Thermalright Venomous X Heatsink Review

High performance cooling has come a long way over the years, so much in fact that it is hard to tell a difference from one cooler to another from performance numbers alone. 

Heatsink installation went incredibly smooth and while the new retention method did work we felt it to be a little too mechanical to secure a heatsink due to the 3 levels used to hold the tower in place.  The reinforced back plate is a perfect opportunity to make good solid connection to the motherboard but was relegated to only support another mounting plate.  The main retention clip was held in place with 2 screws which somehow does not seem as sturdy as the more conventional 4 corner mounting method. 

We do realize that the retention system is one way for a company to show off their ingenuity, but in this case seem to be a little too complex for what it actually does.

Overall performance was excellent and our heat tests showed that the Venomous X had plenty of heat capacity to spare given that the C/W numbers were almost identical between the tests.  Cooling performance can be enhanced by installing a more powerful fan, or even a secondary fan to take advantage of a push and pull cooling method. 

Now for our list of good things and bad things  

Excellent Cooling
6 "True" Heatpipes
Sintered Heatpipes
Shiny Nickel Plating
Universal Heatsink Mount
Adjustable Mounting Pressure

No fan included
Mounting system very mechanical

We would like to thank Thermalright for helping to make this review possible.