MSI CPU Cooler, Silver/Black (Core Frozr L) (MSI Core Frozr L)

This cooler is very big. It's the centerpiece in my rig now. My case is a mid tower and the cooler is touching the side glass panel so yes, it's big and tall. I'm still able to close my side panel so it's all good.Performance: With proper airflow, it drops my gaming temp from 52 (my old Thermaltake CPU cooler) to 45 which is a huge improvement. Prime95 for 15mins will max out at 68C and that's all I need since I rarely utilize all 100% CPU. I had Corsair H110i GT and the bump gave out so I switched to air cooler and I have to say that this MSI cooler performs just as good as the H110 AIO. No more pump failing.Noise: it runs silently. Under normal load and gaming, fans stay at 400-450 rpm so I don't hear anything from this cooler.Color: It looks great in the case with red fan shrouds, some may dislike the theme. To my surprise, the fan shrouds actually change color from red to black and black to red depending on what light is hitting the shrouds. Since I have RGB case fans and strips in my case, the shrouds can turn black when I switch RGB color to blue or cooler colors, and it will turn back to red when I set RGB color to warmer colors like yellow, red. This cooler has RGB lighting for the MSI dragon logo so I have tons of colors to change it to match my theme.Clearance: the two fans can move up and down to clear rams. I prefer to leave the fans flush with the logo and it's still able to clear all Ram slots which is great. I have G.Skill Ripsaw X rams just for your reference.As I mentioned above, this cooler is tall and it's touching my side glass panel (Mid tower case). So if you have anything smaller than a mid tower, it will not fit.Overall: I love this cooler for its performance, appearance and design. It's a perfect fit for my set up.

I recently bought a really nice custom-built computer off Craigslist when the previous owner decided to upgrade. The specs included an Intel i7-6700, Gigabyte GTX 1080, and MSI Z170a Gaming Pro Carbon. The computer came in a gym-locker-sized full tower case that needed to go, and the CPU was cooled using a Corsair AIO cooler (I'm not sure which one...I'm not a big fan of AIO coolers).I don't know if it wasn't seated properly of if the thermal paste had dried up, but the cooler was doing a terrible job. The CPU idled around 50C and under moderate 4k gaming topped out around 90C. The previous owner had been running the build as-is for about 4 years, so maybe it was just dried up thermal paste.While in the process of transferring everything to a new case that would actually fit ...well...anywhere useful, I decided to get rid of the AIO. I bought this MSI cooler, having never used an MSI cooler before, but it looked cool and the TDP dwarfed my needs. I was shocked, SHOCKED I TELLS YA, at the difference I saw once in the new case. Granted, some of that could have been airflow through the case, but the old case should've flowed just fine. My new idle temps were between 25 and 30C, and under the same loads the CPU peaks around 60C! I now use that PC with my new Steam Index VR set and even hitting 100% on multiple cores during the process of a session the CPU never tops about 68C. Really impressed with this thing!Installation was simple and well thought-out (despite so/so directions that were 95% pictures). It came with a tube of thermal paste that I opted to use (in order to test it how MSI intended). The description actually states how tall a ram stick it'll clear which is EXTREMELY convenient, because that's usually an unknown. It cleared my non-LED Corsair Vengeance sticks without adjusting the fans up at all. Overall, really nice looking, VERY functional unit! Extremely happy with my purchase, and by far the best price found here.If you can fit it, buy it.

Pros:-BEEFY AF. Cooling is equal to an AIO liquid cooler (depending on the type you get)-RGB Dragon logo.-Two high-quality torq fans included. Quiet (for a heatsink), but still powerful. Able to cool my 105-watt Ryzen 9 3900X.-Easy to install (I've installed coolers that were so convoluted, even a rocket scientist wouldn't understand them).Cons:-They include an ENTIRE tube of thermal paste. DON'T USE ALL OF IT. You'll have quite a bit left over for use in the future. Or if you have a friend who needs some, you can use it there. Slight pro: The thermal paste is pretty good.-BEEFY AF. I had to get entirely new memory for my system. Something low-profile like the Kingston HyperX Fury memory just BARELY worked for my system. I had to replace my G.Skill Royal RGB memory. So unless you're not planning on running dual-channel memory and using two sticks for memory, this won't work. Get the Core Frozr L if you have memory you plan on keeping.-Again, BEEFY AF. I didn't measure clearance beforehand, but luckily enough it just fits in my Enermax Saberey case without touching the glass, somehow. Just barely. So if you're running a smaller system, like mATX or ITX, you may not be able to fit these kinds of coolers inside it. Usually you'll need to go with AIO if there are radiator mounts or a smaller heat sink (provided you're not willing to do a custom loop).-The 4-pin USB 2.0 header on it is mega-tiny. That thing will kill your hand if you install the cooler inside an already-assembled system. For the price, MSI should really make it a full-sized USB 2.0 header with RGB support in the software, so you can customize the dragon logo. I mean, you're already charging us nearly $100 for the cooler and the 4-pin for the RGB is already using a USB 2.0 header, mind as well go all-in and give us another feature. I would have gone with another cooler if I didn't get this cooler at $30 off thanks to minor cosmetic damage.All in all, a cooler that'll outperform expectations. If you thought "Oh well liquid cooling is always better, end of story", you may be right in some ways, but this cooler will put 120mm AIOs to SHAME! During Windows' security scan, my CPU was hovering at 3.99-4.00GHz on all cores with 100% load on each core (we're talking 24 threads being hit and overclocked by 200MHz). Temperatures were at max 78 degrees C, which is pretty good, considering the Kombuster tests from MSI couldn't bring it past 75 degrees C. Just be ready to get low-profile memory if you plan on using all four slots or dual-channel configuration.