Momma
The cooler came well packaged, safe as mothers love.. unboxed it was clear, that it would easily fit on the processors, and AMD socket that I had in mind.. AM-4.. I attached the fan to the radiator, with the 4 screws provided.. the fan can be mounted to blow through, or pull through.. I elected for the blow through mount. My motherboard, an ASUS, is black, so vision is difficult without extra light, but once I lit it up, I could see to install the pump on the socket.. Thermal paste was included with the cooler, and it was applied in an even layer across the CPU.. The pump clips fit onto the socket, and the cams rotated to provide a secure and solid mount.. That's the easy part.. Now for the more difficult part.. mounting the radiator.. MY case and ATX tower is about 12 years old.. it's seen at least 2 previous motherboards and granted, it's technology is a little "past the cutting edge".. But it's a good quality case and provides plenty of room.. However, it's not made for this kind of equipment.. I searched for a way to mount the radiator inside but it's just too large.. Not to be defeated, I obtained a few zip ties from the garage stash, and lined up the holes with the Hard drive mounting rack in the case.. two zips later the radiator was mounted.. it's not pretty, but it's functional.. With my old stock cooler I was getting warnings during gaming, that my CPU temp was 65* C.. too hot.. occasionally I got warnings that the memory was at 60*.. That's why I ordered this cooler.. Now, the radiator "protrudes" from the side of the case, but I was not concerned with the appearance.. I wanted a cooler that worked, and that's what I got.. Now the RGB LED's are nice.. They light up the space under my work surface, and change colors.. But the important thing is, that after a long gaming session, running intense graphics I checked the bios, and the CPU temp was 39* C.. That's a significant drop in temp... The price was right, and it works.. Installation was easy enough, I suppose if I had a case that was made for such a device installation would have even been easier.. I'm happy. It just works.
Tony
I just upgraded from a 120 mm water cooler to this 240 mm model. For reference, my processor is rated at 125 W. I purposely picked the same brand cooler with the hopes that the mounting would be identical. For my socket, this unit requires the factory mounting bracket that many other coolers, including my original cooler, do not use. It is a simple process to install, if the bracket is already on the motherboard. Otherwise, you have to find one. Luckily, they are under $10 to replace, if missing.Performance wise, I had my old cooler from the factory constantly running at 100% fan speeds to maintain decent temps. This new cooler is so efficient that I had to reduce the fan speeds to keep the temps above ambient levels. (Can’t drop below ambient in Florida unless I want a wet processor.) At constant 100% fans, this new cooler dropped my temps to below 20° C. With the motherboard now in control and adjusting the fan speed, I am about 30° C at idle and peak in the 40’s with moderate activity. This is about a 10° C drop from my old cooler for idle temps. I am not a gamer so I rarely push the processor too hard. Video production is the main thing stressing the system and that only happens in bursts.Based on some other reviews, I used a name brand thermal paste instead of what came with the cooler. I don’t know how much that changes things. The setup works great so I like it. Also, important to note that the factory paste originally installed was still extremely wet so it had not dried out. For whatever reason, the old setup was just not keeping up with the heat being generated.If I am hearing the pieces correctly, the fans are extremely quiet and I hear a little bit of pump noise. Since I am always wearing headphones, I don’t hear anything with them on.The RGB system works, but seems to have extremely limited options. I wanted a decent, budget cooler, more than lights, so I am happy with the product.