Phanteks PH-TC90LS HSF

Overclockers Club just posted a review of the Phanteks PH-TC90LS cooler. If you need a low-cost, low-profile cooler, for a non-overclocked system, this might be what you are looking for.

Now that we get past the obvious I have to say that Phanteks was able to deliver a cooler that delivers a 9% improvement in CPU cooling over the Intel box cooling solution at stock speeds. Delivering cooling on this level with a 2500RPM fan might lead you to expect a banshee in the chassis. Contrary to traditional thinking, Phanteks' TC90LS UFB fan cannot be heard at all when the chassis is buttoned up.

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Neat looking. Can see it working nicely in some setups.

Shame its not for 775 setups.

Why waste money on this when it barely outperforms the stock cooler?

Special cases where a riser puts the GPU over the CPU and you don't have the clearance for something else.
Special "low profile" cases for HTPCs.
There are some people trying to reproduce the look and feel of the alienware x51. I could see this working very well for them if they're not using liquid cooling.
It's a niche cooler. It knows it is. And in the HTPC realm, an air cooler that outperforms stock, is quieter, and has a lower profile can get attention and command a price. That's why the AXP-100, NT06-Pro, Scythe Big Shuriken 2, NH-L9 and NH-L12 all exist. This is just another extra low profile option.

Some of the other ones you listed outperform stock significantly. To me, this barely outperforms the stock cooler and if you are using it in a system that doesn't require anything exotic why not just stick with the stock fan and decrease the fan speed? It should be silent.

You'll need more space/a better cooler if you are going to be overclocking or using significant computing power.

I have nothing against it, I just don't understand quite where it fits.

what if we upgrade the fan ? maybe it could help improve the temperature little more