heatsink designed for their NF-A9 92mm cooling fan and positioned as a high performance OEM replacement for the 3U MiniITX and MicroATX system market. The cooler features a total of five heatpipes that loop from one end of the radiator to another in a staggered array.