ZALMAN CNPS10X OPTIMA 120mm FSB (Fluid Shield Bearing) Shark's Fin Blade CPU Cooler

Pros: Quick shipping from Newegg as usual. The cooler itself is performing great. It is definitely large, but it fits fine in my relatively small case. It comes with one fan and extra clips to attach a second one if you want to configure push and pull.

Installation was not hard, but you will need access to the back of your motherboard. Luckily both sides of my case are removable and there is a cutout window directly behind the CPU, so installation was pretty easy for me (took about 30 minutes but I did some cleaning with the cover off).

Cons: If you have the fan set to push heat towards the rear of your case, the fan might block your first DIMM slot.

Other Thoughts: Current setup:

ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO Motherboard
AMD Phenom II x6 1055T
G.Skill Ripjaws

Temperatures are running 31ºC at idle. Haven't put it under load yet but that's cooler than it was idling before.

Pros: Works.

Cons: Flimsy and cheap. Bought this for an A10 budget build and it was horrible. Wouldn't let me click my RAM over 1600 or it'd give me 10 blue screens of death ever 5 minutes. Turned my RAM down to 1600 and all worked fine.

Other Thoughts: If you want to use the inboard graphics of an A10 for gaming, dot at this board. Hell, I just wouldn't get it unless you are using it for a cheap HTPC or server. Wait a week and buy an x85.

Pros: Modular, cheap, great quality, solid.

Cons: Seriously have experience none.

Other Thoughts: First PSU I bought blew up. Went with this Antec and couldn't be happier. No hassle whatsoever.

Pros: This 7850 freaking shreds through everything I throw at it, including crisis on high at 1920 - 1080. Won't play very high, but trust me it still looks AMAZING. Pretty easy to install, stays cool, and looks good.

Great card at a cheap price.

Cons: Only thing that I can think of that I would change is the plastic cover. Very flimsy. But how much does that really matter?

Pros: Large fan. Whisper quiet. Sturdy mounting system.

Paired with an AMD A10-5800K. Temps are low, idle in the 20s. Load in the 30s. Bios does a good job of controlling the fan.

Did I mention it's quiet?

Cons: The head of one of the mounting screws was stripped. Used a small pair of needle nose pliers to gently twist it out.

Once the fan is attached it's near impossible to get it off without bending up the heat sync. They do give you two sets of retainers for the fan though, probably because they know you'll destroy one set removing the fan.

Other Thoughts: This feels very much like a "one time use" product which may not be a bad thing depending on your application. In my case I installed the unit in a brand new system I built which most likely will not be torn down during it's life so it's probably fine for me.

Pros: Built a Win Svr 2012 test/training PC with Gigabyte Z77M-D3H-MVP micro ATX motherboard with i7-3770 (not the K), 32 GB memory. This cpu cooler's back plate works. It stands off away from the soldered wires ends on the bottom of this motherboard. The prior heat sink I purchased (Thermaltake Thermaltake CLP0598 92mm Contact 16 CPU Cooler ) its back plate design got in the way of this Gigabyte motherboard's bottom soldered wire ends.

Cons: There were no cons.

This Zalman works but I had to smear the thermal paste between the cracks of heat pipes and cooler base so as to make sure there were adequate thermal conductivity. This is not a big deal. Then I slide the heat sink around to evenly distribute the thinly applied thermal paste to even it out. Again not a con, just standard stuff any experienced PC builder would do.

Pros: Installed on a 3570k with 2 fans. The temps are pretty good and about what I expected for this price point. At stock speeds the CPU is getting to around 70 C during gaming. This was during the summer so the ambient temps were higher. I know Ivy Bridge runs hot, but I'm a little concerned about overclocking with this cooler. I'll start some oc'ing and if I don't like the temps then I'll have to look at other cooling solutions.

Cons: The directions are lacking. Zalman needs to hire a native English speaker to actually write detailed directions. Their pictures are not good enough. I will say that EVGA is also guilty of this with their cooler.

Pros: Great cooling capacity. With the stock cooler on my AMD FX-4170 at 4.2 ghz it was running 39c at idle. That changed to 27c after installation. Includes shoulder bolts to prent overtightening the clamping force.

Cons: It's a pain to install. The fan clips are hard to get on when it's in the case and you can't get to the the screws to bolt it on if you put the fan on first. The fan started to rattle day 5. It blocks using my first memory slot unless I blow the heat away from the rear exhaust. You can't use the included fan for a pull because the stupid clips won't have anything to attach too.

Pros: This cooler is amazing its not to tall and fits in a mid tower very well. It is cooling a phenom 955 O.C. to 3.7 GHz and cools it very with well arctic MX 4 I have it with a push pull config and this thing is beast for the price this is my 4 zalman cooler and there impress me more everytime

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Buy it if your thinking you won't be disappointed. Thanks new egg for amazing shipping

Pros: direct heat pipe contact, huge heatsink! dual fan capable, not too loud, great stuff

Cons: will most likely have to remove motherboard for installation, unless u've already have a backplate, it might just screw in..:-)

Other Thoughts: great buy