COOLER MASTER Vortex Plus RR-VTPS-28PK-R1 92mm Long life sleeve CPU Cooler

Pros: This thing is awsome! If installed correctly, it works great. You just gotta make sure you got just the right amount of heat sink compound on it, just a very thin layer ( o ya and make sure you get it down into the groves by the heat pipes.
Its quiet and has my I5-3570K at 60 deg under full load at 4.5 ghz. 1.27 vcore.
Its working better than my buddies water cooling system that he paid $160 for!

Cons: The lock downs are a little flimsy, just be careful when you install, and all will be well.

Other Thoughts: To make it work the best, put the bends in the heat pipes twards the bottom when case is stood upright.
We tried it every 90 deg, and found with the bends twards the bottom we got 5 to 10 deg cooler temps.

If you have an Ivy Bridge and cant get the temps down, you got your self one, that didnt get good contact between the die, and the chips heat spreader. Intel decided to use paste instead of soldering the heat spreader on the chips, some get good contact some don't. It can be fixed but is a delicate process. 3 out of the 8 Ivy bridges we have used have had this problem. Look up "Ivy Bridge remove ihs" on youtube for the fix.

Pros: I had a problem with my CPU Cooler I got this one and my temp went form 63c and know down to a low of 39c that is just what I need.

Cons: I have the AM3 Socket the mounting can be a little better

Pros: At this point I am not able to use it to have any technical opinion about it but judging by their poor customer support and bad quality control I cannot hope for much.

Cons: I purchased this unit at the auction place (newegg did not allow the name)from a private seller who did not need it but was factory sealed as I received it so. Once I checked the contents I noticed, there was extra pieces but missing two brackets that tie to the socket 1155/1156 on the board. Obviously I could not use the cooler, so I asked Cooler Master to honor its warranty , case EW7V3 subsequently denied was there response. I am not sure why not at least explain their reason. I have used their PC cases but this was my first CPU cooler, I think if had to call them for my previous purchases I could get a big DENIED, their way of business as usual. I am posting beautiful review for a used Zalman cooler I purchased from major online store( newegg may allow the reference to Brazilian river I hope)and a part that I mistakenly ruined was replaced for a small fee but they sent a fan with it too.

Other Thoughts: When you got to g you got ot go, many must leave PC world as market is focusing on tablets and PC will go to industrial uses such as operating machinery or laboratory devices as I did work as IT years ago and prior to that used CNC machines hooked up to PC.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We are sorry to hear about the trouble you had with the Vortex Plus cooler. Unfortunatly the aucton house items are considered second hand / used. For that reason we are not able to honor the new product warranty.

You are, however, able to purchase the parts you need at the link below. If you have further questions please contact us.

Respectfully,

CMUSA Support

External Link(s):

vortex accessory kit|

live chat|

support|

Pros: Unit looks nice. Haven't had enough time to evaluate it in a running environment yet.

Cons: Cheap mounting pegs
EXTREMELY slow tech support

Other Thoughts: The 4 mounting pegs that secure the unit to the motherboard are very cheaply made plastic. I accidentally broke one trying to install it the first day. I put in a part replacement request the next day. FOUR weeks later I tried to use their live chat. Almost 45 minutes and no one ever answered the request. Another WEEK AND A HALF later I got an email telling me the part had shipped. FIVE AND A HALF WEEKS to replace a single mounting peg. Atrocious support and Cooler Master management should be ashamed of that kind of response time. ZERO contact from them other than "we got your request" and "request processed". Thankfully they sent me a complete mounting assembly. After the replacements arrived, I mounted the brackets and the heat sync fan. Immediately after I got the whole thing mounted one of the mounting feet broke off. It took FOUR of these pegs before I finally got to one that didn't break on me.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We are sorry to hear about the trouble you are having installing the Vortex Plus. If you are still having problems with the mounting pegs please contact us so that we can assist you in the installation.

Respectfully,

CMUSA Support

External Link(s):

Live Chat|

Pros: Great Little Cooler and got mine for $25 from A Major American Zoloo American Men and I have it on a A8-3850 and pushing it to 3.3Ghz and 800Mhz core clock on IGP comfortable at 45-48C on full load and 18-25C on idle.
This is great for a Slimline options, please check other thoughts for more on OC and slimline power build.

Cons: Installation isn't to hard for AMD due to it goes right onto existing retention bracket which is nice but con is how tough it was to get clipped and the flip bracket came off but was because it already had enough pressure and then some on the retention bracket and it evident that its more than tight enough by temps with direct contact so no biggy cause it WORKS

Other Thoughts: I have this in a new A8 build cause was going to upgrade to new video card and Newegg special for A8-3850 w Biostar Mobo for $115!!! CPU, GPU and Mobo for 115 heck yea and then got 6670 low pro gddr5 for 60 and had 2133 GSkill laying around and Samung 830 64GB w existing 320GB BOOYAH waiting to get 6670 but this is so far with stock and this cooler.
A8-3850 @ 3.3GHz 1.41v 800MHz IGP core clock
8GB GSkill Ares 2133 running at 1866 10-10-10-30-2t 1.65v
Biostar A75GM
220W PSU
LG BD-R
Right now running SWTOR @ 1600x900 and runs very well with low shadows and high detail an runs 40-60fps comfortable and this is on stock 400 stream processors. When I get my 6670 I will be trying to achieve and will update if I can get anything from 900-1Ghz on GPU and 6550D IGP in crossfire and with speeds in sync it can run crossfire much more efficiently. SO much power per watt in these APU 50wCPU 50wGPU and fun to overclock and play with and run very well. Clock speed makes so much difference and we have seen how much better games run with high clock speeds and good Memory speeds an timing and with this APU you open up to using your RAM as your gaming and can achieve speeds that will be equivalent with fast DDR3 speed and 15-40% less than GDDR5 if set right but that is different and better if used as dedicated Gaming Memory and perfect APU w Ded GPU setup like my 6670 1GB GDDR5 BOOM its going to fly on 1600x900 res

Pros: The fan is quiet under most conditions, and it keeps my APU cool. Idle temps are near ambient room temp up to about 33c during normal operation. Fits nicely on my mITX mobo in my 7L case.

