Verdict: Awkward to mount and very noisy at full fan speed.

The Evo Blue is the first brand-new HSF design from Akasa for several years, and takes its name from the four blue LEDs embedded in the plastic shroud that surrounds the aluminium fins.

Heat is transferred from the CPU to these fins by a large copper contact plate and six copper heatpipes. The fins are then cooled by a variable-speed, PWM-controlled 92mm fan, which spins at speeds between 600rpm (relatively quiet) and 3,000rpm (ear-splittingly loud). Alternatively, on motherboards that don't support PWM, the fan speed can be manually adjusted via a backplate-mounted rheostat.

Installing the Evo Blue is a pain, as it has to be bolted through the motherboard for both AM2 and LGA775 CPUs. This necessitates removing the motherboard from the case to install the appropriate mounting bracket.

In our Core 2 Quad test PC, the fan quickly span up and was very loud, but the CPU ran just 4ûC cooler than it did with the reference Intel HSF. In our Socket AM2 test PC, the CPU was 6ûC cooler than it was with the reference AMD HSF at low fan speed, and 14ûC cooler at maximum fan speed.

While the Evo Blue is capable of providing better cooling than that of the reference Intel and AMD HSFs, its only shines when the fan runs at full speed, which is very loud. The Evo Blue performs reasonably well with Athlon 64 X2 and LGA775 CPUs but, given that there are cheaper coolers in this Labs test that are better performers and produce less noise, the Evo Blue isn't worth considering.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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