I haven’t posted a review here for a while, with most of my content going to Tom’s Hardware.
With today’s posting, we’re going to take a quick look at Akasa’s Alucia H4i premium low-profile air cooler. Most of my reviews feature cooling equipment intended for the hottest and fastest processors on the planet, but the Alucia H4i is intended for compatibility in systems with extremely low clearance that typically wouldn’t even fit a dGPU!
Since this low-profile cooler isn’t quite comparable to most products I’ve tested in the past, I’ll be taking a look at it differently than usual. Let’s dive in by going over the packaging of the unit.
Packaging and Unboxing
The cooler arrives in a small box just large enough for the cooler, with a dark blue outer theme showcasing the product held inside.
Opening the box reveals the instruction manual and the accessories box, underneath which is the low profile CPU cooler.
Inside of the accessories box are two backplates and one small tube of thermal paste. LGA 1200/115X are supported by one backplate, LGA1700/1851 are supported by the other backplate.
Installation
Installing the cooler is fairly simple. Use the adhesive strips on the backplate to secure it to your motherboard. Apply thermal paste, and then place the cooler on top of the CPU block. Use a screwdriver to secure the screws, and the plug in the PWM cable to your motherboard’s header.
This is a very slim cooler
As you can see from the photo above, this is a very low profile cooler. It is barely taller than the JEDEC DDR5-4800 sticks next to it, and it is shorter than the VRM heatsink of the MSI Z790 Project Zero motherboard I’m testing it with for today’s review.
Four heatpipes
To move heat away from the CPU and into the fins of the heatsink, Akasa’s Alucia H4i utilizes four copper heatpipes.
Thermal Performance and acoustics
Maximum performance stress testing
Today’s review won’t be quite as in-depth as my traditional reviews for two reasons.
The first reason is that as this cooler is intended for low power CPUs, most of the tests I traditionally perform won’t be useful information. The 2nd reason is that I’m not getting paid for publishing this review, so I have less motivation to cover the product as in-depth as I normally do – but I’ll still give you plenty of information to determine if this cooler is right for your needs.
To determine the maximum thermal performance of this cooler, I’ve tested it using Intel’s Core i7-14700K and removed the power limits. This is a torture test that this cooler is NOT designed for! When running the fans at their maximum speeds, which reached 46dBA, the cooler was capable of handling 122W on average during the 10-minute run of Cinebench R23 Multi-core test.
Noise normalized
You’ll see that the graph above also includes a measurement for the cooler’s performance when the fans are limited to a relatively quiet 38.9 dBA. This reduces performance from 122W to 105W, which is approximately 14% lower power consumption. I’d personally keep the fans running quietly, but some users might think they need maximum possible performance and won’t mind a noisier fan.
I’ve included a screenshot of detailed thermal statistics during this noise normalized test below
Maximum noise levels
If the fans are run at full speed, this tiny cooler runs louder than its size might indicate – reaching 46dBA!
65W and 95W Thermal results
A low profile cooler like this isn’t intended for a CPU like Intel’s i7-14700K, but would typically be paired with a CPU that consumes 65W or less of power. I haven’t tested any low profile SFF coolers like this recently, so I don’t have comparison results to offer.
Limiting the CPU to 95W still pushed the cooler near its limits – averaging a warm, but not too hot, 81C during the course of testing. I’ve included a screenshot showing it’s performance with a 95W power limit below.
Dropping the power limits down to 65W provides a much more reasonable, cool temperature of only 64C.
Conclusion
Akasa’s Alucia H4i is a capable low-profile air cooler designed for 65w CPUs, but if you’re crazy and pair it with a CPU like Intel’s i7-14700K it can handle 120W+ over long terms (depending on the case and airflow). If you’re looking for a potent low-profile cooler, Akasa’s Alucia H4i might just be what you need. If you’re looking for a stronger SFF cooler, take a look at my review of Akasa’s H6L2 M2 which can handle 150W+ CPUs!