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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 07 April 2022 22:45
My first introduction to MSI being in the water cooling market was the MAG CoreLiquid C280 which had its pump mounted in the middle of the radiator which at first seemed weird but does end up being a great solution for those bottom mounting their radiator and trying to avoid having the pump as the highest point. So I’m excited to see what MSI has going on with the MEG CoreLiquid S280 that they sent over. Today I’m going to check out what it’s all about then put it through our test suite to see how it performs so let’s dive in!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 11 February 2022 18:08
When it comes to air cooling and fans Noctua has been extremely reliable over the years and has been an easy go-to when doing builds. Especially because noise is very important to me. Keeping noise down in the office helps with testing and more importantly helps with my sanity. So with builds it's not unusual for me to change fans over to Noctua. With them having nice blacked-out fans has helped with that as well. For my wife's last PC I went with a crazy custom water cooling loop which looked amazing. But I would have to take it all apart and clean everything multiple times a year and performance would drop as the “show” coolant would fall out and clock things up. That’s fine for my PC maybe, but when it's my wife’s PC it needs to just work. So this time around I went with an air cooler, Noctua’s NH-U12A chromax.black. It was the largest cooler I could fit in her system and I knew it would meet our needs for cooling and noise performance and it has. But before doing that I did bring the NH-U12A over on to our test bench to see how it performs in an even more demanding situation. Let’s go see what the NH-U12A is all about and how it performed.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Monday, 03 January 2022 23:49
With Intel’s new CPUs moving to the LGA1700 socket and the new larger socket requiring a wider mounting bracket after Intel sticking with the same sized mounting hole for a very long time it has had me looking at changing up the cooling in a few of my systems and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Not only that, there are a LOT of options on the market. Everyone and their mom is now getting into the AIO market. Cooler Master has been around going back near the beginning for AIO coolers and they are one of only a few who often make their own designs rather than going with a standard OEM design so I’m interested in seeing what their new MasterLiquid PL240 Flus is all about. I’m also curious to see how it will perform on our new 12900K based test bench so let’s dive in and see how it does.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 17 December 2021 13:12
Sapphire is known for being one of the main AMD and aftermarket card manufacturer but if we look back they have dabbled in a few other areas as well. Off the top of my head, just on things, we have covered they have done motherboards in the past and small form factor PCs. But they have also dabbled in thunderbolt enclosures and both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 3 dongles as well. Well, today they are introducing their newest product, their first all-in-one watercoolers, the Saphire Nitro+ S240-A and S360-A. While this is their first product in this market, it isn’t too big of a surprise given that in China they have shown off an air cooler and AIO watercoolers have been used on Sapphire video cards in the past. Not to mention most companies have been expanding their lineups and getting into the AIO market. Given that cooling is one of the main focuses for aftermarket video cards and Sapphire cards have done that well for years I’m curious to see what they have done with their first AIO to stand out in the crowded market. So let’s dive in and check it out!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 02 July 2021 21:36
When it comes to fans, they aren’t typically something people get too excited about. High-end fans can be ultra quiet, have lots of power, and of course, some have RGB lighting. Companies have been going crazy on the lighting side of things, but last year Lian Li shook things up with their UNI FAN SL120’s. I took a look at them in August. What is interesting though, is people have been surprisingly excited about these fans. The latching design that cuts down on your wiring along with addressable RGB lighting had them sold out immediately with for sale subreddits on Reddit having people constantly looking for them. Well, Lian Li is back at it again, almost a year later with a new Uni Fan design called the AL120. They have still included the same latching design but with a new lighting design and upgraded static pressure and airflow. Once again they are available in black and white and today I’m going to check out both and see how they compare to the SL120’s that we already love.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Wednesday, 03 March 2021 16:06
Let’s be honest, for the most part, innovation in the AIO cooler market these days consists more of adding more RGB lighting than anything on the performance side of things. But Cooler Master did recently pair up with Intel and change that up. They introduced the MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero. They added a TEC cooler into the loop to push AIO cooling into the sub-ambient cooling range. If you haven’t heard of a TEC cooler, I wouldn’t blame you. TEC is a shortened version of Thermoelectric Unit and they can also be known as a Peltier cooler. In short, they use electricity to cool and while they are effective they aren’t particularly power efficient which is why fridges and air conditioners use refrigerant-based cooling options. But they have been used for cooling computers before, in fact, Cooler Master themselves have used them with their V10 design that I took a look at 11 years ago. So today I’m going to check out the ML360 Sub-Zero and see how they have incorporated the TEC cooler in with an AIO and step away from our normal cooler testing which is normally on a range of Ryzen CPUs to test this on the Intel 10900K as this is an Intel exclusive cooler.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 15 October 2020 11:09
