Closed Loop AIO Liquid Coolers: 14-way Mega Roundup Review
by E. Fylladitakis on February 12, 2014 7:00 AM ESTNZXT
NZXT is another company that recently decided to jump on the AIO cooling bandwagon and they did so a little bit furiously. Instead of releasing a wide selection of products, NZXT released only two coolers, both meant for 140mm fans alone, clearly aiming for the high-performance segments of the AIO coolers market. They supplied us with both of their AIO coolers for this review.
NZXT Kraken X40
We received the Kraken X40 in a well-designed, white box with plenty of information about the product printed on its back and sides. Inside the box, the cooler is protected by cardboard packaging and nylon bags. The bundle of the Kraken X40 comes well presented, with the mounting hardware categorized into separate nylon bags. All of the mounting hardware and brackets are black. There also is a leaflet with installation instructions and a CD with the Kraken Control software, a rather simple piece of software that can be used to control the speed of the pump, fans, and the lighting of the CPU block. A single 140mm fan with a black frame and white blades is supplied with the X40. The fan has a very wide speed range of 800 to 2000 RPM and a fluid bearing for high performance and reliability.
Aesthetically, the Kraken X40 is hardly any different from most other Asetek designs. NZXT went with the normal thickness (27mm) on a 140mm wide radiator, most likely to ensure the compatibility of the cooler with most of their cases. The radiator follows the standard design of every other Asetek-made AIO cooler to this date, with wavy aluminum heat dissipation fins soldered on to the liquid pass-through channels. Unfortunately, fin deformations and imperfections are once again common. NZXT is using black, kink resistant tubing made of hard, smooth rubber. It is noteworthy to mention that the Kraken X40 has 16" (40cm) long tubing, which is about 4" (10cm) longer than that in most other kits.
The circular block-pump assembly does look like the standard Asetek designs, such as the ones of the Corsair H90/H110 kits, yet there is more to it than first meets the eye. There are many wires coming in and out of the block; one is a 3-pin header for power, one is for the USB interface, and the third is for the connection of up to two fans. If the fans are to be controlled via NZXT's Kraken Control software, they need to be connected to the block. NZXT is confident that all of these can be powered via a single 3-pin fan header. At the top of the block, covered by a sticker that is a pain to remove, a circular ring with NZXT's logo on the side can be seen. There is not one but several LED lights beneath it, allowing full control of its lighting color via the supplied software. It is also possible to adjust the color according to the temperature. However, the pump will not light up until it receives a command from the software, so do not get concerned if there is no lighting when you first start up your system.
NZXT Kraken X60
The Kraken X60 essentially is the bigger brother of the X40. It comes supplied in a similarly designed cardboard box, just a little bit larger and with thicker packaging material inside. The bundle is virtually identical, with the same black mounting hardware and a similar manual with installation instructions. However, two 140mm fans are now supplied with the cooler, the same 140mm fans with the black frame and white blades as the one supplied with the X40.
Essentially, the Kraken X60 is both technically and visually identical to the X40, with the exception of the radiator, which is twice as long. The 280mm long radiator can now support up to four 140mm fans, with two supplied by NZXT. Other than that, it has the exact same width and thickness as the radiator of the X40, as well as the same issues with the quality of the heat dissipation fins.
The block-pump assembly is very similar to that of the X40 as well, featuring the same circular design and the same multi-color LED lighting. There are differences on the wiring though, as the assembly now requires power from a SATA connector and can be used to control up to four fans. It appears that the pump is still being powered by the 3-pin header, allowing the control of its speed by the motherboard, with the SATA connector reserved for powering the USB interface and the fans. Thermal compound has been pre-applied on the copper base of the cooler, which is machined to a nearly perfect finish.
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faster - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
I want a closed loop system for my video card!My GTX780 is much louder than my CPU fan.
