27.12.2012

I bought this to replace the stock cooler on my CPU as in the last few months it had started to overheat, reaching 60 degrees centigrade under full load, at which point the motherboards self-protection features would kick in, and turn the CPU speed down to prevent it getting any hotter and being damaged. The heat-sink was fluff free and the fan blades clean (I had already removed them both and thoroughly cleaned them!)Initial impression of it were good. It looks like it is well made, feels solid without being massively heavy, and is well packaged.While it does come with a host of fittings, these are because it is made to fit a variety of different types of CPU.It was easy for me to identify the correct two fittings for my AMD processor without even needing to check the instructions before hand. when I did check my guess had been correct. It also ships with its own thermal paste, but I did not use it, preferring to use "Artic Silver 5" Arctic Silver 5 AS5 Premium 3.5g tube instead.Fitting was a bit of a fiddly affair: The two parts of the mounting clip do not hold together until the whole thing is locked into place- the locking lever kept falling off. This was mostly because I did not wish to unplug all the cables etc from the PC so I could move it to a location with better lighting while at the same time lay the PC on its side to improve access, and partly because it is a rather large cooler, restricting access and visibility to the clips.Even so it still took under 20 minutes. Had I not been lazy it would have probably taken 5 mins to fit the cooler + 15 minutes unplugging an re-attaching all the cables on the back of the PC- no quicker but less of a fiddle. The clips I needed allow it to be fitted in 4 orientations North-South, South-North, East-West, West-East, meaning I was able to get the fan to blow the hot air it produces directly towards an exhaust fan at the back of the case. If the case had had top-mounted exhaust fans I could have (space permitting) fitted the cooler to blow the hot air toward the top.SO, does it actually WORK?The CPU now reports a temperature 0 to 2 degrees below the motherboard's temperature at idle. My PC always did this when it was new (I have a case fan blowing room temp air in almost directly above the CPU, and this is the air the CPU cooler mostly uses to cool the CPU with, rather than air from inside the case, hence how the CPU can be at case air temp or below.)Under full load the CPU fluctuates between 43 & 48, depending on the MB's temp, never seeming to get more that 15 degrees hotter than case temp, instead of getting to 60 and clock-throttling while at the same time bringing up "There are some warnings: CPU TEMPERATURE." on the screen.When it does get up to 48 one can almost see the "heat pipe" technology cut in (Imagine the coolant boiling and carrying away the heat) and the temp drops back down again by 3 or 4 degrees. A four hour test at full 100% load on both cores saw it stabilize at 45. Had I not fitted an Akasa GRM92-AL01-BK 92mm Aluminium Fan Filter to the fan it might even do better as a cooler. It is also nice and quiet at idle.AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core 5400+ 2.8Ghz CPU in custom home built PC.Minor edit. The side panel fan fouled the top of one of the heat-pipes EVER so slightly when I went to permanently refit the side panel of the case properly, (up till then I had been just "hanging" the side panel on) preventing the side panel fitting properly. Had the side panel fan been 5mm further toward the front of the case it would not have been a problem. 20 seconds with a "plastic knife" (A soldering iron attachment) removed a 10mm wide by 3mm deep bit from the fan cowling in the relevant location, problem solved.The coolers performance is getting better, which is inline whith the claims made my the makers of "Artic Silver 5"Quote "During the CPU's initial use, the compound thins out to enhance the filling of the microscopic valleys and ensure the best physical contact between the heatsink and the CPU core. Then the compound thickens slightly over the next 50 to 200 hours of use to its final consistency designed for long-term stability. "This is in line with my experience, as the max temp the CPU is getting to is now more like 9 degrees above ambient, and improving.

