Thermaltake CL-P0200 80mm Silent 939 K8 - AMD K8 solution w/ Heatpipe Cooling Tech

Pros: Very quiet, inexpensive, and installed quickly. Even came with some thermal paste.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Typical NewEgg: great products, great prices, super fast shipping.

Pros: Dear Newegg, this has NEVER happened to me before, but my new Phenom II X3 720 runs like it is in the middle of a -70 degree blizzard in Helena, Montana, with the case open.

So, when looking for an alternate cooling solution from the pathetic 720 stock cooler, I knew that I only needed a simple drop-in replacement. I found the Silent 939 K8 at a popular Southern California computer store for a lot less than on Newegg and it has worked stupendously with my Phenom II X3 720. Its super quiet even with the fan running at 1600rpm, and with a copper base and heatpipes, offers way better cooling than the stock heatsink. I’m glad that I did not invest in a more elaborate and expensive model as this does the job just fine. Currently, I have OC’d my chip from 2.8 to 3.4 with a very modest increase in voltage and running BOINC with all three cores at 100% for hours (even as I am writing this review), the core temps are bouncing back from 41-42c in 80+ degree weather.

Cons: A bikini clad Supermodel was not present to help me install it.

Other Thoughts: Installation was as easy as it could possibly be. I don’t know for a fact, but I'm betting you could even install it without the use of your hands. Applied some Arctic Silver 5 and popped it in. Took all of 4 seconds, and BAM! you’re done. No removing your motherboard or messing with backplates or anything.
This heatsink is what AMD should have packaged with the Phenom 720 in the first place. After so many years of building systems, I am thrilled that I finally don’t have to worry about frying my processor when OC’ing it.

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8@3.4 +.1v
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066
EVGA GTX 285
2x WD Caviar SE16 320GB SATAII in RAID0
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
Antec P182 case

Pros: Installs just like the stock heatsink. Temps dropped from > 40°C to ~34°C on a socket 754 AMD Athlon 64 3200. Cheap

Cons: A bit heavy.

Other Thoughts: Best and easiest alternative to the stock socket 754 heatsink.

Pros: Very solid construction, heat-pipes, large silent fan. Seriously, you can barely hear it with the case open. Installation was a breeze. Just slap on some Arctic Silver 5, and you'll have this thing on in about 10 seconds.

Cons: By the time I had everything latched down, the HSF was just a bit crooked. Went ahead and twisted it back a few degrees to line it up. No worries mate.

Other Thoughts: Kind of a funny story. I bought this thing for my mom's PC almost a year ago, and it didn't fit. I threw it back in the package and created an RMA for return to Newegg. Kind of spaced on returning it and it sat in the back of my truck until now. I finally got around to upgrading my PC (ASUS M3878 Pro, AMD 9950BLK, OCZ Reaper 1066MHZ), and had planned on seeing how the stock cooler performed, when I was cleaning out the back of my truck and found this thing. What do you know? It fits! I had a good laugh, and the thing is working beautifully. Well that's my story, thanks for listening.

Pros: This heatsink, with the help of arctic silver, drastically lowered my temps. Idle it lowered it by 9c (29c idle now.) and full load by over 20c+! (53c full load now.)

It was a little bit annoying to install but that was my fault; being the stereotypical male I trashed the directions and thought I could do it better my way. I installed it backwards by clipping the 3 notches with the handle first rather than doing the other side first. This resulted in having to put a decent amount of force onto the heatsink to get it to click in place. Overall this was still very easy but obviously it would have been much easier if I actually read the directions and/or used common sense.

Cons: It comes with a shiny sticker rather than a cold beer.

Other Thoughts: The stock heatsink and fan didn't cool my CPU much at all. Under full load my A64 3400+ would hit 75c and eventually crash because of the heat. Considering I rarely put my PC at full load I tried to put replacing the heatsink off as long as I could. Unfortunately the fan eventually broke a fin and came to a screeching hault one day which forced me to finally replace it. After installing this heatsink, in combination with arctic silver 5, it's running much cooler and very far from overheating.

Temps before:
Idle: 38c
Full load: 75 and certain death

Temps after:
Idle: 29
Full load: 53

Overall I'm definitely happy with this heatsink and like usual Newegg delivers it crazy fast even over the holidays.

Pros: Very quite fan. Lowered my temp by 15C under heavy gaming load. Very easy to install. If fan ever dies it will be easily replaced due to design (80mm screw pattern). Price. Fast shipping.

Cons: Like some have mentioned, the copper base is not a completely smooth, mirror finish. I wouldn't trust the thermal paste that comes with it... it seems watery in its wrapper.

Other Thoughts: Despite the base (micro-scratches in one direction), this is working beautifully and I didn't sand it at all. It really isn't as bad as some mentioned. It looks purposely manufactured that way and may be beneficial? Buy @rctic $ilver 5 thermal paste.

Pros: It really is as quiet as it claims; something you don't see a lot these days.
The fan has an 80mm hole pattern but the fan itself extends outside the typical 80mm square, so it's more like a 92mm fan, so you get a lot more airflow and it's super quiet.

I wish I could buy that fan for my case as well.

Cons: The surface finish was pretty terrible. I had to wetsand it for an hour or two to get that nice mirror finish that I like so much. I'm sure it would have worked fine, but I'm a bit of a cooling perfectionist.

Other Thoughts: I highly recommend this cooler.

Pros: Easy installation
Quiet operation
Low temps

Cons: None that I found

Other Thoughts: This was replacing a different Tt fan that was much louder. I am very satisfied

Pros: Quiet and effective, easy installation.

Cons: Kinda big, may have clearance issues in some systems.

Other Thoughts: Far quieter and better cooling that the stock HSF it replaced!

Pros: Dropped my temps just under ten degrees on average. I see low fifties in gaming and 48-50C when I'm just stressing the CPU; if I open the case, it drops it about five degrees. This is running a 17% overclock with a slight voltage bump (1.5V is the most I can get, so a hair under 2.6GHz is the best I can do while remaining fully stable). Very easy to install, you can grease and go in around fifteen minutes if you know what you're doing. Fan is quiet and unobtrusive. Also, it takes up just a little more space than the OEM cooler, so it's not likely you'll have fitment issues.

Cons: Not a super high-capacity cooler, so it may be marginal with hotter processors.

Other Thoughts: It's hard to beat this cooler for the price. It's the ideal choice for all but the hottest processors, and you have to spend quite a bit more to get anything better. I'll be looking for something just like this when I decide to build a new system.
Currently running Socket 754 Athlon 3200+, ASRock nForce 410 MB, 2GB OCZ CAS2 RAM, Sapphire 3870 Toxic, running XP - gettin' old school, but it does the job. We'll see what happens in the coming year: I want to stick with AMD and wouldn't mind skipping Vista altogether (the less I have to buy from M$, the better).