Another CPU cooler release from Akasa, another Nero cooler and more of the S-Flow jargon and marketing fluff. Is that all it is or does the new Akasa Nero S hit the spot? Could this be the ultimate combination that Akasa have been looking for?

Description

The original Nero cooler from Akasa was a well recieved product, partly because it was the first 3rd party cooler to fit the Intel 1366 socket, but also because it does a pretty good job. With the release of the Akasa S-flow fans it surprised me that their later cooler release, the Freedom Tower didn’t include these new fans. Well it seems like Akasa have been listening because here we have a re-release of the Nero but now including the new S-flow fan.

On the face of it if we assume that the fan upgrade is a product improvement and considering that the original Nero was a decent product in it’s initial guise this should be a good product. However, if you look into the details you will notice that this isn’t just a fan replacement. In fact the Nero S has an additional heatpipe and has gained an additional 34 mm in depth, now considering that this is a pre-Christmas release that little extra isn’t just from too much turkey, it’s real heat transferring aluminium finned goodness.

Features

So the Nero S features four 8 mm direct contact heatpipes and measures in at 120 x 87 x 160 mm weighing a hefty 726g. Mounted onto the new bigger heatsink is the S-Flow fan which offers a maximum airflow of 70.40 CFM and ca run at speeds between 600 and 1600 rpm. This is a decent airflow for a 120 mm fan but the S-Flow fan is supposed to offer such high airflow at a low noise level and if the 6.9-25.9 dB(A) stated is correct then it’s all looking good for the new Nero.

This is of course a multi-socket CPU cooler like most of the top 3rd party cooler after all if you think you’ve perfected an air cooling product why limit its market. For Intel sockets this means the use of a backplate although for AMD mounting the marketing information suggests being able to use the standard AMD attachment mechanism, I’d need to see it in action to confirm this however. The cooler is also supplied with Akasa’s top of the range AK-455 thermal compound as you’d expect so all in all it looks a good package, lets hope it proves to be the case in actual testing too.

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