Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile CPU Cooler
This is a special purpose cooler from the start. But don’t equate “special purpose” to low quality. With a 6 year warranty and a fan rated at 150,000 hours MTBF, this rock solid unit will likely last you well through the useful life of your HTPC!! Designed for low wattage, HTPC/Small form factor, with premium design attention paid to sound design and space utilization. The cooler is small, but you get a syringe of their high performance NT-H1 TIM, a nice Noctua badge, 4 mounting screw for the CPU, and a fan power adapter that allows you to further slow the fan if you so choose.
The 92mm fan is a fan that Noctua paid a lot of attention to. Just as it has on its other cooling solutions, Noctua have buried lots of engineering tricks into the frame and blade construction in order to maximize airflow, pressure and silence. So, while wicking the heat… you will not hear this cooler. That is important in HTPC’s that will in use in quiet cinema types of environments.