Antec KUHLER Shelf 120 mm PWM fan High-performance CPU Cooler

Pros: Very nice solid product, works well.

Cons: Manual is absolutely terrible. I've been building my own computers for 20 years and it took me 1.5 hours to get this on properly. It has a lot of extra parts the manual doesn't even talk about. No instructions for 1155 cpu at all. The only way I even could install it was looking for do it yourself instructions on the web and YouTube videos, otherwise I would have probably returned it. This is not for a impatient or weak at heart person at least without better instructions!

Pros: just a great cpu cooler, took my Phenom II down 14 deg. at idle and a whooping 27 deg. under load

Cons: little bigger then i thought, in most cases the mb has to be removed to install

Other Thoughts: mid towers are going to be tight on space

Pros: good cooler, quiet, fits in my nzxt vulcan.
bought this to replace my h50 which wouldn't fit in the vulcan, (rear fan slot is too small, and ram is too close to top to mount the radiator in top fan slots) and i am pretty impressed, at idle it's 4-5 degrees cooler than my h50 and on par with it at load on my i5 750 o.c. to 3.8ghz.
stayed under 85C running 25 passes of LinX in a pretty warm room.

Cons: directions were sparse, but pretty simple to figure out for lga 1156

Other Thoughts: downsized from a coolermaster mid tower to the vulcan to stop bumping my knees under my desk. mesh side cases are probably the best match for this cooler since it can pull cold air through the side, though i will likely also mod the mesh panel to get clearance for the 200mm side fan for a little better cooling.

-NZXT Vulcan case
-i5 750 clocked to 3.8ghz
-antec Kuhler Shelf
-4gig gskill ripjaws ddr3 2133
-bfgtech gtx275 O.C
-evga gtx275 co-op physx

Pros: Very quiet and keeps my CPU very cool. Given instructions it is very easy to install for AMD, and likely for Intel too.

It even looks cool.

Antec tech support were very quickly helpful.

Cons: The box came with a little instructional paper for installing that only applies to Intel CPUs and even then you had to look in each bag.

I had to call Antec for help to solve this problem. The provided instructions are entirely inadequate. If the product itself wasn't performing so well I'd be at fewer eggs, and if I didn't have to call for help, I'd have given full eggs.

Other Thoughts: I called Antec tech support and spoke to a helpful guy who instantly knew what my problem was and gave me the tips I needed.

I was told:

- In the bag labeled "775" you will find 4 small screws that are used to attached the correct part to the base of the heat sink. (This part applies equally to all non-775 Intel users, too.)

- The AMD brackets are square-U shaped.

- They don't provide a back-plate for the AMD mount, and depend upon the (prior?) vendor provided plate. You have to unscrew the top of the vendor mount, but keep the underneath in place while you attach the CPU fan.

- Use the AMD screws and the little wrench to attach the U-shaped parts now attached to the main unit to the backplate.


This is all in addition to typical install instructions, and the pictures provided do show them all.

Pros: Neat looking
Large fan
Relatively quiet
Cools well

Cons: Don't know about Intel installations, but on my AMD 3 board (Asus) with the instructions given and the hardware provided - I lost a 2gb ram stick to the uninsulated installation.

The brackets that hold the cooler to the motherboard screw directly into the bottom of the heatsink. The brackets connect to the motherboard by spring-loaded screws that go through the motherboard into the cpu cooler mounting plate that comes with the motherboards stock heat sink base.

If you followed all that, you notice that there is a direct metal contact between the cpu and the baseplate that does not exist with the stock heatsink.

Turned computer on after the Khuler Shelf installation and bios would not run. Took me a while, but I figured out the problem was electrical and I made washers from paper stock and put them between the screws and the bracket. Computer fired right up.

Antec should modify their kit and directions to include non-conducting washers.

Other Thoughts: Unbelieveable.

Pros: Well built, high quality. Design is great for boards such as my MSI 750a sli in which RAM slots are so close to the socket. Fan flows over the entire socket area of the motherboard. Half the noise of the stock Phenom II heatsink. I had another HUGE Antec heatsink before, and this one is better quieter and has no flashy LEDs to make my feet glow.

Cons: No back bracket supplied for AM3, only front brackets- and they are labelled 'AM2' which could be confusing. My plate has recessed threads, making it necessary to modify the plate in order to use the nice spring-mounting screws supplied. (Intel gets one though, and 6 different brackets.) Once mounted, good luck reaching any screws directly underneath the huge fan. I suggest building with it, not replacing with it, because you WILL have to pull the board.

Other Thoughts: Cons aren't for the courageous. Once mounted, CPU temps on my 965BE @3.85Gh 1.4v are 23c at idle, That's room temperature! Under load they never peak 55c, and that's running nVidia Physx fluid demo on the CPU, Tessmark and Furmark for 9 hours while I was at work, with all 4 cores pinned at 95%-100%. Stability test passed; I simply never would have tried that with the stock cooler! Impressive.