Thermaltake 7-bladed 92mm 4-Pins PWM Aluminum Extrusion CPU Cooling Fan

My microprocessor cooler fan was making odd noises so I knew it was dying. My original Intel LGA 1155 microprocessor heat sink assembly was, in my opinion a sloppy mess that barely clings to the PCB with the little nylon spreader feet and the 1/4 turn fasteners. I liked this heat sink assembly because it mounts with actual screws through the motherboard to a plastic mounting plate with threaded inserts (provided with the heatsink assembly) that sits on the back side of the motherboard. And I installed it and it’s teriffic - It provides much better and secure clamping of the heatsink to the microprocessor. And the other thing I liked was that the fan is fully shrouded on the sides (like in the picture) so if stray wires come near they won’t interfere with the fan freely turning (unlike the original Intel heatsink and fan assembly).The downside of the way the heatsink mounts is that if you are upgrading or replacing you have to un-cable and take the motherboard all the way out of the computer to add this fan if you have one of those crappy quarter turn type heatsink mounts. By the way, to allow for possible future replacements of either the microprocessor or heatsink, I taped the mounting plate to the back of the motherboard with some small pieces of high temp Kapton tape, so if I unscrew the heatsink the mounting plate stays where it’s supposed to.If this is a new build, using this heat sink is absolutely no more trouble than the crappy 1/4 turn fastening type since you start with the motherboard out of the case. If it’s a repair or upgrade, it’s a pain. But to me it was worth the trouble. I also upgraded from an Intel i3 to an Intel i5 which is higher wattage, but it’s running 5 degrees C cooler now with the same condition and fans settings. A good secure clamping of the heatsink to the microprocessor made most of the difference, in my opinion.By the way, the heatsink comes pre-greased. But I applied just a tiny additional dab of good heatsink compound to the processor and spread it very thin. You want a thin, even layer of heatsink compound.The good:Very sturdy mounting for good and consistent heat sink clamping to the microprocessor.Shrouded fan design for less worry of stray wires interfering with the fan operation.Very effective heatsink and fan. Noise is not bad, just a tad noisier than the original Intel fan (before it failed).Could Use Improvement:It’s not really a hint sink issue, it’s a motherboard manufacturer issue - It would have been nice if the motherboard had originally come with this type mounting provision.

The media could not be loaded. This works fine as an entry-level CPU cooler. This fan has a 4-pin connection that will allow your motherboard to control the fan speed through PWM. The fan is quiet and I hardly ever notice that it's running, so that's a plus. According to my testing my CPU never gets hot - in fact, it has always tested within acceptable range no matter how hard I stress it. As far as performance is concerned this CPU cooler is a winner.I've transferred this CPU cooler onto several motherboards since I've had it. One thing I don't like about the unit is the Phillips head screws that attach to the backing plate on the underside of the motherboard. Three of the four holes in the backing plate were fine but one of them seems to have been cross-threaded and never wants to screw in easily. This results in the Phillips head trying to strip from the screw not turning so more pressure than I feel is comfortable has to be applied in order to make that one screw turn enough to be tight. I don't know if the plate or the screw is to blame but the unit was brand new and that one screw has been a tough turn from the first install. Once the CPU cooler is in place, though, the performance is perfect and it works exactly as it should. In the grand scheme of things I consider this small problem not to be significant enough to give the product a bad rating.

The stock cpu fan on my 7-year-old pc died. I guess I just got used to the whining and thought it was normal. I ordered this replacement, not realizing it would necessitate installing a retention plate on the back of the motherboard to hold it in place. I suppose anybody replacing a stock Intel fan/heatsink or any unit that does not use screws of the size of this Thermaltake will need to access the back of their motherboard, which, unless you've got a little open area in your tower for precisely this purpose, is going to mean taking out the mobo, which is a pain. This heatsink comes with NO installation instructions whatsoever, so if you don't know what you're doing, you must turn to YouTube for answers, like me (thankfully there are plenty of videos out there on installing CPU fans). Thermal paste is already applied, so you don't need to worry about that unless you want to apply your own preferred brand.Once the installation headache was over, I discovered that this fan runs really quiet, which is nice. In fact, it doesn't even sound like it's on most of the time, even when it is definitely running. It is also keeping the cores operating at around 35-45 c when I'm doing an average amount of work, which is perfectly safe. So, overall I'm happy with this purchase, just wish it was a little more hassle-free to put in place, and that maybe the company could offer some basic instructions.