Vantec Aeroflow FX 92mm:

• Heat-Pipe Direct Touch Technology (HDT)

• Three 8mm Diameter Heat-Pipe

• Fan Vibration Dampener

• 92mm High Performance PWM Fan

• 3-In-1 CPU Mounting Bracket

• Thin & Lightweight Heat Sink

• Compatible with Intel Socket 775/478 & AMD Socket AM2/754/939/940 CPU

Gander taken, let's go and find that goose who has the specifications.

Right, with the fowl safely shoved from the way, it's finally time to tear this little sink out of the package. Though it seems fairly unassuming when seen through the plastic window, there's actually quite a bit of substance hanging off of those 8mm copper heatpipe bones. Packaged inside the rather fragile carton with the heatsink, a small instruction manual, two sets of mounting arms (for Socket 775 and AM2), and a tube of thermal grease ensure that the package is rounded out. Now, due to the design of this heatsink's base, and the tiny size of the tube, the longevity of this thermal paste is in question. But I digress. Let's discard the packaging and inspect the cooler.

With the heatsink finally free of it's restrictive packaging, its time to make a few objective observations about the thing. First and foremost, the small 92mm fan is coupled to the body of the fins with a set of four rubber push in rivets - which should help to entirely deaden any vibrations generated by this small fan when it's operating at full tilt. Though, with the smaller size of the fan and the reduced body of fins, you may find yourself able to clearly hear this cooler at load.

As to the rather stylish design of this cooler, it sits as pure aesthetics, unfortunately, with no discernable gains made by these fin shapes. Turning the cooler over, the distinctive base with the three flattened pipes installed can be seen - the same base which is used on the FX 120; mirroring it's exact mounting system and all. Though there is a fair gap between base and pipe, the real problem will come in thermal grease application - it will need to be placed on the heatspreader in such a way that all three pipes are evenly covered. But that's a problem for the installation stages.

Right, with the cooler itself out of the way, it's finally time for the actual installation. As you'll come to see in the first picture, this cooler uses Intel's lovely push-pin style retention; which oddly enough works out well - albeit only in this case. I suppose you could call that the boon of a lighter heatsink that doesn't protrude as far from the board. Along with that, this cooler was probably the easiest push-pin cooler of the recent batch to get off, due to the bulk of it's mass being out of the way. To the actual installation itself - just put a lovely + of thermal grease on your CPU, seat the cooler, push and lock the pins. I'd recommend you make the first insertion out to be one of the ones under the fan, otherwise you'll never get it.