CORSAIR CAFA70 120mm A70 Dual-Fan CPU Cooler

Pros: It cools great, very low 30's most of the time after hours of using the computer.

Cons: The thermal paste is more of a pain to apply than most i've used, but it does the job pretty well, even though it was a mess. Not going to deduct an egg as it's kind of a bonus to be given some.

Overall Review: It didn't interfer with my corsair xms3 ram, the mount makes it so you can't choose the direction of the airflow but i have a top exhaust fan anyway.

Pros: very effective. nicely made. quality materials and construction. will not repeat most of the other positive reviews...other than to say it is a great air cooling unit.

Cons: instructions leave much to be desired. why make such a nice product and have such mediocre documentation????

Overall Review: The fans at 2,000 rpm can be a little loud, so I used the extra connection cables provided to get them down to 1,600. At 1,600 the fans operate at a reasonable sound level (though this will likely have an effect on cooling, it was a trade-off that I was content to make). On an intel MB the unit and fans can be set east-west or north-south. I went east-west with fans aimed at the rear fan of my corsair 600t case. Seems to work well. The one fan was resting on my first memory dimm. But, I found that you can slip the bottom of that fan into the cooling unit a couple of fins up on the cooler (instead of up against the bottom of the last fin) and that leaves room between the memory dimm and the fan - and the fan still locks solidly into place. Easy fix and customizable depending upon the size of your dimm and case.

Pros: -Solid construction -Simple Fan mounting -Includes Thermal Compound

Cons: -Bad included instructions, with merely passable supplemental instructions online (via an internet search). Both have similar omissions (see Other thoughts). -DIMM clearance can be tough. I have a P8P67 Pro with some Ripjaw (old HSF style) so that's all I can comment on. The Shroud+Fan cover the first two DIMM Slots. My DIMM in Slot #2 basically has ~0 clearance with the fan. It would not be possible to fit in Slot #1 since the shroud extends slightly further than the fan does.

Overall Review: Both instructions have the following omissions: -Four black plastic washers are included, but never mentioned. These should go on the backplate posts on top of the plastic insulation, prior to installing the backplate. -The HSF is asymmetric. One side is slightly concave, one side is slightly convex. No mention of which side goes with which fan (push vs. pull). I used a bit of reasoning to assume concave side = push. -At least for the LGA1155 boards, the HSF can be mounted in both front-to-back and top-to-bottom orientations. This affects more than just your air circulation path, since it changes the way that the heat pipes cross your ISF on the CPU. One orientation may cause all four to cross your die perpendicularly, while the other may have two running on top of it and the other two running beside but never overlapping it. This is never addressed anywhere. I haven't had the time to mount it in both ways and see which is most ideal.

Pros: This is a top drawer air cooler with high quality construction, typical of just about everything Corsair makes. I was actually surprised how well this thing cools. I've got in atop a AMD PII 960T Zosma overclocked from 3.0 ghz to 4.1 ghz on 1.488 volts and the CPU socket temp maxes out at 52 C under Prime95 blend. I also have a roomy, well-ventilated case and this helps, of course. This is with the stock push-pull fans on low speed. Big and tall. If your case is not at least 8" wide it probably won't fit between the side panels. But this is true of all tower-style air coolers with 120mm fans. One of the interesting things about A70 is that it uses a "clip on" cam lever lock style mounting mechanism rather than a bolt through mount so you don't have to take the motherboard out to install the cooler. Yet, with those low temps the mounting mechanism apparently manages to produce sufficient pressure to make good contact with the CPU face.

Cons: The push fan sits on top of the cam lever lock which holds the fan a little higher on the CPU face than the fan on the other side. The fan speed control is not infinitely variable and limits you to two speed options. The lower of the two produces noise levels that are quite acceptable to me. Would have liked to see the fans be PWM so the speed could be controlled with bios settings.

Overall Review: Tip: Ignore the manufacturer's instructions to apply the thermal paste as a small blob in the middle of the CPU face. When I did this I found the parallel ridges of the base between the heat pipes prevented the paste from spreading well. Instead, apply the paste in two narrow lines perpendicular to the heat pipes so that the area is divided into approximately three equal sections. This way, the paste is free to spread across the entire area of the interface between the heat sink base and the CPU face.

Pros: ~About 5 years later & still going strong ~Easy to set up ~Used Noctua paste & dropped about 20 ~Was on sale

Cons: ~Somewhat heavy on MoBo ~I never got the rebate ~Kinda of too big

Overall Review: I would recommend this if you don't need to worry about CPU heat-sink space, ^ if it's on sale without the rebate nonsense.

Pros: Too many. To start off, the size is right. It's big, provides excellent cooling performance, but not overwhelming. I have tried it on several motherboards, and there is ALWAYS enough space underneath the fans to install ram sticks with medium size heat spreaders. If you use the G.skill ripjaw X series, the bottom of the fan will touch the top of the heatspreader, but it's a nice fit. The installation is a breeze, pop in the backplate and tighten 4 screws and you are done. Two fans are included. Fans are housed in two plastic shrouds with rubber studs to reduce vibration, and those plastic shrouds snap on to the heatsink nicely. They are secure, yet easy to remove. At 1600rpm speed, the fans are fairly quiet. Finally the price is decent for a mid-range air cooler.

Cons: Doesn't match the cooling performance of Noctua NH-D14, but it's also not oversized or cost 90 dollars. Fans are extremely noisy at 2000RPM, make sure you use the included resistor cable to reduce that speed down to 1600. Applying thermal paste on heatpipe direct contact cooler is always a pain.

Overall Review: Bought tons of those for many builds, they were cheaper back then. There were 4 black rubber / plastic rings in the package I never used, and I still no idea what those are for.

Pros: this is by far the best deal after rebate on a very good cooler anywhere period.

Cons: invest 50 cents in a ruler & measure 160mm tall is pretty tall plus 2 fans .

Overall Review: also if need be you can move fan up higher on memory side for clearance .on memory if case has room .

Pros: Got this Air Cooling CPU setup because was on sale with rebate... Trusted Corsair quality... Keeps cpu cool (i7 930 @ 4.0 ghz /1366) at overclock temps around 35c-40c... Live in Hawaii... Runs fine so far keep ya posted... If it was unlimited rebates (not just 1 per household) Id buy another for my back up 775 board! $28 with rebate!!!

Cons: Non but read below warning

Overall Review: Watch you fingers when around fan, they will bleed! I have an open air test bench and the cable got in the way... Oops... Im ok...