OCZ Vanquisher 92mm Ceramic CPU Cooler - Retail

Good Deal for the Money

Reviewed By: spud on 12/24/2007

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

Pros: Keeps my Q6600 nice and cool. Value for the money. Design helps cool nearby stuff. An enthusiast grade cooler with emphasis on performance rather than flashy appearance. Ceramic bearings at a low price!!

Cons: Cheap mounts. Just a little too tall for my 4U rack mount Norco 900 case but should work just fine in standard vertical PC cases.

Other Thoughts: My purchase of this cooler was based on capacity and bearing material. I do multi-threaded video encoding at the same time as Folding@Home and all 4 cores are at 100% for days on end. Lesser components burn out within a week or two and the loss of a CPU cooler could easily be catastrophic. If you need effective more than pretty, I recommend this cooler. OCZ has made a new customer of me...

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Reviewed By: on 4/13/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

Pros: Although the surface has a rough matte appearance, it was very flat. It cooled well. I lapped mine with the CPU and it made no difference at all.

Cons: Like any large HSF that uses the Intel push pin method, it can be a little tough to install securely.

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Works well if you can install it

Reviewed By: inmytaxi on 2/22/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Pros: Cooled a Pentium 3.0 Gig very well, kept the chip below 40 C during antivirus scan -- even with just 3 of 4 pins holding it down!

Barely fits inside a mid tower case, about 1/2" space.

Blows right into the back fan or top fan if you're installing in a lga 775 intel seating as this can face any of four directions.

Cons: The plastic things that hold it down are very small for the amount of force they're subjected too. I read the warnings below about turning them gently when you lock them, still managed to snap one of the pieces that locks the pin into place.

With three pins this baby still did a great job, but I was worried if another pin snapped next to the one that wasn't locked down there'd be a problem ... this is for an elderly couple so they'd burn it up before they knew it.

Other Thoughts: I use a lot of OCZ products: RAM, power supply, solid state drive, thumb drives. This impresses me, especially for the price, but the bad securing solution forced me to return it.

I went for a cheaper cooler -- 1/4 of the price of this -- sadly now the CPU hits near 60 C during anti virus scan ... with plenty of airflow in a very minimal setup.

I prefer the new cooler because it uses metal screws, with an X shaped piece on the back of the motherboard to secure it .... why can't the OCZ use such a simple solution?

For such a large cooler, having a few small pieces of plastic holding down pins under great pressure is just bad design.

Also, the MB made a lot of noise when I was trying to set the pins, which made me nervous and I rushed it which I probably why I broke it.

Manufacturer Response:Hello, we are sorry for the problem. We should be able to get you a replacement pin to complete your installation. Please visit our support forums at the link below and post for assistance. Mention that you were sent by the OCZ rep at Newegg.

External Link(s):

OCZ Support Forums|

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Did not work for me

Reviewed By: farbsthenerd. on 11/13/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

Pros: Big, Big fan, moved air, quiet,

Cons: It would not connect to my processer on an abit nf-ms2v(dont no for sure) i tried numorous amounts of paste and it would idle at 50 degrees and get to 60 degrees when playing games.
I do not have the best processor out there either. an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ oc'd to 2.86 ghz.
Maybe this is a great processor. it just would not work for me.

Other Thoughts: (None)

Manufacturer Response:Hello, we will be happy to coach you on installation procedures, as this cooler should work well for you. Please visit our support forums at the link below and we will be glad to help.
Thank you

External Link(s):

OCZ Support Forums|

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OCZ Vanquisher

Reviewed By: MartyGee on 10/15/2008

Tech Level: average - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Pros: Low price and can deliver good performance for the money.

Cons: Only 2 positions for AMD. 1 position placed fan almost touching power supply. The only other position would have been fine but had to be locked to motherboard on side near power supply. I thought part that mates product to motherboard not well thought out. If I had had an Intel which would allow 4 choices for mounting everything would have been fine.

Other Thoughts: Directions and drawings stunk.

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