Cons: Under heavy load, my APU gets up to about 60c. I use a a10-5800k chip at stock speeds. The chip is rated at 100w TDP and this cooler is rated up to 150w TDP. Personally I would have liked this to keep my APU a little cooler, but it will have to do.

The included fan is kind of loud when running at max RPM, which it does when my temps get up to 60c.

The cooler attachment is a little loose when installed on the FM2 socket, and probably the AM2 and AM3 ones too. Its not terribly loose, but I can twist it a bit which makes me think the retention mechanism could have been designed better. I am willing to bet that if I was able to get the cooler tighter that it would lower the temps a few degrees.

Other Thoughts: My case does have limited airflow, but even when I open it up it doesn't make a difference. Playing most games my temps max out around 50c, but Skyrim pushes it to 60c.

I might try remounting this with some arctic silver to see if it makes a difference.

Pros: - Good cooling for mid-range CPUs.
- Very quiet at low RPM.
- Working well on a 95W Phenom II.

Cons: - Takes a little fiddling to install, but not that bad.
- May not handle hot, high-powered CPUs, but not really designed for that.

Other Thoughts: This is low profile, but doesn't fit all low profile cases. Measure if you have a very slim case. Just missed fitting in my Antec Minuet.

This mounted fine both an AM2+ and AM3 motherboard. I don't know why some people have had trouble.

Need to be able to crank down the fan start speed to get it under 1000 rpm. Then it's very quiet. First MB wasn't able to do that. Second MB did, but needed to use custom BIOS fan settings.

Pros: -Keeps my Intel Core 2 Quad CPU at decent temps (around 20-30 degrees)
-Included fan is very quiet
-Didn't require a backplate!
-Was easy to install if you read the directions precisely!

Cons: -Included push pins are absolute plastic garbage.
-Cooler Master neglected to include extra push pins in case one or more break

Other Thoughts: It took a whole week after I ordered this from Newegg until it finally arrived at my door. My previous one had died out and I had been without my computer for that amount of time. I opened it up and read the directions on how to install it. They weren't too well written, so I made a big mistake when installing the heatsink. It resulted in two of the push pins snapping thus being rendered useless. I was very mad at that point when I discovered that cooler master didn't include any extra push pins. These are cheaply made plastic push pins. If I had to guess, I'd say it would only take a few cents more to include extras.

I contacted their customer support, and perhaps I was a little hard on them especially after waiting over 20 minutes for a representative to get to me. I asked them for more push pins and they directed me to the part replacement page. I submitted a request and Cooler Master, even to this day, neglects to send me an confirmation email containing the info about my part request. At this point, I was extremely frustrated given what an irritable person I can be at times.

After all of that, I decided to use logic instead of anger. I inserted two screws through two risers through the back of the motherboard and I used the screws to connect the retention plates via the risers. This worked well and kept the cooler steady.

I've had pretty good luck with Cooler Master products in the past and this would be my first bad experience with them. This is a good cooler, so if you're prepared to tackle the installation, do it slowly and gently. Perhaps you'll save yourself from Cooler Master's dreaded customer support.

Pros: Quiet & fits well. It looks pretty good.

Cons: It's little difficult to install but has a firm fit. It runs quite warm 125*f on my FX 8-core. I need to find me a different one.

Other Thoughts: It's satisfactory but I am not pleased with its performance. I need to get another one; not like this one. THX.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

We are sorry to hear that you aren't fully satisfied with your Vortex Plus. Please keep in mind that this is one of our lowest profile coolers available. It is designed specifically for HTPC and slim-type chassis. To achieve greater cooling you may need to consider a larger cooler or adding additional case fans.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or require product recommendations in the future.

Respectfully,

CMUSA Support

External Link(s):

Support Page|

Live Chat|

Pros: Cools better than my stock Athlon 64 cooler and is pretty quiet.

Cons: The K8/AM3/AM2 retention plate doesn't apply nearly enough pressure so you'll have to get a bit inventive if you want to use it.
I tried bending it (as another user suggested) but it snapped right away because of a fault in the metal (the metal is bendable if you're fortunate enough to not have such a fault).
Because the plate was snapped in two I just removed 0.5 cm from its length before mending it back together using solid copper wire. The plate now applies proper pressure.

Other Thoughts: I wrote a very detailed, informative review but it erased when the site required me to re-login because so much time passed while I was writing the review.

I'm using this cooler on a Gigabyte K8N 939 motherboard with an Opteron 180 dual-core CPU, with Arctic Alumina thermal compound.
The computer case has excellent air flow and the room temp is about 4.4°C
Under high load, the core temps are 57°C and 65°C respectively.
Undervolting turned out to be a more effective method of lowering the core temps of this Opteron 180 CPU.