Gadgetory

NZXT is a new Kraken series coolers ship in 142 forty and 280 millimeter sizes and primarily differentiate themselves from the market with aesthetics the coolers are accompanied by infinity mirrors and an RGB LED light pipe built on an ASA Tech m5 pump with heavy customization by NZXT this includes a custom-built PCB internally and theoretical improvements to pump noise today we're looking at MDX C's X 42 X 52 and X 62 liquid coolers versus competitors we're testing in depth the thermals and the noise but before getting to that this content is brought to you by AMD freesync devices like the LG 34 um 67 - p ultra wide with free sync which is actually affordable at $400 link in the description below for more on that the X 42 is priced at $130 the X 52 which is probably going to be the most popular unit at 240 millimeter radiator is priced at 150 dollars in the X 62 is $10 more at 160 so the price point is high but it's really just their way of saying this is a new product and it's got the RGB LED pump plate and a Gen 5 cooler the most comparable competition would be the H 100 I v2 from Corsair it's also a Gen 5 pump from ASA Tech as well but it's less refined in terms of the electrical and NZXT you have this whole PCB custom designed and built and they also have control over the firmware so they can issue firmware updates to their new coolers in the x2 line so 60 - 40 - 50 - so that's some level of the validation for the price point I suppose we'll look at thermals and noise and see if that's any further reason to pay as much the H 100 I v2 is one hundred five dollars so it is pretty competitive it's been out for a little while at this point and the difference between the X 52 which is 240 and the H 100 IV - which is also 240 really stems from the custom electrical design which ace tech hasn't previously allowed and the LEDs and then NZXT also uses different fans but we'll look at Corsairs and the z-axis whose is better starting off with the specs the 120-millimeter fans spin up to about 2,000 rpm with NZXT Corsairs spin up to 2500 rpm the 140 millimeter crack and cooler fans are specified for 1700 rpm max more or less and the pump speeds at around 2600 to 2800 rpm with the variance of plus or minus 300 rpm unit 2 unit this a Sutekh gen 5 pump is controllable through cam software NZXT is a solution and if you'd like to reduce pump speed and fan speed independently up from one another for better control over noise output you could do that internally the unit is pretty familiar to most ASA tech cooling solutions there's an in and out valve connected to Barb's that have double elbow bends for poseable tubing rather than the tubing that juts out at the top of the corsair unit for example and the tubes are made of the same permeation resistant rubber found in the previous crack and coolers it's got a braid now so I guess that's somewhat similar to EVGA is Jenn and four point-five coolers internal design uses the usual copper cold plate with micro fins to increase surface area through which propylene glycol flows to bring the heat up to an aluminum core radiator and the only radiator on our bench that we're about to show without an aluminum core is the ek predator 280 it's still pretty uncommon and I use a copper core which we think might benefit EK and the predator at the low end of fan RPMs cam allows the usual mix of breathing wave spectrum and custom led colors split between the logo and the white pipe and the cooler connects to the motherboard via USB 2.0 cable so owners of mini ITX motherboard may have to buy a 3.0 to 2.0 adapter and then connects to power via SATA so these cables are modular unlike the previous kraken and that's a nice touch for cable cleanliness cooler installation is the same as any other ace tech pump of the last two generations x99 uses a set of four standoffs and then some cap nuts which takes less than five minutes to install outside of a case and 11 5 X or AMD sockets use a backplate in addition to the other mounting hardware so not too bad overall just make sure you do the installation prior to mounting the board in case time to test this stuff all the testing methodology as always is defined in the article review of these coolers in the link in the description below that includes the overclock the components use CPU fan RPMs pump RPMs all of that stuff software used and will probably answer any questions you have cooler test benches do take a good deal of validation to deploy properly we've tested these multiple times and have a pretty good idea of our range of uncertainty between devices in terms of temperatures and noise also in the description in that link if you're curious and our noise testing parameters are defined there including other components used during thermal validation versus noise validation because we do use different components some of which have passive cooling let's start with strictly head-to-head comparisons versus last generation this chart shows only the x61 a popular cooler from last gen to 80 millimetres versus the X 62 from this current generation the thermal difference alone rpm to rpm is actually somewhat substantial NZXT has managed to reduce temperatures at a somewhat silent RPM of 1050 by roughly 5 degrees C from 42 to 37 C load the high end performance isn't as gapped with the X 62 at 1700 rpm operating at 34.6 Celsius load while X 61 is at 36.9 assal seus load note that the X 61 can run its fans at 2,000 rpm have really desired where the X 62 caps at 1700 so this is a change with the new generation and here's a look at the noise results on a scatter plot for something a bit different the X 61 at 10:50 rpm is approximately equal in noise output to the X 62 at 10:50 rpm also with the newer cooler