Dynatron Cooling Fan/Heatsink K17

With the bigger-is-better race still full on, finding a compact tower heatsink became a bit of a hassle. Here is a short list:Dynatron K17 (this cooler)Arctic Cooling i11 -- recent, a very good valueCooler Master Hyper 103 -- not yet available in NAThermalRight True Spirit 90M -- recent, improved version of the True Spirit 90Xigmatek SD963 -- oldie, but goldie, appears to be re-releasedDynatron is a very well established company and though it does not seem to really go after the enthusiast crowd, it offers some of the best-designed OEM heatsinks.The K17 stands out from the above list in several regards:- The only one with 4 heat pipes (direct touch)- One of the two with the offset design (the other being True Spirit 90M). It completely fits within the boundaries of the socket 1155/1150 keep-out zone (though the fan does jut against the memory on those motherboards where it's next to the socket, like Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI - more on that below).- The shortest of the bunch - stands 115mm tall, measured from the motherboard - which makes it truly suitable for 3U enclosures, or whenever the room is restricted.The heatsink comes with high quality thermal compound, Shin-Etsu G751, preprinted in a checkerboard-like pattern (very thin layer).The Amazon description is incorrect: the heatsink does come with a backplate (unlike the True Spirit 90M, which no longer does). The bolts are properly spring-loaded and have M3 thread, so in fact any standard backplate for sockets 1155/1156/1150 will work. Installation is a breeze.The bundled fan is branded Top Motor, model # DF129225BM, PWM-controlled, dual ball-bearings, rated at 0.25A, with max RPM of about 2500-2600 and airflow of about 46 CFM. The fan has an inverted hub. It has a standard 92mm fan spacing and is held by rubber mounts attached to the fin stack via two metal springs.The fan has a wide RPM range, but as other reviewers noted, it is loud and has an unpleasant sound.Since the spacing is standard and the rubber mounts appear to fit other fan frames, you can in principle reuse them and simply replace the fan with a 92mm fan of your choice, but I found that it is even better to completely remove the metal springs and simply affix the replacement fan directly to the fin stack - thanks to the fact that it's practically flat on three sides and matches a 92mm fan frame perfectly. I used Noctua NF-B9 PWM Cooling Fan and three strips of aluminum tape (the stuff used for ductwork repairs, sold in Home Depot and elsewhere - it has a nice acrylic based adhesive backing which is both very strong and tolerates high temperatures) for very clean install. The added benefit of skipping the metal springs and rubber mounts is that the fan is no longer poking into the the memory sticks and in fact, has a couple of millimeters clearance between the fan frame and the heatspreaders (Crucial Ballistix Sport, in my case).Note that the NF-B9's max RPM is a full 1000 lower than that of the stock fan. Yet, when paired with the K17, it has no trouble keeping i7-4770 perfectly cool. On Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI the temperatures are reported as follows:Idle: ~28°C, fan speed ~580 RPMPrime95: ~65°C, fan speed ~1400 RPMOf course, you probably shouldn't try any overclocking, but for a compact workstation that sits on a desk next to the monitor this combination is hard to beat: it is essentially inaudible and vibration-free, imposes no restrictions on memory modules or PCIe extension cards, relatively lightweight (will not wrench the socket out of the motherboard when the computer is moved around), gives you a good range of small cases to choose from and the price is right.

Perfect fit to my TG01 HP Gaming computer. If you are looking to upgrade your HP Gaming PC cooler this fits without replacing back-plate, just swap it out and you are done.(They seem to all be 115X socket coolers.)Cools much better than the stock cooler, can see the difference right away with the copper base and 4 heat pipes.Solid product, easy to install, and works well.

This is a quality heatsink. I remember the old days that the base of heatsinks used to require lapping in order to get it flat. This looks to be machined flat with the base material and heat pipes in place. I bought the K17, R17 and two R27s for various builds over the past few weeks. All heatsinks appear to be high quality and all associated fans are not that good (one arrived broken). I like to build ducts that attach to the case fan and vent the hot air outside of the case. Here's my build for my HTPC:- Silverstone Lascala Series SST-LC13B-E-USB3.0- Seasonic SS-460FL2- Supermicro X10SLM+LN4F-O- Intel E3-1230v3- Two Kingston 4GB ECC unbuffered RAM sticks KVR1333D3E9S- Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5- XFX AMD Radeon R7 250 1GB R7-250A-ZLH4With the duct setup, the CPU idles at 25C. Under full load using Prime95, the CPU reaches 55C.

20+ year old system builder.Dynatron makes great heat-sinks. The are always well built, fit perfectly. We have never had to return one or even had a fan failure or related CPU failure. We ship these world wide in our CTO builds. I have nothing but good to say about their products that we have used across several generations of builds.Granted, these are not fancy, no lights, no gimmicks. Simple. Reliable. They work. That's nice.