A few months ago, the subject of better CPU cooling came up when discussing processor reviews. While stock coolers have their place, they don’t allow very much in the way of overclocking. But after talking to our expert friends over at Acoustic PC, the Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler came highly recommended for taking away the heat and achieving higher frequencies. In fact, they took one straight from their own inventory and fired it over to us. What we discovered is that, while non-poisonous to humans, it definitely killed some heat. How much? Let’s find out!
Features and Specifications
The Venomous X supports LGA 775, 1156, and 1366 sockets and comes shipped with the proper mounting kits. A revision 2 “Bolt Through” Kit for AMD AM2/AM3 can also be ordered from most vendors. Unique to the Venemous X is the socket adjustable back plate and the top pressure adjustable mounting plate. The mounting systems are very strong capable of applying anywhere between 40 to 70 pounds of force.
The X’s second resourceful engineering design is the convex copper base design. That means the near mirrored, copper base has a ever so slight outward bulge. This fills in any odd sagging that is often associated with today’s CPU “IHS” caps. Both, the finish and the convex shape of the cooler, ensure maximum heat transference at all times.
Two pairs of 120 x 25mm fan clips ship with the “X”. You’ll have to pick up your own fans however. We recommend something that spins up fast with and comes with a fan speed controller for customization. We chose two bad boys capable of moving about 80.5 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air at a cost of 38 dBA. Just remember that using two fans will compound any fan noise.
What’s In The Box?
With the exception of the fans, included in the bundle Venomous X bundle is some Chill Factor II thermal paste. We didn’t need the white sheet to figure out what exactly is inside the tube. The thermal paste contains Zinc Oxide and Metal powder. Despite the ingredients, it is not electrically conductive. However, that doesn’t mean you can just go nuts with the stuff. Just remember that a pea-sized amount goes a very long way.
Doesn’t Look Too Poisonous
Like many CPU tower coolers, the Venomous X is a tall engineering feat, so to speak. It measures in at about 6.5 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide by 2.5 inches without the fan. With the fan, it’s about 3.5 inches deep. Despite its size and 755g weight, the mounting system should easily keep the X squarely secured. The fins are made with high quality aluminum and silver copper materials. Being completely nickel plated will help the heat sink keep its buff physique resisting discoloration for years. Raw copper or metal materials don’t fair so well. Even the six very large U-shaped heat pipes are polished up the entire length.
The utmost care has been give to the solder joints on the heat pipes, copper base, and fins. There are no sloppy joints, smudges, or loose fins upon handling. This is often a worrisome issue with many coolers, but the Venomous X appears to be extremely well made through and through.
The Convex Copper Base
Most people can’t see the imperfections of today’s CPU IHS (IHS is that aluminum cap that covers the top of your CPU). Besides not always being perfectly smooth, many of them aren’t perfectly flat. Most often, the HIS sinks in the middle ever so slightly. The base of a conventional CPU cooler is very flat and sometimes doesn’t make optimal contact with the center of the IHS.
If you have a good engineering eye, you can just see that the base of the Venomous X is ever so slightly raised. This convex shape is just enough to fill in any extra space the CPU might have. This doesn’t mean you can get away with not using Thermalright’s Chill Factor II thermal paste. You’ll need it to fill in those rough spots to achieve optimal thermal transference.
Overall, the Venemous X looks similar to many of the tower coolers already available on the market. But it’s the finish and quality that makes this cooler much more appealing and effective.
About the only thing that could be done to improve performance is adapt that two point Pressure Adjustable plate to a 4 point plate. Perhaps, that would grant another degree or two of cooling potential. It would also be awesome if there were a highly polished, jet black Venomous X. That would be so suh-weet!
Installation Notes and System Setup
Starting with the installation procedure, the manual is very detailed and easy to follow. If this isn’t easy enough, there is an animation playing on Thermalright’s website to demonstrate just how easy the cooler is to install. We’re not saying that a cave man can do it, but anyone who can follow pictures should be able to get it right on the first try.
