Thermaltake Frio Silent 14 165W Intel/AMD 140mm CPU Cooling Fan

This is an efficient, powerful and quiet CPU cooler, comparable in performance e.g. to some Noctua products costing more than twice as much. The catch is that you have to be careful with the installation and make sure the mounting brackets do not touch anything. For example, I used a rotary tool cut off one of the small metal flanges that did not seem to contribute to the structural strength of the bracket to ensure that the bracket stays at a safe distance from a nearby capacitor.A note about LGA1366 motherboards:The accessories provided do not allow the installation of this cooler on those LGA1366 boards that come with a pre-mounted back-plate, like many server boards do. This is easily remedied with the help of four M3-0.5 20 mm screws and four matching hex nuts ($3 total at a hardware store). Orient the provided spacers (called "E" nuts in the documentation) with the insulated ends toward the motherboard and place the hex nuts between the spacers and the motherboard, this way the relatively wide spacers will not touch surface mounted components. Do not use the provided back-plate, nor the provided screws to fasten the bracket, only the 20 mm screws you purchased. They will be loose in the spacers, which is not a problem, and are just the right length reaching precisely the outer surface of the pre-mounted back-plate. Since the hex nuts raise the bracket by a few millimeters, use the holes on the bracket that are meant for LGA2011 sockets to fasten the mounting plate. With an extra $3 investment, this is an excellent cooler for second hand LGA1366 server boards you can buy very cheaply these days.

I bought this CPU fan quite a while ago but it is still spinnin' strong! Cools my i5-3570k with no problem! Its great that Thermaltake gives you the low noise adapter. Installing the fan to the heatsink was little bit of a pain in the ass but I got it on after few good minutes. Huge fan so you're not going to have any problem of your computer overheating. I'm using the low noise adapter so it is relatively quiet. The price is reasonable and overall great CPU fan! Would recommend this to any enthusiast!

Okay first off, all the concerns of shorting out your motherboard are legitimate. If you have capacitors anywhere near your CPU socket you run the risk of shorting your motherboard IF the bracket sits on top of them making contact. This is more true with micro atx or mini itx motherboards that tend to condense everything on a small board. Also note that the excess solder on the back of the board may create a short with the back plate however Thermaltake added foam which is non-conductive to prevent this. The trick is DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN THE SCREWS WITH EXCESSIVE FORCE it's not a lug nut. I personally did not encounter any of these issue's because I have a standard ATX Msi 990FXA mother board, which is a premium board so no capacitors near the CPU socket or excess solder spikes in the back of the board Msi seemed to have removed them, almost flush. -INSTALLATION-Install was a breeze, I looked at the instructions for like a minute. It helped that my case has an opening on the back so I didn't have to remove my entire motherboard to place the back plate. If you are a novice this may not come easy to you so I suggest watching a tutorial and use common sense. For example there are some double sided screws that attach the back plate and bracket together. One side is plastic the other aluminum/metal, common sense will tell you that the plastic end of the screw will face the motherboard because plastic is non-conductive. Same with back plate which is lined with foam the foam side will also face the motherboard. The instructions do not specify this and unfortunately I did not take pictures prior to installing because I just wanting to get the cooler installed but it would have helped explain my previous statements about using common sense. -PROS-Great cooler for the price. I picked up the Frio Silent 12 for $34.99 but I recently saw it at $25.99 which is a STEAL! I have a amd FX 8320 over clocked at 4.2 ghz and this bad boy during those long gaming sessions keeps it at max 54c........cool as the other side of the pillow and the paste hasn't even set :) I included a picture of Msi after burner CPU monitor. *****Please note that your temperatures will vary******* depending on your case and fans, thermal paste etc. I used Arctic silver 5. I have a Zalman FULL ATX case with PLENTY of breathing room. I have 2 200 mm fans, one on top of the case serving as an exhaust and the other on the side cooling my GPU and two 120 mm front facing fans drawing in cool air. I replaced an aging first gen Corsair H60 closed loop water cooler which was making me nervous, I was afraid it was going to spring a leak and damage my PC. Temps were very similar to the Frio from what I recall. However I did not have the H60 in a push pull configuration but I did have it installed correctly, which was pulling cool air from the outside through the radiator and into my case. Hence another reason I wanted to replace it. All in all VERY HAPPY with my replacement. I spent less on this then the Corsair H60 which was well around $59.00 for about the same performance! -CONS-Like mentioned earlier, this cooler may present a problem with smaller boards and their capacitor placement. Or cheaper boards that don't clean off the excess solder spikes that are left on the back of the motherboard. The real con is that Thermaltake did not provide any warning or documentation on the matter and newer builders are learning the hard way and paying the price. One star removed because I know how frustrating a new build can be.

I got the Frio because it was one of the few coolers to mount "sideways" to the socket, which works better in my build. I didn't even need to break out the included brackets; I could reuse the clip from the old boxed cooler, and it sits on there like they were made to go together!I've been able to hit a 30% overclock without exceeding 60°C, and the fan barely gets up off idle. I'm planning to actually underclock this machine for power savings, so that excursion was just to see what the cooler could do. Underclocked and undervolted, I'm gonna see if I can turn the fan off entirely and do some mild PSU ducting for airflow.The included accessories were great, if a bit overcomplicated. There's a whole menagerie of parts and screws and brackets and standoffs and I don't even know what. There's a tiny tube of thermal compound, which is still enough for several installations.The only thing I don't love, is pretty common with this type of cooler, and that's the little springy clips that hold the fan to the heatsink fins. They only work with one specific oddball size of fan, so if you ever want to change things up or replace a failed fan, you'll be stuck improvising your own mounting.