Data center water use is one of the hot topics right now in the U.S. and is one of the primary reasons why such projects are being blocked across the nation. However, Amazon claimed that it’s improving its water efficiency and that it uses the least amount of water on a per kWh basis among the AI tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, and Meta. Aside from that, it also said that despite using 2.5 billion gallons of water across the world in its data centers, it said that that amount is still a fraction of what other industries in the U.S. are using annually.

Amazon pointed at EPA data from 2017 that said Americans use 9 billion gallons of water daily just for landscape irrigation. This amounts to nearly 3.3 trillion gallons of water every year just for watering plants and gardens and doesn’t even include the irrigation needed for food production. This makes its 2.5-billion-gallon water consumption a literal drop in the bucket, amounting to just 0.075% of water used for keeping gardens green and thriving.

These gardens, however, have a direct benefit in that they could potentially keep ambient temperatures lower (versus an all-cement environment) and add to the aesthetics of the immediate area — the only question is how many people these developments benefit. Moreover, many new data centers in the U.S. are reportedly being built in areas suffering from water issues. While the overall data center water consumption might seem small if you look at the larger picture, we still cannot turn a blind eye to its potential effects on the local community.

For example, a Meta data center has allegedly caused a Georgia town’s deep-well water source to muddy — a sign that the level of the local water table is hitting low levels, allowing mud to be siphoned by the residents’ water pumps. Another site reportedly sucked 29 million gallons of water in 15 months, which caused low water pressures for residents. Reports like these make it harder for other data center projects to secure permits from local governments to start construction, especially as communities fear that these issues could happen in their area, too.

Amazon boasts water efficiency improvements

As the pushback against data centers’ egregious resource consumption has become front-and-center in many permitting fights, Amazon is showing that it’s taking steps to reduce its water consumption and claims that it’s on track to being “water positive” by 2030. It achieved this by implementing innovations in its data centers to reduce water use without reducing performance.

The company says that it mostly uses air cooling for its data centers, which uses up a lot less electricity compared to water cooling. But when ambient temperatures rise, it switches to Direct Evaporative Cooling, with the company spraying water on an absorbent medium, which the company describes as “a sophisticated, giant sponge,” and then runs the hot air through it to reduce temperatures by five to 10 degrees. It says that this is more power efficient than using chillers, reducing power use by about 20% to 25% during the hottest time of the day when power usage by other users is at its highest, too.

It also said that it raised the temperature thresholds in its data centers. While this meant that its servers ran hotter compared to previous years, it didn’t impact on the longevity of their hardware and they were still able to deliver the same amount of computing power as before. Through trial and error, the company discovered that it could keep running its servers using air cooling only, with its water-cooling systems only kicking in once the ambient temperature reaches 85 degrees F (or more than 29 degrees C). This resulted in 50% reduction in water use, says Amazon water specialist Beau Schilz.

Efforts like this are essential for data center operations to become sustainable. After all, despite the pushback against new data center projects, we cannot forever put a moratorium on them as AI’s demand for compute is increasing. But until AI hyperscalers can earn back the trust of the people and prove that they can build infrastructure without increasing costs for everyone else and hoarding the resources that communities need for their survival, then they can only expect opposition to continue.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has claimed that the company's newest generation of AI data centers uses so little water that its annual consumption is roughly equivalent to that of a single restaurant. Speaking at Microsoft Build 2026 on June 2, Nadella made the claim while outlining Microsoft's "Community-First AI Infrastructure" strategy aimed to address growing concerns about the impact of data centers on local communities.

"The cooling loop is filled once, and the data center can operate effectively with zero water consumption," Nadella said during his keynote, while describing how new architectures are redefining data center water consumption. "The daily water usage over the course of an entire year is roughly equivalent to what a single restaurant would use."

While Nadella did not specify the size or type of restaurant used for comparison, the claim is striking given the scale of modern hyperscale AI facilities. Industry estimates suggest that restaurants can consume anywhere from several hundred thousand to more than a million gallons of water annually, while 100MW+ hyperscale data centers have historically required tens to hundreds of millions of gallons of water annually for cooling, depending on climate, workload, and cooling design.

Nadella's statement — not the first time Microsoft has used a restaurant comparison — is based on Microsoft's new closed-loop liquid-cooling architecture. Traditional data centers often rely on evaporative cooling systems that continuously consume water to remove heat generated by servers and networking equipment. In Microsoft’s new approach, over 90% of the facility's cooling relies on a closed-loop liquid cooling system that is filled during construction and then continuously recirculates the same water rather than constantly consuming a fresh supply. The remaining portion of the cooling system primarily relies on outside air and only uses additional water in the hottest conditions.

The system works by circulating cooled water through heat exchangers connected to the AI hardware. As the water absorbs heat, it is routed to a massive chiller plant where large cooling fans dissipate the heat before the water is recirculated back through the facility. Because the water remains in the cooling loop rather than evaporating and being discarded, ongoing water consumption is dramatically reduced. This can translate to savings of multiple billions of gallons of water across Microsoft’s data centers.

The current reality is much more subdued. The new cooling design and its water savings are currently implemented only at Microsoft's Fairwater AI data center campus in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. On the other hand, the company has stated that the new cooling approach will become the standard design for future AI-focused data centers. Microsoft has confirmed that multiple identical Fairwater facilities are already under construction elsewhere in the United States as part of a broader expansion of its AI infrastructure footprint. The rollout forms part of Microsoft's longer-term goal of becoming water positive by 2030, meaning the company aims to replenish more water than it consumes globally, as part of its community-first strategy.

While the new cooling design will substantially reduce water use in future facilities, critics note that Microsoft already operates a vast global network of data centers. Azure now spans more than 500 facilities across 80 regions worldwide, many of which were built before Fairwater's cooling architecture was introduced.

Microsoft has not announced a comprehensive retrofit program that would convert existing data centers to the new closed-loop design. As a result, the "restaurant-level" water footprint applies primarily to newly built facilities that use the Fairwater blueprint, rather than to Microsoft's entire global infrastructure estate.

The debate reflects a broader challenge facing the AI industry. Companies, including Microsoft and Google, are racing to build ever-larger AI clusters while facing mounting public pressure to reduce their environmental impact, as communities grow increasingly disapproving of large-scale AI infrastructure projects. Google recently announced a series of water stewardship commitments of its own, including a pledge to replenish more water than its data centers consume by 2030.

Innovative London-based PC cooling firm Billet Labs is back with another water-cooled system, this time aiming for a completely passive, fanless build. The video below explains why this interesting build was conceptualized, how it was built, its benefits and drawbacks, and how it performs, all with an eye on thermals.

Felix from Billet Labs starts the video presentation standing next to another of the firm's special projects – Walley. This machine is wall-mounted and shows plenty of Billet Labs signature flair. Its multiple powerful fans can get rather noisy when the system is under duress, though. If the fan speeds are scaled back, things start to get uncomfortably warm. The new custom build, therefore, targets a gaming PC that is much quieter.

Regular readers may be familiar with Billet and founder Felix on YouTube, most recently for ‘Raddy,’ the Victorian radiator PC. However, Raddy proved to be a bit noisy for a living room gaming machine, and it included some fans, so its performance components are being reused here.

Felix reveals that the hulking cast-iron radiator cooled beast known as Raddy wasn’t silent due to cavitation bubbles in the pump, which necessitates radiator flushing once a week. Not a trivial task. Also, Raddy wasn’t a fully passive design as it incorporated fans.

So, the new PC and Raddy share a lot of the same components, particularly the performance parts like an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, and an Aorus Pro B850 motherboard.

The new build used a trio of radiators in different sizes, ranging from large to very large. They were arranged above the heat-generating components, taking advantage of what Felix describes as a convection chimney effect.

For about the next 30 minutes of the video, we get to witness the skills behind the Billet Labs build process. The main stages roughly consisted of building the platform (based on an 8mm aluminum plate), mounting the PC parts, adding cooling, and then plumbing. From about 33 minutes in, we get to see the new living room gaming PC fire up Windows 11 for the ‘first time,’ and performance / thermal testing commences.

Felix isn’t satisfied with the silence of the building at first. So he had to turn off the motherboard fan and also adjust the pump speed to 80%. The machine was then tested until temperatures began to level off, over various workloads. Testing began with idling for half an hour, playing Peggle for a while, and then running Cinebench for half an hour. Things got serious as Halo 3 was fired up for a session. In the real gaming tests (Halo 3, Expedition 33, Cyberpunk 2077), the GPU never thermal throttled, but the CPU would a little as it hit 95 °C or more.

More stress testing was initiated, culminating in running Cinebench and FurMark simultaneously. This pulled over 450W of power and brought the radiator water temps up to 60C+, which is the maximum rated level for the pump. A throttling CPU was observed again in these tests. A full table of tests, power output, and temperatures is shared in the Reddit post embedded below.

Fan-less gaming PC - 5080/9800x3d/32gb/2tb - Yes I’ll probably add fans next from r/pcmasterrace

In conclusion, Felix reckons passive water cooling alone isn’t really enough for a powerful modern gaming rig. Even a single case fan would probably be enough to make a world of difference. So, stay tuned for a follow-up video where you can see how the same Billet Labs PC performs with a 120mm fan atop, pulling air upwards, accelerating that chimney effect.

Thermal Grizzly (TG) has been stung by fake materials sellers based in China, with nearly $50,000 down the drain. Expert overclocker Roman ‘Der8auer’ Hartung’s computer accessories firm had been struggling to source copper and aluminum plates in Europe, so it decided to source alternative suppliers in the Far East. Despite some sage-sounding precautions and some diligence, TG received two separate shipments composed largely of fake material.

If you’ve been wondering about TG product stock, shipments, and delays, then the video above might help you understand what’s been happening behind the scenes.

Der8auer says the video was not easy to make, as it is “quite embarrassing for me personally.” However, it is good to share the story if it can help just one other person or firm avoid a similar fate. In TG’s case, the bad trade has been a big loss in cash (€40,000 or ~ $46,250), time, and energy. Moreover, it still needs to source these materials and find funds to cover the extra costs.

So, despite finding a pair of suppliers on Alibaba that seemed to have a solid verified track record spanning several years and corresponded professionally, they were both duds. Cautious procedures like paying just 30% up front, followed by the rest of the funds after receiving shipment confirmation, were simply not cautious enough. On receiving the shipping crates, it was one disappointment after another.

In the video, we see the ‘copper’ crate analysis first. What Der8auer received were ferric metal slabs (iron or steel) with quite a thick copper coating. So, they passed a visual test, and a corner snipped using some pliers looked good under an electron microcopy sample test.

However, the first red flag was shown when the TG boss went to test the copper slabs with a thermal surface conductivity meter. On a piece of reference copper material, the meter beeped, and the reading was 89%. However, the freshly unboxed ‘China copper’ didn’t even prompt this scientific instrument to produce a reading…

A milling machine was used to take a few millimeters off the surface of the newly imported material, and it soon revealed white metal, with sparks being produced. A small magnet confirms the actual shipped consignment consisted of “copper-coated steel plates.”

The second swindler

The second supplier’s aluminum swindle was a little different. This unscrupulous supplier had layered a few genuine aluminum slabs on top of the crate contents. Then, cheap steel plates were inserted below, and a few sheet steel voids were constructed to make the consignment roughly the expected weight for the amount of aluminum purchased.

From the video, it looks like about a quarter of the aluminum shipment was usable. After around five layers, the crates were filled with the aforementioned far-cheaper steel sheets as ballast.

There was also a copper shipment from this second supplier. Again, a few genuine sheets were on top. Like with the first supplier, though, it was soon found that most of the materials looked copper colored, but were magnetic. Another load of copper-plated steel…

A few thousand Euros for scrap

Der8auer was clearly exasperated to be swindled “twice, on this scale.” There is a possibility of getting a few thousand Euros back from the steel from a scrap dealer. Nevertheless, the loss isn’t just financial; it is to the company's reputation, delays, energy, and so on.

To conclude, the TG boss reveals that one of the suppliers no longer responds to communications. Another is still in touch, but Der8auer admits he “honestly doesn’t have much hope.” In the end, it sounds like he won’t expend any further energy pursuing justice, as “a German company doing something in China like this, it's almost impossible that you will succeed and it will cost you a lot more time and money.”

Billet Labs is back and has finalized its cast-iron Victorian radiator gaming PC build. Alex from the London-based PC cooling innovators shared a detailed hour-long video with insights into the build, which should answer all your what, why, and how queries. However, he thought that even for this impressive radiator-as-a-PC build, “cooling something like a 5090 is probably out of the question,” so an RTX 5080 and Ryzen 7 9800X3D combo were judged to be the sweet spot.

We covered a teaser for this incredibly stout Victorian-era cast-iron PC build just ahead of the New Year. Thankfully, we now have a lot more information about this fascinating build and the concept/process behind it.

The video begins with Alex explaining that this amazing-looking PC is destined - not for some showroom or exhibition - but for an “actual usable long-term gaming PC, for myself.” Previously, we saw estimates that the charming but portly radiator was 110 pounds (~50kg) in weight. Now we have a clearer set of figures. The radiator is actually about 178 pounds (81kg) empty, and 218 pounds (99kg) when filled with coolant.

Commenting on this hulking mass of metal, “the thermal mass is absolutely insane,” enthused Alex. “And, secondly, it looks %^&* awesome!”

The key approach to the design and build was to keep the Victorian artifact’s visual appeal intact, and mount PC parts “as invisibly as possible, on the bottom.” But an immediate challenge to this idea was the fact that “there’s not a single flat surface, and not a single hole that I can bolt anything to,” wryly commented the PC liquid cooling specialist.

The first practical step in the build process was the 3D scanning of the bottom of the radiator to create an accurate 3D model. Armed with this, Felix designed a highly accurate 3D printed mounting system for PSU, mobo, GPU, and so on. This 2-part plastic chassis was fixed to the central underlying spine of the radiator, with corresponding half-pipe fixings securing it in place.

