Review on 🌬️ ARCTIC Alpine 12 CO - Efficient CPU Cooler | Intel 115x & 1200 | 92mm PWM Fan by Solomon Baron

I'm running an Alpine 12 Passive with stock thermal grease over an unmodified *84W TDP* Intel Xeon E3-1226 v3 (Haswell Refresh); paired with ASRock H81 BTC Pro R2.0. I'm running it as an experimental storage server in my home lab. Installation was easy as the circuit board was already removed from my case. The most important thing to note: In my application, the heatsink is actively cooled. The main outlet for the case goes directly to this cooler. This exhaust fan is very powerful; Re-attached San Ace 12x3.8cm server fan To keep the noise level at an acceptable level, the fan is controlled in the BIOS (in most cases I *do not* recommend connecting a server fan to the motherboard). The fan rarely runs loud under all continuous loads (except Small FFT Prime95) and the processor doesn't throttle. However, under the p95 smFFT "power virus", the unibody aluminum passive cooler is completely soaked in heat within 10 minutes, even with the howl of a 120x38mm axial fan. Given that this is an extreme scenario and that it would take prolonged overload to even be a problem, I find this performance acceptable for my use case. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised that my unrealistic expectations were met. Unfortunately no temperature data. Be aware that with active cooling from a nearby temperature-controlled fan, you'll get quiet performance well above the advertised TDP rating. High CFM (temperature controlled) fan*+Pre-installed TIM not bad at all.+Affordable depending on application/target market.+/-Easy to install black anodized aluminum Reduces cost and board weight. Not compatible with Liquid Metal TIM.