The Thermaltake Venus 12 is a high powered AMD Athlon64 heatsink compatible with socket 754/939/940 processors. The heatsink is completely made of copper components, and utilizes 5500RPM Everflow fan which moves upwards of 72CFM at full speed. The 760 gram heatsink is heavy, but its tool-free clip mechanism locks onto all three tabs of the K8 retention frame solidly.

The Thermaltake Venus 12 heatsink comes with two different fan speed controllers, one on a PCI slot bracket and the other in an aluminum 3.5" drive bay bracket. Both fan speed controllers have the same effect when plugged into the Venus 12's fan. Their use is not mandatory, and the controllers can be unplugged from the fan. As with most of Thermaltake's offerings, the model A1744 "Venus 12" is competitively priced.

Thermaltake Venus 12 Heatsink

HEATSINK SPECSHEET Manufacturer: Thermaltake Model No.: A1744 "Venus 12" Materials: Stacked copper fins soldered to copper base Fan Mfg: Everflow R128032BU-T Fan Spec: 2200-5500RPM, 12V, 0.45A Fan Dim: 32x80x80mm Heatsink & Fan Dim: 85x88x80mm Weight: 760 grams Includes: thermistor, (2) fan speed controllers, thermal compound, screws Compatible with Sockets: 754/939/940 Est. Pricing: $32USD ($37CDN)

A bundle of wires exit from the large 80x32mm Everflow fan, half of which are for controlling it. Due to the fans' high-power requirements, a molex connector is used instead of the standard 3-pin motherboard jack. The heatsink package includes a Kapton encapsulated thermistor among its contents.

The remote thermistor enables the fan to thermally throttle its speed based on the temperature feedback from wherever the 12" long sensor is positioned. This kind of passive control limits some of the noise output created by the Venus 12's high-powered fan, while delivering that extra kick when temperatures rise and it is genuinely required.

Manual control of the fans' speed can also be used with the thermistor attached, or without it. Thermaltake have bundled in two separate fan speed controller potentiometers, with brackets for front and rear computer mounting.

FrostyTech's Test Methodology is outlined in detail here if you would like to know about the parameters under which this heatsink will be evaluated. Now let's take a closer look at the Thermaltake Venus 12 heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and thermal test results!