Thermalright AXP90 X36 Low Profile ITX CPU Cooler, 36mm Height, TL-9015 Slim PWM CPU Fan, Computer ITX Heatsink Cooler, for AMD:AM4 AM5/Intel LGA1150/1151/1200/1700/1851

The AXP90 is an amazing low profile CPU cooler and for the price it is completely unbeatable. Wherever you simply cannot use a tower cooler (because of height restrictions) or don't want to invest in an AIO, this cooler will suit your needs well. The Good: Cooling - For coolers with appropriate wattage, about 90W or below, the AXP90 will keep them cool, with the idle temps of lower draw chips, such as the Ryzen 5600G, being only slightly above ambient. Even running a full core workload at 100% the chip will be nowhere near thermal throttling. Noise - The fan used here, despite its size, is nearly silent. Even when almost completely open in the side of a Deskmini X300 I cannot hear it at all past a couple feet away from it; the fridge in the kitchen makes more ambient noise despite being half a house away. Price - I don't think you can get better for $23. Out the door for $25 with tax, having a low profile cooler be effective and quiet for less than half the cost of a competing Noctua option is enormous; I'd never pay twice the amount for something that can't do much better. The Bad: Mounting - The mounting, while being part of the nature of low profile options, is definitely tedious and you need to be prepared to replace the backplate to make this work. Unlike a lot of AM4 coolers which use the backplate already, this cannot. So be mindful of the order of assembly or you'll be forced to mount the cooler in-case behind a mess of wires (be real, you didn't cable manage)! Overall, I am very satisfied and would definitely recommend the AXP90 to anyone needing a low profile CPU cooler, limited budget or otherwise.

Overall, seems great so far. I use Thermalright and Arctic whenever I need something involving fans. If one of them doesn't have what I’m looking for, the other almost certainly does (in this build, as an example, Thermalright had a CPU cooler that fit, and arctic has 40mm fans that’ll fit). Everything I have gotten from thermalright, which at this point includes an aio, a cpu cooler, and two kinds of fans of different thicknesses and sizes, has been great, and this one seems no exception. I haven't measured the temps that this gives me yet since I don't have my case or gpu yet, but it seems to keep things cool. It will fit in my case, and it isnt too loud. Very happy with it so far. I also seen people with my same case use this cooler with higher powered cpus than my 9600x, so I figure this should last me a long while. This is also my second time using the included thermal paste. The applicator could be better, but the paste is good, and they include enough. If it means I don't have to buy my own paste quite as often, then I am happy. For $20 vs noctuas $60 price tag for the same thing, this is by far the better use of money.

Works great, cpu tends to run around 36-40°C. There are a lot of options for the mounting bracket, so it can be confusing to install, but it works well once you get it in.

The fan is working well, but the instructions weren't great, at least for the AM4 installation: broken English, small print, and tiny diagrams drawn at hard-to-decipher angles. Once I got it installed, though, my CPU temp is looking good, even in a tiny ITX case with not-so-great ventilation.

Easy to install and gives plenty of clearance for projects. This would have made building my mini-ITX much easier to build, but I bought this for a Mac G4 build. For such a big case, there is absolutely no room for an after market air cooler. I thought I was going to have to use an AIO and get even more creative. Then I cam across this low profile cooler made for just this reason. The ergonomics of the Mac G4 case does not lend itself well for a PC conversion build or adequate cooling with the motherboard placement on the swing-down door. It had previously toasted an AMD build that was always running hot and stock cooler fan running full tilt. With a few case modifications, new motherboard and chip, this things runs nice and cool when all put together. Low 30's with an Intel i3 chip, and that is with absolutely no room in the case to breathe when everything is buttoned up.

I needed a low height CPU cooler and this one works perfectly. It's cooling an AMD Ryzen 5600G in a tiny case and the temps are consistently under 75C under load. From a noise perspective, it's not bad at all, not as loud as I was expecting considering some of the other reviews. For the price, nothing else beats this in this size/form factor (from my experience). In the pics you can see the top of the cooler is level with the i/o panel on the ROG B550i motherboard. Installation was pretty straightforward, but you need to access the bottom of the motherboard to install it. Instructions could be better, but once you figure it out, it takes less than 10 minutes. I definitely recommend this if you need a low height cooler and don't want to spend a lot for it.

Back plate is THICK with this one. The mounting screws protrude so much on the back of the board to the point that most sff minimal cases are going to have clearance problems. I have 3 cases this backplate won't fit in

If you are building in a case with sub-40mm clearance for a CPU heatsink and fan, there are not too many options out there, let alone for reasonable prices. I used this in a U-NAS 4-Bay enclosure and it fits fine with enough clearance that the fan is able to draw air in to flow through the heat sink. The installation is not as straightforward as some other manufacturers as you have use hex nuts to secure the heatsink on the motherboard from the back. There aren't springs or similar tension adjustment mechanism found on other coolers so you just have to gradually tighten the screws and watch out you aren't over tightening things. This is typical with other Thermalright coolers so if you've installed one of their other units, this should be similar for you. Performance wise, this cooler is able to cool a stock 5600G under typical workloads without issue. The fan is fine, but definitely louder than other brands. Upgrading to a 15mm Noctua, Scythe, or Arctic could get you a better noise profile and maybe improve thermals slightly. But the main attraction is the price. It's basically half the price of the Noctua L9 and you prob get 90% of the performance in extreme cases. In every day use, i don't think there's much difference between the two performance wise (beyond the fan quality). This unit is definitely a solid option for more budget builds, media pc/NAS builds, etc. A lot will depend on the case you have and how much case airflow you have to allow the CPU fan to get clean air. IF it doesn't have to work too hard, you'll be fine.