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Hello people!
Recently I noticed that my Phenom II X3 710 (2.6GHz, 95W TDP) is kinda hot while at idle (around 48°C on really hot days) and it's been more than 3 years since I build this machine and never touched the CPU or cooler (stock cooler). I guess it's time for some thermal paste replacement and I've been wanting to replace the cooler with something with more oomph than the stock cooler.

Around here (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) i got a fairly amount of computer parts shops but sadly, the options of really good coolers are almost none.
But one that has on various stores is the CM Blizzard T2 mini. It's small enough to fit into my case, a thermaltake V3 (which says the maximum height for coolers is 137mm) and prolly can fit well near the memory banks and chipset heatsinks on ECS A790GXM-AD3.

Does anyone have past experiences with this cooler? Will I see a nice drop in CPU temps with it?

Thanks for the attention and future feedback

Seems like a pretty anemic cooler. 2 heatpipes and an 80mm fan? Are there any coolers that use a 92mm fan and 3 heatpipes? That would be a better solution.

Otherwise, re-applying thermal paste and cleaning any dust out of the stock heatsink could/should get your temps back to normal.

Thanks for the fast reply DPete!
Yea, i can get a TX3 EVO (just one store sells it... =/) but it costs 40 bucks more (local currency) its kinda on the height limit of the case (136mm, case supports till 137mm) and dunno if there's enough room to it with all memory banks filled and the chipset heatsinks.
Yeah, i know its anemic compared with the whole plethora of enthusiastic cooler out there, but i'm not planning on overclock the CPU and the T2 mini shouldn't be better than the stock cooler? If I could, I would get a TX3 EVO or a Hyper 212 EVO (non-existent over here anymore...), but a lots of things prevent me from doing it, sadly.

Thanks for your reply

The stock cooler for your CPU is just one of those aluminum blocks with a 60mm fan sitting on it, right? The T2 mini should be considerably better than that. An 80mm fan with a tower design and a couple heat pipes has to be better than what you currently have. Probably won't live up to the Blizzard name, and not as good as the TX3, but still a step up and if you're not OC'ing you're probably OK.

Thanks derFunk!

Yeah it's this guy that came with the CPU: picture of stock cooler
I guess no one on the forums have ever used this model on any build before...
I'll prolly get this one and hopefully can tell how it fares under Rio's summer temps (no air conditioning involved!). Maybe I can manage to keep my case closed! XD

hakron wrote:

...TX3 EVO... costs 40 bucks more (local currency) its kinda on the height limit of the case (136mm, case supports till 137mm) and dunno if there's enough room to it with all memory banks filled and the chipset heatsinks.

Oooph, I don't know what "40 bucks" ends up being as a percentage of the cost of the T2, but 40 bucks is way more than it costs in the US. Clearance-wise, since you're buying it at a physical store, you should be able to take one home, set it on the CPU w/o thermal paste and see if everything clears. I will agree with derFunkenstein that the T2 is probably a step up from your stock heatsink. I just worry about the fact that it's only got a 3-pin connector. Maybe your mobo will be able to vary it's speed...maybe not. Only one way to find out.

Again, are you sure your stock HSF is free of dust? If that's the problem, then there's little reason to spend money on an aftermarket HSF.

If I convert brazilian real to US dollars (1 US dollar = 1.97 BR real) a T2 mini would be 30 US dollars here, the TX3 EVO would be 50 dollars. We got really screwed down here in terms of computer hardware (a GTX Titan would be for 2000 dollars...).
And yeah, my current cooler need a clean up, but i think my CPU could benefit more with the T2 mini more than on stock cooler, as I got to remove the cooler for the clean up, clean the thermal paste, i prefer putting a more efficient cooler. ^^

CM Blizzard T2 Mini installed and cooling like I never seen before such low temps on my CPU.
27°C~28°C at idle and 33°C~35°C at 100% usage (handbrake video encoding). Before i was getting 46°C at idle and 58°C at 100% usage.
The install is a little tricky on AMD side of things, especially if you do the whole process with the mobo inside the case...

The joy when Windows loaded and I saw 25°C!

Waiting for the really hot days down here, this week is much cooler than usual for our summer.