Liquid cooling was supposed to be how one obtained high performance quiet computing. Air cooling solutions should not be able to compete with a liquid cooling solution in the same environment, but it seems they do. How is that?
blanarahul - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
"I want a closed loop system for my video card!"This. All the stupid OEMs want to disgruntle consumers. We already have more than enough great CPU coolers, but very few great GPU coolers. All I want is a card that is NOT pre-overclocked (but can be overclocked at my whims ;) ) and comes with a all-in-one liquid cooling solution. Is that too much to ask??
E.Fyll - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Oh, that is coming, soon. Stay tuned, should be online within a couple of weeks. :)Dribble - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
True, for cpu's you don't need that big a cooler - all these lower power Intel cpu's don't pull 200W even overclocked. A big air cooler is sufficient. It'll work as well as a single 120mm fan radiator water cooler but is cheaper and more reliable.However graphics cards are another matter altogether - they pump out huge amounts of heat.
Hence either I WC my graphics card in which case I might as well get a system that can WC my cpu too, or I just stick to air cooling.
BuddhaBum44 - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
You can always get the Kraken X40 and the bracket they make for 780s: https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/138-kraken-g10...bj_murphy - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Solid review with some good information. I've been waiting for a "compendium" of sorts to link to people, explaining which closed loop coolers are the best. Thanks E. Fylladitakis, looking forward to more great articles!doggghouse - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
What is a realistic load for a CPU? My 4770K has a max TDP of 84W... and I see a 3960X has a max of 130W. Are there actual CPUs that have anything above that, like 200W - 340W? If not, does it make sense to include those loads in the average thermal resistance, since these AIO coolers are going to be applied to a CPU, not to a synthetic load...?E.Fyll - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
It depends on the CPU, of course. An overclocked CPU can easily surpass their max TDP rating. High thermal loads are useful for the extraction of proper thermal resistance ratings, plus they are easily reachable by modern GPUs (and GPUs are relevant, especially with AIO coolers; you'll see why soon enough). Of course, if you know the power requirements of your current CPU (if not overclocked, about 75% of its TDP), you can easily check the graph closest to it.dragosmp - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Hi,Great review, I like the methodology. It is nice to see all coolers tested with a constant load that is subject to much less randomness than a CPU power output.
I have two questions:
*is it possible to test all coolers at a certain noise level like 40dB +/-0.5dB; 7V testing is not that relevant for a cooler that is silent @10V, why would anyone silence it even further, save electricity?
*could you provide an order of magnitude of what clock speed and voltage a CPU would need to be at to achieve 340W/150W...etc. It would be useful to get our bearings vs the real world. A chart would be nice a bit like this:
.....................150W.................250W
Haswell DC....4.6GHz/1.25V......
Haswell QC....4.2GHz/1.27V......
FX83xx OC....4.1GHz/1.35V......
The reason for the last remark is that buying decisions are made also with cost in mind. One may think: I have max 30°C Tcase, 4.5GHz Haswell, what is the thermal conductivity I would need so the CPU never passes 70°C? Answer ==> review (maybe not the best cooler, maybe not the most expensive...). I have bought windows for my house like that.
E.Fyll - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
40 dB(A) is not really "silent". I would rate <35 dB(A) as silent and still I can notice that in a very quiet room. 40 dB(A) is a slight humming noise, fairly quiet and most people just ignore it, yet it is easily noticeable. It is an interesting idea but that is not really possible when not all products can do at least 40 dB(A) and not practical, as the motherboard does not read the sound level, it just adjusts the voltage. 7 Volts are just high enough to ensure that (almost) every fan will start and about the same voltage as most motherboard will apply in their "quiet" mode. About the CPUs, I cannot do that as that would require me buying and testing every single CPU, which is not possible. Besides, every CPU is unique and the energy consumption also depends on several settings when overclocked, so it could easily bring misleading results. A single different setting can cause a massive change on consumption at the same exact frequency. For instance, a i7-3820 at 4.4 GHz consumes nearly 20% more energy with its voltage upped by 0.1V. It truly is a very interesting idea but a great deal of data and testing is required to create a proper database.