The side-way blowing direction is a very effective design. This will cool just about any processor. However, the 101i model has the worst kind of fasteners. The push pin type is a terrible design to begin with, and when they are made with poor quality plastic, it becomes incredibly frustrating. It is supposed to be push and lock, but because there's no clear definition of a locking position, and no visual unless you are installing the cooler before the motherboard was installed, you never have confidence if it is in and locked properly.
Also, if you are using the Intel version, the screw positions are very tricky because depending on whether you use LGA 775 or LGA 1156, they require different positioning. It is very easy to miss it because there's no clear marking. If you get it wrong, the computer is not going to boot, and you may likely not even know what is going on, and thus would be confused and frustrated. And the frustration is further worsened by the terribly uncertain fasteners.
That is exactly what happened in my installation. An otherwise half an hour process became a three-hour struggle, because I simply could not figure out why the computer failed to work and started to check about just everything.
Should have bought model 212 instead to save the trouble. Model 212 has a different design of fasteners, which although require removal of the motherboard, will in reality be much more secure and trouble-free. I bought the cheapest one because it was for a very old computer and I didn't think it was worth any good components. But if I knew that extra 10 dollars would save me from a three-hour frustration, I would have gladly paid it regardless of the worth of the computer itself.