The adjustable back plate is a really nice one-plate-fits-all piece of techology. A series of thumb screw standoffs and thumb screws are used to hold the back plate and anchoring bracket in place. It goes together pretty quick. The bracketing system is essentially tool-less, with the exception of the wrench used to tighten the final pressure adjustable mounting plate on top of the base. The only issue that one might run across is if you ever lose the special wrench, you’ll lose the ability to remove the heatsink until you come up with another one.
In order to test the Venemous X properly, we put together a system that can produce the heat needed to stress this cooler. Here’s the breakdown…
- Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition Hex-Core Processor
- Test Cooler 1: Thermalright Venomous X (as tested)
- Test Cooler 2: Thermalright MUX 120
- Test Cooler 3: Noctua NH-U12P
- Test Cooler 4: Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
- Test Cooler 5: Tuniq 120 Extreme
- GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5 Motherboard
- Patriot Memory Viper II 2000MHz 6GB DDR3 Memory
Ambient temperatures in the test area were a constant 18C. To produce more uniform test results, we used the same thermal paste across the board. in this case, we chose the industry standard Arctic Silver 5.
We have to give the stock retail cooler that comes with the 980XE a nod for being one of the best solutions we’ve ever seen from a retail box solution. While it isn’t the same size as the Venemous X nor do we expect it to perform the same, we will include the results so that you can see if the Venemous X is the cooler for you.
A Five CPU Cooler Barbecue
OCCT-Linpack was used to load up our 980XE processor and produce some heat. A decent 4.1GHz hex-core overclock was thrown in for good measure. Only idle , load, and overclocked temperatures were recorded. Keep in mind that if these coolers can handle 6 cores at full load, they’ll laugh at you when using a quad core.
First up, we tested all the coolers in single fan configurations. We then retested with a second fan if one was included. The group produced relatively similar idle temps with the exception of the retail cooler which isn’t unusual. There’s not a lot going on underneath the CPU thanks to some of the more efficient motherboards these days. However, at full load, this is where the pack’s performance numbers separated.
Some of the coolers, like the CNPS10X Extreme, NH-U12P, and MUX ship with slower RPM cooling fans. Slower fans mean decreased cooling performance, but are less noisy and more pleasant to the ear. The coolers with higher RPM fans, like the Venomous X, will see increased performance as well as increaed fan noise.
Overclocking really put these coolers to the test. This time, some of them changed places indicating that some designs seem to handle higher temps differently. For the most part, all of them handled the load temps with the Venomous X leading the pack by just a bit.
Final Thoughts
There really isn’t anything simple you can do to improve cooler performance. Most of the issues are in the engineering of the base, from the heat pipes to the contact surface. In the case of all of our test coolers, a better fan can and has actually helped but at the cost of more noise. However, since we tested the lot based on their retail stock configurations, none of the performance scores were added to the results. It wouldn’t have been fair. But there are times when they make a difference and it’s my opinion that any performance CPU cooler should come with a very capable fan and fan controller. That way you can customize for a mix of noise and performance.
Ultimately, the Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler topped the test group in both single and dual fan configurations. While the Venomous X did the best when the fans were cut loose, it was actually more efficient than all the others at low speeds. When the frequencies were cranked up, the X stepped away from the pack. Perhaps the convex base really does make all the difference after all.
As far as free range individual tower coolers go, the Thermalright Venomous X is the premiere choice. At a current price of $59.95 US from AcousticPC as tested, it’s at an excellent price for a premium performance cooler. It deserves our Editors’ Choice Award.
Pros
- High quality construction and materials
- Convex copper base
- Ships with two 120mm cooling fans
- Simple, unique Pressure Adjustable mounting system
- No tools required
- Top notch performance cooler
Cons
- Needs some performance looking flare
Overall Rating: 9.25 / 10.0
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Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler – Photo Gallery
