Verdict: The new and improved Evo 120 is still pretty poor.

We reviewed the original Evo 120 last year, but Akasa has since added a Socket AM2 mounting mechanism and improved the quality of the contact plate in order to improve its thermal conductivity.

More than a year after its release, the Evo 120 is still a very distinctive-looking HSF, thanks to its elongated heatpipes and spindly-looking heatsink. The fins are cooled by a 120mm Akasa Amber fan hooked up to a backplate-mounted rheostat, which allows the speed of the fan to be adjusted between 1,000rpm and 2,000rpm. At 1,000rpm, it's quiet, but at full speed, it's very loud.

To mount the Evo 120 to a Socket AM2 CPU, you have to remove the top part of the mounting bracket from the motherboard, although the HSF will screw into the original back section of this bracket, which is located underneath the motherboard. LGA775 motherboard owners will have to take their PC apart and fit a new mounting bracket, which is held in place by a combination of nuts, washers and screws.

In our Athlon 64 X2 test rig, the Evo 120 cooled the CPU to 5ûC below the reference AMD HSF at low speed, and 8ûC lower at full speed. It proved to be less impressive in our LGA775 test PC, as the CPU ran 4ûC hotter than the reference Intel HSF at low speed, and 2ûC hotter at high speed.

While the Evo 120 is cooler and quieter than the reference AMD HSF, it doesn't sufficiently improve on it to justify its £30 price tag. For LGA775 processors, the Evo 120 is best avoided due to its poor cooling performance.

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