Joined on 06/25/09
Superb Product, Best Cooler I Ever Had!
Pros: Wow. Let me begin by saying that this is an amazing product. I've used many Corsair products before - power supplies, RAM, etc. and I figured this would be just as high-quality. Well it is. First off, the packaging had the classic minimalist Corsair look and it was and it did indeed come with all of the parts necessary to install this on any Core i3/5/7 or AMD AM2, AM3, and FM1 chipset. And in case you don't have a case fan to install the radiator on, this product comes with an extra 120mm fan. Installation was surprisingly easy compared to many other CPU coolers I've installed. The instructions were clear and concise, but just make sure you get the right size screws for your mounting bracket - there are Intel and AMD sized screws depending on your CPU. As was advertised, the product is very compact and easy to install, and the rubber hoses are quit flexible. Don't bend them too much, however, because you don't want a leak. Try to install the cooler in such a way that the hoses are not stretched too far or bent out of shape. Now, in my case, I was working with a computer that I built about a year ago so it already had an air cooler on the CPU. I had to remove that and clean up the previous thermal paste using an emulsifier. I also removed the pre-applied thermal paste from the Corsair product because I wanted to use my own Arctic Cooler paste. In any case, all of that took only 20 minutes or so. Luckily my computer case had a CPU cutout so installing the mounting brackets was a breeze. If you don't have a cutout behind the CPU in your case, then you'll have to remove your entire motherboard which will add time to the installation procedure. After getting the mounting bracket in place it was quite, quite easy to screw in the radiator and lock the actual cooling cap in place on top of the CPU. Just be sure that when you install the mounting bracket that you do it methodically. It involves a back-plate, a front-plate, 4 screws, and 4 little metal things that the screws go into. Positioning the back-plate correctly was difficult at first until I noticed the (rather hard to read) lettering next to each hole. Each hole is designated either 1156, 1366, or 2011. Know this and you'll save yourself a lot of frustration. Continue to "Other Thoughts" for some numbers.
Cons: None whatsoever! Just a little note: installation should be done methodically. Don't rush it because this is a delicate device with many little parts involved. Many of the problems I encountered during installation were due to my own lack of attention. Read the instructions and carefully inspect all parts so that you know exactly how to install it before you even open your computer case.
Overall Review: I tested this cooler on a Core i3 540. Using Speed Fan, I measured my CPU temperatures before and after installation. My air cooler, which consisted of a 90mm fan, heatsink, and copper pipes, gave me 22 and 27 degrees Celsius on each core at idle. Playing a video game like Skyrim or Unreal Tournament 3, I got 42 and 44 degrees C. This was with air cooling. With the new Corsair liquid cooler, I got 18 and 23 C idle (4 degrees lower), and 30 and 35 degrees C under load. That's a 9 to 12 degree drop from before! Basically, with this liquid cooler my i3 540 runs nearly as cool under load as it used to merely idling with the air cooling. This is a marvelous liquid cooler, and in fact my first liquid cooling device of any kind. I love the closed loop design and it's extremely quiet. You won't even hear it unless you put your ear right up to your computer. I highly recommend this product for any computer. It would be especially useful for a gaming computer, and for someone who wants to make a gaming computer with superior cooling on a budget. Even family computers would benefit from this because it will definitely prolong the life of your CPU. Just be sure you know what you're doing. Liquid cooling always has the risk of leaking, but 99% of the time it's due to poor installation - bending or stretching the hoses in some way they shouldn't be, not screwing things in properly, etc.
Perfect for budget gaming computer
Pros: I recently built my older brother a budget gaming computer and of course he needed some better-than-stock CPU cooling. He is using a mid-size tower with no room for one of those gigantic heatsinks that weigh 10 pounds, but this seemed perfect. And it is! His CPU stays within 30-40 degrees C even at maximum load. I paired this with Arctic Cooler thermal paste to get the best results.