With a few different all in one coolers tested recently, I have been on a bit of a cooling kick. But I couldn’t end things up without checking out Cooler Masters's most recent introduction, the Hyper 212 Evo v2. Which I suspect a lot of you have heard of the Hyper 212. When I’m going a build that is more down to earth, 9 times out of 10 I end up recommending the Hyper 212, and its been that way for years. Cooler Master has lead the market with this 120mm tower cooler that is always priced like a smaller 92mm cooler. Its no wonder why it has made it into so many builds. So when they said they had a new model coming, I had to take a look and find out if this is still the go-to for budget builds. Today I’m going to check out the Hyper 212 Evo v2 and see what is different as well as find out how it performs in our 3 CPU test suite. Let’s go check it out!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 09 October 2020 22:46
Cooler Master isn’t new to the all in one cooler game, they were there right at the beginning when they were just starting to come out and they have continued to change things up over the years. RGB has been a thing for a while now and companies have been looking at how to change things up and we have already seen companies putting their lighting behind mirrors for a different look and Cooler Master is no different. They showed them off at CES this year and even though it has been a crazy year they did just recently introduce them officially with their MasterLiquid Mirror coolers. Well, I had the MasterLiquid ML280 Mirror come in and sticking with the cooling theme I have put it through our test suite and today I’m going to take a look at it and see how it performed, what it has to offer, and where it fits in the market price-wise.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Tuesday, 06 October 2020 15:47
It might come as a surprise for a lot of people, but be quiet! which has made a name with their cases, coolers, power supplies, and fans has never actually had their own water cooler. This is a little crazy because everyone and their mom seem to sell an all in one cooler, even companies that don’t do anything else with cooling and be quiet! is out there with high-quality fans and only today have they finally announced an AIO. It is called the be quiet! Pure Loop and they have it in 120mm, 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm variations. For testing I had them send over the 240mm which is a dual 120mm configuration and is very common because it fits most cases. So today I’m going to check out the Pure Loop 240mm and see what be quiet! is doing differently (there are a few big things) and then put it to the test in our 3 CPU test suite.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Wednesday, 19 August 2020 23:28
Nearly everyone has their own take on addressable RGB fans and Lian Li isn’t any different. They have their Bora Digital fans already, but all the way back at the start of the year at CES they did tease another design. That was their Uni Fan design and today is finally the day, the Lian Li Uni Fan SL 120 is available and today I’m going to check them out. They have a completely different look from the Bora fans, going with something closer to a traditional design with a square design but beyond the shape nothing else is traditional at all, they dropped the light rings for what I would call brows at the top and bottom of the fan which are on the front and back as well and all of the fans lock together and share their lighting and fan controls through the connection for a cleaner installation. This is something I complained about when I took a look at Corsairs QL series of fans, so I’m excited to see how the SL 120’s work.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Monday, 03 August 2020 16:57
Deepcool, like many PC hardware companies these days, covers a wide variety of products ranging from cases, power supplies, laptop accessories, and of course as the name implies a full range of cooling products. Deepcool also has a premium brand that they call Gamer Storm. I recently had their latest water cooling solution come in, the Gamer Storm Castle 280EX. Their Castle EX line of AIO’s isn’t new, but this new size configuration is new to the lineup and more importantly, this is the first time I will be checking out a Deepcool AIO. With that, I am excited to see what they do differently and how it performs!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 26 June 2020 16:15
With some of the higher-end CPUs from both AMD and Intel, all but the largest heatsinks aren’t really the best option to get the most out of your CPU. So unless your case has room for a giant heatsink there is a good chance that you will be looking at water cooling. All in one water coolers are the most popular and Corsair is one of if not the biggest name in that market. I’ve used many of their AIOs including their H100i RGB Platinum SE which has RGB lighting on the pump and in and all-around its fans. The SE is expensive and unless you are into the crazy lighting you might be looking for an option with similar performance and quality but with less lighting. That is where the H100i RGB Pro XT comes in. It is the same pump and radiator design but it uses Corsairs non-RGB ML series fans which should translate into extremely quiet performance without paying for all of the extra lighting. Today I’m going to take a look at the H100i RGB PRO XT and see if that is really the case.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Monday, 27 April 2020 20:53
Back in November Corsair launched their QL series of fans and I had the chance to take a look at them. The QL series of fans are similar to Corsairs Light Loop fans, only with almost double the number of LEDs recently got their white version of the same fans and in my experience, a lot of OC components look even better in white so today I’m going to take a look at them. Because I covered them previously and the only thing that has changed is the color of the fan, it will be a much quicker look but I figured some of you might be interested in seeing what the QL120’s look like in white!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Wednesday, 19 February 2020 15:42
For years Noctua has been known for their signature tan and brown theme. It made their products easy to spot and that along with their performance really helped promote their brand over the years. When every fan was black, they stuck with their signature look. Back when color LEDs were first added to fans, they were still tan and brown. But as we got close to the RGB era and with aesthetics in every single part of a computer finally growing in importance Noctua has started to crack. They introduced black and grey on grey models. Then after that their Chromax fans which were black as well but didn’t have the cost raising features of the IPPC fans and along with those they even brought out covers for their heatsinks. But with almost every company finally making blacked out coolers, Noctua was long overdue to do the same and they finally did just that a few months ago. I’m excited to finally dig into them and check out the three new heatsinks as well. The new chromax.black line includes the NH-D15, NH-U12S, and NH-L9i that cover a small, medium, and large range.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Monday, 25 November 2019 22:04