Though we had the impression this was going to be a fanless radiator system, the below-decks chassis design included room for sliding in a trio of super-thin 120mm fans.

To mate the heat-generating components with the radiator and plumbing, Billet Labs chose an Alphacool water block for the RTX 5080, and its own prototype AM5 CPU cooling block.

On the topic of PC build components, the list was roughly as follows:

Another nice touch with this fantastic PC build project was the choice of the power button. Felix sourced a sprung antique brass gear lever to power up the PC stylishly. This was fitted into one of the side vents on the rad using a custom mount.

Before the end of the video, we see the antique cast-iron PC used for a bit of gaming and benchmarking. In a ‘torture test,’ drawing about 520W of power for over an hour, the water temperature appeared to stabilize at under 30C. Notably, the RTX 5080 peaked at 75 °C during the most extreme testing Alex could throw at it.

Finding an antique cast-iron radiator isn't that easy in 2026, but at least Amazon still sells some modern ones in various sizes.

We've covered a bunch of escapades from the evil genius mind of TrashBench. He's back with yet another creation that makes you wonder if just because something is possible, should it really be done? This one is a follow-up to a previous project where he Frankenstein'd a CPU cooler onto a GPU — now he's eliminated the middleman and decided to mod the GPU cooler itself directly. Even if the final outcome looks unwieldy, the results are bloody impressive.

The video starts with an Asus Dual RTX 2060 being dismantled to expose its cooler, then TrashBench picks at the heatsink long enough to gain a clean entry to the heatpipes. This wasn't an easy process but eventually he could see the end of the pipes protruding, at which point he cut them off. These pipes have a tiny bit of liquid that enables a phase change system when heated, keeping the GPU cool conventionally.

But convention has been completely thrown out the window at this point. TrashBench takes some silicone tubes and attaches them to these cut heatpipe ends, tests for a leak, and gets to benchmarking as soon as possible. While stock, the GPU stayed at 70 degrees Celsius while maintaining an average boost clock speed of 1935MHz.

With nothing running through the newly-installed tubes, the card reached 88 degrees while boosting only up to 1350 MHz. It was time to add a conduit into the mix: regular ol' water. With H₂O flowing through those pipes, the GPU dropped to 47 degrees, shaving off 23 degrees compared to stock and 39 degrees compared to no water before.

Adding two 120mm fans on top of the card didn't affect the temperature; the same goes for a whole radiator with the tubes connected to it. The big change came about thanks to sub-zero water, enabled by an ice chiller. The 2060 was taken apart once again to cover the PCB in Vaseline to protect it from condensation.

Once that ice-cold water was running through the GPU's veins, the temperature under full load dropped to a mere 13 degrees — that's 57 degrees less than stock and a whopping 23 degrees less than even the previous ambient-temp water result. The clock speeds reached a record-high 2025 MHz.

Adding fans, once again, didn't do anything. TrashBench didn't try a radiator but did also include a few swooping shots of the entire GPU being completely frozen over, proving the experiment a success.

Throughout the process, our resident enthusiast used a CH-060 (60W) submersible water pump, but switched to a more powerful Seaflo 12V diaphragm pump for the sub-zero part. The water used here was mixed with antifreeze, which is what gives it the acid green color.

All in all, apart from the painful heatsink disassembly at the start, this was a relatively smooth exercise and another entry into the weird ways computers can be cooled. Most of this list is dominated by TrashBench, including that one time he dunked a GTX 1080 into transmission fluid.

The proliferation of data centers worldwide has raised more than a few environmental concerns. The most obvious one is the power requirement, but regional water consumption has just as bad (or even worse) an effect, as people in rural Georgia have come to realize. Government authorities everywhere have taken notice, including the Malaysian state of Johor, which is now reportedly nuking all proposals for Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centers.

Johor is the nation's tech hub and has attracted substantial international investment and tens of data centers, creating thousands of highly specialized jobs. However, the thirst for water has led the authorities to drown out any notion of building data centers that are not Tier 3 or 4. In fact, official Amira Aisya specifically brought up what happened in Georgia. That particular story isn't the only one, as citizens in Las Cenizas, Mexico, might also have strong words on the topic.

Data centers fall into four categories: the bottom two have single cooling and power paths, while the larger, higher-end ones have multiple systems. Crucially, they tend to have far better power efficiency (and thus lower water consumption) than Tier 1 and Tier 2, thanks to better planning and the use of more frugal hardware.

The Johor government estimates a low-tier data center's water intake at around 40 to 50 million liters a day, a worrisome figure. In contrast, water consumption at Tier 3 and Tier 4 reportedly hovers around 200,000 liters/day, a figure the officials say compares to a typical industrial load.

The authorities understandably want all new data centers to meet higher environmental impact standards, aligned with international benchmarks. To understand the scale of the issue, Johor currently has 51 data center projects: 17 in operation, 11 under construction, and 23 approved.

If you're wondering where that water is going, it's for evaporation cooling towers in open-loop arrangements. There are multiple approaches to reduce the figure, including underwater data centers. Nvidia itself has come up with a redesign that claims to improve water consumption by 300x by using closed-loop systems, similar in concept to CLCs inside gaming and workstation PCs.

If you're looking for stellar performance in a compact system, then look no further than Cooler Master's own MasterLiquid 240 Atmos, which is 34% off at Amazon UK. The cooler's design and superb aesthetics are just the cherry on top of what is one of the best 240mm AIOs that money can buy.

In our 4.5-star review, we noted that the cooler boasted strong performance, quiet noise levels, and excellent aesthetics. Given the discount on offer here, it's unlikely that you'll find a better 240mm AIO deal at this price point, so long as you're not bothered about having a configurable display.

• Grab the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Atmos 240 at Amazon UK

In the box, expect to find a pair of Cooler Master's Sickleflow Edge 120mm fans, alongside CryoFuze thermal paste and applicators, a PWM Splitter, ARGB hub and splitter, and support for all modern CPU sockets. This AIO is commonly used in small-form-factor builds for its size and performance, as the CPU block is relatively low-profile, which means you'll have no issue with clearance for any large RAM heat spreaders. Additionally, with a total radiator and fan thickness of just 52mm, it'll fit just about anywhere.

Boasting impressive results in our testing, considering its size class, the MasterLiquid Atmos 240 often performs on the same level as a 360mm AIO, without all of the bulk. Expect this cooler to be able to handle the most power-hungry chips out there. If you're using a less demanding chip, the Atmos 240 will be able to handle it with no sweat.

Cooler Master's AIO was observed as reaching 38.2 dBA when paired with a Core 17-13700K, which is plenty quiet using the default fan curves. Just note that things can be noisier when pushing the cooler to its limits. Given the performance on offer here, even if you have a larger chassis, this might still be an excellent purchase. But if you have a smaller case that can only support up to a 240mm AIO, then Cooler Master's MasterLiquid Atmos 240 becomes a no-brainer.

Given that the price has plummeted by 34% this Black Friday season, it's reasonable to assume that you'll likely not find a better cooler than this right now. Thanks to its low-profile design, it'll fit just about anywhere, and the CPU block looks great, without being outwardly garish, as many RGB-laden PC components lean toward.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best Black Friday PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

Data centers cost an incredible amount of money to build, and require equally eye-watering amounts of electricity to power them. But while companies might talk up their green credentials through improved hardware efficiency or renewable energy, one area that's often overlooked in their design and construction is the astronomical quantities of water they consume. This year's enormous scale of datacenter and "AI factory" announcements doesn't just raise concerns about their electricity use and environmental impact, but also about the unprecedented amount of water they'll consume just to keep these facilities cool.

A single data center can consume upwards of five million gallons of water per day, or enough for a small town of 50,000 people, says the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. If you scale that problem up nationwide, the issue becomes even more exacerbated. In 2024, it was estimated that U.S. data centres consumed over 60 billion gallons of water through cooling; the figure provided by the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory also excludes the quantities of water used for electricity generation or on-site needs outside of cooling.

This is magnified in hotter parts of the country, where water is both rarer and in greater demand. Hotter ambient temperatures mean more water is required for cooling, and with consistent demands to keep operating costs and carbon emissions low, there's greater emphasis on using cooling techniques like evaporative cooling, which minimizes electricity use, even at the cost of greater water use. This is of particular importance, as supplies are being squeezed while companies scramble to scale up.

Moreover, local communities are incredibly reliant on clean local water supplies. Data centers not only compete for water access but have also been linked to poor water quality, though the companies operating them might deny the claims.

Cooling is hard

Cooling is crucial for data centers, as it affects performance and operational costs. Typically, this is handled in one of two ways: open-loop and closed-loop cooling. In an open loop, hot air from the data center is blown over water-moistened pads, or it's sprayed into the air in a fine mist. As the water evaporates, it reduces the temperature of the air, but that water is lost from the local water table completely, making it much more wasteful in its water use.

Closed-loop liquid cooling cools components directly via water blocks and loops, or by immersing the hardware in the cooling liquid. In either case, electric chillers are used to reduce the temperature of the water once it's been heated. This technique doesn't evaporate much, so water use is reduced, though electricity use and costs are typically far higher.

Of course, companies are also looking into exotic cooling methods, such as direct-to-chip and immersion cooling, which can also affect the amount of water being used in such cases.

Quantifying the issue

"Water use tends to receive much less attention than energy efficiency for sure," highlighted Masao Ashtine, senior energy transition manager at The Carbon Trust.

"The narrative often focuses on reducing electricity consumption and carbon emissions, which are easier to quantify and headline. However, evaporative cooling systems, commonly used to cut energy use, can significantly increase water demand. This trade-off is rarely highlighted, even though it has real implications for local water resources, especially in water-stressed regions."

The sheer lack of available water was one of the highlighted concerns in the UK recently when many of the world's top AI companies announced data center projects in the country. That came just weeks after the British government announced measures to address the "nationally significant" water shortfall, such as citizens taking shorter showers or deleting old emails.

Another issue is local water quality. In 2024, Maryland state and county inspectors documented several cases of "frac-out" events, in which drilling fluid and sediment were released into a tributary of the Monocacy River during underground drilling to lay fiber-optic cabling. Some of those fluids can have a disastrous effect on marine life, and the construction companies involved failed to effectively report the issue, as well as continuing to drill even after they were aware of the environmental impact.

"Most modern facilities are designed with strict discharge controls, but risks can arise from chemical treatments used in cooling systems or from improper wastewater management," explained Ashtine. "Localised impacts can definitely occur if safeguards aren’t properly enforced."

In evaporative cooling systems, wastewater byproducts often contain salts and impurities that must be cleaned via water treatment or discharged into the environment. This "blowdown" water can have an extremely high saline content and poses a real risk to local water sources. Due to concerns over this, some counties, like Fairfax, Virginia, now include the strict advisory that blowdown not be allowed in any circumstances due to the potential negative effect it would have on already stressed water sources.

Building a better (water) world

The solutions to data centers' water consumption issues are many, varied, and long-term. There is no turning off the tap to existing data centers, and there's no putting the AI genie back in the bottle. With hundreds of billions at stake and some of the world's largest governments and companies throwing their shoulder behind the AI arms race, these data centers are coming whether we like it or not.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing that can be done. Indeed, a lot can be done to make the problem less pronounced and to hold companies accountable for their water use and its effects on local environments and water sources.

It starts with accurate reporting. All the major tech companies have yearly sustainability reports, but some do it better than others. Google uses more water than most other companies combined, but we know this because it produces a yearly report on it. It also digs down into the water use at individual data centers, which gives us much greater insight than others.

Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft don't provide the same level of detail, though their latest reports suggest they're all looking to return more water to local sources than they consume by 2030, which shows they're at least aware of the issue.

These companies can also consider alternative cooling solutions in their facilities. The majority of UK data centers currently don't use water cooling at all. While that might be harder in hotter regions, it is doable. Google's Pflugerville, Texas, facility is air-cooled, rather than water-cooled, and uses barely any water compared to evaporative-cooled alternatives. It needs to be augmented with renewable energy to ensure there isn't greater water usage in power generation, but the potential is certainly there to better leverage natural cooling methods in data center construction.

"Some strategies that I have seen include recycling and reusing water within cooling systems, or even using non-potable water sources, such as reclaimed or rainwater," suggested Ashtine. "Locating facilities in water-abundant regions or near sustainable water sources is a no-brainer, too, but the logistic and economics will always trump in final decision making."

Inference with AI is effectively nonstop, but training isn't. If a company is going to spend millions of compute hours on a training project, could they run it overnight when it's cooler? Could they only use data centers with higher quantities of renewable power generation? What about a government mandate that only facilities with closed-loop cooling solutions can be used for AI training?

The hardware itself can be improved, too. Microsoft recently discussed microfluidic cooling for its chips, which could massively improve cooling efficiency and reduce overall hardware temperatures. The development of ASICs for AI will likely help, too, as general-purpose GPUs are incredibly power hungry. As we saw with cryptocurrency mining, we may see more bespoke and efficient chips developed, at least for AI inference workloads, which could reduce power and cooling demands at these facilities.

As for users? It's a drop in the proverbial and literal bucket, but every time you send an AI a prompt, it consumes water. There are conflicting reports on how much, from 50ml to 500ml per every 5-50 responses, but there's no denying that it has an impact. Using AI more judiciously could help curb water use.

The most important part, though, is just being more informed. Water usage at these facilities and indeed for our technology and its usage as a whole often takes a back seat to electricity demand. While that's likely warranted while greenhouse gas emissions are of greater concern than water shortages, that paradigm is likely to shift over the course of this century. Being mindful now might help make that problem far less pronounced in the future.

TrashBench, an overclocking and BIOS tuning enthusiast, has pushed the old favorite Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 to 2,202 MHz using a DIY cooler. The Redditor and TechTuber stuck to the aging GeForce’s stock BIOS and stock voltage, but the home-made copper pipe cooling can only be reasonably described as ‘something else.’ Aesthetics aside, the cooler propelled this card to a stunning five-fold victory in the official 3DMark Fire Strike chart (for systems packing a Core i5-12600KF).

