No kidding that this thing is hard to mount, as it took me 1/2 hour to mount it (I took time to do it right). The instruction could be more helpful if Scythe provide more step-by-step diagram of what goes where and what goes in first.
I was worried this thing would not fit in the Antec Sonata III "Quiet" case (my MB is an ASRock X58 Extreme), but it fit just fine. My next worry was it would block the RAM slots of the X58 underneath it, but it didn't block. This thing was raised high to give enough clearance under it, and I was able to install my 3rd bank of RAM with no issue (just make sure you install your RAM before snapping this "little" baby onto you MB. I believe the 6th bank of RAM would fit in as well as I see it still has enough clearance as well.
I installed the Scythe fan so that it would blow into the heat sink, and toward the chassis fan in the back, which of course sucks the air out. Not sure if that is the ultimate config or not (to my opinion, it's probably the right config). The fan is actually quite quiet and can be clipped on easily.
As a side note: the chassis fan that came with the Sonata Antec III Quiet case wasn't by any mean quiet, even at the lowest setting, and I had to replace it with another Scythe fan. As of now, I'm still wondering why Antec would put such a noisy fan in its "Quiet" case. The Power Supply that came with the Sonata III is actually quieter than even the Scythe CPU fan.
I'm running my i7 920 (2.6GGHz) at between 3-3.4GHz overclocked speed (didn't want to overclock with the stock CPU fan of the i7, and don't want to get too greedy with the overclocking). I've seen CPU temp rose to over 60-C on warm day (when people tell about the CPU temp, they never mention the room's temperature which is a very important factor which affects the CPU's temperature greatly -- they should at least give the outside temperature so people can get an idea of the relative environment). On warmer days, I usually tuned down the overclock speed a little bit to be safe (the X58 Extreme comes with a Windows-based Overclock utility that you can adjust the OC parameters on the fly, while in Windows).
From what I read (and what the Core Temp utility indicates), the max safe temperature for the i7 is 100-C, so even at 60-C my CPU should still be running ok. As of now, it is 68-F, and Core Temp reports 43-C, 42-C, 42-C, 41-C for all 4 cores running at 3.2GHz.
After 3 weeks of usage, I believe the Scythe Mugen 2 is a keeper, as it's not too expensive, comes with a decently-quiet fan, and provides adequate-to-good cooling performance for a reasonably-overclocked i7 920.
My main use of PC is computer recording. It's why I care a lot about background noise from the PC.
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Pros: This thing awesome, especially for the price. At normal usage, my PC now runs at 19 degrees C with the fan running at 20%. Easily over clocks my system over 4 GHz under 50 degrees C.Cons: This thing is HUGE. I have a nice sized mid-tower, and it barely fit in. Also, it might not fit over your RAM if it is too high profile. It fit fine for me, but be sure to take note.
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