Thermalright AXP-90 X36 Black Low Profile CPU Air Cooler with Quite 90mm TL-9015B PWM Fan, 4 Heat Pipes, 36mm Height, for AMD AM4/Intel LGA 1150/1151/1155/1156/1200 (AXP-90 X36 Black)

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.

Barely taller than the RAM, under full load and case fully close the 65Watt cpu did not exceed 60°C

Returning because the manual only has AM4 instructions. Product page is inaccurate.

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.

This cooler is phenomenal! I bought a Silverstone LC19B-R media center case, shopped the net for suitable parts and have built a stealthy media center computer. The case is black and the cooler being available in black you don't even see it when looking thru vent holes above it. It performs perfectly keeping my CPU (Intel i5 Core 10400) happy and super cool. The fan barely is running at 350 rpm - 550 under a moderate load. Very glad I found this cooler, it's reasonably price and does a great job! I can highly recommend it to anyone that needs a low profile cooler, the heat pipes work!