COOLER MASTER Vortex Plus RR-VTPS-28PK-R1 92mm Long life sleeve CPU Cooler

Comment:
Good looking & excellent top quality. Maintain my 4 cores below 30 C. at idle. Fan is quite quiet at around 1250 RPM at idle. My motherboard LGA 775 has threaded insert so the inexpensive plastic push pins won't fit unless I remove the MB. Instead, I use my personal metal screws to fasten the plate. It's incredibly tough to install if you are not removing the MB trying to put the holdown to the hook mainly because of the shape of inverted pyramid. The fan seems never exceed 1250 RPM but it claims to reach 2800 RPM max. Value is high priced compared to otherr similar cooler. Manufacturer ought to have offer metal screws for the 775 MB. The plastic pins doesn"t appear to work or powerful sufficient for hanging this cooler.

Comment:
Works as advertised. Quiet. Total kit with anything required. Fan can be positioned on either side. Comes with mount for second fan. Tall for a 92mm (yes-92mm) fan powered cooler. On my Gigabyte MOBO, RAM socket ş have to have low profile RAM - no Ballistix-- style sticks with tall heat sinks. I moved my two sticks to sockets three and four. Fan runs a little slow at maximum to be efficient in warmer situations. Fan fit against the heat sink is leaky. Direct get in touch with heat sinks leave small gaps among the flattened tube and the ALUMINUM get in touch with block and requires most of a syringe of Arctic Silver 5 compound. Get in touch with block does not completely cover AMD Phenom II CPU. Even with the "Cons", I take into account this heat sink excellent for the cash. My Phenom II 965 Black CPU is rated at 140W, on AMD internet site and 125W on Newegg. Nonetheless, in either case the cooling will be adequate. Improve the efficiency a small by taping closed the gaps with aluminum duct tape before installation.

Comment:
Awful.Instead of using a robust push-clip system, they use cheap low-quality plastic push-clips. Even if you are successful in even getting the clips set in without them bending or breaking, the screw-down hold easily exceeds their max breakage point. At least they could have thrown in some spares or made it use intel-design push-clips.Now I have a new paperweight!

Comment:
This fan is really quiet and the heatsink wasn't too large. It fit in my medium size Dell case and made a large difference. It's not so wide that I would have to have to remove RAM which was a plus. I didn't purchase this on Newegg given that it was at my neighborhood Micro...center for the similar cost, but wanted to evaluation here since a lot of folks reference the critiques here. Good distinction in prior to and following temps. My CPU went from typical 55C to 35C on average. Idle it shows 29C which is massive for me. The stock AMD fan was terrible and I had observed the temp up to 67C at 1 point running a live background and a video game. I installed this on an AM3 socket just fine. Terrible instructions! It's like three pictures and almost no written instructions. I also had to press down fairly tough to screw in the mounting screw. It was a bit scary but got via it ok. It came with these plastic points instead of screws that they anticipate you to shove into the screw holes like the fan is eternal or some thing. I ended up taking screws out of my old pc (the small black ones that hold disk drives and challenging drives) and applied those for the mounting brackets. I would purchase one more one if I needed, just make certain you get some of those screws if you don't have any. Those plastic issues would likely in no way come out of the mobo with out a great fight if you ever had to exchange it.