With their trusty old Asus GTX 1060 6GB in hand, TrashBench removed the stock cooler and prepared for the GPU refit by crushing an assortment of copper piping lengths, acquired from a home DIY store, for better component contact.

Next, the now adjusted lengths of copper pipe were positioned over strategic areas of the PCB (VRMs, VRAM), and G-clamped in place. A water block and pump were attached to the GPU, and flexible pipes included the copper lengths in a loop – fed by a sizable jerry can of iced water for the reservoir.

With the DIY cooler setup ready to roll, and sensibly attached some distance from the host PC using a lengthy riser cable, TrashBench started work. Fiddling with the curves in MSI Afterburner, they walked the GPU clocks up, while monitoring temperatures. “I ended up with a pretty clean 2,202 MHz on the core stable enough for a full Firestrike run, and a score good enough to crack into the global Top 5 for GTX 1060s and a 12600kf,” noted TrashBench. But we notice they subsequently got six of the top six scores – even better.

13% faster performance

German Cooling specialist Alphacool has just announced a sizable expansion of its Core GPU Cooler block product series for liquid-cooled PC systems. Previously only available for select Nvidia RTX 40 series and a couple of AMD RX 7900 XTX GPU designs, the firm is now offering 21 new water blocks for AMD’s RX 9070 family. This extensive set of new products includes water blocks for both RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT models, and embraces brands such as ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, and XFX.

Alphacool says that all the new Core GPU Cooler designs are made with the utmost precision, minimizing clearances between the cooling surfaces and heat-generating components on your graphics card PCB. The firm also praises its own design decisions in using chrome (instead of nickel) plating on the copper cooling plates and the use of brass connections on all pipework. All these liquid cooling-ready replacements for your factory-supplied air coolers come with a backplate, mounting apparatus, pre-cut thermal pads, and pre-applied thermal paste.

So, let’s take a look at the long list of new Alphacool Core GPU Cooler blocks for the RX 9070 family. For your convenience, we’ve created a table:

The Radeon RX 9070-series GPUs have been a big hit for AMD, according to none other than the firm’s CEO, Lisa Su. This level of third-party hardware accessory support suggests she wasn’t exaggerating. Moreover, it is good to see that of the 21 new water blocks from Alphacool, five are for RX 9070 non-XT models. Perhaps the 9070-non XT could be a sleeper hit, as enthusiasts have warmed to its great efficiency. Moreover, in actual retail, the official $50 MSRP difference between RX 9070 XT and non-XT seems significantly wider.

A Chinese techtuber has designed a liquid-cooled PC system that hooks up to a household air conditioner unit instead of a PC-mounted radiator. The video creator, oddly named 'Electrolytic sodium carbonate' (ESC), showcases a rather normal-looking PC tower - but next to it, there is a 12,000 BTU air conditioning unit to supercharge cooling. The result is that the GPU runs at just 20 degrees Celsius under stress testing.

This project is ready to be the "perfect companion" (machine translation) for an upcoming Core i9-14900K with Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 system, says ESC. However, as they are still waiting for a water block release for their graphics card these first tests have been completed using a Core i9-13900K PC system fitted with an RTX 4090.

This isn't ESC's first work in integrating powerful household air conditioning units with personal computer systems. The video host shows an established 'whole house' liquid cooling system that appears to have five loops available for PCs. We have pictures of the inside and outside parts of this cooling setup in the gallery.

Next up, the ESC video host talks about the increased TDP of the RTX 5090, which moves the power needle a not insignificant amount beyond the expected load of an RTX 4090. We are then introduced to the Xiaomi KFR-35GW air conditioner, which gets a nice bit of Nvidia – AMD – Intel branding, though we are not aware of any AMD components in the test system. This AC unit offers a quoted 12,000 BTU cooling power and typically consumes about 1.2kW. It measures 765 x 268 x 550mm, so is quite a lot bigger than the PC tower it is cooling, and a lot bigger than a 360mm PC cooling radiator.

We are then guided through the modification of the Xiaomi KFR-35GW. Some welding and pipe management later, and we see the liquid cooler reservoir ready inside the AC unit.

How well does this AC unit cool the test PC? After 40 minutes of "roasting" this PC by stress testing it with popular tools such as FurMark and the AIDA System Stability Test the system CPU cores are said to be only a couple of degrees hotter than when the test started.

ESC then took the AC unit outdoors, where it would normally be installed, and noted that the GPU temperature was just 2 degrees Celsius, with a 12 degrees Celsius hotspot. Running stress tests again saw these GPU temperatures rise to 20 and 36 degrees Celsius, respectively. Sadly, the video doesn't include charts for inside and outdoors, CPU and GPU, idle and load – those would have been very interesting.

During the video the host says that they are happy with the capability of the air conditioner-cooled PC as demonstrated, and believe it is ready for both the 14900K and RTX 5090 components, which are waiting in the wings, and any upcoming RTX 6090.

Whether you’re pushing for the highest sustained clock speeds with your new Ryzen 9 9590X3D or Core i9-14900K, or you just want your modest rig to stay quiet under load, there are some important things to consider when choosing the best AIO (all-in-one) cooler for your new PC (or if you're just upgading your CPU and / or cooling).

AIO coolers are much more convenient and affordable than custom liquid cooling loops. And, traditionally at least, AIOs have been able to deliver lower CPU temperatures with less fan noise than air coolers. That’s not always the case these days, though, as the best air coolers have gotten better and, in some cases, bigger.

You’ll need to be sure there’s room to install an AIO cooler in your PC case, preferably in the top or rear in most cases, exhausting your CPU heat out of the chassis. AIO coolers mostly come in three sizes, defined by the dimensions of the radiator and the fans the radiator is designed to fit: 120 (one 120 mm fan), 240 (two 120 mm fans), or 360 mm (three 120 mm fans). And some coolers have thicker radiators, like Arctic's impressive Liquid Freezer III Pro.

There are some 140, 280 mm, and 420 mm AIO coolers as well, but they are far less common. As you might expect, the larger the radiator (generally speaking), the greater the cooling potential. That said, radiator thickness, materials, and fan and pump performance can factor heavily into cooling capability and noise output, too.

If you aren’t running a flagship CPU with lots of cores and 5-6 GHz speeds, and you don’t plan on overclocking, a 120 mm AIO (which you can usually mount in the rear exhaust fan area of your PC case) should suffice. That said, Intel's 13th and 14th Gen CPUs are generally more demanding on coolers. And AMD's Ryzen 9000 lineup, while less thermally demanding than Intel's chips, isn't exactly easy to cool either. So if you want better temperatures and slower-spinning fans, a good 240 mm AIO cooler is a better starting point, but it won’t fit in as many cases. A 360 mm AOI will generally give you better cooling and may be quieter than a 240 mm model, but it will fit in fewer cases.

In your quest for the best AIO cooler, don't forget to consider thermal paste or another thermal interface material (TIM) to use with your AIO cooler. Most coolers these days will come with some kind of paste, either in a small syringe or pre-applied to the metal cold plate (sometimes both). But to make sure you're getting the most efficient thermal transfer between your CPU and cooler plate, check out the many products we thoroughly tested to find the best thermal paste for your CPU.

While AIOs come with their own fans, case fans are also critical in keeping temperatures down. The cooler the intake air is hitting AIO or heatsink, the cooler your CPU temperatures will be. That said, we've started fan testing at Tom's and have published our first Best PC Case Fans article covering several recent PC fans including some from Noctua, Arctic, Phanteks, and more. Find out which fans perform best for your needs, be it quiet operation, high-performance, or RGBs, we have you covered and expanding testing testing more fans as we speak.

Intel Core Ultra Arrow Lake S cooling tests

If you're considering buying one of Intel's latest Core Ultra desktop processors, you may not need to spend as much as you think on cooling. Arrow Lake S is generally a more efficient design (though there are some serious tradeoffs in performance, particularly in gaming), so you generally don't need as much cooling performance as we saw with Raptor Lake chips.

Check out our testing below to see what kind of cooler you'll need to keep the latest Ultra 7 and Ultra 9 CPUs running fast and cool.

➡️ Intel Core Ultra 9 285K cooling testing

➡️ Intel Core Ultra 7 265K cooling testing

Quick List

Best AIO Coolers You Can Buy Today

Best 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler

If your primary cooling concern is the lowest possible CPU temperatures and you don't want to pay extra for RGB or a screen, Arctic's 360 mm Liquid Freezer III Pro is, hands down, the best option I've ever tested, whether you're using a high-end AMD or Intel CPU. Nothing else even comes close.

Just note that its radiator and fans together are 63 mm thick, so it won't fit in every case. And its default settings are arguably overkill for even a 9950X3D or a 14900K. So if you're sensitive to fan and pump noise, you'll want to tune things down a bit. Aslo, Intel users will have to install an included contact frame, which makes installation more complicated. Installation is pretty standard for AMD users.

Aside from performance, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro also wins on price. Its $125 U.S. MSRP is competitive or below many other big-name cooling brands. But the cooler is also often on sale for much less. When we wrote this, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 mm was selling for just $88 on Amazon. At that price – or really at any price around $100 – it's hard to argue for any other AIO cooler.

Read: Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro review

Best 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler Alternative

Thermalright continues to prove it's a market leader, raising the bar for performance and value with the Grand Vision 360. This 360mm AIO’s thermal results were better than previous coolers we’ve tested, both with Intel's current Core Ultra 9 285K and the older Core i7-14700K.

Its cooling performance wasn't drastically better than close competitors from Be Quiet and NZXT, but at $129 in the US, its more affordable than those alternatives, while offering up more features.

Unlike most AIOs in this price range, the Grand Vision 360 includes a fancy LCD screen with tons of preset customization options. And while not everyone wants or needs that in their cooler, Thermalright at least delivers the feature at a lower price than most competitors, and doesn't sacrifice cooling performance for a flashy LCD. If you’re looking for an LCD-equipped AIO that cools extremely well and doesn’t break the bank, Thermalright’s Grand Vision 360 is the liquid cooler you’re looking for.

Read: Thermalright Gran Vision 360 Review

Best Budget 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler

ID-Cooling, much like rival Thermalright, has established itself as a company that delivers solid colling performance at budget-friendly prices. Its FX360 INF 360mm AIO, while not the cheapest in the company's lineup, is still quite affordable at around $80. For that price, you get RGB fans and an infinity mirror on top of the CPU block, a tube of one of the best thermal pastes we've tested, and shockingly great performance for the price.

The ID-Cooling FX360 INF was within striking distance of the best coolers we've tested, just one watt below the best results we've seen cooling the Core i7-14700K with no power limits. And it kept our newer Core Ultra 9 286K more than 10 degrees Celsius below its throttling threshold. And even more impressively, it did all that with a maximum noise level of just 44.4 dBA – and when tied to our test system's default fan curve during our heavy gaming test, the cooler topped out at just 40.9 dBA. Those are both some of the quietest results we've seen from an AIO.

You could spend more – and you'll likely have to spend a lot more – to get slightly better cooling performance and / or aesthetic features like a customizable screen on the water block. But if all you care about is keeping your CPU cool and your system quiet while adding some RGB lighting to your rig, ID-Cooling's FX360 INF is one of the best – and most affordable – 360mm options we've tested to date.

Read: ID-Cooling FX360 INF review

Best Multipurpose AIO Liquid Cooler

Silverstone’s IceMyst AIOs show that there’s still plenty of room for innovation in the CPU cooling market. Apart from doing a good general job at CPU cooling, this cooler lets you add multiple fans ($16 extra per fan) around the base of the CPU block and direct them over your VRMs, RAM, SSD, etc. This is a feature unmatched by any existing product on the market. And the IceMyst coolers also cost less than many high-end AIO cooler alternatives.

In our CPU cooling tests, the IceMyst AIOs (we tested both the 360 and 240mm models) performed very well, usually landing close to the best-performing coolers in terms of chip-chilling abilities. And when all coolers’ fans are set to the same low noise level of 38.2 dBA, Silverston’s IceMyst 360 performed the best of any cooler we’ve tested, handling 237 watts. The 240mm model also did well, handling 228W.

My only complaint is that by default, the IceMyst’s included radiator fans run much louder than needed – but that’s easily fixed by implementing a custom fan curve. If fan noise bothers you, don’t worry too much because when set to run silently the 360mm IcyMyst provides the best noise normalized results I’ve seen from any cooler on the market.

Read: Silverstone IceMyst 360 and 240mm AIO Review

Best 280mm AIO Cooler

Lian Li’s Galahad II LCD 280 shows that with the right design, you don’t need a 360mm AIO or a loud cooler to keep modern high-end CPUs from throttling. Its performance is amongst the best we’ve seen from any AIO, and its limited 280mm size means that it will fit in many cases where a 360mm model won’t. The included LCD screen is vibrant and adds eye-catching functionality to the cooler’s aesthetics.

At $229, the Galahad II LCD 280 is on the expensive end of the AIO spectrum. But if the LCD display isn’t your thing or you’re on a budget, the non-LCD versions of the Galahad II are available for $159.99 for the 360mm version and $119.99 for the 240mm model.

Read: Lian Li Galahad II LCD 280 Review

Best 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler

If you’re looking for a strong 240mm AIO, you can’t go wrong with Lian Li’s Galahad II Trinity 240mm. Our testing shows it's the best-cooling AIO of its size on the market. It's also quiet in most workloads, and it has a very reasonable price of only $119.99.

I never imagined that a 240mm AIO would have this level of cooling domination. Lian Li’s Galahad Trinity II Performance 240mm managed to sidle up to or outperform 360mm AIOs that were previously considered among the best available.

Read: Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 240 Review

Best 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler Alternative

After installing and testing it, I found Cooler Master’s new MasterLiquid 240 Atmos especially impressive. It’s clear the company has improved its flagship AIO in several key areas. Noise levels are low in most common workloads, and despite its smaller 240mm profile, the 240 Atmos is one of only a handful of AIOs I’ve tested that's capable of keeping Intel’s i7-13700K under its peak temperature, even in the hottest of workloads.

