Akasa X4 Cooler Review

Results Analysis

Starting off with LGA775 performance, the idle delta T of 21°C produced by the Akasa X4 hinted at decent thermal performance. However, when we fired up Prime95 to load the CPU it wasn't quite as competent. A delta T of 51°C is far from the best we’ve seen. It’s 13°C hotter than the Titan Fenrir at high speed, although the Fenrir will set you back another £10. An OCZ Vendetta 2 is a more accurate comparison in terms of price, and it hits a delta T of 49°C, a couple of degrees cooler.

Gradually turning up the heat, we pushed the pins of the X4’s nifty mounting system into our LGA1156 test rig. The cooling wasn't up to par (or as festive) as that of the Titan Fenrir Xmas edition at low fan speed. The Fenrir is more costly - another £15 - but you can crank up the fan speed for performance that leaves the Akasa X4 trailing a long way behind.

Finishing up the Intel sockets we have our LGA1366 test rig. We positioned the push-pins to their outermost location and clipped the X4 in for action. After mediocre results in LGA775 and LGA1156 testing, we weren’t exactly racked with optimism. Under full load, the X4 hit a delta T of 59°C, making it one of the worst performing LGA1366 HSFs we’ve seen, excluding the reference HSF and the woeful (though quiet) NesteQ Silent Freezer 1200.



Socket AM2+ testing saw another particularly pants delta T for the X4. In fact, the delta T of 48°C makes it 2°C worse than the AMD reference cooler and worse than the NesteQ too. It’s damned sight quieter than the reference cooler mind you, but for the price you’d be better off with a price-matched OCZ Vendetta 2 will net you a 37°C delta T, is equally easy on the ears and also a cinch to install.

Conclusion

At a shade under £20, the Akasa X4 falls into the budget HSF category so expecting high-end results from such a versatile little cooler would be unrealistic. However, expecting better scores than a reference cooler would be reasonable, something that the X4 failed to deliver in our AM2+ test rig. Thankfully, the HSF didn’t fair so badly when fitted to Intel CPUs. If you’ve got an LGA775 chip and you’re looking for an aftermarket cooler that’s as cheap as possible then you could do worse than the X4. You could do better too though, as an OCZ Vendetta 2 is the same price and will shave a few degrees from your delta T. However, the Vendetta 2 is end of life and only a few eTailers still had stock so you’d have to move quickly if you want one.

Neither the LGA1156 nor the LGA1366 results were worth writing home about, and on LGA1366 it was particularly poor. While the Akasa Nero will set you back an extra £5 on top of the cost of an X4, we’d strongly advise spending it if you plan on overclocking your LGA1366 CPU, as it’s a good 10°C cooler - and then of course, if you can spend more money, other options such as the Fenrir open up.

Akasa deserves some praise for implementing Intel’s push-pin system in a way that makes the X4 compatible with all LGA sockets without the need for an extensive bits bag. Installation is a piece of cheesecake on all compatible sockets and being able to replace the fan is a bonus too. However, the mediocre performance - terrible performance in the case of AM2+ CPUs - means that we can’t recommend the X4 as a must buy.

• Performance
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• -
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• 4/10

• Ease of Use
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• -
• 9/10

• Features
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• -
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• 7/10

• Build Quality
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• -
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• 7/10

• Value
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• -
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• 6/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 6/10

Score Guide