Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler Review

[siopao1984]

Adept PC users are rarely satisfied with the factory bundled CPU cooler, being it because of the performance, noise and/or aesthetics, creating a great demand for good aftermarket cooling solutions. Out of the many products currently available, today we are having a close look at the latest offering from Akasa, the Venom Voodoo CPU cooler, which is boasting exceptional performance and socket LGA 2011 support.


Manufacturer features and specifications

• Performance 12cm PWM fan in killer Viper yellow
• 6 high capacity heatpipes with direct CPU contact
• Award winning S-FLOW fan blades provide 30% more airflow
• Dual 12cm viper yellow fans

[siopao1984]

Akasa supplies the Venom Voodoo cooler inside a large, sturdy cardboard box with a black/green theme. Information on the product’s features and a few pictures can be found at the sides and the rear of the box. Inside the box the cooler is carefully enclosed inside polystyrene foam pieces.



Supplied with the cooler, you will receive both cooling fans, the necessary metallic retention brackets needed for the installation of the cooler, a small syringe of Akasa’s AK-455 thermal compound, a 3-pin adaptor which allows the fans to be powered by a single motherboard header and a basic black and white manual.

This cooler is designed to hold one or two 120mm cooling fans and Akasa supplies both. The supplied fans feature curved “S-Flow” blades which are supposed to enhance airflow by up to 30%. These yellow S-Flow fans which Akasa supplies with the cooler are PWM controlled and have a maximum rotational speed of 1900RPM, although their speed can drop as low as 600RPM.

[siopao1984]

The new Akasa Venom Voodoo is a tower-style high performance cooler and bears no resemblance to the older Venom model. The body of the new cooler is entirely different, tall but not very wide and with a much more sophisticated fins design.



The aluminum fins of the Venom Voodoo cooler are cut in a U shape, reducing airflow resistance and therefore the generated noise. The fins are also teethed, even on the sides, probably in order to further increase the overall performance of the cooler.



At the top of the cooler Akasa placed a thick plastic cover, serving mostly as an aesthetic enhancement and covers the ends of the heatpipes. The center part of the cover is a yellow mesh with the cooler’s logo at the center.



The six copper heatpipes come in direct contact with the CPU while rest of the cooler’s base is made out of aluminum and serves no other purpose than ensuring the mechanical cohesion of the product and providing space for the mounting brackets to be installed. The portion of the heatpipes which comes into direct contact with the CPU appears very well machined to a smooth finish but minor gaps are being formed in between the heatpipes.

[siopao1984]

The installation of the Akasa Venom Voodoo cooler is relatively straightforward and removing the motherboard from the case is not required if the case has a tray cut open behind the CPU area. The first thing a user has to do is insert the backplate from the back of the motherboard.



Next, after finding which retention brackets are right for their system, the users need to secure them on the cooler itself by using the provided screws. AMD users will also have to remove the reference plastic retention bracket from their motherboards before they proceed with the installation of this cooler.



A thin layer of thermal compound has to be spread on the CPU before placing the cooler on it and securing the cooler using the provided screws. The screws can be tightened by hand but in order to secure them tightly one has to use a simple Philips screwdriver. What is unfortunate is that the user cannot adjust the orientation of the cooler when installing it on an AMD CPU.



Finally complete with the two cooling fans clipped on, the Akasa’s Venom Voodoo cooler might be relatively compact but the two cooling fans add a lot of mass and the complete cooler will cover everything near the CPU area when installed on a motherboard. This could be a potential problem for people who want to install tall RAM modules near their CPU area.

[siopao1984]

In order to provide you with the most professional and accurate reviews, we are using the following equipment to test the performance of coolers. The system automatically calculates the Delta T temperature, which is the difference between the ambient temperature and the temperature at the top of the thermal core.

Custom copper thermal core with automatic power controls
Watlow heat generation rods
PT100 temperature sensors
Lutron DW-6091 Power Analyzer
SL-5868P digital sound level meter
CompuLAB interface
MyPClab thermal interface
Custom calibration box
Custom software

More information about our testing equipment and methodology can be found in this article.



The Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU cooler delivered excellent thermal performance results, both while running the fans at maximum and at low speed. For a cooler using two 120mm fans, the acoustics performance is more than satisfactory, with the cooler being almost inaudible when the fans were running at a low (but not their minimum) speed.

[siopao1984]

Quality (30% of the total score)

The quality of the Venom Voodoo cooler is unquestionably well above average, yet we would not call it perfect. The body of the cooler is very well designed and is strong, sturdy and very well manufactured. We were a little concerned with the teethed cooling fins and their countless pointed edges, however they are not very sharp and it would take a considerable amount of force for someone to be injured while handling the cooler. The base of the cooler is not perfectly flat and that is understandable; it is technically impossible to make the base of a direct contact cooler perfectly flat, the heatpipes will form gaps between them.

Quality Score 9.0/10



Performance (40% of the total score)

When it comes to performance, we feel that the Venom Voodoo is not going to disappoint any enthusiast. The dual fan Venom Voodoo offers better performance while generating less noise than several other competitive products, easily competing against some of the best products currently available. Reducing the speed of the fans down below 1000RPM also makes the cooler nearly inaudible without a critical reduction of its performance, which is excellent news for those who require high performance combined with low or no noise and do not wish to implement watercooling solutions.

Performance Score 9.0/10



Aesthetics (20% of the total score)

Aesthetically, the Venom Voodoo cooler may based on a common tower design but it certainly delivers a unique appearance. The body of the cooler itself is pretty standard; copper colored heatpipes and aluminum teethed fins, which do create an attractive pattern but hidden behind the cooling fans. Akasa managed to make this cooler attractive by simply installing a plastic top cover and by implementing a striking contrasting theme of yellow and black. We suspect that modders who are using UV lamps will love the Venom Voodoo; on the other hand, people who like more serious-looking products might be looking for something more subtle.

Aesthetics Score 8.5/10



Value (10% of the total score)

Given that the Akasa Venom Voodoo cooler has just started retailing in Europe for about 45€ including VAT we believe that the average worldwide price of this cooler will be about 50-55$ USD, a very good deal for a product with that kind of performance and with both high quality cooling fans included in the package. The socket LGA 2011 support enhances the long term value of the cooler even further in case the new socket becomes mainstream, although we do not believe that many of the potential purchasers will be upgrading towards a socket LGA 2011 soon.

Value Score 9.0/10

[eXpLoDe]

estimated price ani bai siop's?

[siopao1984]

estimated price ani bai siop's?

na post na bitaw... kaw na lang bhala convert into peso

Value (10% of the total score)

Given that the Akasa Venom Voodoo cooler has just started retailing in Europe for about 45€ including VAT we believe that the average worldwide price of this cooler will be about 50-55$ USD, a very good deal for a product with that kind of performance and with both high quality cooling fans included in the package. The socket LGA 2011 support enhances the long term value of the cooler even further in case the new socket becomes mainstream, although we do not believe that many of the potential purchasers will be upgrading towards a socket LGA 2011 soon.

Value Score 9.0/10

[dhekoy33]

nice cooler....pila pud kaha ni?

[eXpLoDe]

how come duha ang nka display sa diagram? same with frio and c1