My gosh blade, you need to lay off the cofee.
My venom is not directed at you personaly but at the Dr Thermal V77L.
I own and really hate this heat sink. It's my personal goal in life to get the word out on how bad this heat sink is.
THANK YOU for the tip on forceibly bending the lever back to bend the clip. Will try that when I take the HSF off the next time.
To me this HSF is not just loud, it's silly you've gotta be kidding loud.
And yes there are a lot of reviews that say it is "quiet". Perhaps it is shipping with different fans? Mine shipped with a Y.S. Tech
FD1270157B-1F which is rated at 40DB and 5,000 RPM. My motherboard thinks the fan is turning at 5,600 RPM.
I've seen some vendors claim the specs on the fan are 3800 RPM at 34dB
I doubt the ystech specs are that much off, however what is subjective is the definition of "quiet".
If you have a computer with a 120mm intake 2 PSU fans, 92mm exhaust and a big fan on your video card then this may seem like a quiet HSF.
If like me you are building a computer for the family room, and the only other fans are a couple of 80mm panaflo L1As then like me, you may consider this a very loud HSF and throw the 70mm fan in the garbage.
However, the original question was for a good easy to install HSF for overclocking:
http://www.ocmodshop.com/drthermal.asp
Cons: Core is misaligned. Not good for overclocking
http://www.overclockers.co.nz/ocnz/cooling/drthermal/2.shtml
Dr. Thermal's performance would suit the OEM market and general users, not the hardcore overclockers.
Judging from the results, Dr. Thermal is more suited to the OEM sector and general home users. The hardcore tweakers may want to take a pass on this unit...The only thing negative, apart from its performance, is the noise of the fan. It is a bit louder considering the performance.
http://www.gideontech.com/reviews/tiv77/
Cons: Only adequate cooling. Copper core not totally centered on the CPU, a tiny portion off the mark
http://www.overclockersclub.com/drthermal.shtml
Well this product could of been designed a little better... all in all I would not recommend this cooler for overclocking, maybe for general cooling!
On the other hand there are review that say the Dr Thermal cools very well.
Perhaps the issue is inconsistent build quality by Dr Thermal?
This site would suggest that could be the problem (in other words we both are right, depending on the unit you receive):
http://www.pc-arena.net/review_full.asp?ReviewID=105
". The copper area was raised from the aluminium part. This made it dangerous to apply to the processor, in case it does not cool the processor properly, or puts undue pressure on one part of it, which may cause it to crack. When examining the heatsink I also found that the copper core was not as flat as it could have been. Both these errors meant that I needed to lap the heatsink, but the average person may not be able to do this! So, I lapped the heatsink, which involved sanding down, and then polishing the heatsink, to make it as flat as possible. This also removed the difference in levels on the heatsink."
And if you made it this far: ChrisADuffy why did you replace the stock fan on your Ti 200? I have the same card and seems to overclock fine out of the box with the stock fan. Did the Crystal Orb buy you anything other than cool looks?