The attention to detail is also apparent in the packaging (which incorporates installation instructions) and RGB lighting. And Cooler Master backs the quality of this product with rated lifespans of over 160,000 hours for the fans and 210,000 hours for the pump, combined with a 5-year warranty.

Lian Li's Galahad II Trinity Performance 240 cools just slightly better and sells for a little less. But Cooler Master's Atmos includes an ARGB controller box for syncing your lighting with other components. If you can make use of this controller, which would cost about $20 on its own, the two coolers are effectively evenly priced.

Read: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240 Atmos Review

Best 120mm Closed-Loop Liquid Cooler

In most instances, you can get better performance with air cooler at a lower price than a small 120mm AIO. And an air cooler won't add pump hum to your PC. But there are certain kinds of systems, whether they be extremely compact, or just with very little clearance above the CPU socket and no space to mount a larger 240mm radiator, where a small 120mm AIOs will be your best (or perhaps only) choice.

We tested four popular models of these compact liquid coolers. And while the Enermax LiqMaxFlo SR 120mm wasn't quite the best performer when it comes to cooling, it offered the best balance of cooling ability, quiet noise levels, and price (selling for around $80 when we wrote this).

Enermax's cooler also brings a unique feature in its block-mounted RGB fan, which adds a some glow, while also helping to circulate air around your VRMs and RAM. In very tight cases where you might have to use a 120mm AIO, the extra airflow in this area can be a very helpful feature.

Read our 120mm AIO roundup: Testing Be Quiet, Corsair, Cooler Master, and Enermax models

Best AIO Cooler Specifications

Savings on the Best AIO CPU Coolers

Savings on the Best AIO CPU Coolers

Whether you're shopping for one of the products that made our best CPU coolers list or one that didn't, you may find some savings by checking out our list of Newegg promo codes or Corsair coupon codes.

MORE: Best Air CPU Cooling

MORE: How To Choose A CPU Cooler

Whether you’re after the highest clock speeds possible or looking to build a PC that's near-silent under load, you should to choose your CPU cooler carefully. The best CPU cooler for your build will dictate your processor's temperatures and contribute to its fan noise.

In high-end systems, a great cooler can also deliver better performance by keeping your CPU's boost clocks higher for longer periods. We test dozens of PC air coolers and all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler models every year. You'll find our picks for the best coolers below to keep your CPU temps under control. And if you're after a liquid cooler in particular, check out our Best AIO Coolers page for even more excellent cooler options for your system's CPU.

ASRock has dipped its toes into AIO liquid cooling market, some with a pumpless design, we'll see at CES. The plan to release coolers across the Taichi, Phantom Gaming, Steel Legend, Challenger, and Pro, and workstations lineups with most using a more traditional pump configuration. We also have a visits scheduled with Cooler Master, Corsair, Lian Li, and others who are expected to show off some new coolers and AIOs for 2026; some which could make our best list. Keep an eye out here for updates!

While AIOs and air coolers come with their own fans, case fans are also critical in keeping temperatures down. The cooler the air hitting AIO or heatsink, the cooler your CPU temperatures will be. That said, we've started fan testing at Tom's and have published our first Best PC Case Fans article covering several recent PC fans including some from Noctua, Arctic, Phanteks, and more. Find out which fans perform best for your needs, be it quiet operation, high-performance, or RGBs, we have you covered and expanding testing testing more fans as we speak.

Best Air Coolers

Best AIO Coolers

The Best Air Coolers You Can Buy Today

Best Air Cooler for Most People

Thermalright's Peerless Assassin 120 SE lives up to its name, delivering the best performance from an air cooler that we've tested on Intel's Alder Lake at a price that undercuts the competition. In our tests, it performed so well when cooling our Core i9-12900K that we re-tested it multiple times to be sure the results were correct. The Peerless Assassin 120 SE cooled the CPU when it was drawing over 200 watts better than our tested competition, and at lower thermal/TDP settings, it performed much better than the competition.

The cooler's two 120mm fans did their job of dissipating all that heat at low noise levels, making at just 34.5dB at max speed, and 33dB at 50% speed. It's also available in in silver/gray, white or black, so it should fit in with most build themes if you care about matching aesthetics. Whether you care about value or not, you should consider this cooler for your next system build, so long as your case has room for it.

Read: Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE review

Best Big Air CPU Cooler

Thermalright has long been delivering impressive cooling at prices that most of competition can't match. But the Royal Pretor 130 shattered my expectations, once again raising the bar for what I consider possible with air cooling, both in terms of maximum theoretical performance and when its fans are set to run quietly. And unlike big air alternatives from brands like Noctua or Be Quiet, the price of this cooler is reasonable, typically selling for just above $50 in the U.S.

That said, unless you're running one of the highest-end consumer CPUs under sustained productivity workloads that task all all available cores, or you need the quietest possible performance, most people should be happy with a lower-end, lower-priced cooler like Thermalright's Peerless Assassin 120 SE, which typically sells for $15-$20 less than this cooler. But if you’re looking for the best air cooler on the market and don't mind spending around $50, the Royal Pretor 130 is what you should buy.

Read: Thermalright Royal Pretor 130

Best Mid-size Air CPU Cooler

With the Mugen 6, Scythe brings performance and noise levels comparable to high-end models available from BeQuiet! and DeepCool, at a lower price. If you’re after a well-performing air cooler with low maximum noise levels, the Mugen 6 and Mugen 6 Black Edition are well worth considering.

There aren’t many other quiet coolers at this price level, aside form Thermalright’s Phantom Spirit 120. It can dissipate slightly more watts for high-end CPUs, but it does so at higher maximum noise levels.

Read: Scythe Mugen 6 review

Best Entry-Level Air Cooler

You shouldn't use it for overclocking, but for those looking for an aftermarket cooler on a tight budget, Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE is the best option on the market at the moment. Our testing shows it delivers essential cooling performance sufficient for most users, while also keeping noise levels low. Its one-year warranty is less than most of the competition. But if the fan goes in a couple of years, you can probably afford to replace it considering how affordable this cooler is.

Read: Thermalright Assassin X 120 R SE review

Best Fanless CPU Cooler

Noctua’s NH-P1 is a unique fanless cooler that delivers truly silent cooling, at the cost of slightly reduced cooling thermal performance. Don't look to this cooler if you need every last bit of performance for overclocking. But if you’re a user who prefers silence and runs more common workloads, it's a great option. Even if you run intense multi-core workloads, there won’t be much of a performance loss, as we saw in our Cinebench R23 tests using AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

Not only is Noctua’s NH-P1 the strongest fanless solution available for typical PC users, it's also the only one that is easily available for purchase. The $119 USD price will be tough for many to take, but that’s the price of a niche product with strong performance.

Read: Noctua NH-P1 review

Best AIO Coolers You Can Buy Today

Best 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler

If your primary cooling concern is the lowest possible CPU temperatures and you don't want to pay extra for RGB or a screen, Arctic's 360 mm Liquid Freezer III Pro is, hands down, the best option I've ever tested, whether you're using a high-end AMD or Intel CPU. Nothing else even comes close.

Just note that its radiator and fans together are 63 mm thick, so it won't fit in every case. And its default settings are arguably overkill for even a 9950X3D or a 14900K. So if you're sensitive to fan and pump noise, you'll want to tune things down a bit. Aslo, Intel users will have to install an included contact frame, which makes installation more complicated. Installation is pretty standard for AMD users.

Aside from performance, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro also wins on price. Its $125 U.S. MSRP is competitive or below many other big-name cooling brands. But the cooler is also often on sale for much less. When we wrote this, the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 mm was selling for just $88 on Amazon. At that price – or really at any price around $100 – it's hard to argue for any other AIO cooler.

Read: Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro review

Best Budget Curved Screen AIO

If you’re in the market for a new AIO and like huge screens, Thermalright’s Wonder Vision 360 UB ARGB is one of the best we’ve recently tested. Sporting a large, high-resolution 6.7-inch detachable curved screen that sets it apart from most of the competition, good cooling performance, low noise in common scenarios, and a lower price than competing curved-screen AIOs, this makes a great cooling solution for anyone who wants a screen on their AIO without the sticker shock.

Our testing revealed that the Wonder Vision handles more than 255W with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU; however, they said it gets loud when maxed out (47 dBA peak). Quiet isn’t its specialty during high-load scenarios, but it operates quietly in other scenarios. Still, the claim to fame for this AIO is the detachable 6.7-inch, 2,400 x 1,080-resolution anamorphic screen that can be mounted elsewhere, even outside your case. Thermalright stands behind this AIO with a long six-year warranty, too.

Read: Thermalright Wonder Vision 360 UB ARGB Review

Best 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler Alternative

Thermalright continues to prove it's a market leader, raising the bar for performance and value with the Grand Vision 360. This 360mm AIO’s thermal results were better than previous coolers we’ve tested, both with Intel's current Core Ultra 9 285K and the older Core i7-14700K.

Its cooling performance wasn't drastically better than close competitors from Be Quiet and NZXT, but at $129 in the US, its more affordable than those alternatives, while offering up more features.

Unlike most AIOs in this price range, the Grand Vision 360 includes a fancy LCD screen with tons of preset customization options. And while not everyone wants or needs that in their cooler, Thermalright at least delivers the feature at a lower price than most competitors, and doesn't sacrifice cooling performance for a flashy LCD. If you’re looking for an LCD-equipped AIO that cools extremely well and doesn’t break the bank, Thermalright’s Grand Vision 360 is the liquid cooler you’re looking for.

Read: Thermalright Grand Vision 360 Review

Best Budget 360mm AIO Cooler

ID-Cooling, much like rival Thermalright, has established itself as a company that delivers solid colling performance at budget-friendly prices. Its FX360 INF 360mm AIO, while not the cheapest in the company's lineup, is still quite affordable at around $80. For that price, you get RGB fans and an infinity mirror on top of the CPU block, a tube of one of the best thermal pastes we've tested, and shockingly great performance for the price.

The ID-Cooling FX360 INF was within striking distance of the best coolers we've tested, just one watt below the best results we've seen cooling the Core i7-14700K with no power limits. And it kept our newer Core Ultra 9 286K more than 10 degrees Celsius below its throttling threshold. And even more impressively, it did all that with a maximum noise level of just 44.4 dBA – and when tied to our test system's default fan curve during our heavy gaming test, the cooler topped out at just 40.9 dBA. Those are both some of the quietest results we've seen from an AIO.

You could spend more – and you'll likely have to spend a lot more – to get slightly better cooling performance and / or aesthetic features like a customizable screen on the water block. But if all you care about is keeping your CPU cool and your system quiet while adding some RGB lighting to your rig, ID-Cooling's FX360 INF is one of the best – and most affordable – 360mm options we've tested to date.

Read: ID-Cooling FX360 INF review

Best Multipurpose AIO Cooler

There is still room for innovation in the CPU cooling market, as evidenced by Silverstone's IceMyst AIO line. The 360mm model we tested performed generally quite well in our testing, but apart from that, this cooler lets you add multiple additional fans (which cost $16 each) on top of the CPU block that can easily be positioned to help cool VRMs, RAM, SSDs, or other nearby components. While not everyone needs this additional cooling, it's a unique option not available from any other AIO or air cooler. And the IceMyst is also priced less than most high-end AIO coolers.

We tested both the 360 and 240mm IceMyst AIOs and they performed well overall, generally landing close tot he best-performing alternatives in terms of thermal dissipation. But if you set the IceMyst cooler's fans to a quiet 38.2 dBA, as well as its competitors, Silverstone’s 360mm cooler performed better than any cooler we've tested, dissipating 237 watts. The 240mm model also did well, removing 228W of heat.

The only real downside is that you'll have to do some fan speed tweaking to get the best results. By default, Silverstone sets the IceMyst's fan speeds higher than they need to be, making them louder than necessary. But take a few minutes to set a custom fan curve in your BIOS or motherboard software, and these coolers offer the best noise-normalized performance we've tested so far. Plus, if you want to add some additional cooling to components around your CPU, you can do so for as little as $16 extra.

Read: Silverstone IceMyst 360 and 240mm AIO Review

Best 280mm AIO Cooler

With the right design, you don’t need a 360mm AIO or a loud cooler to keep modern high-end CPUs from throttling -- and Lian Li’s Galahad II LCD 280 proves it. Its performance is amongst the best we’ve seen from any AIO, and its limited 280mm radiator size means that it will fit in many cases where a 360mm model won’t. The LCD screen atop the cooling plate is vibrant and adds eye-catching functionality, too.

At $229, the Galahad II LCD 280 is on the fairly expensive, but if the LCD display isn’t important to you, the non-LCD versions of the Galahad II are available for $159.99 for the 360mm version and $119.99 for the 240mm model. That's a lot more affordable for what should be performance that's just as impressive as this model.

Read: Lian Li Galahad II LCD 280 Review

Best 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler

I never imagined that a 240mm AIO would have this level of thermal domination. Lian Li’s Galahad Trinity II Performance 240mm got surprisingly close to and even outperformed 360mm AIOs in our testing that were previously considered among the best available.

You can’t go wrong with Lian Li’s Galahad II Trinity 240mm if you're after a cooler that performs well. Our testing shows it's the best-cooling AIO of its size on the market. It's also quiet under most conditions, and is reasonably priced at only $119.99.

Read: Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 240 Review

Best 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler Alternative

After testing, I found Cooler Master’s new MasterLiquid 240 Atmos especially impressive. The company improved its flagship AIO in several key areas: Noise levels are low in most common workloads, and despite its smaller 240mm profile, this is one of only a handful of AIOs I’ve tested that can keep Intel’s i7-13700K under its peak temperature, even in the most thermally demanding scenarios.

Cooler Master also backs the quality of this product with rated lifespans of over 160,000 hours for the fans and 210,000 hours for the pump, combined with a 5-year warranty.

