Alpenfohn Sella 92mm Fan CPU Cooler Review

Alpenfohn’s Sella CPU Cooler costs £17.99 in the UK and €19.99 in Europe (note that some retailers sell the normal version we reviewed and others an LGA-2011 specific version which comes with different mounting hardware). At this price point there are very few CPU coolers out there that can match this in performance terms and its only real competitor would be the Hyper TX3 which we haven’t been able to test yet. That said if you are looking for more performance then spending an extra £7-10 can get you a lot more for your money, but if you are constrained to a tight budget then the Alpenfohn Sella is a really excellent option and offers great bang for your buck. It is also smaller than most tower heatsink solution coming in at just 129mm tall meaning it will fit nearly every case on the market with the exception of a handful of small ITX and HTPC cases.

There is little I can mark the Alpenfohn Sella down for at the price point, but a few things did get to me a bit. Firstly, the tube of thermal paste was only half full – not quite sure why they didn’t just offer a full tube as I doubt it saves them much to offer only half. Secondly there are no additional fan clips provided which is slightly sad as some people might like to do push-pull. Thirdly, the mounting mechanism is not that well designed and requires you to put a lot of pressure on the motherboard during installation which is never a good idea – take extra precaution when installing this CPU cooler. Finally, the cable isn’t sleeved/black all the way to the motor which lets the presentation of the product down slightly.

Pros

• Highly affordable
• Solid performance
• Compact design
• 100% RAM compatibility
• Firm mount
• Relatively quiet
• Capable CPU cooler for overclocking
• Clean aesthetics

Cons

• No extra fan clips for push-pull
• Only half filled tube of thermal paste
• Fan cable not fully sleeved/blackened
• Mounting procedure requires excessive force on motherboard
• No FM1/FM2 support

eTeknix says: While the Alpenfohn Sella is not a perfect CPU cooler it certainly delivers on its promise to offer excellent value for money. Anyone on a very tight budget looking for a CPU cooler that is capable of overclocking will not be let down by the Alpenfohn Sella and it comes highly recommended as one of the best 90/92mm fan based CPU coolers on the market.

Thank you to Overclockers UK and CaseKing for providing us with this review sample.