The Venom from Akasa is an impressive piece of equipment. It breaks the mold of rather unspectacular-looking tower-type heatsinks, and adds some aesthetic appeal to your rig when seen through its case window. Match it with ASUS Sabertooth, Corsair Vengeance, Gainward Phantom, and you have yourself a very industrial-looking rig with the "toxic" scheme. Looks aside, Venom impressed us with performance for its price-segment, performing very close to heatsinks priced about 60% higher. It shines in the fan noise department, being the quietest cooler we tested thus far.
Where Venom could have fared better is performance for its weight. At over 800 grams, this definitely qualifies as a heavy heatsink. For its size and weight one would expect better performance. Then again, this is a medium-range option ($40~$60), and is performing quite good for its price.
Overall, Venom packs mean industrial looks with silence, giving you the kind of performance you'd expect from a $50 air-cooler. It is a great upgrade over Intel's stock heatsink, but is definitely a lot more than being a stock HSF replacement.