You lied to me TOM! A rant.

[joetheone]

Ladies and Gentlemen I am VERY frustrated right now.

After reading the glowing review tom's gave the Cooler Master Hyper TX2 i ordered one on newegg about a week ago with dreams of seeing my little E4300 at 3Ghz dancing in my head. And then it arrived....

At first I tried to install it without taking my mobo out of the case. Bad idea.

So after much work i finally removed the mobo and tried with it out. After much more work, frustration, and hurting fingers i finally thought i had it, but when i tried to boot up my computer it would shut off after a few seconds, and sure enough my TX2 was too blame.

So again i removed my mobo and installed it, sure i had it this time. It worked fine, but at load my E4300 @ 3Ghz (1.375 volts) would clock in at 77-80 degrees Celsius (prime95 torture tests).

For a while i just assumed that the cooler wasn't as good at cooling as tom's claimed, but today when i moved my case i heard rattling and found the dang thing loose yet again. Mad as heck, I cleaned everything off and put the good old stock cooler back on with some artic silver 5 instead of that crap that comes pre-applied when you buy a HSF and lo and behold my proc now barely hits 70 degrees at full load with the same settings.

So please, faithful posters of the tomshardware forums, stay far far away from the Cooler Master Hyper TX2. I bought it because it was supposed to be EASY to install. If intel still uses push pins with nehalem, then maybe it's time for me to go back to AMD. At least their heastsinks are easy to install..

 

[Guest]

i remember the first time i installed a heatsink. why is your voltage so high btw?

 

[mathiasschnell]

Y'know, it is possible that you simply got a defective cooler, the Mobo socket wasn't quite right or you simply installed the cooler wrong.

Heck, there's a ton of variables that could lead to your bad experience with this cooler, so you can't automatically blame the cooler itself, nor can you blame Tom's simply because they had a good experience with the product and you didn't.

 

[Oh Snap]

Amazing.

 

[briandr]

relax, the cooler master tx2 is a great cooler don't bash it because you didn't install it properly

i have owned this cooler for over a year now

its very easy to install considering the fan/fan housing is easily removable for installation.

when installed properly this heat sink easily cools my 3.0 ghz quad core to 42C idle and full load temps don't exceed 68C, not only that but it is extremely quiet and cannot be heard over my case fans.

and for the price, $25 on newegg i couldn't imagine anyone having anything bad to say about it

 

[blackwidow_rsa]

You must've done something wrong, im using a shi+ old heatsink and its still better than the stock TOY they give. My oc'd cpu hits 38c with prime95 with lowest fan speed.

 

[iluvgillgill]

you must have done something wrong. run it at stock see what temp you got now. make sure you push the pins in fully.even if they clicked it dont mean its in.

 

[chuckm]

Get one of these and quit messin' with the push pins;
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/lgbowiscsp.html

I have to ask, did you use good thermal paste when you installed the cooler ?

 

[Ogdin]

So you get a defective unit/possible botched install and they are totally useless for everyone else? Right.....

 

[halcyon]

I doubt Tom Pabst (sp?) had anything to do with your botched heatsink install. In fact, he's probably chilling in the shade sipping a Pina Colada on the beach while overclocking the f*** out of a quad to fight boredom. Who knows?

 

[iluvgillgill]

what tom looks like anyway?

anyone know where i can get those LGA775 bolt thru kit in UK?

 

[spuddyt]

i'm using that exact cooler right now..... and i'm not going far above 50 degrees....

 

[knickle]

While I am not very familiar with this cooler, it is absolutely possible that you did not install it properly. A heatsink should be extremely tight against the CPU. There should be absolutely no movement at all. It should feel rock solid. If it has any movement at all then you have probably done something wrong.

I know that the stock Intel C2D heatsink have push pins which can be a pain to snap in correctly. It's a very easy error to make. I have a friend who installed the HS/Fan wrong on his new CPU (you could actually wiggle it like it was on springs). It was pushing 100ºC and tripping the thermal protection circuit after 30 seconds. Once I fixed it for him, the temp dropped to the mid 40's.

 

[halcyon]

Knickle, I'd tend to agree with you except in the case of the Zalman 9500-9700 line of coolers. Many end-users report that despite doing everything perfectly their coolers are still "wiggle-able" despite being screwed down as tightly as possible (end of thread). The point is that the coolers are not always rock-solid...the push-pin coolers are just no fun at all.

 

[grieve]

Thems fighten words! where is Tom to defend himself!

 

[joetheone]

Ok ok ok. I give. I'm almost sure either my TX2 was broken when it arrived or I broke it trying to install it. I did say this was a rant BTW. I'm going to attempt to RMA it and see what happens, but after all my troubles idk if i want to try and install it again. I had absolutely no trouble at all with the stock HSF, and it uses push pins as well so....

P.S. I use artic silver 5 on my CPU, and what do you mean about my voltage being high? I was under the opinion that 1.35 is stick for the E4300...

 

[brendano257]

(1) You sound jealous they liked it more than you.
(2) I have one on my E8400 @ 3.6 Ghz, the push pins gave me a run for it until I read the instructions.
(3) Did you put the pins in diagonal pairs at a time? The pins must be put in by diagonal pairs or they don't work correctly.

 

[Ogdin]

Isn't it around 1.18?

 

[joetheone]

@ brendano Yes i am extremely jealous they had such a good experience with it. I read the instructions multiple times and tried putting them in in diagonals.

Is there some way i can find out the exact stock voltage of the E4300? I looked at intel's spec sheet online and it just lists the range...

 

[Ogdin]

cpu-z will show the voltage after v droop,but its not the most accurate thing going.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

I would contact the article writer for more information. Tom doesn't write articles these days.

You do have legal rights. You might try to take Tom to small claims court for the cost of the cooler, should you be angry enough.

lol.

 

[iluvgillgill]

that hyper TX2 is close performer to ACF7P so the max is it will be 5C higher to ACF7P.

 

[flyin15sec]

Looks like everyone is questioning your incompetence, however more than likely its a bad unit.

Suggestion:
I've been using a Thermalright Ultima 90. http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/utm90/product_cpu_cooler_utm90.html?art=MTQyMywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Not quite as large as a TRUE, but can handle just about any OC you give it. The smaller size makes it ideal for those with smaller cases or cases that have items that can hinder the full size TRUE. Temps for me dropped my E6850 from low 60Cs on load to about low 50C on load.I have 3 now, each cooling a E8200, E6850 and E2180.

You will have to remove the board for installation, but then you did that with the HTX2 also. Installation documentation was fairly good. Web site has detailed photo with step by step instructions

Price may be a bit high. Places will sell it around mid $50s, add a fan for around $10 and it'll be costly. You do have the advantage of choosing the fan that best suit your noise and performance levels. In the end, you have a solid cooling product that will last quite a bit of time.

 

[Mugz]

Pushpins are still better than those damn tags on the sides of the CPU socket, although not by much. If the tags are 3/10, then the pins are 3.2/10.

Give me a metal plate behind the board with a set of screws or bolts. No issues.

I've had countless issues where ham-fisted oafs have snapped the tags off while trying to install a heatsink onto a CPU, or where the pin didn't go in properly and the heatsink doesn't make proper contact.

The Socket478 coolers were nicer, apart from the tendency for the heatsink bracket to break.

 

[iluvgillgill]

OP i think your cooler experience is nothing compare to mine.

i had to install a Scythe Infinity. those have push pin instead of bolt thru backplate. and believe me!its the hardest thing to install. if anyone have had that cooler i sure they know what i mean. the heatsink is massive you really had to break and cut your fingers to get those pins pushed in.