performing imperceptibly louder but with a 5 Celsius temperature reduction in exchange for that 0.3 DB noise increase so it's well worth the trade and can most likely be attributed to the Gen 5s tech pump and the new fans that NZXT is using probably more so the fans at 1,700 rpm noise levels for the X 61 are around 50 1.4 dB where the X 62 is one-tenth the decibel high or 50 1.5 with the 2 Celsius reduction in temperature not quite as good as the previous test but we're at the high end of performance here anyway that's a good start for the new coolers but we need to compare them outside of a vacuum this chart looks at a few more devices we've introduced the coarser H 100 IV to the direct competitor at three different RPMs 2500 the max 1500 a middle ground we're using for pretty much everything we're testing and 1050 RPM for more of a silent setting we've also introduced the NZXT crack and x52 which is again that direct competition to coursers h100 ib2 it's the same sized radiator and that's at 2100 RPM its own max and 1500 RPM for the middle ground with two low rpm outputs of 800 and 400 and we've removed the X 61 from this chart for ease of viewing NZXT in Corsair used the same generation pump but NZXT is is heavily customized including that PCB customization I talked about and NZXT can patch the firmware in the future and Corsairs pump is basically a stock a stack unit with some Corsair badging and SP 120 fans that coursers designed in the house the X 62 naturally sits atop the charts it's bigger surface area radiator and larger fans aided in this regard but Corsairs H 100 IB 2 sits just ahead of the crack and X 52 the direct competitor which also costs a bit more about $35 when comparing at max RPMs we'll get to noise in a moment but the difference between the devices at their max rpm is approximately 1 Celsius so not noticeable really and very no impact on CPU performance in the real world rpm for rpm both devices at 1500 we see that the X 52 is superior to the H 100 Ivy 2 by approximately 1 C again so not really significant but definitely measurable as for the X 52 with its lowest quietest fan speed settings 400 rpm is completely pointless don't set your fans that's low if we stop using Delta values for a moment and add ambient back in it reveals that the CPU temperature is nearly 95 C with 400 rpm they're really not moving air at all why NZXT allows a PWM signal to detect and output a fan speed that dangerously low is beyond me it should be capped closer to 800 rpm even there though we're getting a 75 to 77 C output or 55 dots 6.2 T and the noise levels are at 32 DB so that does make them unbeaten with our current lineup that we've listed but again you're at a higher temperature so adding in DB for the rest of the devices to see which is truly superior the DB accounted for we now see the coarser h100 IB 2 at 1500 rpm is operating at the decibel level of 41.8 where the NZXT crack and X 52 is at 1500 rpm and runs forty-two DB so there's difference of 0.2 again not really significant or observable to the human ear but if all that matters to you is cooling a noise and the LEDs and aesthetics are valueless then the H 100 IB 2 is clearly a much cheaper option for those two metrics and performs about the same but there's a better mix still if we ignore price temporarily we're seeing the X 62 at 10:50 rpm operating with a lower temperature than any of these devices excluding only the H 100 IB 2 at 2500 rpm or a borderline intolerable noise output of 53 9 DB the X 62 at 10:50 RPM outputs 37.4 DB with a load temperature of 37 C versus the H 100 IB 2 and X 52 devices both at around 42 DB and 40 C for their 1500 rpm performance time to add more devices to the charge though we're staggering them to keep it a bit legible here's a look at performance with the next competitor added the ek predator to 80 X LC know that this 210 dollar cooler is meant for creating semi custom open-loop / closed-loop liquid cooling it's a bit unique in that regard uses quick release valves to couple with prefilled water blocks for GPU cooling in this scenario we're only testing the predator CPU cooling ability and have not hooked up a GPU to the loop ek is using a copper radiator that's fatter than its competition alongside two custom 140 millimeter fans the predator maxes out at 1,400 rpm but has a much lower bottom line of 600 rpm while still remaining under operable temperatures the predator also as the third best performance temperatures on the bench only marginally behind the ex 62 from NZXT though not exactly linearly comparable given a significantly higher price and more customizable loop formation still at 35.9 to see the predator 280 is off to a good start the predator 280 is still able to impressively operate at 49.3 celsius with a 600 rpm fan speed which if we move now to the noise chart outputs 29.2 DB the predator at 600 rpm is the quietest on the bench while still remaining capable of cooling the CPU reasonably its 1,400 rpm performance lands at at 41.4 DB or about the same volume as the Corsair h 100 IB 2 at 1500 p.m. but with five celcius cooler performance on the ek predator it's also about 0.4 DB louder than the X 62 again really not that noticeable at ten fifty rpm which is effectively equal in cooling performance overall and finally let's add all the devices to the charts this new thermal chart adds the be quiet dark rock 3 at 2,000 rpm for a look at a 50-dollar air coolers performance but it also adds the X 42 140 millimeter Kraken series cooler the X 42 is able to keep up with the 240 millimeter coolers only when Maxine its rpm which lands the 140 millimeter device at 40.6 see the X 52 is about 1c cooler with a 200 rpm reduction of fan speed and also runs to fans obviously and a