17.5.2020

I was initially a bit skeptical about installing one of this type (non factory default) of coolers, given I mostly had used factory default coolers for CPU(s), but after this experience, I got the confirmation that this type of cooler really pays off. Shipping came off before schedule (was to arrive at 15-16 may, arrived at ~11th may), albeit what's important for the review is the product itself.I recommend it for both overclocking enthusiast and skeptical alike, given how much it had cooled my CPU down - in the non-overclocked form it actually reached 28ºC (used speed run for temperature feedback) in idle form. Was used to have it at 50-60ºC even in idle form with renewed thermal past,

15.8.2013

Background - had recently replaced original AMD 3800+ CPU with a hand-me-down 4600+. Re-used original cooler/fan and was surprised at significant increase in temperature and fan noise. Research led to this TX3 Evo combo.Having been a bit worried that this might be a touch'n'go fit in my Acer T180 desktop (7" wide across top) it actually fits comfortably - both in terms of other motherboard "furniture" and headroom when the PC side panel is refitted.The motherboard (MCP61SM-AM) has a 3-pin fan header, the TX3 Evo has a 4-pin cable. Just attach the 4-pin TX3 Evo cable in the same orientation as the original 3-pin one (prompted by the tongue and groove nature of these connectors)

20.5.2016

So i got this as i was having problems with my i7 overheating. It was running at 72c roughly and going over 80c when running Games on Ultra, I saw good reviews for this and i thought for the price it might be worth a try.First, Install, it was much easier to fit then i was led to believe, i cant believe i nearly got swayed by those reviews which said it was difficult to install it literally took me less than 30mins. Yes you will need to be able to take both side panels off and you will need access to the back of the motherboard but not an issue for most towers. It is tall so do check the dimensions for the width of you case mine was fine with about 20-30mm of clearance.Second, Performance.

4.4.2014

This was fitted to an AMD FX cpu so it's going to be a bit biased in that respect.Instructions are somewhat vague and rely heavily on diagrams so anyone with either zero experience or not much will struggle fitting this heatsink. I am a typical bloke so the instructions went out the window after 5 minutes!Whilst the build quality of this product can't be faulted, the actually parts that are used to secure the heatsink to the CPU are best described as flimsy! Luckily where I work, we have some good engineers so they were kind enough to fabricate some more brackets.Using the parts that came with the heatsinks, I found that after securing it, it wasn't tight enough!

8.9.2015

Did exactly what I needed it to do, so simple to set up and has worked a treat.So little bit of context, I bought a amd fx 8 core black edition cpu, now when I bought it I realised my computer kept overheating on certain games but could run certain games very well with no problems.Spec's:Amd fx 8 core cpunvidia gtx 750 ti8gb hyper x fury ddr3 ram500gb hddAnd a corsair 750w psuMy computer could run:HearthstoneLeague of legendsArma3Fine with no problems but couldn't run games like,WatchdogsCs:goCiv 5Without overheating I tried all things like plugging the psu directly into a socket not a extension lead as I had it before,closing all programs not needed before starting a game and lowering all

9.4.2014

I brought this cpu cooler to replace my stock amd cooler for my AMD Athlon ii x4 760k, by the way the stock cooler SUCKS, i was getting on idle 55 degrees and on full load it will go up 102 degrees. After see these temps i decided to look for a good aftermarket cpu cooler. I was deciding to get this on the Hyper 212 evo, but after releasing the hyper 212 evo was too bulky and big and would hit my graphics card. i decide to purchase the TX3 Evo.When the cooler arrived it was difficult to install, only because the manual was very clear, it took 30 minutes to remove the stock cooler and install this coolerAfter having this cooler for about a week now my idle temperatures sit cool at 30 degrees,

15.9.2018

I removed my old cooler to clean out the dust. It was a stock item when PC was built. When I put it back in I neglected to put new thermal paste on the surfaces. As a result the PC was running a little hot but when gaming the temperature was hitting above100 degrees consistently leading to PC crashing.Bought this cooler along with some MX4 thermal compound. I am so happy I did this as it is working brilliantly and my PC is not going to slowly roast to death. Now runs at around 33 degrees doing standard stuff and hasn’t gone above 67 degrees whilst playing Battlefield 1. It is quiet too. I was thinking about purchasing an additional fan to add to it but am thinking that I don’t really need to now.Fitting the fan was quite easy once I worked out the easiest way to push down the pins.

