Reeven ArcZiel RC-1203 120mm Top-Down Quiet CPU Cooler

I bought this cooler to replace my stock Intel (i7 1366, 3.20 GHz). With the stock cooler re-encoding a Blu Ray would top out at 100c, after fitting this Reeven ArcZiel RC-1203, temps are down to 72c under the same (heavy) load. It betters the Noctua by 9c and is an excellent cooler. Fitting is a little fiddly but is well worth the effort. You can make it much easier by modifying your case with a 11.5cm square hole to the rear of the CPU socket, I have done this and I can now remove and refit without the need to remove the motherboard first. It also made the initial fitting much easier.

This is the best performing cooler I have ever used and well worth the money, the only way you will do better is with water. Excellent service from Quiet PC as well, ordered at 3.00 pm and was delivered 11:30 next day.

Replaced my noisy stock cooler for one of these. No problems to fit as the instructions were quite easy to follow. I’ve got my unclocked Phenom 2 sitting about 4 or 5 degrees C above room temp while the system is at idle which is quite impressive given that it’s as near silent as can be. Mother board temps have come down a few degrees also which is an added bonus. Very happy with my PC now. Just a note, my cooler came supplied with thermal paste in the box, could have saved myself a fiver had it been in the product description.

I used this cooler to replace a stock Dell Vostro 430 MT cooler, on an i5 (LGA1156). As expected, it gave a drop of several degrees celcius under all loads - you could expect that from any cooler on here.

It is quite a big heatsink, and only just fits in the Dell case, although I did check first to be sure! It has good height clearance of the neighbouring components. My RAM does not have tall heatsinks on each stick, otherwise it might have been a bit closer than I would like. The hardest part of the installation was getting the old backplate off the motherboard without damaging it; after that it is quite straightforward, although it is worth taking 10 mins to read the instructions, as the brackets are designed for a range of sockets, and you have to construct it yourself.

As for noise: it is fine. I am sure there are quieter coolers, but this is quiet enough for me. I have no fan controller on this, so you can hear it with the case open. This PC is my main Windows 8 development PC, and it sits under my desk in an office environment - I cannot hear the fan when I am working. I find fan noise very distracting when I am trying to concentrate, so I am quite picky - this Reeven fan does a great job quietly.