Lian Li's Galahad II Trinity Performance 240 cools just slightly better and sells for a little less. But Cooler Master's Atmos includes an ARGB controller box for syncing your lighting with other components. If you have a use for the controller, which would cost about $20 on its own, these two coolers are effectively evenly priced.

Read: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240 Atmos Review

Best 120mm Closed-Loop Liquid Cooler

Why you might not want a 120mm AIO

Generally, you can get better performance with air cooler at a lower price than a small 120mm AIO. And an air cooler won't add the underlying hum of pump noise to your PC. But there are certain systems, whether they be extremely compact, or just with very little clearance above the CPU socket and no space to mount a larger 240mm radiator, where 120mm AIOs are your best (or perhaps only) option.

We tested four popular models of these compact liquid coolers. And while Enermax LiqMaxFlo SR 120mm wasn't hands-down the best performer when it comes to cooling, it offered the best balance of cooling ability, quiet noise levels, and price (selling for around $80 when we wrote this).

Enermax's cooler also has a unique feature in its CPU-block-mounted RGB fan, which adds a splash of color while also helping to circulate air around your VRMs and RAM. In extremely tight cases where you might have to use a 120mm AIO, that extra airflow can be a very helpful feature.

Read our 120mm AIO roundup: Testing Be Quiet, Corsair, Cooler Master, and Enermax models

Intel Core Ultra Arrow Lake S cooling tests

If you're considering building around one of Intel's latest Core Ultra desktop processors, you won't need to spend as much as you might think on cooling. Arrow Lake S sports a more efficient design (though there are some serious tradeoffs in performance, particularly in gaming), so you shouldn't need as much cooling performance as you would or did with previous-gen Raptor Lake chips.

Our testing links below will tell you what kind of cooler you'll need to keep the latest Ultra 7 and Ultra 9 CPUs running fast and cool.

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K cooling testing

Intel Core Ultra 7 265K cooling testing

Quick Shopping Tips

When choosing the best CPU cooler for your needs, consider the following:

Palit Group, a specialized GPU manufacturer and one of Nvidia's biggest AIB partners, just previewed a hybrid GPU cooler on social media. The company shared a 12-second clip of a Game Rock Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card that has triple cooling fans and a water block attached. The clip thus seemingly shows a video card that uses a hybrid water and air cooling solution to keep its temperatures down.

While we don't have much information about the GPU yet, Palit's Game Rock GPU line often consists of performance cards, with the 4070 Ti and more powerful cards in the family. GPUs from the higher end of the spectrum usually draw more power and often run hotter, so we would expect RTX 4080 (Super) and RTX 4090 cards from Palit to have this dual cooling solution as an option.

If graphics cards don't have adequate cooling, they can soon hit thermal limits, which in turn limits their performance - not nice. However, if you keep a GPU's temperature low enough, you can maintain high boost clock speeds, or even achieve overclocking records. Palit could also be developing this hybrid cooling solution in preparation for the upcoming RTX 5000 series GPUs we expect to arrive this year.

Palit isn't the first company to produce a hybrid cooling solution for a GPU. Asus launched a 3080 Ti that used a similar system in 2021, and even EVGA offered a hybrid-cooled RTX 2080 Super back in 2020. You could even get a third-party hybrid GPU cooler from Arctic way back in 2015 if you wanted to replace the stock cooler on your video card.

Nevertheless, this teaser is the first time that Palit will try this hybrid setup for its GPUs. But while using both air and water cooling will likely increase the performance of any graphics card, the question remains whether the larger space that the video card will take up will allow it to fit in your case, plus the additional cost you will have to pay, will make it worthwhile.

We will know more about this new hybrid GPU at Computex 2024. However, we do not recommend buying the card right at launch — it's better to wait for reviews and real-world performance numbers before purchasing. That way, you're sure you're getting one of the best graphics cards and the hybrid cooling solution is worth paying a premium for. 

At an event in China earlier this week Lenovo took the wraps off its latest Legion series gaming laptop. The new Lenovo Legion 9i's claim to fame is that it includes the "thinnest water cooling in the industry." It will also be on many portable PC gaming enthusiast wish lists due to other premium components such as the Core i9-13980HX CPU and GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. 

Tech site MSPowerUser shared rendered images of the laptop in its coverage of this announcement, but VideoCardz helped make the announcement more interesting by confirming the presence of a water cooling system in this upcoming flagship, as well as unearthing a tech specs list.

According to some of the supporting presentation slides at the Lenovo Legion 9i unveiling event, the cooling system is one of the slimmest water cooling implementations yet. In some official renders we see the liquid cooling loop, various heatsinks and the position of a trio of cooling fans. It is explained that the liquid cooling isn't necessary until the GPU temperature hits 84+ degrees Celsius. After this threshold "the liquid pump starts to work quickly to reduce the GPU temperature," says a translated slide. An AI-based system is claimed to optimize the cooling / performance of this laptop.

So, the text confirms the liquid cooling and twin fans on the GPU side of the motherboard are all to keep the GPU cool, while the fan on the right will be there for the CPU. Some other information from the source asserts that Lenovo has used '3D blades' in its cooling fans and used liquid metal for its hard to beat thermal interface properties. All of this is housed in a slim 18.9mm profile, with a distinctive finish to the laptop provided by a carbon fiber material.

This new flagship gaming laptop is claimed to be destined for a fuller reveal at IFA 2023 (Sept 1 to Sept 5, in Berlin). We don't have details about pricing or release dates as yet. We hope it will be released in time to be a contender for our regularly updated Best gaming laptops of 2023 feature.

Intel positions its Arc A770 desktop graphics card as a midrange board for gaming. Many midrange graphics cards come factory-overclocked, but applying extreme overclocking to such GPUs isn't too common — you won't set a new overall performance record. But SkatterBencher decided to set a record for the fastest Intel Arc GPU and gave his Acer Predator BiFrost A770 the liquid nitrogen treatment, achieving impressive results.

SkatterBencher succeeded in pushing the Intel Alchemist GPU to 3586 MHz, up from the default 2400 MHz boost clock. Of course, the graphics processor became highly unstable at this level and the overclocker could only maintain this frequency for a few seconds before the screen froze, necessitating a system reboot. During this process, the temperature of the liquid nitrogen container was -80°C, while the GPU's temperature hovered around -50°C.

The overclocking results varied greatly depending on the type of workload as well.

• Light Workload: The GPU was able to reach a peak frequency of 3400 MHz at 1.285V. The GPU temperature was approximately -30°C.
• 3DMark Benchmark: During a 3DMark benchmark, the GPU could hit a maximum frequency of 3100 MHz. However, ScatterBencher was unable to complete more than one Time Spy game test at this speed.
• Complete 3DMark run: The GPU was able to run at 3012 MHz at 1.12V to complete a full 3DMark benchmark run. This frequency was necessary to achieve the top position in the 3DMark Night Raid benchmark among the A770 boards.

Although SkatterBencher managed to significantly improve the performance of Intel's Arc A770 by overclocking it in an extreme way to 3 GHz and beyond — a 25% increase over its default boost frequency — the board still cannot compete against more advanced graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia. For example, a stock clocked RTX 4070 Founders Edition typically gets around 17,500 in Time Spy, 5% higher than the LN2-cooled Arc A770.

While it's generally possible to overclock Intel's Arc A770 using the Arc OC Tool software (to overcome the factory-set voltage-frequency curve and dynamically adjust the boost frequency), this GPU is not exactly friendly to extreme overclocking. SkatterBencher encountered several challenges while overclocking the Intel Alchemist GPU.

First, all Intel Arc A770 graphics cards come with board power limit of 228W, even under ambient cooling conditions. That's why SkatterBencher used the Predator Bifrost software application and manipulated the profiles to apply higher power limits to bypass this.

The Arc A770 GPU also automatically reduces the operating frequency when the voltage exceeds a certain threshold due to a voltage performance throttle. On the A770, this throttling mechanism kicks in when the set voltage is over 1.2V. SkatterBencher resolved this issue by switching the voltage regulator control mode from SVID (which adjusts the output voltage based on the GPU request) to PMBus. This allows you to program the MPS MP2979 voltage controller output voltage directly using the ElmorLabs EVC2 device without interference from the GPU.

Finally, VRM design with six power stages encounters difficulties when the power consumption exceeds 330W. When the VRM temperature reaches 110°C, it reduces the GPU clock to its base frequency of 2100 MHz. To overcome this, the overclocker adjusted the voltage controller's VR_HOT threshold to provide additional thermal headroom.

Despite the difficulties, it's interesting to see just how far SkatterBencher was able to push the Arc A770. Breaking the 3 GHz mark on a chip architected to run in the low to mid 2 GHz range, even with all the protection mechanisms, was no mean feat. Don't be surprised if other extreme overclockers push beyond these records in the coming months.

Der8auer reviewed a new modular water cooling concept from a company called Lynx+ that is designed to bring cheap, long-lasting, and highly expandable liquid cooling to graphics card owners. The AIO is a modular unit designed to be reusable with different GPUs and also be expandable by plugging in multiple GPUs and radiators. Best of all, the AIO is designed to be very cost competitive and will be priced similarly to air coolers if it comes to market.

The unit is a custom-built AIO that features disconnecting hoses and a pump inside the radiator (similar to the NZXT M22). The disconnecting hoses allow owners to change any components connected to the liquid cooler with new GPUs/cooling units or additional radiators if needed to increase cooling capacity.

The pump location is specifically designed to improve AIO compatibility, allowing you to use the AIO in almost any orientation without trapping air inside the pump. This is a typical problem with most AIOs on the market today, and if you don't mount them correctly, air can get trapped inside the pump, vastly reducing its lifespan. The AIO also has a pair of mini "reservoirs" on either side of the radiator to further reduce the likelihood of air becoming trapped inside the pump.

The GPU water blocks will be sold separately and will be designed for specific GPU models. Der8auer showed off an RTX 3080 and RX 7900 XTX design, featuring a die-cast aluminum block that is easy to manufacture but still offers powerful cooling. The block also features several mini "reservoirs" inside the block that controls where the air gets trapped, just like the radiator.

In the video, Der8auer demonstrated the Lynx+ concept cooler running on a Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The GPU temps were incredibly cold, hovering at just 48C on the GPU core temp and just 76C on the hotspot while the GPU was running Furmark. For comparison, standard air-cooled versions of the RX 7900 XTX run at least 10-15C hotter, meaning there is plenty of thermal headroom to spare. This can be great for overclocking or expanding the life of your GPU.

The real highlight of the Lynx+ water cooling concept is its very competitive pricing and its functionality. Expandable AIOs with a low barrier to entry are non-existent in the cooling market today. They could be fantastic for anyone getting into PC liquid cooling for anything more than just CPU cooling. With this cooler, you can start with a simple GPU cooling loop, then expand to multiple GPUs or radiators down the road. You could also use it through multiple upgrade cycles if water block support extends beyond the initial launch.

Adata has revealed a new PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD that certainly stands out from the crowd. Of course, we're getting used to elaborate active coolers being bundled with these storage components now, but Adata’s Project NeonStorm is definitely one of the most flamboyant offerings we have seen. This new XPG-branded M.2 SSD drive has a self-contained water cooling solution bolted on top – with tiny twin fans cooling the circulating liquid and thus minimizing the chances of SSD throttling.

As we approach Computex, more and more companies are preparing their marketing materials, and we are getting glimpses of the treats they have in store. Adata’s press release is quite lengthy; as you might expect, it has several new SSD solutions (and other things). The most notable new drives are the headlining Project NeonStorm, and the Legend 970, which both utilize the PCIe Gen5 x4 interface for the fastest transfer speeds on the newest platforms from AMD and Intel.

Project NeonStorm adds a boxy self-contained liquid cooling system to Adata’s M.2 2280 form factor storage device, directly cooling the SSD controller and NAND. In the images provided, you can see that the design appears to feature copper pipes, and there is a little bubble that hints that the structure is filled with liquid.

We can’t see the twin fans built into this device, so if CotCowLand is correct, they must be installed on the far side of the cooler, out of view. Thanks to these fans, this SSD’s AiO doesn’t require a connection to a larger system cooling loop. Performance numbers shared by Adata are impressive, with this XPG-branded device claimed to offer sequential read and write speeds of 14,000 and 12,000 MB/s, respectively.

Adata’s Legend 970 Gen5 SSD looks more conventional in design. However, the memory and storage specialist says it improves on the previous generation Legend device by utilizing extruded aluminum fins and larger fans (meaning multiple fans?). According to Adata, the Legend 970 has sequential read and write speeds of 10,000 and 10,000 MB/s, respectively.

At the Computex exhibition, Adata will be showcasing the above two PCIe Gen5 SSDs and various other storage, memory, chassis, power supplies, and laptops. If you are at Computex and need a bit of an energy boost, you might also want to check out the new XPG-branded e-sports chewing gum and chocolate sticks.

A series of 3D-printed processor coolers were one of the most interesting presentations at ITF World, a conference hosted by chip research giant imec in Antwerp, Belgium. These prototype waterblocks boost the ability to cool dense processors, like CPUs and GPUs, by up to 3.5X over the kinds of solution we see in the best CPU coolers today, thus enabling higher power density and unlocking untapped performance in modern chips. The results of this research could lead to radical new watercoolers for all sorts of chips.

Bare-die cooling that forces liquid directly over the processor die is emerging as one of the most obvious steps forward to deal with the excess heat generated by newer chips, and imec is leading the way with new techniques to unlock the full performance of the densest process nodes. That's becoming more important with each new generation of chips as power consumption skyrockets due to the diminishing power reduction scaling with smaller nodes. Additionally, smaller transistors push power density higher, complicating cooling efforts and ultimately restricting chip performance.

The ultimate goal for chip designers is to get more work done in a smaller space. Still, today's chips are already power-constrained, and areas of 'dark silicon' are turned off while the chip is operating to remain within certain TDP and temperature limits. That means most chips use only part of their potential during normal operation. Moreover, the problem is only intensifying with each generation of chips — modern CPUs like AMD's Epyc Genoa already top out at 400W, and roadmaps point to 600W server chips in the future.

