Cooler Master Vortex Plus - CPU Cooler with Aluminum Fins and 4 Direct Contact Heat Pipes (RR-VTPS-28PK-R1)

Having a small form factor HTPC, I needed a heatsink/cooler that wasn't too tall and this seemed like a good match. I read some reports that the cooling wasn't as good as some other low profile heatsinks, however that was not the case. I have my fan speed set at 900RPMs and to only increase when the CPU temperatures go above 60C, however I have not had that happen yet. I haven't run any stress tests with Prime95, however I have done some pretty CPU-intensive operations such as transcoding a DVD to watch on my iPad and playing Half-Life 2 (on Linux, using Wine, which adds some additional processing overhead), and it hasn't ever gone over 50C. This is with an i7-2600K which is no puny processor. The fan is virtually silent at low RPMS and ideal for HTPC usage - as I mentioned, my temperatures have remained low with the fan at a low speed during intensive tasks. Watching a movie is even less CPU intensive and the fan remains at the lowest setting and CPU temps never go over 40C. Overall I'm very impressed with this cooler and is has exceeded my expectations.Some of the other reviews on this item are correct that it can be a pain to install if you're not patient. If you don't have an access panel on your case to get to the underside of the motherboard, you will be required to remove the motherboard to install the heatsink backplate. I didn't find this to be a problem; in fact I'd much rather have a backplate securing my heatsink as opposed to the original Intel pushpin design.Another quirk is that the metal portion of the heatsink is very close to my RAM and is mounted over the top. Perhaps with a larger motherboard this wouldn't be the case, but it a concern with my micro ATX board. I'm not sure how hot my RAM modules are getting because of this, however I haven't experienced any problems yet. Due to the mounting and the design the heatsink is directly above my RAM which means if I need to replace or upgrade RAM I will need to remove the heatsink to get access to the slots (and remove the motherboard to get the backplate off). If you have RAM modules that have large heatsinks that protrude from the top such as the G.Skill Ripjaws then you might have clearance issues. These are all necessary engineering tradeoffs that I can live with for fitting a decent cooler in a small form factor case.

The stock cooler really was not doing the job cooling my FX 4100 chip. Temps up around 55 during transcoding are really too high. I had already tried to install a tall cooler with negative results. This one fits in the small case and cools the CPU. It was a bit of trouble to install. It uses a clip that clips to the standard AMD mount instead of replacing it with screws as some aftermarket coolers do. To make matters worse, its a two piece clip and while I was attempting to clip it down it kept coming apart. Due to the overhang of the large cooling fins you can't clearly see what you are doing. While installing,I ran out of cuss words for the guy who engineered the clip. A one piece clip would have saved a lot of trouble. But this is a good solution if you have heat problems. Just don't expect the installation to be easy.

I bought this to cool an AMD A10-5800K quad core/graphics APU. Because the space available in my case (Foxconn SFF R20-A1) was very limited due to where the CD/DVD drive is mounted, I was forced to find a heatsink that leaned toward the I/O panel. This one was just the right size, the COOLER MASTER GeminII was too tall, and the 120mm fan versions are too big. This one just barly fit!Pros:- Direct contact heatpipes cool more efficiently than non-direct.- Shape allows you to provide clearance on any side of the CPU.- The Supplied fan has 4 vibration reducing rubber pads in the corners you can pilfer when you replace the fan (see cons below).- There is enough cleance for normal height memory modules like Kingston Hyper X, Corsair XMS, and non-heatsink memory.Cons:- The retaining clip for FM2 socket is hard to keep together. It has two metal pieces held together with pressure and comes apart easily while trying to position. It is secure once fastened down though. The lever protrudes further out than the heatpipes do. It got in the way of wires that couldn't be moved. This required me to turn the clip around so that the lever was under the overhanging heatsink fins. This ment that I could not fasten it down using the lever. I had to press down firmly on the other end with my finger to clip it into place. This works fine for me. Your experience may differ.- The fan supplied is too loud and too big. I removed one star for this. I used a slim fan from the Scythe Suriken rev. B heatsink (I would have used that heatsink but it would not fit). It's far quieter and thin enough to fit under the lid of my case. Cooling performance is only slightly worse with the Scythe fan (1-2 deg. Celsius). but a good tradeoff for my use as an HTPC. The supplied clip is slightly bent to fit the larger fan but works fine.Other:- The fan retention clip will not work for a closed corner fan, it clips into the bottom hole on open corner fans only. There are no holes to screw the fan into place.

works well with my AMD 8 core and runs silently and cool. Thx for the great CPU Cooler

seems to work well in i7 2600 processor, not over clocked but ran flat out for near four hours n no complaints. would recommend to a friend thanks

really keeps cpu cool

Good cooler, not super quiet but quiet enough, might be due to noisy other parts of my system.

Good cooler for amd cpu. I use it for my FX 8350 and under load it only goes at 50c. Only thing why i dont give 5 stars is the installation, can be tricky in a mid atx tower