Vetroo V5 CPU Air Cooler with 5 Heat Pipes 120mm FDB PWM Processor Cooling for Intel LGA 1851/1700/1200/115X AMD AM5/AM4, Addressable RGB Lights Sync - Black

I was looking for a cooler that wouldn't break the bank but still looked good and kept my CPU temps in check. This was easy enough to install on my AM4 socket, and the RGB lighting adds a nice touch to my build. The fan isn't too loud, even when it ramps up during gaming. It keeps my CPU cool enough, though I'm not doing any crazy overclocking. For the price, it's a solid deal. It might be a bit big for smaller cases, though.

Update 11/17/20: The fan on my cooler developed a minor problem with the fan causing the lights to work intermittently. I sent an email to support, and they offered to send me a replacement. They sent a replacement cooler in retail packaging with an addressable RGB fan instead of the original rainbow fan. The retail packaging also now lists that the cooler has 5V ARGB lighting. Pictures updated to include the new box. Overall amazing customer service from both the response times and issue resolution, and the company made good on their earlier statement that they would be using ARGB fans in future products. If I hadn't already left a 5 star review, I definitely would want to give this a 5 star review now.At a glance this cooler seems like a run of the mill hyper 212 clone, but it has a few noteworthy features that set it apart. The foremost of these are the 5 heat pipes rather than the normal 4, the easy mounting system (far easier than a lot of others from my experience), and the cooler coming in black and white instead of exposed aluminum.Pros:- 5 full heat pipes instead of the standard 4 or “5” on most hyper 212 clones. Frequently cheaper coolers that advertise having 5 heat pipes have 3 full pipes and 2 half length pipes, which doesn’t improve cooling performance much over just having 4 heat pipes, if at all.- Comes in both white and black for themed builds- Easy no hassle mounting. Far easier to mount on an Intel cpu than run-of-the-mill hyper 212 clones that use an adapter to mimic the AMD socket or even the original hyper 212 plus.- Stays snug against my cpu and can’t wiggle around. Yes, this a big enough issue with some other cooler mounting systems that I felt the need to mention it.- My i7-8700k runs significantly cooler on this than the cheap hyper 212 clone I previously used.- Nicely milled flat surface on the bottom of the cooler for good contact with your CPU.Update: Included ARGB fan has 12 LEDs in the hub, which is the most I have seen in a hub illuminated fan. I don't think you could fit any more in there.Cons:- The included fan is a "rainbow" fan with only a 4 pin motherboard connector. It cycles through a pretty rainbow pattern on its own, but can't be controlled externally. It looks nice, but it doesn’t match the theme of my build. I reached out to Vetroo about this and was informed that this was a first generation product, and that future products shipped would have an addressable fan instead.Update: no longer an issue, as Vetroo is now using ARGB fansOther thoughts:- Even though it isn’t listed, this cooler *should* be compatible with LGA 1200, as the hole spacing is supposed to be the same. Looking at other reviews at least one other reviewer says that they were able to use it with an LGA 1200 socket as well.- Even though it wasn’t listed as an available socket, I tried to mount this on an LGA 2011 socket motherboard to see if it would work. Even though LGA 2011/2066 has the same hole spacing as LGA 1366, they have different screw diameters, making this incompatible.- While most of the specs seem reasonable, I find it hard to believe that the static pressure is actually 3.61 mm H2O. That doesn’t make the cooler bad, but it just means you shouldn’t blindly trust the published specs.- The corners of the heatsink fins where the fan clips attach on my cooler were slightly bent, but not enough to impact the performance of the cooler in any appreciable way. Definitely not used, just a sign that the manufacturer may have slight quality control issues.- I’m not sure how well the outer heat pipes are contacting my CPU, as the base of the cooler is wider than my CPU. I didn’t want to take my motherboard out of my case to check, so I can’t really weigh in on this.- I can’t tell if this cooler was powder coated or anodized. It doesn’t really seem to make too much difference here, but it would be nice to know since theoretically anodized fins *should* be a bit better at dissipating heat than powder coated fins since they wouldn’t have a layer of paint acting as an insulator.- The translation from Chinese to English in the included manual is poor at best, but if you have ever built a computer before you probably won’t need the instructions anyways.In the end the main trade-off of this cooler over other comparably priced coolers turns into a question of do you want an extra heat pipe for cooling capacity or do you want a cooler with an RGB fan and RGB plate on top.

First I'll get the bad out of the way since most negative reviews already cover it. The installation / mounting system is unrefined to put it lightly. The metal brackets that attach to the cooler itself are the main problem.I have seen others complain about the intel backplate, it seems pretty comparable to others at this price point, and the screw holes on it can be snapped into 3 positions. The biggest problem here is the sticky foam that holds it in place on the mobo is too thick, so the screw holes don't push up through the motherboard like they should without pressure on it. This in combination with the bracket issue I am about to describe make installation a struggle.The brackets do not have the snap feature, the spring screws just slide back and forth in a track that allows you to choose spacing. The problem with this is that even if you get one partially mounted, it can still slide around while you try to mount the others, so you find your self fighting with the position of the cooler (lubricated with thermal paste) to line all the screws up rather than being able to just slap the cooler down in the middle and go to work on the screws. It's just not friendly. I had to force the screws down into place wriggling my screwdriver back and forth until things lined up one at a time to make sure they would all catch the backplate. I would suggest starting with opposite corners to do this and just get them to "catch", don't tighten completely until you catch all 4 on the plate, then secure them in a standard cross pattern like you would a wheel.Having said all that, I was still able to pull my PC out from under my desk, take both panels off, remove the old cooler, install this one, and get the panels back on within 20 minutes, granted I have a cutout in my case to access the back of the mobo. It's just that if you aren't a seasoned tech like me, and don't have decent hand strength I can see this being a serious hassle. The icing on the cake is that there are not really instructions for attaching the fan, so some people might have trouble with that.-----------------------------------Now that the installation is out of the way, let's talk about performance. I have an i5-9400f coming from a stock Intel cooler (I), to the Vetroo (V). All temps below were taken in a room ~21C. My case configuration pulls air into the front and side and exausts out the back. The fan on the cooler is configured to push air through it toward the back exhaust fan.Light office usage (browser, outlook, chat, vpn)I: 40-44CV: 33-35CHeavy gamingI: 72-75CV: 53-55CStress testingI: 78-82CV: 57-58CNot only are the temps significantly better but also more consistent (likely a result of the bigger heatsync providing better thermal consistency). The fan is quieter than the stock cooler, which is to say I don't really notice it, at least not specifically. The only time the fan has to ramp up is while gaming, and typically the GPU gets hotter so the fans on that have to work harder anyway.-----------------------------------The conclusion here is that the other reviews aren't wrong, the installation leaves a lot to be desired. If that's problematic for you, stay away. However, if you aren't the type that minds using a little elbow grease and dealing with mild frustration to save a few bucks, this product offers great performance for the price point once you have it mounted. Since reviews are subjective and I was vaguely aware of what I was getting into when I bought this (instead of a Noctua product), I have scored it accordingly based on cost + expectation vs outcome. 5/5