Pros: This keeps my Phenom II X2 at 30-35C idle. Better than the 40C that the stock cooler usually gets. The heatsink is nice and big, keeps everything cool and that's all you can ask from a heatsink! The fan design is pretty clever too. It both pulls heat away from the heatsink and can align itself with the airflo of your case, which is much nicer than heatsinks that just blow air in a random direction.

Cons: 1. The AM2+/AM3 clips are especially flimsy until you get them set in place. They use a spring-loaded mechanism that will fall apart if you are not careful. I almost lost a spring in the process. 2. If you install the heatsink leaning to the right, it will come very close to the RAM. Don't use this heatsink if you have RAM with tall heatsinks of their own.

Overall Review: The install is a bit of a pain but the thing is a champion heatsink for the price. No complaints once it's on there.

Pros: It's a Scythe, can't go wrong there. It has kept my Phenom II X3 720BE (@3.5) at a few c* cooler than ambient idle, and never going more than 10* higher than that under load. (I live in a "den" in WI so the outside weather really dictates my room temp, and this spring has been nuts)

Cons: If you have tall memory, this one is not for you. The first two slots are underneath this bad boy with only a few inches of clearance.

Overall Review: Go ahead. It's cheap and does the job. If this isn't good enough, try watercooling.

Pros: - Amazing CPU Cooler. - Installed on my AM3 Phenom II X3 720 with ease. - Comes with thermal paste. - Phenom II X3 runs at 19c idle. NINETEEN. with this heatsink. Max = 30c - When fourth core is unlocked it idles at 25c. Max = 32c.

Cons: - None

Overall Review: Great heat-sink for the price, I have plenty of room for overclocking but with the fourth core unlocked on my Phenom II X3 720 there's really no need, its already running at 2.8ghz.

Pros: Whisper quiet Highly Effective Variety of adapters to fit multiple socket types.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I bought this for my AMD Phenom II Quad core, as the stock AMD fan that comes with the CPU sounds like a jet taking off once it gets warm. This cooler keeps my CPU at right around 50 C under load and is whisper quiet. I highly recommend buying this to replace a loud CPU fan.

Pros: The Katana reduced my AMD Phenom II x2 550 BE a solid 10C degrees at all states vs stock AMD cooler. It fits easily into my mid-tower case and wouldn't interfere with any normal RAM modules in my Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H or most boards. Installation was easy and the unit locks in very tight with the AMD clips. These clips include levers which tighten down once you have the clips in place over the notches - making it easy to both put into place and then tighten down firmly - as desired to draw off the most heat. The clips are all metal and solid.

Cons: One of the AMD clip springs popped out while I was fiddling with it and testing the placement of the unit. I just examined the other clip and put it back together. Some complain that they have to remove the motherboard or the power supply to install a cooler. This may be true - I took out the power supply just to make sure the cooler was properly positioned and to see everything well. This isn't a drawback to any cooler. Do what you need to get it installed properly in your case.

Overall Review: I haven't overclocked my 550 BE yet but I have unlocked the 4 cores. This actually decreases the at-rest temp on stock cooler from ~48C to ~45C but has no effect on stress temps. My stock cooler would reach 73C when running Prime95 - too hot to consider overclocking. With the Katana installed the at-rest temps lowered to as low as 35C but usually ~38C. When running Prime95 it has reached a peak of 62C but generally ~59C. The specs indicate a cooler height of 143mm - this is actually the total height with fan installed. Measuring from the motherboard, it stands off only 148mm. My older mid-tower case is 185mm or 7 1/4" across the frame, without side panels in place. This gives me a clearance from the top of the cooler of about 1/2" - doesn't sound like a lot but works fine. The Katana's combination of angled design and 92mm fan make it a good choice for cases like mine. Try measuring your own case, especially from board surface to side to see how this or others might fit.

Pros: This thing is giant! Great air cooling for a good price. Fin Array/Fan is at an angle to help with clearance issues which also helps blow the hot cpu air directly into my rear exhaust fan.

Cons: This thing is giant! Had to slightly bend 2 fins on the NB heatsink of my ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 AMD 790FX to get one of the retention brackets to clamp down.

Overall Review: Arctic 5 Silver NZXT TEMPEST Case

Pros: The pushpins are easy to use and retention clips snap onto the heatsink, truly a tool free installation. Seems well built and solid. Great price for this quality. Very quiet even at full speed and keeps CPU cool. Didn't interfere with other components on my motherboard.

Cons: Not much of a con, but this thing is a big. Make sure you have room for it. Its base is a reasonable size and cleared everything on my motherboard but this is tall, not much clearance in a 4U case (you couldn't use this in a 3U case.

Overall Review: I already had the motherboard out so I'm not sure how easy it would be to install this in the case (especially if there are lots of cables or anything else in the way) because your hands need to reach the pushpins. I also wish I'd bought a thermal sensing fan (or a lighted one like someone else mentioned, that would look cool) for this rather than using the one that's included because the included fan doesn't have a thermal sensor and counts on using motherboard speed control. I can't do that because all of my other case fans have their own thermal sensors, so the motherboard setting has to be full speed. Still, it is a fairly quiet fan even at full speed. I'm using this with a socket 775 dual core xeon on a supermicro board.

Pros: Works good with Biostar board. Real quiet yet my cpu (using quiet in BIOS) does not even get hot. The design works well with Biostar layout. It cools the cpu, the memory and the hard drive (see other thoughts for recipe). The clips are ingenious. They make installing the cooler so easy. Just hook the motherboard and use the cam operated clips. Wish everyone engineered their mounting systems as well. It even comes with it own themal grease. At this price point it is good product at an even better price. It is rather large if you are not familar with aftermarket heatsinks, but this is not a complaint . . . just an observation. Good for moderate OCing but of course your mileage may vary (on your cpu). See other thoughts for recipe and other items reviewed.

Cons: Doesn't make coffee in the morning . . ..

Overall Review: The recipe for my build is as follows: Antec Minuet350 Piano Black Steel MicroATX Slim Case Computer Case 350W 80PLUS Certified Power Supply, BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard, AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor, G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory, Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive, Scythe SCKTN-3000 92mm Sleeve "KATANA3" 3Heat Pipes CPU Cooler, SAPPHIRE 100252HDMI Radeon HD 4550 512MB 64-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Low Profile Ready Video Card, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders, MSI PC60G IEEE 802.11b/g 32bit PCI2.2 Turbo G Wireless Adapter Up to 54Mbps Data Rates 64/128-bit WEP, WPA, WPA2, TKIP,AES,802.1x See each item for reviews . . . build works real well.