Pros: I had to remove the fan to get the heat sink to fit in my HTPC. Still cools fantastically with the PSU fan blowing on it. Keeps my dual core Athlon II at 26°C.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Can't verify how the fan sounds, as I didn't use it.

Pros: Huge heatsink covers most of the mini-ITX board (which looks cool). Keeps my AMD Phenom II 740 X3 cool at 36°C Idle and 48°C Load sitting in a passively cooled Lian Li PC-Q07 case. Fan runs between 1600-1800rpm within this setup. This heatsink fits perfectly on a Asus M4A88T-I motherboard without covering the PCI expansion slot.

Cons: Not really a big deal but you'll need to remove the heatsink to access your memory sticks.

Overall Review: This fan is designed to blow through the heatsink and down onto the motherboard. The included fan can not be reversed to pull air up through the heatsink without grinding the blades against the heatsink. However, the fan is attached with two clips and appears that it could easily be replaced with a standard case fan should you want to try this.

Pros: If you need an upgraded sink with a really big fan you found it. It's QUIET and pushed a lot of air - so long as the height of your RAM (no tall sinks will work) doesn't get in the way you are golden - and this fan will cool your ram too - it covers the entire middle of the board - it's got a 120mm fan on there and you can put a 140 on there as another egger stated.

Cons: It is really WIDE and the bottom edge of the sink is a little too low. They barely clear the sinks on my motherboard but it was the 'teeth' on the heatsinks of the G Skill RIpjaws memory that ended up killing the deal. I wasn't about to hack a tooth off as other egger here did. I ended up sending it back but I'm still giving it 5 eggs based on my inspection.

Pros: Low-profile; inexpensive; easy mounting procedure; PWM fan connector; quiet, replaceable fan.

Cons: It's wide, and nearly touches my RAM modules. Therefore I am not able to use RAM modules with tall heatsinks. This may or may not be a con for you, so review your motherboard's layout carefully before purchasing.

Overall Review: OK, I have a Lian-Li V600B case, which despite its nice looks has a peculiar interior configuration that prohibits tall heatsinks. This was my primary concern. I needed a low-profile cooler. On the other hand I wanted something was quiet (computer in bedroom) and something with decent cooling performance when I needed it (gaming). Being very pleased with the quiet set of Scythe fans I installed in my case and on my GPU, I thought I'd give this CPU cooler a go. My CPU -- Phenom II X720 (not OC'ed) -- has a 95W TDP. With this heatsink installed it idles at 29C and maxes at just over 45C. I ran Prime95 multi-threaded for 24 hours to stress-test. Furthermore, the PWM connection keeps the fan quiet when I'm not doing anything CPU-intensive (such as sleeping six feet away). I'm guessing that this cooler is probably not a good choice for you if you do any serious overclocking or have a processor with a high TDP. On the other hand, it fits my needs PERFECTLY and I'm very happy w

Pros: * Adequate for upto the ~130W TDP tested. * Quiet PWM fan. * Low height for short low profile HTPC cases.

Cons: * Covers one of the typical mainboard fastener holes, so should be installed after the mainboard unless you have specialty tools. * Very little space for installing after the mainboard in the case. * So low RAM with tall heastsinks won't fit.

Overall Review: Good balance of low noise and cooling efficiency like the other Scythe HSFs I own. I'm not sure which is harder, installing it on an AM2(+)/AM3 (center flip levers) or LGA775 (corner push twist pins) mainboard. It's definitely not meant for easily changing hardware like CPU or RAM, so get the system and settings right before putting it in the HTPC case.

Pros: This is one of the lowest heatsink+fans on the market. I thought I needed a low heatsink for my V351, but after putting this in, there was tons of clearance left. Installation wasn't too bad on a 890gxm-g65, though I did have to use a pair of pliers to close the latch that was partially blocked by the chipset heatsink. The fan is upgradable to a 140mm Kaze Maru which can move even more air.

Cons: You cannot use DIMMs with a heat spreader since there is not enough clearance. I had to cut a tooth off of my Ripjaws DIMMs to make it fit, otherwise the heat pipe would rest on top of it. Then again, since it overlaps, the fan blow down onto the DIMMs

Pros: Relatively lightweight, keeps my Core i3 550 at 23 C at idle and 39 C on load, silent, adapts to many socket types.

Cons: Installation is a nightmare due to the footprint of the top of the heatsink. I installed this on an LGA1156 board and had to attach it with the motherboard outside the case; something I generally don't like doing. A little bit later, I had to take it off because I didn't put my ram in the proper dimms to get dual channel, which is where things became interesting. Unless you're a grandma who knits 24/7 that can bend a penny in half with her fingers, you'll need some pliers to get this thing back off. A lot of the problem is likely the fault of Intel's push lock heatsink system, but it's augmented by the accessibility of the pins. Trying to turn the pins while navigating past capacitors and ram is nasty business, and left the pins somewhat chewed up by pliers. I tried to take the fan off to access the pin with a screw driver thinking I could get through the fins, but access is still blocked by the copper heat pipe.

Overall Review: Scythe really didn't have to make the locking system EXACTLY the same as Intel's rounded corner pins. If they would have just put something like a hex nut on the top of the pin it would have been a lot easier to lock/unlock with a small wrench with a flexible head. Even if they included a proprietary tool that could fasten the heatsink with less effort it would be a major improvement. For this fault, I give 4 stars.

Pros: Excellent cooling performance for the size. Great socket compatibility (even fits the antiquated Socket 478). Good mounting system, mounts very securely on socket AM2 and wasn't too difficult to install. PWM fan.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Honestly, I don't think you can do better than this for a low profile heatsink. Just make sure it will fit in your case and won't interfere with RAM or anything like that. Depending on the board, it will probably overlap some or all of the RAM slots, which will cause problems if you're using sticks with tall heatsinks. It's tall enough to clear standard height memory, though.