12.7.2013

If you are like me and don't want the fiddling about of fitting a really expensive Heatsink to an Intel i7 where all you want to do is keep it cool for the summer and in good working order during the winter this is the Heatsink for you. Like the Intel Heatsink it basically plugs into the motherboard the same way the Intel one does but it is bigger and has the advantage of having the fan being movable, or if you are into some serious cooling you can add another fan yourself. The fan fittings are available even down to the rubber stbilisers which stop vibration from the fan making a noise. It works with both AMD and Intel. I can only say from experience that it will work with the series 3 i CPU's to an i7 3770K down to the P4 Lga Q6600.

15.12.2014

FITTING:AMD3+ easy clips. A little bit fiddly to fit and difficult to get centred, however undoubtedly easier than removing the MoBo and fitting a backplate.PERFORMANCE:Compared to my AMD stock cooler this only gets about 2 - 3 degrees C improvement on my AMD FX-6150 8core Bulldozer. HOWEVER it manages this at less than half the fan speed. Going from 4500 RPM noise to 2000 (under max load) is very refreshing. Also has the option to replace the fan AND add a second for extra cooling. I'm getting a max 61 degress under load and around 31 idle which is better than the 65+ I would get under load at which point warnings are triggered by my MoBo and I used to switch my PC off.I think in the summer,

23.3.2016

I bought a new custom gaming PC a few months ago from Cyberpower and the only regret I had about this was selecting the default fan which they install automatically.When I received my PC and I started gaming on it, the default AMD stock fan made such a HUGE noise that it sounded like some type of car engine. It didn't matter to me too much because I had headphones in most the time, but eventually I got fed up. I got recommended to buy this Cooler Master fan which said it will cancel out all the noise. I received this and I installed it myself, I received all the parts needed to install it, as well as some Cooler Master thermal paste which was very useful.

21.9.2014

When I was looking for a CPU cooler I was very drawn to the Hyper 212 Evo after reading reviews, but then I noticed that it wouldn't fit in the case I had chose. So I said "oh well" and carried on looking. After a few minutes I found the TX3 Evo and it looked perfect for me. It fit into my case and it didn't look much different from the 212 Evo so I thought that it would have very good performance for the price. Only after I had bought it had I found a fair few reviews stating that it wouldn't be any better than the stock cooler so I was a bit worried, but I thought I'd at least try it for myself and then return it if it wasn't any good.

20.3.2016

Installed on an AMD FX8350, at stock at the moment, the TX3 has kept it very cool and quiet. Te highest temps ive seen was when using unreal engine 4 it peaked at 48c. Mounting was a bit fiddly as i installed it whilst the motherboard was in the case (a corsair carbide Spec-01) meaning i had to remove my graphics card to have enough room to clamp on the bracket down - it uses the standard AMD mounting system using the hook and the lever to secure it meaning theres no need to install a backplate which is a nice feature. The thermal paste is a small tube of coolermasters own, which does the job nicely.Things to watch out for that i realised is that the little lever you need to hook on only fits

17.5.2014

I'll tell you!This is one fantastic cooler. My AMD stock cooler was kicking up a racket of late and after reviewing several several coolers I decided on this one for two reasons:1. reviewers said that it was quiet2. it was the cheapest around.Firstly, ensure your case has the room. You can simply measure the height of your case to ensure there's enough room and laterally so that your RAM in not hindered. For Intel users installation is more straight froward, but a bit fiddly for AMD users. However, for me one of the main features is the multi-directional positioning of this cooler. I have my fan blowing air out through the top of my case which has 2 air vents instead blowing across the RAM and PSU.I'm a happy camper.

30.6.2015

Fitted to an AMD chip inside a case. For AMD it is a simple clip on fitting. I found that because I was retrofitting with the motherboard in the case it is best to temporarily remove graphics card to give your hands room to move. You need to get your hands well into the case in order to get the clips to fit. If you don't remove any cards which are in the way you'll find the cooler slips all over the place, mucking up your thermal paste. By the time you get the clips on it will be a right old mess of paste. Give yourself some working room and it all becomes much easier.The cooler is performing much better than the stock cooler on my FX4170. It is certainly a lot quieter and cooler when the going gets tough.Very good price I feel.

CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 (RR-910-HTX3-GP) - Reviews

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