In contrast to the standard watercooling approaches that use a self-contained waterblock that has a cold plate mated with a chip heatspreader to cool the processor, the prototype 3D-printed coolers pictured in the album below force liquid directly over the bare processor die, thus improving cooling capabilities by pumping coolant directly to the surface of the processor.

The 3D-printed waterblocks allow rapid prototyping, and imec uses different types of standard polymers used in 3D printing to ensure the waterblocks can handle the temperature loads. It's unclear if one could print these designs on one of the best 3D printers.

The 3D-printed waterblocks can be customized in several different ways, with custom nozzles arrays (you can see these in the images) blasting liquid directly onto the chip surface in targeted areas, such as directly over individual cores or high-heat-generating areas of the chip used for vector operations, to improve cooling capabilities. 

The waterblocks are also custom-fit to consume the least amount of space possible and currently use an O-Ring to prevent liquid seepage from around the waterblock. Naturally, imec is experimenting with several different types of sealing mechanisms and different types of 3D printing materials for the blocks.

Nearly any dielectric liquid can be used with these coolers, such as treated water or refrigerants. Naturally, even though the liquid isn't conductive, bare-die liquid cooling requires sealing the areas around the chip, such as capacitors and other electronic circuitry on the PCB. However, to keep the coolant as close to the chip as possible, the top of the die has no sealant whatsoever. The researchers pump the liquid directly over the smooth die surface, but other approaches, like adding striations to the top of the die, can unlock even more cooling performance.

Sealants pose long-term reliability challenges due to rapid thermal cycling and interactions with the various coolants used in the system. Still, imec is methodically working to find the right mix of all materials to ensure long-term reliability.

The above album contains several slides outlining the researcher's experiments. In general, cooling more than 100W of power per square centimeter has proven incredibly problematic, leading to a general rule of thumb that spreading 1W of power over 1 square MM of silicon allows for effective cooling. Power density is skyrocketing with smaller process nodes, though, so increasing the ability to remove heat from higher power concentrations is paramount to continue unlocking extra performance.

Remember, more power consumption often equates to more chip performance (there are caveats — efficiency can suffer). The imec researchers tell us they can cool as much as 1,000W in a single square centimeter (100W per mm^2), or even up to 500W in a single mm^2, but that type of cooling performance isn't representative of typical performance because it doesn't scale well to an entire chip.

In common applications, these chip coolers could enable up to 350W of cooling capacity per square centimeter, or about 3.5W per mm^2 — a 3.5X increase over what is commonly seen today. As shown in the album above, this will allow chip designers to continue to push the limits of performance with a comparably more conservative method than the single- and two-phase cooling solutions that would be required to extend beyond 4W per mm^2.

Naturally, this is a simplistic view of how these cooling solutions would perform, with many other variables, such as temperature deltas and other factors, being required to measure the various merits of the approach properly. However, one thing is certain — this approach marks one of the easiest ways to boost cooling capabilities with a reasonable amount of increased cost. Other techniques, such as the TSMC research that proposes pumping coolant through microchannels inside the chip itself, are obviously far more exotic and thus costly and further out on the horizon.

Imec's efforts are still in the research phase as the researchers work on identifying the correct materials, liquids, and designs that will allow the creation of mass-produced cooling solutions, with the earliest products of this research likely taking five years before they filter out to market. 

A Reddit user by the name of Jedi95 modified one of the Best GPUs, the RX 7900 XTX to run without a power limit to see how fast the card would go. Thanks to a high-end custom water-cooling setup paired with 10 degrees Celsius coolant temperatures, the power-modded RX 7900 XTX was able to achieve RTX 4090 performance in 3DMark with a very impressive clock speed of 3.33GHz. The only drawback was that the card had to consume nearly 700W to hit this performance target.

The performance achieved by this modified 7900 XTX pushes the card into new territory. In 3DMark Time Spy Extreme, the GPU was able to hit 18,335 points, which exceeds the results of some RTX 4090 cards. For instance, according to PCGamer's RTX 4090 review, it recorded a GPU index score of 16,654 points, which is 10% slower than Jedi95's RX 7900 XTX benchmark result.

This suggests AMD's RX 7900 XTX can jump a performance tier and compete with Nvidia's flagship RTX 4090 (rather than the RTX 4080), at the cost of power consumption. And of course, 3DMark isn't necessarily representative of actual gaming performance.

Power throttling is a very common occurrence on AMD's RX 7900-series cards, with most games being able to hit the maximum power rating on these GPUs. At that point, they'll begin to throttle, or at least not clock as high. This is somewhat different from Nvidia's RTX 40-series GPUs, which often run well below their maximum rated power consumption figures while gaming.

The modified RX 7900 XTX was also able to match the best 7900 XTX Time Spy Extreme benchmark results in the 3DMark browser, competing GPUs that were probably cooled with liquid nitrogen.

The mod Jedi95 used was a "shunt-like" mod that allows the VRM controller to report false power consumption figures to the GPU, thus bypassing AMD's power limitations. This allowed him to effectively run the 7900 XTX without any power limitations whatsoever, since the GPU doesn't know how much power it's actually consuming. According to Jedi95, the mod he used is better than a traditional shunt mod since the power reporting can be controlled with software.

None of this is particularly surprising, as most chips — CPUs, GPUs, and other SOCs — are designed for a particular spot on the voltage and frequency curve. Pushing more voltage through a chip while applying improved cooling can get things running stable, but power scales with frequency and the square of voltage. Adding more of both is a recipe for extreme power use, as shown here.

It's interesting on the one hand to see what AMD's RDNA 3 GPUs can do when power limits are tossed out the window. Running unconstrained, Navi 31 can hit blisteringly high clock speeds of well over 3.3 GHz, yielding significantly higher performance. Based on Jedi95's results, AMD potentially has more than enough headroom to create a theoretical RX 7950 XTX that could compete with the RTX 4090. However, AMD would need to radically increase the chip's power draw to do so.

Intel's Arc 770 graphics cards are rather modest, offering mid-range performance in today's gaming market. However, the folks at EKWB have decided to release the EK-Quantum Vector² for Intel's Arc A750 and Arc A770 boards to give enthusiasts another option to boost performance. 

As the name suggests, EK-Quantum Vector² Arc A750/A770 uses EK's signature Vector² water block that covers the whole board and cools down the GPU, memory, and voltage regulating module. The water block features the company's cold plate made of nickel-plated electrolytic copper with proprietary Open Split-Flow micro-channels, a directly attached acetal terminal, and an anodized aluminum backplate.  

Like other family members, the EK-Vector2 water block for Intel's Arc A770/A750 uses standard G ¼ inch barbs for tubing and thus is compatible with a wide range of custom liquid cooling systems.

Traditionally, EK offers two types of terminals: transparent plexiglass or an all-black acetal. But the company will only provide transparent plexiglass with RGB LEDs for Intel's Arc A770 and Arc A750 boards, at least for now. Since Intel's own Arc A770 and Arc A750 are limited edition products, it hardly makes much financial sense for EK to offer multiple water block SKUs for these parts. 

Perhaps a bigger question is whether it makes sense for anyone to equip their Intel Arc A770/A750 graphics boards with an expensive water block when they could buy a more powerful graphics card. For those enthusiasts who want an all-Intel system with custom liquid cooling, EKWB's product is an irreplaceable part. For others, a more expensive board from our list of the best graphics cards makes more sense.

The EK-Quantum Vector² Arc A750/A770 water blocks are available for pre-order for $240/€240 from the company's online store. EK expects to ship them out in mid-December 2022.

If you have several different GPUs or a very compact case with weak airflow, you can take your cooling to the next level by getting a giant cooler that sits outside of your case in its own box. Cooling specialist Bykski has introduced a huge external cooler to cater for your extreme cooling needs. The new Bykski B-1080-CEC-X “external cold exhaust heat dissipation chassis” features a 3x3 array of 120mm fans, with integrated pump, radiator and reservoir for easy plumb-and-go (G1/4) fitting to liquid cooling loops.

This unit measures 419 (H) x 488 (D) x 138mm (W) so looks like a typical mid-tower chassis but a little slimmer, but would overshadow a compact mini-ATX system. Twitter’s Momomo_us spotted this cooler listed at Y72,356 before tax in Japan, which is about $525 today.

Suggested uses of the Bykski B-1080-CEC-X are the following:

• Server cooling,
• High-end gaming systems,
• Compact computer systems with up to 4x GPUs,
• And for compact powerful systems which don’t have the internal space for a water cooling radiator.

In some of the above use-cases the B-1080-CEC-X might be overkill and a more modest external solution like a Bykski Granzon G10, or Bykski External 360mm radiator stand might be better, cheaper options (if you already have a radiator that doesn’t fit in your case, for example).

Whichever application you use this 9x120mm external cooler for, it is claimed to be capable of handling up to 2,000W of heat dissipation. That is plenty for a gaming system combining the most power hungry components popular with consumers right now, like the Core i9-13900K and GeForce RTX 4090 (250W+ and 600W+) running at full pelt. Like we said above, the B-1080-CEC-X might be overkill. However, perhaps it can run extremely quietly with lower thermal loads – slower RPM etc.

In addition to the support for 9x 120mm fans, the chunky B-1080-CEC-X bx contains a 46mm thick radiator made using a mix of copper and brass – with 30 double water flow channels. The integrated pump offers a water flow of up to 700 liters per minute, tested at up to 1.5bar, and connects with water loops using the popular G1/4 tubing.

Looking at the fully built unit from the outside; there is a water level gauge on the front panel, significant venting both sides, around the back are both the fluid I/O connectors and power input (connecting to a 4-pin Molex HDD from your PC), as well as a water injection port atop of the case for top-ups.

Whether you think the Bykski B-1080-CEC-X is crazy, or is the external cooler you have been waiting for, let us know in the comments below. If you are in the market for system cooling, please check out our best CPU coolers of 2022 (not GPU), for some mainstream AiO and air solution recommendations.

AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards are over a month away, but the first water blocks for the red company's flagship offerings should be available by the time the boards hit the market. Since AMD's new Big Navi 31 graphics processor uses a multi-chiplet design, these water blocks must use a new layout. 

Just hours after AMD held its RDNA 3 launch event, EKWB introduced its first EK-Quantum Vector² water blocks for the reference design Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. The water blocks are designed to cool down Navi 31's main graphics compute die (GCD), memory cache die (MCD), its voltage regulating module (VRM), and GDDR6 memory. AMD's new range-topping Radeon RX 7900 XTX is rated for up to 355W thermal graphics power, so it will clearly benefit from liquid cooling. 

Because AMD's Navi 31 GPU consists of up to seven elements (one GCD and up to six MCDs), EK had to re-engineer its Vector² design. First up, it rotated its Open Split-Flow cold plate by 90° to make fins perpendicular to the die (normally, they are parallel to the die). Secondly, it rearranged liquid flows so that the coolant flow over the graphics core die first, and the memory cache die after. Meanwhile, the flows are arranged so that all MCDs get the same temperature coolant. Thirdly, it increased fin density from 0.6/0.4 to 0.4/0.26mm to account for the increased power dissipation of the multi-chiplet Big Navi. 

Like other Vector² water blocks, EKWB's EK-Quantum Vector² RX 7900 XTX D-RGB water blocks use 11mm-thick nickel-plated electrolytic copper with a directly-attached plexiglass (transparent) or acetal (black) terminal. The water blocks are compatible with regular fittings, so the owners of custom liquid cooling systems should have no problems using them. In addition, all Vector² water blocks are bundled with EK-Quantum Vector² backplate that provides additional passive cooling and rigidity to the graphics card. 

EKWB's EK-Quantum Vector² RX 7900 XTX D-RGB with plexiglass or acetal terminals are now available for preorder from the company's website for ~$240/€240. The manufacturer plans to ship them out in early December, so by the time AMD ships its reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX cards on December 13, EKWB's water blocks will be in the hands of early adopters.

German cooling specialist Alphacool has launched a new solution to keeping even the best M.2 NVMe SSD from overheating. The firm’s new HDX Pro Water adds the aforementioned storage device (2280 form factor only) to your PC’s liquid cooling loop. Most users will find air or liquid cooling solutions to be overkill for SSDs in 2022, but as more PCIe Gen5 M.2 NVMe drives appear, active cooling may be soon recommended for sustained performance.

Considering the new Alphacool offering, it is designed to perform a task and as such it eschews RGB and bling in favor of a practical aesthetic. The nickel-plated brass Alphacool design shouldn’t look out of place in most DIY PCs. In the photo below, you can see it deployed in an MSI Z690-based system, as part of an existing liquid cooling loop.

Alphacool’s HDX Pro Water M.2 cooling block is compatible with any existing M.2 SSD in the 2280 form factor – so you could use it on a PCIe Gen 3.0 or 4.0 drive, for example. SSDs with single sided components or NAND chips on both sides are also compatible. For fitting, it comes with three 2280 thermal pads, with the thicker (3mm) one being used for the underside of SSDs with components only on the top side.

To add it to your liquid loop, Alphacool provides an inlet and outlet which are compatible with 5/3mm hose (3mm PVC hose provided). Alphacool recommends that users only deploy this SSD cooler in systems with clear transparent water cooling fluids, as pastel fluids are prone to clogging  or otherwise damaging water cooling products such as radiators, pumps, coolers etc.

In its promotional and user documentation Alphacool makes no specific claims about the cooling ability of the HDX Pro Water. No example before and after temperatures are provided, but it clearly states the product is designed to hold back thermal throttling for “a significantly longer period of time,” when the device is under load.

M.2 SSDs that connect via a PCIe Gen 5.0 interface have been catching plenty of headlines this year, as have beefy heatsinks, air coolers, and even liquid coolers that are designed for this task. Though these next gen SSDs are advertised with phenomenal data transfer rates, under sustained loads they can get too hot and users will then experience thermal throttling. It is widely understood that it is the M.2 PCIe Gen 5.0 SSD controller, rather than the memory chips, that heats up most rapidly.