Comment:
I purchased one of these to replace the stock cooler on my i860 cpu, which obviously has been designed to be just adequate and nothing more. I wanted something with a little more than adequacy. Although there is sufficient room in my case, I do not like the big tower coolers that are so popular nowadays. I'll admit they may provide better cooling, but hanging all that weight cantilevered off my mainboard socket does not appeal to me. I don't overclock my processors so heat isn't as big an issue for me as it might be for some. Since most low-profile coolers are downdraft, they also provide some cooling of the voltage regulation components surrounding the socket, as well. After looking at all the low-profile coolers available, the Vortex Plus seemed the best mix of performance versus price. In fact, I PM'ed it for less than $25, which was a bargain.The cooler itself seems relatively well-made and finished for such an inexpensive heatsink. The finish on the base is not perfect, with machining marks quite evident to the naked eye, as opposed to the mirror finish of some products. The instructions are adequate and fairly easy to follow, done mostly through pictures, but lots of them. (Note: mine came with two sets of instructions: one a multilingual version, and a second, in English only, that was similar but explained some aspects of the installation better). A small syringe of Coolermaster-branded thermal compound is included. It seems to be some nondescript grey goop that will probably be fine if you don't have something better at hand.The cooler description states it is designed for socket 1156/55, 1366 and AM3. However, it also will fit socket 775, K8 and AM2, as the specs indicate. The cooler installs using supplied pushpins (hate 'em) for the Intel sockets, however, I used a Thermalright screw mount plate and screws that I much prefer. The screw mounts can be a problem with some coolers, but in this instance the brackets attach before the heatsink is installed, so clearance/access is not an issue. Prior to installation, each of the two base brackets need to be adjusted by means of a set screw to accommodate either LGA 775, 1156/55 or 1366. One of Coolermaster's Blademaster fans comes premounted on the heatsink, and fits snuggly into a slight recess in the cooling fins. In combination with the recess, the wire clips hold the fan very securely. Rubber grommets cannot be used, as the outer two heatpipes pass directly beneath the fan mounting holes. However, there are rubber pads beneath each of the four corners of the fan frame for sound dampening. The 92mm fan is PWM controlled and requires a 4 pin motherboard fan header. Although somewhat larger than the stock Intel cooler, it is nevertheless still relatively light and low height. There are three possible orientations for mounting with Intel: with the heatpipes facing left, right or upwards. Facing downwards may be possible, but is not recommended (for an obvious reasons - the capillary action inside the heatpipes will be working against gravity). Which configuration is chosen may depend upon the components surrounding the socket, and it should be noted that the cooler is not centred on the socket, but is offset towards the end of the heatpipes. However, there is a cutout in the cooling fins here to increase clearance. I was able to fit the heatsink with any orientation on my Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P in terms of clearing the components, but with the heatpipes facing right the heatsink extended over the first two memory slots. There was clearance, but just barely, and it would have made removal or installation of memory modules in these slots difficult to impossible. For comparison, the heatsinks on the board to the left and above the socket stand approximately 3.5 cm above the PCB, and the memory modules when installed (Ripjaws) stand approximately 4.5 cm above the PCB. For efficiency, I chose an upward orientation, which also directs air directly down on the upper heatsink on the motherboard, as well as out the two sides. It should be noted that the choice of horizontal or vertical orientation needs to be made prior to installing the two base brackets on the mainboard, as they are mounted either horizontally or vertically in accordance with the heatpipe orientation.As for cooling efficiency, it does improve upon the stock solution (big surprise), but I don't place much credence in the absolute values yielded by a combination of CPU thermal sensors and the software utilities normally used to display the readings. They may or may not be accurate. Insofar as noise is concerned, the PWM controlled fan will ramp up if things get toasty, and note that this fan will spin up to 2800 rpm if necessary. At the higher speeds it, not surprisingly, is noisy, but under normal circumstances it spins at more modest speeds and is relatively quiet. The specs state that it will move 54.8 CFM at top speed, so it is no slouch when called upon.Overall, I'm satisfied, and would definitely consider buying another.

Comment:
can get pretty loud if fan spins at high speeds.

Comment:
I run this unit fanless on a 65W energy efficient AMD quad core. Since the PSU fan is within CM of the heatsink, the PSU fan pulls enough air to keep the thing cool without a dedicated CPU Heatsink Fan.It's definitely quieter than stock because it is running fanless and making use of the PSU fan to power it's cooling. Manages 50 deg at full folding load using the airflow from the PSU. No other fans are in the case, as the PSU fan is nearly as big as the mITX motherboard and provides reasonable airflow over all the components.The bracket for the AM3 slot was a bit finicky to assemble, but it works.

Comment:
I run this unit fanless on a 65W energy efficient AMD quad core. Since the PSU fan is within CM of the heatsink, the PSU fan pulls enough air to keep the thing cool without a dedicated CPU Heatsink Fan.It's definitely quieter than stock because it is running fanless and making use of the PSU fan to power it's cooling. Manages 50 deg at full folding load using the airflow from the PSU. No other fans are in the case, as the PSU fan is nearly as big as the mITX motherboard and provides reasonable airflow over all the components.The bracket for the AM3 slot was a bit finicky to assemble, but it works.

Comment:
I bought this HSF to replace the stock i5 760 Intel cooler. The stock cooler is fine as a paperweight, but not good at anything else. The cooler dropped my CPU temps by about 25 degrees over stock and because it is capable of three different orientations, I have it doing a fine job of cooling my MOSFETs too.The PWM fan is nicely controlled by my Intel MB and I can't hear it from outside the case. All in all, this HSF is a good value for the money.

Comment:
I'm using this with an Intel DQ45EK and Antec Skeleton Mini. While I can't use the CPU coolers fan, the fan in the Antec Skeleton provides enough airflow to cover the cooler and other heat sinks.