If you released a new CPU cooler what exactly would you call it? I must admit I would struggle to come up with a decent name and it seems that the Akasa PR department have had the same trouble. Their latest CPU cooler that’s just been announced has been named the ‘Freedom Tower’. All that counts in the end though is if it cools well for little noise and preferably little cost, if so then it’ll be a winner.

Description

Akasa have a large range of CPU coolers and have for many years made decent, cheaper low end coolers as good alternatives to the stock coolers in the CPU retail boxes. At the high end of the market they are less renowned even though they have had some decent products out there. The Evo 120 is the cooler that I’ve had in my PC now for the last few years and it’s happily overclocked my E2160 and then my more recent Q9550 without particularly high temperatures. They then went on to release the Nero which was one of the first Core i7 compatible coolers. Unfortunately the X3 and X4 (AK-968) coolers didn’t really look inspiring and although they may well be good coolers I imagine they will quickly fade away leaving barely a mark.

The new Freedom cooler on the other hand looks the business. Stylish looks, large direct contact heatpipes, standard 120 mm format PWM fan and a large number of fine fins promises much.

Certainly the feature list seems to push all the right buttons and although a feature list doesn’t necessarily make for a killer cooler it’s a good place to start. Only reviewing it will really shed light on whether it could reach the heights of the current king of coolers – The Titan Fenrir.

As you can see from the specs list, the 120 mm PWM fan has a decent rpm range, which is something PWM fans always have over voltage regulated fans. The noise output shouldn’t be too bad except when spinning at full speed which hopefully won’t be very often, unless you do a lot of stress testing! The airflow of just under 60 CFM at the top end is around about what you’d expect from a 120 mm fan but will all this be enough?

Potential

If this cooler performs up to the expected level that the stats suggest and Akasa manage to push it into the ~£30 price point then I can see that it could be successful. At 160 x 120 x 65 it’s not a huge cooler but it is tall enough to worry buyers with thinner cases. One of the added benefits is that it appears that the fan should be easily removable for replacing with an alternative.

One point of confusion for me though is that the much hyped ‘Apache’ fan by Akasa appears to offer, according to the stats, increased airflow, increased static pressure and lower noise and all at lower fan speed. So if this is Akasa’s top cooler why doesn’t it feature Akasa’s top fan, with it’s S-Flow fan blade design?

Popularity: 9% [?]