Rosewill RCX-Z300 92mm Ball CPU Cooler

Pros: It just snapped in, without any kind of fuss at all. Silent at idle. Low-profile. Efficient cooling, with large mass and copper core. No backplate needed.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: After a lot of fussing with a Zalman that didn't fit, I bought one of these for a battered used Q9300 in an Antec Minuet. Unlike the stock Intel unit it replaced, it just snapped in without any fighting. It proved to be silent while delivering very efficient cooling.

I can't say enough good things about this product! If only this design were available for AM3 ....

Pros: It is actually a really a decent fan. Most of the time it spins at about 700 rpm and is completely silent. I like that the fact that I did not have to remove my motherboard to install a backplate.

Cons: None, providing it continues to work as well as it does now.

Other Thoughts: I do not understand the problems people are having with the plastic clips. They are not that difficult to use.

Pros: cheap. quiet. great size.

Cons: cheaply made. the push pins do NOT hold the fan and heat sink to the mother board very well. no other way to attach the fan except with the push pins. the heatsink and fan are not held in tightly to the CPU.
had to remove the motherboard to get the fan installed( the old fan had screws and i needed to remove the bracket behind the CPU)

Other Thoughts: I bought this fan for an old compaq computer with a lga775 Pentium because the original fan started squealing. while the fan does work, I am not very happy with the way it attaches to the mother board. the pins came loose several times while I was trying to install it. the instructions are all but unreadable. they keep referring to pictures that are too dark to make anything out on.

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Not much better than stock for i7

Other Thoughts: I bought this as a quick and cheap replacement for the stock Intel cooler for an 3rd gen i7 (i7-3770k, TDP 77 watts). All the processor cores still go over 100C at maximum load. I tried some different thermal paste (Noctua NT-H1 which spreads like peanut butter, but that's another review), but that didn't seem to help.

The case is old but decent Lian Li. One 120mm intake, one 120mm exhaust and a 80mm top exhaust plus the power supply's 120mm.

I modded my case to add a 140mm intake fan blowing directly on the CPU and cooler, but that didn't help much. I still see 105C on all the cores when running Prime95.

I'm going to have to spend some decent money on a larger cooler, which of course means I have to take out the motherboard. :-(

Pros: About 2 1/4" height from cpu face
PWM fan
Push pin tips are TOGETHER, so you won't split them by accident and have the not go into the holes.

Cons: PWM fan no good for RC410-m board - although the former cruddy stock core 2 fan made it past the bios fan check, this one spins up fine but doesn't pass.
Perhaps defective, haven't checked into it yet, but somehow I suspect it's the feedback the board bios wants - not quite up to par.

Other Thoughts: Quite unfortunate, the system stops, shows the fan error message, then shuts down in 4 seconds.
No turning it off as it's a brand name board and the bios is less than extensive.
Guess I'll have to patch in a stock core2 fan then patch this one to molex... love that extra work so much.

Pros: It works real good. Keeps CPU cool, easy to install.

Cons: I wish it didn't work so good. I keep trying to find excuses to spend $50 on those awesome looking heatsinks but it seems like theirs no point other then looks.

Other Thoughts: First build for me. Keeping my i5 cooled and trying to find every excuse to replace it with a bigger more expensive heatsink but there is just no reason to. It does good jobs.

Pros: Looks nice

Cons: The plastic clips are as fragile as ever. The reason it's somewhat universal is that the clips that attach to the motherboard can slide in or out away from the heatsink, extending or decreasing their reach. Not the sleekest way to achieve a universal fit, but effective enough, I guess.

Other Thoughts: Be very careful with the pins while attaching it. Using a moderate, and seemingly necessary, amount of force to press the plastic clip down it just snapped off the base. I've used this plastic clips many times before with other heat sinks and never had this happen, but it happened here.

That said, I never got to use it, it's just wasting away in my closet because at this low cost my time isn't worth the trouble of working on a refund. The stock Intel HSF works fine for my application (which had plastic clips and snapped in just as smoothly as Intel's plastic clips always do). In the future, for aftermarket purposes I'll be sure to avoid plastic clips and get ones with a screw-on base.

Pros: Its small, quiet and does a great job keeping my Q6600 cool even with a decent overclock on it. Never goes over 54c even when running prime95. Great cooler

Cons: None that I see

Pros: Copper base, quiet with my MSI E77 Mini-itx board. Looks good (red blades). $9.99 shipped at this price? I trusted my new i5-3570k with it, no regrets.

Cons: None

Pros: Cheap, very decent quality for the price. The red is pleasant to look at, laugh. Cools an e6400 at stock 2.13Ghz w/out incident at 34C (my HTPC machine).

Cons: None at this point.

Other Thoughts: Replaced a prior Rosewill cheapo (RCX-Z90-AL) that got clogged and also broke one of its plastic retention legs. This new one is working well; cleaned off the CPU w/ denatured alcohol and just used the included thermal paste. Stock e6400 C2D @ 2.13Ghz and around 34C while recording shows. Does the job just fine.