Cons: The installation was pretty tricky and frustrating. Unlike the bigger Cooler Master CPU coolers - I have one in my full-size tower - this one has four separate metal brackets such that each one must be attached and aligned separately. It was so much easier with just two metal brackets. I also had a HUGE amount of trouble with the push-pins. I never have before, but these particular push-pins seemed to be a little too short! I had to push so hard to get them in that I honestly thought I was going to break the motherboard. Not mention one of the pins was kinda...broken. It didn't want to lock down no matter what I did. After 30 minutes I finally installed this thing, but I've never had so much trouble installing a CPU cooler.
Overall Review: It's a good product, but installation was a huge pain. So this cooler has its drawbacks. I don't know if I can recommend it.
Good product, good shipper
Pros: I was very pleased with this vendor. They were speedy and efficient with shipping, I received the product exactly as described, no fuss no muss. I know Apple is very totalitarian about their peripherals and cables and whatnot, but if this isn't a genuine Apple product I honestly can't tell. It works perfectly with my iPod Nano 4th Generation, my wife's 5th generation iPod Nano, and with her iPhone 4s. Now that she has the iPhone 5, of course, it won't work with that.
Cons: None.
Great basic fan
Pros: I love cooler master products and I've used them in all of my builds. They're great basic, sturdy products for good prices. You can go with Noctua if you want something super-powerful, big & flashy but Cooler Master gets the job done. My dad's business computer needed some more cooling and I just needed some cheap 120mm fans for his Antec mid-size case so I picked up these guys.
Cons: One thing to be careful of: these are 4 pin fans. I wasn't careful and I thought that meant they used molex, but they actually connect to the four-pin fan connections on the motherboard. Big mistake. I had to go buy some adapters, so do be careful before you purchase that you have the right connections in your computer for these.
Overall Review: These aren't flashy, just black and basic. No red or blue LEDs, no 8 million RPMs, but they get the job done and if you want something unobtrusive, then go with these. They are a little bit loud, but nothing bothersome. If you want a silent build, then don't go with these.
Good product, couldn't get to work
Pros: Clearly a well made product and I'm sure it would work in most cases but in my case, my parent's house probably has too much bad wiring for this product to work. Good quality materials, looks nice, very small and unobtrusive. I was very pleased to see that it came with two ethernet cables as well. Too many wireless products don't give you enough ethernet cables out-of-the-box, which I think is ridiculous in this day and age. I mean, a cable is what, a few bucks at the most? I was very pleased that I didn't have to drive up to Best Buy and drop $20 on their overpriced cables.
Cons: When I got this offer from Newegg I thought it would be the perfect product for my parent's house. You see, the way they have it laid out, the modem and router are both on the ground floor and then my mother has her computer in the basement. She gets a pretty weak signal down there even with her fairly powerful wireless card. I thought that this would provide faster and more stable connection for her but it turns out installation was anything but simple. My only real complaint with the product itself is that the instructions are not easy to understand. I followed the instructions as closely as I possibly could and after an hour, I'm sure I installed everything correctly, but the directions just aren't straightforward enough. I tried everything from plugging these little guys directly into wall sockets, into power strips but no matter what arrangement I had and no matter how many times I tried resetting them and connecting them again, I just couldn't establish a connection for my mother's computer. I can only conclude that their house has some bad wiring in it, which makes sense because they did recently move into this place which has a rather DIY finished basement with what looks like some pretty shoddy electrical work. I detracted one egg for what I considered to be a confusing instruction manual that could have used some more editing and simplifying.
Overall Review: I wish that I had the ability to really test this product but for now all I can say is that my test-home wasn't up to the challenge. I will write a follow-up review if I can manage to get this product to work at some point in the future.
Had no idea these even existed
Pros: This was perfect for pulling files off all my old floppy discs. I recently moved from Colorado to Missouri so I was going through a lot of junk in my basement when I came across a bunch of old 3.5" floppies. It read even some of the oldest discs that I thought were unreadable. I highly recommend this product if you want to retrieve files from your old floppies but your shiny new computer doesn't have a floppy drive!
Cons: None!