By now most of you know of the company Be Quiet! and their heatsinks, fans, and power supplies. Early on when they first came to the US market they were involved in our LANs as a sponsor and we have covered a few of their heatsinks in the past. But they have grown in popularity a lot in the heatsink market especially with their all-black styling, quiet fans, and good performance. Especially with a few of their heatsinks in the SFF community and with their high-end heatsinks for those of you dedicated for the best possible cooling performance without the downsides of All in One coolers like pump noise and the potential for leaks. Well I have had their Dark Rock Slim sitting around the office and as I clean things out for the end of the year I didn’t want to miss checking it out. It is designed for those of you who need a thinner cooler for memory, motherboard, and case clearance reasons. Today I’m going check it out and see how it compares to a few other 120mm air coolers.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 14 November 2019 13:37
At this point, nearly everyone has their own RGB fans on the market but really only a few companies have been innovating at all. Corsair has been at the forefront of that so much so that Corsair and RGB lighting has become a meme sometimes on Reddit. Its okay Corsair, this is a safe space, we can talk about your love for RGB. Specifically, I want to talk a little about their new QL series of RGB fans that is launching today. I’ve had them around the office for a few weeks and I’ve had time to play around with them a little. Corsairs' big change with QL fans is that they have “spectacular lighting from any angle”. With lighting similar to their Light Loop fans, only this time around they doubled up and have lighting on the back as well and the edges have the lighting visible as well.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Wednesday, 23 October 2019 15:38
Not long ago AMD pushed their 3950X launch out into November and when they did that they also teased in that same announcement that it will come out with their Threadripper 3 processor family. With that, this isn’t a bad time to revisit the cooling options. Unlike every other consumer CPU, Threadripper is large enough that it actually required all of the heatsink companies to go back and redesign their heatsinks to get full coverage. With that there are a lot fewer options available for Threadripper. But there are two big names that stand out. Cooler Master partnered with AMD and is who designed and sells the Wraith Ripper heatsink which goes in line with the rest of the Wraith air coolers that typically come with AMD CPUs. Then there is Noctua, who went all out with three different models in their Threadripper lineup. Today I am going to check out all four of those coolers and see how they perform to help those of you waiting for the new launch or others who have been snatching up the marked down Threadripper 1 and 2 models.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 18 January 2019 10:01
Like just about every other product on the market, RGB has been popping up in the water cooling market for a while now. It started on Monoblocks and EK even had it on their new Velocity line of water blocks. But their Supremacy water blocks have mostly been lacking with the exception of the Threadripper block. But at CES this year they have introduced their new lineup called the Classic RGB. They characterize it as “minimalistic and clean while maintaining class-leading performance”. That explains the Classic part of the name, but the second half also indicates that the new lineup has also added RGB lighting as well. I’ve actually had most of the components in the office to check out and now that the cat is out of the bag I can share them with everyone. So today I’m going to check them out and do a little testing as well.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 13 December 2018 12:21
The all in One market for watercoolers has been boring for a while now honestly. Almost every kit on the market is made by Asetek so what sets them apart is sometimes nothing and other times just a small change compared to the rest of the market. So Asus entering the market with more Asetek coolers wasn’t all that exciting at first, until I saw they added an OLED on to the pump. Now right off the bat, let me address the obvious, a screen isn’t going to change performance at all. But I was interested in being able to use it for customization and/or to show important information. Both were interesting when paired with a small form factor LAN PC build where you can’t have an extra monitor and temps can sometimes be an issue. So Asus sent over their Ryuo, one of two of their designs. This one is closer to a normal Asetek design with its round shape but today I’m going to see how it performs in our normal testing then test it out in a SFF build.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Wednesday, 05 September 2018 19:51
Okay, I can admit it, I might love Small Form Factor builds a little more than I should. But I have yet to find the perfect setup, the smaller they get the harder it is to pack all of the hardware need into them, especially for a gaming-focused LAN rig. When I did my original SFF Ryzen cooler testing last year I realized some a few hard truths (okay I knew them, but it cemented them). No matter what you do, a larger cooler is going to perform better and if you can wedge water cooling in a SFF build that will work even better. But to get the really small and portable rigs those aren’t an option. For cases like the GEEEK A30 or the In Win Chopin you really only have a few options and even the Wraith Stealth isn’t possible in some cases. So the Cryorig C7 and the Noctua L9 series have been the main options. Noctua has been bringing out new options including an AM4 specific model that I recently reviewed, but Cryorig hasn’t been leaving things alone as well. They have the C7 Cu, Cu is the periodic table symbol for copper. That is because they have taken the already popular and powerful C7 design and made the same cooler out of the much more efficient material. So today I’m going to put it through the same tests as before and see just how well the new cooler performs. You guys ready? Cu after the page break…
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