larger radiator which helps the X 42 at 10:50 RPM operates at 46 to see really damn close to the H 100 IV 2 at 10:50 rpm that's the bonus of a larger radiator and fan though the price is unfortunately still higher than Corsair is cooler if the X 42 are priced below or around $100 it'd make a whole lot more sense as a product based on these results versus the Corsair offering the thin is 9 C cooler though than the dark rock 3 air cooler if you wanted to have more of a baseline reference to sort of traditional options and that cost $50 these days this noise chart has undergone some kollene we're looking at the nearest competitors so the H 100 IV to the Kraken coolers and just a few of the most relevant RPMs listed for each alongside the dark rock 3 the be quiet cooler sits at 55 Celsius load with a 37.7 DB at 2,000 rpm while the Kraken x42 at even just 1050 RPM sustains 835 DB and 46.2 C output still the X 42 is readily beaten in noise and temperature by the H 100 IB 2 and other crack and products so that was a huge amount of data hopefully it made sense when laid out like that just sort of sequentially once the next overall what we're seeing is that the value proposition favors something like an H 100 IV 2 over the X 42 right now that's purely on a price to performance level on the other hand the X 62 the largest unit that we tested here other than the predator is looking like the best offering in terms of a mix of noise to performance because we can run it at 10 50 rpm and still have some pretty low thermals along with obviously the reduced noise of running a more limited fan rpm and of course at 1,700 rpm it's unbeaten on the bench even by the predator 280 xlc which is a really well designed and built radiator with a copper core and cold plate but it's just outperformed by the X 62 at the higher rpms now the X 62 is $160 so 55 more than the H 100 IV to with most of that cost going to the RGB LEDs and the pump block you basically have to ask yourself if you want to spend about 50 dollars more on LEDs because that's the most dividing factor between the H 100 IB 2 and the X v 2 or X 62 m x 52 performs that a good-enough mixture of noise to performance especially at 1500 rpm that it's neck-and-neck with coursers h 100 IV to the X 62 meanwhile has performance favored over Corsairs H 100 IV 2 but the X 52 is effectively tied other than aesthetics and other small value adds that's really what you're building your purchasing decision on if looking at a 240 rad is do I want the aesthetics and the modular cables in step with a higher price the new kraken series is a much-needed refresh to the slow product cycle that NZXT seems to have been stuck in for about a year now cooling performance is better than the last generation noises about the same and the RGB LED lighting effects are presently unmatched in the liquid cooling market just no one quite does it like NZXT does right now the cooling performance isn't good enough to justify a purchase on its own given the price range again of 130 to 160 dollars but it is if you want the LEDs if not there's really no point to buy the crack in coolers over something like the H 100 IV - and it all really does come down to price with these if NZXT ends up dropping their prices by maybe 10 max 15 dollars per unit they'd be pretty easy to recommend over course there's H 100 IV - even if the LEDs aren't the top of your priorities but they're still kind of cool to have now if LEDs are the top of your priority is all your choices obviously made for you these are the only things that do the LEDs on the pump plate quite like this really well done effects cam interacts and as far as lighting pretty well with the pump and with the lighting effects that go on so easy to use and setup in that regard if cooling and noise are the top of your list then you're basically left looking at age 100 IV to over something like the X 42 or the X 52 over the X 42 because this is an odd man out product it's maybe okay if you have a really restrictive scenario where you have to fit a radiator that size in your case but it is the outlier because it's at a price point where it feels like just $20 more you do end up with the X 52 and that is significantly better especially with regard to noise you can keep your fan rpm as a bit lower output slightly lower noise and your temperatures will be minimally the same but most the time better depending on what you're doing with your fans so this one does make the least sense of the three the X 62 it seems the best in terms of a mixture of noise and cooling performance at 10:50 rpm you get a noise level that's really pretty much unheard considering other components in the system and that's hard to get while also maintaining good cooling performance which the X 62 does and does well so that's the one that is the most impressive to us anyway and it is just $160 so you have to look at do I want the LEDs and the performance if you don't and if a lower price is important the H 100 IB 2 is a pretty good product still maybe slightly older but it's still a Gen 5 pump it's just the RGB LEDs and therefore is cheaper so that's what you have to work with we've given you all the objective data at this point it's a subjective thing do you want LEDs or not the NZXT products I do think are better designed but they come with the cost obviously an ek is predator by the way 280 exile C is a really cool device I want to look at that moral probably review it shortly properly with a GP waterblock but it's really not something that's meant to be used standalone it's got the quick release for a reason so that is all as always patreon like the post roll video to help us out directly subscribe for more links in the description below I'll see you all next time