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After hearing all the rave reviews on this cooler, I ended up picking one up to help cool my OC'd rig. This thing turned out to be such a pain to install and did not provide anything near close to the "remarkable" cooling I've heard about.

Besides the fact that I, like many others, felt the wrath of the sharp blades, I also had to deal with a not very user-friendly installation. It was probably easier to build my entire rig than it was to replace the stock HS with this guy. After all of the hassle, I only experienced maybe only a 2 degree drop in temp.

I'm wondering if perhaps I use Arctic Silver instead of the stuff it comes with it might get much better performance? The only other thing I can think of is that I have poor airflow? (doesn't seem likely with my CM Mystique case). Any ideas?

#1: I alos own one of this. I agree :The instruction is not so clear to install- but not very hard to figure it out.
The original heatsink compund is junk- I did use Arctic Silver 5 and it has better effect than the one come from Zalman. I use it to cool 805 ( O'c to 3.6 GHZ) and reduce the frequence of overheat alarm from system. Originaly w/o Arctice silver, I can only O'C till 3.2-3.3Ghz. But with Arcetive silver - I can run the system 24/7 at 3.6Ghz. This fan was recommended by Tom's hardware test team at 1 or 2 years ago. And it is pretty nice one.
However :
1) My fan is always running at 2600-2700RPM ( full speed due to O'C). so I cannot enjoy the silence from the fan when it runs slow.
2)The LED on the fan went off after 1 year usage. ( Of course YMMV )
3) The fan cannot be replaced. Once the fan is out you have to tie a fan yourself otherwise you can just throw it away...
MY experience for your reference.

Arctic Silver might take the temps down a little more.

Relieving poor aiflow could work wonders: if you don't do so already, get some canned air and blow out the dust bunnies from your fans and your case's grill every once in a while for a significant improvement in your temps.

Thanks for the tips #2& #3.

Installation material was not really my issue (as you mentioned, it was easy to figure out). Easier said how to install than done though (for some reason the setup recommended for my processor type did not really work/fit, so I had to modify it ...maybe my mobo is dumb).

I'd really like to try the Silver, although I'm thinking that if I pick up a better front-case fan, I'll be better off in the long run for all of my components. Vic, i really wish all pre-built computers came with a bright red flier with your suggestion: it never ceases to amaze me how people never bother to do this through their course of ownership (maybe due to the fear of breaking the warranty seal?).

I guess this fan is one step shy of going to a liquid-cooled solution.

#1, too much of your blood on the fins reduced the heat transfer. sounds like trying a quiet case fan (front or rear) is less hassle than disassembling the heatsink to try as5.

Probably! I'm curious to know what others used to protect their hands? I think I resorted to using a cloth napkin.

I have this in my tower for over a year now and it works great. The cpu(e6600@3.4) idles at 15-18c and 25-28c when loaded. Maybe a little higher during the summer months.

Installation wasn't that bad and yes the instructions weren't that great. Just need to use a little common sense.

My buddy built his rig with a e8400@3.4 and a thermalright ultra 120. And he can't reach the number that I can. Even with a bigger case and more fans.

9700 might be an older cooler but damn it does the job quite well. My .02

I use this fan and I didn't think installing it was all that bad, though I did put it on when there was nothing else attached to the motherboard. I didn't have any problems with sharp fins, but once again, I wasn't working in a confined space. You actually wouldn't want them to try and make the fins less sharp as that would decrease the cooling capacity.

My rig is not overclocked much at all, so I have the fan speed turned all the way down and my temps stay very cool. My 2 complaints with this heat sink is 1) because the air blows to the back of the case instead of down toward the CPU itself, it messed up my stock passive North bridge cooling, so I had to get a bigger heat sink for my NB (my NB started hitting temps in excess of 180 degrees F) and 2) there's no way to put any kind of grill in front of the fan so when I try and use my IR thermometer to check on the temps across the board, I usually wind up inadvertently sticking some part of my hand in the fan. Besides my 2 complaints, I do have 2 other comments--size wasn't an issue for me, but if you are a little crunched for space, I doubt this will fit 'cuz it's huge. The only other problem is the price. If these points don't concern you much, then I'd totally recommend it. Oh, and case air flow is a much bigger factor than upgrading your thermal paste--Arctic Silver certainly won't do any worse than the stuff that comes with it, but I have a hard time believing that it will drop your temps any more than 2-3 degrees. I think I read a quantitative test about that, but I can't remember where I saw it.

I think it's ok... It brought my temps down by 10 degs F, wasn't that hard to install but I would like it if the bracket securing it to be tighter