The Alphacool HDX Pro Water is available now at $49.98, with local sales tax and shipping costs to add.

German overclocker Der8auer recently reviewed a new water-cooling-focused computer chassis that costs a whopping 1900 Euros. The Regner case hails from Germany and features two massive radiators integrated into the side panels. Without a doubt, this case is designed for extreme water-cooling enthusiasts who want the best of the best.

There really is no other case like the Regner on the market today; the radiators alone span the entire area of each side panel, which should offer an unprecedented amount of cooling on the inside. Accompanying the radiators are three 140m be quiet! Silent Wings 3 fans to push air around the case. 

This means the radiators themselves won't have active cooling, like on a traditional radiator. This will give each side panel radiator a semi-passive cooling design, with airflow aided entirely by chassis fans, which is very common in the server industry.

The interior features a dual-chamber design to provide better tubing routes for each side panel radiator. One chamber will house the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and M.2 storage, while the other houses the graphics card and additional 2.5" storage bays. A PCIe riser cable will be responsible for connecting the GPU to the motherboard on the other side of the case.

In this configuration, one side panel will be responsible for cooling the CPU or the motherboard depending on the use of a CPU block or a monoblock, and the other side panel will be responsible for cooling the graphics card. However, we aren't sure if both radiators serve as independent cooling loops or if the liquid will pass between them in one unified custom loop design.

The Regner will come will most of the necessary cooling equipment you'll need, including the tubing and an EKWB EK-Loop DDC 4.2 PWM pump. You'll need to purchase Blocks and a reservoir on your own.

The exterior of the case is very refined and looks like an OEM design if you didn't know any better. The twin side panels have massive fin arrays that stand out around the entire case, from top to bottom and side to side. The front of the case is completely blank with the power button and front I/O -- including USB Type-A, Type C, and audio jacks -- featured on the top of the chassis.

Without a doubt, the biggest hurdle for this case will be its price, coming in at a whopping 1,899 Euros on the Regner Cooling website. This makes the Regner one of the most expensive cases ever built.

In a statement and interview provided to TechPowerUp, watercooling specialist EK Waterblocks has announced a severe, 25% cut to its workforce. Citing lower than expected sales volume for watercooling components, around 60 of its current 200 employees based in Slovenia, the company's home base, will be dismissed. In addition, the company's 1Q2022 report outlines a 20% reduction to its quarterly earnings since October 2021, a far cry from the company's 30% growth between 2020 and 2021.

The move stands as a step back for the company, resetting its 2021 development, which led to the addition of 64 employees to its roster thanks to five consecutive years of sustainable revenue growth. EKWB even received the Golden Gazelle Award by the Slovenian chamber of commerce to recognize its management success.

EKWB seems to be cautiously approaching current and future market dynamics. In its statement, EKWB justifies its decision based on lower than expected consumer spending, which it attributes mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry's logistics and supply issues, and spikes in PC hardware prices. EKWB CEO Matjaž Krč goes further, citing the pandemic's possible sociological impact on consumers' consumption priorities as they opt to spend more on outdoors experiences and products than those that would keep them mostly indoors (such as gaming).

There is one possible cause that EKWB didn't attribute to its lower than expected revenue: GPU market dynamics following the crushing availability issues in the latest, Best Graphics Cards from AMD and Nvidia. These graphics cards are the prime candidates for EKWB's product portfolio. So it stands to reason that increased pricing on GPUs would hit the sales of specialist aftermarket add-ons due to the additional strain on consumers' budgets.

While GPU sales have experienced record-breaking revenue (something Nvidia almost provocatively touted to its investors), a significant portion of those sales were attributed to cryptocurrency miners. These customers generally don't upgrade their GPU cooling solutions due to both the nature of Ethereum mining's workloads (partial to VRAM) and the additional overhead placed on recouping their hardware investments. Scalping also does little to aid the situation, as it drives GPU purchase costs up, potentially locking consumers out of costly - yet ultimately dispensable - GPU hardware upgrades such as the waterblocks EKWB manufactures.

EKWB stated that its workforce cut has been designed to prime the company for further, sustainable growth whilst shielding it from the current market dynamics. Rampant energy and commodity prices in Europe will likely maintain a downwards pressure on the company's sales for some time. 

It seems safe to say that the longer the Russian-Ukraine conflict lasts, the more specialist PC hardware companies such as EKWB will suffer. While specialists expect the industry-wide shortages to disappear throughout 2022 and towards 2023 on the back of demand adjustments, consumers spending less won't do companies such as EKWB any favors.

2/25/2022 Update: We have added some performance testing below, as well as tweaked the text to clarify some setup issues that weren't clear to us during initial testing.

I have to give Intel some credit. When the chipmaker debuted its PCIe-card based Compute Element back in 2019, moving the CPU, RAM, storage and more off the motherboard, I was skeptical the company would stick with the form factor. Yet here we are going on four years later and the company's latest 'Eden' compute element not only packs a 12th Gen CPU, but it comes with standard socketed desktop chips this time around, in the form of a Core i7-12700 or the Core i9-12900 they sent our way, packed inside the company's complicated but impressively compact (8-liter) NUC 12 Extreme 'Dragon Canyon' kit.

First off, let's tackle pricing. The Compute Element itself is basically a PCIe expansion board with an LGA1700 socket, CPU, and two slots for SO-DIMM (laptop) DDR4 RAM and two M.2 sockets, plus a surprising amount of ports and headers, starts at $750. But if you want one with a Core i9-12900 CPU, the price jumps to $1450. Keep in mind these prices are without RAM, storage or an OS. And if you want something to plug your Eden Element into, the full NUC 12 Extreme Kit, basically a case with a daughter board, three fans, and a 650W SFX power supply, a second PCIe slot for installing a dedicated GPU, plus the Compute Element with your choice of CPU, will sell for $1,150 for the i7 model or $1,450 for the i9 Intel sent our way. You could, however, also use this to upgrade previous gen NUC Extreme kits.

Keep in mind, just like with the card, those prices don't include storage, RAM, an OS, or a GPU. And don't expect to drop in something beefy like a 3080 Ti. The NUC 12 Extreme supports cards up to 12 inches long, but only two slots thick. Anything thicker and you aren't going to be able to put the side panel on because your blower is going to be hanging outside the chassis, which is impressively compact at about 14 x 4.75 x 7.5 inches (LWH). The dimensions are basically the same as last year's NUC 11 Extreme, although there's a USB-C port up front now and one USB-A, where the previous model had two USB-A ports. The ports on the Compute Element are also different, which we'll delve into in the next section.

Competition and Eden Compute Element

In terms of packing high-end components into a small space, the closest thing I can think of to the NUC 12 Extreme is Corsair's One i300. That system is noticeably bigger at 14.96 x 6.93 x 7.87, but it's a vertical tower, so takes up far less desk space. It also supports higher-end CPUs and GPUs, and both are liquid-cooled.

The NUC 12 Extreme, meanwhile, has three fans up top for cooling, a tiny cooler with a modest amount of fins for its CPU and the surrounding VRMs (to be fair, both CPU options are moderate 65W models), and a plastic fan duct designed to pull cool air from outside the chassis. The problem with the latter, though, is that due to the five-slot design of the chassis, the intake vent for the CPU sits right next to the rear vent for your GPU. At the very least, you probably want to avoid blower-style GPUs with this kit. Otherwise, during gaming or other GPU-heavy loads, your CPU is going to be sucking down the warm air exhausted by your graphics card. Every compact, high-power system is going to have some thermal compromises, but this, paired with the slim cooler of the CPU, seems far from ideal, especially on i9 models.

That said, the port selection on the expansion bracket of the Eden Compute Element is more packed with ports than many full-size motherbaords. You get six 10 Gbps Type-A ports, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, both 10 and 2.5 Gb Ethernet ports and a full-size HDMI port. That's a whole lot of connectivity in a small space. But it's also so packed together that it's going to be tough to use most of it at the same time, unless you're just plugging in cables.

Disassembly and Setup

With all those details out of the way, it's worth pointing out just how complicated it is to get the NUC 12 Extreme kit up and running. There is quite a bit of disassembly involved and some very tight clearances, especially if you want to take the Compute Element card out of the system, as we did. 

Because the kit needs storage and RAM, both of which are installed inside the compute element, you need to first open the chassis. To begin this process you need to loosen four captive Philips head screws at the back. Then the two mesh side panels pull off from the rear section, giving you access to the interior.

To remove the Compute Element, you'll need to get access to the top. While it's not immediately clear (although parts of the metal frame near the top are labeled 'pull), the whole top portion, fans and all, flips up from the top outer edge. From there, removing another screw lets you lift up the flap locking the expansion brackets. Removing two more screws from the brackets finally sets the Compute Element free. 

Note you don't expressly have to remove the element card. With the system laid on its side and top flipped up, you can loosen the two screws on the internal chassis of the card and flip it up, giving you access to the RAM and M.2 sockets. At the time of initial writing, we weren't aware of this because we didn't have access to the installation guide. Plus we wanted to remove the card to get a better look at it and take photos anyway, so our full removal and disassembly experience follows below.

If you want to remove the card, you can't do it just yet, because there are still a bunch of cables that need to be unplugged. At the end of the card are the eight-pin CPU power connector, two front-panel USB connectors (there's an additional USB-C and USB-A port up front, along with an SD card slot and an audio jack), to antenna connection points for the Wi-Fi hiding up on the top edge of the card (which required pliers for me to get off), and a couple more small header plugs that you can't even see because the power supply and its plugs are in the way. This can be mitigated somewhat by removing the power supply. But doing that requires taking four screws out from the back, then unplugging the other and of one of the USB front-panel cables on the bottom of the chassis (because it blocks the removal of the PSU), and then slowly edging the power supply out of its cramped space in the front of the case. Only you can't remove it very far because the main PSU power socket cable, which is permanently attached, has about three inches of slack and routes up through the top three-fan housing to the back of the case, where you plug in your standard three-prong PSU cable.

Once you've done all that, then removed two small header cables on the Compute Element board, you can remove it. After this complex and careful disassembly, you can you start taking the Compute Element apart so you can install your storage and RAM. Although again, you don't expressly have to remove the card. You can access its inernals by loosening a couple of screws on the side of the card and flipping up the card's shroud.

The first time I removed the Compute Element, I did so without removing the PSU. And because everything was so close together, there were clearly some moments where bits were pushing up against other parts of the case. But with the Compute Element out I installed two SO-DIMMs (for a total of 64GB of RAM) and and a 512GB Patriot PCIe 3.0 SSD. I then put the whole thing back together, installed an RTX 2060 GPU (the only graphics card I had on hand that was slim enough to fit), and put the whole thing carefully back together.

Powering up the NUC 12 Extreme (or trying to)

With everything back in its place (or so I thought), and the power supply plugged in, I powered the system up –- or at least attempted to. The fans on the GPU spun up, but not the fans on the chassis, and the system didn't boot. After disassembling the NUC 12 Extreme kit again, carefully, I looked closely at the Compute Element and the rest of the internals, eventually noticing a yellow three-pin jumper, with its three pins still intact, laying at the bottom of the chassis.

After some back-and-forth with an Intel rep, they confirmed this was the "recovery jumper," which normally sits on the end of the board, near a couple of those small header cables that connect bits of the Compute Element to the front-panel portions of the case. It must have gotten snagged when I removed the Element for the first time. Clearly, this was the reason the kit wouldn't boot.

Intel NUC 12 Extreme Performance 

Intel did send us a second unit of the NUC 12 Extreme, but it arrived less than 24 hours before launch. So it took us another couple days to get it set up and do some basic testing. Since the system comes without storage, RAM, an OS or a GPU, we just ran CPU tests. The 65W Core i9-12900 in our kit isn't quite as powerful as the full-wattage i9-12900K, but it's easily powerful enough to handle any 12-inch, dual-slot GPUs that will fit in the NUC chassis, as is the lesser Core i7-12700 option.  

To get a sense of the NUC 12 Extreme's performance, we ran a few productivity tests and compared it to the previously mentioned Corsair One i300, a slightly larger desktop with a Core i9-12900K and an RTX 3080 Ti–and also a much higher price at $4,999 as tested, but it is a complete system, with a powerful GPU, 64GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. As a more direct comparison, we also included Intel's previous-generation NUC 11 Extreme Beast Canyon kit, which uses a very similar chassis, but its Compute Element card features a non-upgradable Core i9-11900KB, as opposed to the standard socketed 12900K in the Dragon Canyon kit.

We outfitted the NUC12 Extreme Dragon Canyon with 64GB of DDR4 memory and a 512GB Patriot PCIe 3.0 SSD for testing.

First off in Geekbench 5, the 12th Gen NUC edged past the 11th Gen model just slightly on the single-core test, but its mulit-core score of 12,704 was much higher than the 9,410 scored by the 11th Gen model on the same test. But neither 65-watt CPU could match the liquid-cooled 125W 12900K in Corsair's One i300, which scored 1,945 on single-core and 17,965 in the multi-core part of the test. 

We saw a similar pattern in our Handbrake test, which taxes a CPU by transcoding a 4K video file to 1080p. On this test, the Dragon Canyon's time of 5:06 looked impressive against the previous-gen Beast Canyon model's time of 6:28. But again, the more powerful, liquid-cooled One i300 finished the same test nearly 90 seconds sooner than the NUC 12 Extreme, finishing in 3:38.

Since the storage, memory and GPU performance all depend on what components you put in the system, there's little else to test here that would apply to the NUC itself. 

If you are considering the Dragon Canyon kit, know that it's very densely packed and complicated to work in. Although be sure to check out the manual for help since this is a far-from-standard PC form factor. And note that you don't actually have to remove the Compute Element card to get access to the storage and RAM slots. Still, setting it up or upgrading the system is more complicated than you probably expect. And if you ever want to remove the Compute Element from the chassis to upgrade the CPU or swap in whole new future card, expect the process to feel more like fixing a piece of old stereo equipment than upgrading a "standard" desktop. 

