Introduction

We would like to thank Akasa for supplying the review sample.

Features: (as listed by the manufacturer)

• Performance 12cm PWM fan in killer Viper yellow
• 4 high capacity 8mm heatpipes with direct CPU contact
• Award winning S-FLOW fan blades provide 30% more airflow
• Smart design allows for a 2nd fan for extreme performance
• Rubber fan mounts for easy installation and quiet performance

Compatibility:

• Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA775
• AMD AM3, AM2+, AM2

Specifications:

Package and Contents

Keeping up with its name, the Akasa Venom box uses some a "toxic" color-scheme of black and pale yellow, the Venom logo is done well, with a poisonous snake (probably King Cobra, since the catchphrase below reads "King of cooling"). The window on the front lets you see one of Venom's most catchy-looking part, the fan impeller, which again uses the yellow-thru-lime toxic color shade. Key features, a few award badges, and interestingly, the heat pipe count is stressed.

The back of the box lists out features and specification in detail, in four major European languages. The left side shows the advantages of the "s-flow" design of the fan blades, it also lists out features and specifications in English. The right side provides details about the easy-select clip, the fan, the CPU base with direct-touch heat pipes, the fins, and the vibration-dampening rubber bolts that hold the fan.


Upon opening the box, there are two trays locked into each other, one holding the heatsink, the other holding the fan. In the trays' cavities, the instruction manual and an accessories box can be found. It’s definitely a nice touch to have all the accessories packed away into that small box.

The accessories box contains:

• A sachet containing all the screws, nuts and bolts you’ll need
• Separate retention plates for Intel and AMD sockets
• Eight rubber bolts to latch the fan(s) onto the heatsink
• A sachet containing thermal paste

The instruction leaflet is visually well-detailed, and carries instructions in multiple languages.

A closer look

Akasa Venom is all of aluminum, nickel-plated copper, and a nice dash of black and yellow with the Venom logo on the topmost aluminum fin. A typical tower-type cooler looks rather bland when seen through the case-window. Akasa decided to spice this up with a sporty-looking sticker, a non-illuminated "toxic"-colored fan and rubber bolts. This gives a product-like feel to the cooler, rather than a component-like. The designers also made sure that for its styling, design elements essential for good cooling performance aren't compromised.

The aluminum fins are asymmetrical in shape. One side has a concave edge, while the other has an edge-line pointing outwards. Both sides have holes for fan bolts, leaving you room for a future "pull-fan" upgrade for higher performance. For the same reason, eight rubber bolts are provided. While rubber bolts do tend to offer better vibration dampening, they're a tough ask when removing or replacing. Akasa's bolts, however, are longer, giving you greater grip.


The 120mm fan packed with the Venom is a medium speed non-illuminated fan, rated to move 83.63 CFM of air. Despite speeds of up to 1,900 RPM, the fan is able to push that much of air, because it is said to have adopted a more efficient impeller blade design. According to the company, the "S-Flow" blade design pushes 30% more air compared to normal blade designs (keeping speed constant).

The frame is made of tough ABS plastic. The impeller seems to be using a different grade of plastic that allows it to be molded the way it is, but is very hard, tough to bend the blades. The cable is sleeved, a very nice touch. The fan uses a standard 4-pin connector, which can connect to almost all current motherboards' CPU fan headers. It supports pulse-width modulation (PWM) method of fan-speed control, voltage-based method is naturally supported, in case you decide to plug the fan into a standard 3-pin fan header on the motherboard, instead. An increasing number of motherboards these days are letting you select between the two kinds of speed control in the BIOS setup, with the fan plugged in to the CPU fan header.


Akasa Venom uses four 8 mm thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes that are bent in a U-shape, passing through the CPU base. The pipes pass through the aluminum fins in a uniform file and not scattered. While this might help aesthetics, it isn't a great boost for heat-dissipation. Perhaps a couple of pipes could have been made to pass through the central portion of the aluminum fins, allowing a more uniform dissipation, and also stepping up air-turbulence.


The Venom uses a heat pipe direct-touch CPU base, a design in which the heat pipes that convey heat to the aluminum fin array, make direct contact with the CPU IHS, eliminating the need for a base-plate that could add some thermal-resistance. The flip-side of this approach is that the gaps between the pipes and the base serve as crevices, where thermal-compound can seep in. Thicker portions of thermal compound can then actually increase thermal resistance. Venom's base is well-milled, this is where you get to see the copper underneath the nickel-plating of the heat pipes.