Installation

Installing Sharkhan's APEX4 is a simple process. First, you will need to put the white push pins in the proper slot for your socket. With that done, position the mounting bracket on the motherboard and use the black push pins to secure it in place before applying the thermal paste.


Out of the box, your cooler will come with the fan already mounted, so all you will need to do is position the cooler on the CPU and slide the metal clips over the plastic tabs. With that done, lock it in place. After that, plug everything in and connect up the wiring if you can. I say so because the included ARGB cable is too short to route behind the motherboard tray on my test system. Sharkhan also did not include an extension cable. You would have to run it across the motherboard without an extension cable, making for quite the ugly solution. To combat this, I had to use an ARGB extension cable I had lying around.

Overall, installation was effortless, and I would rate it a 10 on a scale of 1 (hardest) to 10 (easiest). The mounting hardware is simple and exceptionally easy to work with. However, this only takes into account difficulty. While the mounting hardware works, I am not a fan of its use on this particular cooler. It felt brittle, which proved true, as during the final uninstall when wrapping up this review, a couple of the white push pins broke, making installing this cooler again impossible. Sharkhan also needs to revise the length on the ARGB cable as it's currently too short; that or they need to include an extension cable.