That, plus the fact that it's so expensive ($1,450, without a GPU, storage, RAM or an OS), means that most people would be better off opting for something like Corsair's One i300 if they want a compact, powerful PC for gaming or other intense workloads. That system is also very expensive, but it has much better (liquid) cooling for both the CPU and graphics card. And while it is somewhat larger, its vertical orientation means that it will take up much less space on your desk or floor than the NUC 12 Extreme. Plus, it comes completely assembled out of the box, while the NUC requires a fair amount of fiddling in an unfamiliar form factor--unless perhaps you bought one of the last-generation Extreme NUCs. 

Bitmain has revealed a new liquid-cooled mining rig, the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd, that's said to be capable of producing 198 terahashes per second (TH/s) of compute power so miners can keep pace with the increasing difficulty of earning Bitcoin.

Bitcoin.com said the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd is nearly twice as powerful as the base Antminer S19 Pro, which boasts a 110 TH/s hashrate, and bests the 140 TH/s hashrate of the next-gen Antminer S19 XP that Bitmain expects to ship by October.

Bitcoin miners will need as much compute power as they can get. The difficulty of mining the cryptocurrency reached an all-time high this month, and with the global hashrate sitting at a record 199 TH/s, earning Bitcoin will only get harder.

The chain goes something like this: More difficult mining requires more powerful machines that will run at higher temperatures. Turning to liquid cooling for the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd should allow Bitmain to balance all of those factors.

Not that Bitmain's the first to realize this. CleanSpark announced in December 2021 that it would dunk 5,940 of its Antminer S19j Pro rigs in "a synthetic hydrocarbon compound" to increase its hashrate and reduce its operating costs.

Bitmain said on its website that the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd is expected to ship between May and September. The rig is supposed to be used with the Antspace HK3 container, which can hold up to 210 units, and is set to ship between March and July.

This equipment probably won't be cheap—especially since Bitmain said that "the minimum miner quantity will be 190 units"—but the company hasn't revealed official pricing. At the time of writing, both product pages simply say they are "coming soon."

That might be for the best. Bitcoin's value has fallen roughly 34 percent over the last month, so mining operations might not be looking to upgrade their setups despite the increasing difficulty of mining Bitcoin.

While Alienware has ditched its Graphics Amplifier, which worked with mulitple generations of Alienware laptop over a proprietary connector, the company is still working on a new external GPU. At CES 2022,Alienware showed off Concept Polaris, a new spin on the idea that can fit a 16-inch GPU and allows for watercooling.

Unlike the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, Polaris uses a Thunderbolt 4 port rather than something proprietary. However, Alienware suggested that as a concept, this could change. Asus' ROG XG Mobile, which uses a laptop-grade graphics card, has a proprietary connector combined with USB Type-C. Polaris can also be used as a dock of sorts,with USB connections and video outputs on the rear.

Alienware's goal, I'm told, is for gamers to be able to fit in almost any off-the-shelf card, including the ones on our best graphics card list. 16-inches in length should cover most of them, and the demo unit I saw had an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 in it.  

To make this all fit, Alienware has moved the power supply out of the box, which makes it less chunky but ends up with more bricks on the floor. (This is the opposite move from what recent video game consoles have made, as the power supplies create more of a mess by your surge protector.) The current concept can be powered by up to two 330 W power supplies, and I'm told they're working on getting 425 W bricks to work.

Liquid cooling, however, may be an issue. Alienware is using that, along with its proprietary Element 31 thermal material from the Alienware X series laptops, for the best possible performance and to allow overclocking. But that adds a level of complexity, as filling and draining coolant — and replacing parts connected to water blocks — is a complex process that you typically see primarily in the most enthusiast (and expensive PC builds). It's not clear if Alienware will come up with a way to make swapping out watercooled GPUs easier–or how many models will be supported.

Concept Polaris has heavily adopted Alienware's modern "Legend" design language with round corners and honeycomb-shaped vents. It looks like a small Alienware Aurora desktop, which is kind of adorable. And while we primarily saw it sitting horizontally, the magnetic base can be moved so that the eGPU stands vertically, freeing up desk lots of space.

Of course, like all concepts, we have to treat this with a big grain of salt. While Alienware representatives talked as if Polaris is in active development, you really never know if a concept will come to market unless and until a final product is announced. Maybe if Polaris does arrive as a product you can buy, the GPUs to put in it will also be affordable by then. Hey, it’s just a concept.

You may not be able to buy DDR5 kits for a reasonable price right now, but it hopefully won't be long before you can snag a new kit. However, those that are lucky enough to have DDR5 memory are learning that the new kits generate far more heat than standard DDR4 memory, largely because DDR5 brings the power control circuitry onboard the DIMM itself. There are a few new waterblocks on the market that could help, and we'll also explain just why watercooling could be more beneficial with DDR5 memory than we've seen with prior DDR revisions. 

In that vein, Bitspower has introduced the industry's first waterblocks designed specifically for DDR5 memory modules. Unfortunately, we have no idea when Bitspower plans to make its waterblock for DDR5 memory modules available, but given that it is already listed on its website, it won't be too long.  

In contrast, Thermaltake has also recently introduced a waterblock for DDR3 and DDR4 modules that has plenty of bling. The Pacific A2 Ultra waterblock comes with a massive 3.9" LCD screen that can display pictures and animation, or even actually useful info, like clocks and temperatures. 

The waterblock is formally designed for DDR3 and DDR4 modules, so it remains to be seen whether it will be compatible with DDR5 modules too (DDR4 and DDR5 modules have the same height and length, so it should work fine).

Liquid Cooling for Memory

Liquid cooling has proven to be more efficient than air cooling for almost all PC components, but memory modules haven't typically benefitted much. DRAM chips don't tend to overheat unless they're operating with an extreme overvoltage. But with the emergence of DDR5 DIMMs that carry not only memory chips, but also their own power management integrated circuit (PMIC) and voltage regulating module (VRM) that produce heat, liquid cooling might finally be useful for DRAM. 

Traditionally, memory module voltage regulation is handled by the motherboard, so mainboard manufacturers can differentiate themselves from their rivals by installing more advanced PMICs and higher-quality VRM components to enable better overclocking potential.

With DDR5, each module gets its own PMIC and VRM, whereas the motherboard only has to supply 5 Volts to the memory sticks, and then the onboard components do all the conversions. The motherboard can still control the voltages through SPD programming, but memory module makers can now play with the PMICs and VRMs to differentiate their products.

But these components make heat. Earlier this year Corsair confirmed that DDR5 memory modules can get much hotter than DDR4 SDRAM sticks because of the onboard PMIC and VRM. 

MSI recently demonstrated that the Renesas P9811-Y0 PMIC can get as hot as 56ºC when working in dual-channel mode without another module in close proximity. Furthermore, DDR5 ICs can get to 50ºC – 51ºC when operating at 1.35 Volts (up from JEDEC standard 1.1 Volts), which is also pretty warm.

In dual-channel mode, air cooling may be enough even when the modules are overclocked and overvoltaged, but with four modules installed close to each other temperatures may get out of control and this is where advanced cooling methods such as liquid cooling could come in handy.

The DDR5 standard features numerous architectural peculiarities to enable substantial performance and device capacity scaling for years to come. With DDR4, the industry started with 4Gbit 2133 MT/s devices and ended up with 16Gbit 3200 MT/s ICs (which can overclock pretty well). With DDR5, we are starting with 16Gbit 4800MT/s ICs and the plan is to drive capacity all the way to 64Gbit as well as transfer rates to 8000 MT/s and beyond. As a result, memory chips will get considerably more complex and may get substantially hotter than they are today. When overclocked, they will clearly require sophisticated cooling.  

The Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 features a full-cover CPU block sizable enough to fully cover Threadripper’s ample surface area, although it supports mainstream sockets like AM4 as well. There’s also a powerful, fast-flowing pump with built-in reservoir and an all-copper radiator, allowing the Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 to morph into a custom cooling loop, one piece at a time.

Alphacool is often recognized for its contributions and liquid cooling components in the PC watercooling industry. The company prides itself on offering some of the best-flowing, highest-performing blocks and radiators available for the enthusiast market. And as we’ve seen in testing its previous products, the company usually delivers. So it comes as little surprise that Alphacool also builds its AIO line from the same quality components, with expert craftsmanship, to provide cooling solutions like the Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360.

The Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 is the brand’s premium liquid cooling system for AMD and Intel HEDT processors, making use of standard G1/4 threaded watercooling components for true cooling compatibility, including quick-disconnect fittings to allow dripless expansion using other Alphacool QDC options, such as Eiswolf GPU blocks or additional radiators.

Specifications

Features

Mounting options for the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 are focused on high core count workstation and high-end desktop (HEDT) CPUs from both Intel and AMD, given that these chips see higher thermal output and often heavier, sustained utilization. Mounting brackets are paired by socket type and slide around the CPU block in a milled frame rail and snap together to provide a quick method for getting the cooler setup for installation.

An aRGB lighting controller can be used in lieu of motherboards lacking 3-pin (5v) aRGB headers, and a PWM splitter is provided for cable management, while a syringe of Alphacool thermal compound eliminates the need for an added purchase. A tool is also included to allow easy removal of the fill port cap on the pump reservoir housing.

Alphacool covers the Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 with a 2-year warranty.

The heart of the Eisbaer Pro Aurora is a handsome pump + reservoir, with acrylic windows to view coolant levels. Both in/out fittings are G1/4-threaded parts and come equipped with Alphacool’s enterprise series fittings, but can be swapped out with common G1/4-threaded watercooling fittings for customization or expansion of the cooling loop. The tubing itself is quality TPV rubberized coolant tubing, which is also utilized in the company’s enterprise cooling line.

A single fill port allows for topping off or refilling when needed.

The base of the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora sees a copper cooling plate with a nickel-plated mirror finish large enough to fully cover Threadripper CPUs. The pump is managed by a 3-pin fan header, and lighting is accessible via 3-pin (5v) aRGB header.

Making full use of the Eisbaer Pro Aurora cold plate, our Threadripper mount easily spreads thermal paste to the edge of the block itself. Around the perimeter of the block we can see the Threadripper mounting plates, which snap around the milled edge of the pump unit for secure mounting.

The Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 features a dripless quick disconnect to allow easy expansion of the cooler with other Alphacool products like Eiswolf GPU blocks and additional radiators. The quick disconnects (QDCs) are designed to separate without spillage, although we did see about a drop of coolant which could occur, which according to Alphacool documentation is to be expected. The QDCs promote correct flow direction insert of the add-in Alphacool component, meaning that flow direction will be correct for the component being added due to the distinct male/female side needing an alternate mate to seal against.

Alphacool’s radiators use full-copper tanks, fins and internal tubes, exactly like the company’s performance watercooling components. The cooling fins are given only a slight spray of paint, to prevent the black coating from diminishing the performance of the copper it obscures underneath. The end tanks of the radiator are more pronounced, given that they need to accommodate G1/4 fitting sizes for the inlet/outlet port fittings, rather than the smaller barbs used by AIOs utilizing lesser-quality aluminum radiators.  Little (if anything) separates the radiators used on the Eisbaer Pro Aurora from Alphacool’s other custom watercooling radiator lineup.

The trio of included PWM-controlled aRGB(3-pin, 5v) 125mm RISE Aurora fans are rated up to 2000 RPM, although we saw a bit higher output in our testing. Each fan features an opaque blade design, which diffuses color and provides more of a glowing effect as well as showcasing lighting effects along the exposed acrylic ring, allowing color distribution around the majority of the fan housing from the LED lighting pattern. Rubberized mounting pads help eliminate fan noise at higher rotational speeds.

We encountered zero difficulty getting the Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 installed on our 32-core 2990WX Threadripper CPU. In fact if anything, the tolerances for the mounting hardware are so precise, they made block alignment over the standoffs nothing more of an exercise in exact positioning, leaving nothing to question.

Assuming your chassis has enough room to house a 360mm radiator, the Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 shouldn’t have much of an issue installing into a case supporting such a large radiator, although the end tanks on the Eisbaer Pro Aurora are somewhat larger than a typical aluminum AIO radiator, giving it a slightly longer profile.

For our CPU cooling tests, we use the same hardware, overclock and configuration for every test, to minimize environment variables in testing. This allows for all results across all coolers tested on the platform to be viable as side-by-side examination for direct compare/contrast.

Data comparisons are based on data collected from testing performed on our new AMD Threadripper 2990WX system, including re-visiting many previously covered products which were originally covered on the prior testing platform which pivoted around a Threadripper 1900X (4.10ghz @1.40v).

All data reported for this article has been collected on the current AMD 2990WX TR4 platform and will be maintained as like-for-like evaluation of ongoing cooling coverage. We’ve recently swapped the taller, Corsair Dominator RGB DIMMs with Corsair Vengeance LPX for lower-profile memory, allowing for higher cooler compatibility for testing.

Prime95 v29.4b8 (no AVX) is used for two-hour intervals, one managing fans at 50% PWM and the other at 100% PWM with RPM measurements being taken every 3 seconds and averaged across the duration of each 2-hour capture.  Omitting AVX instruction sets allows for accurate, 100% loads at chosen clock speeds, while allowing AVX instructions would provide higher, albeit, unrealistic synthetic CPU loads and excessive heat production, less indicative of real-world use.

This also allows for a greater range CPU coolers to be tested and compared without the need to configure the system differently for smaller coolers which may not handle the excessive thermal loads being generated during testing, while larger coolers might be better equipped to manage heat output produced by the 32 beastly cores from the 2990WX. 

HWInfo64 is used for real-time core temperature readout, thermal throttling alerts, motherboard power consumption, CPU speed and logging of data, while a CrystalFontz CFA-633-TMI-KU is used to monitor and later average both ambient room (2 probes) and motherboard voltage regulator heatsink (2 probes).

With these temperature readings collected, CPU Core is defined as an average of all CPU core temperatures reported once per second for the entirety of the testing run from HWInfo64 data. This value is then taken as an offset difference from the reported ambient room temperature collected from the CFA-633-TMI-KU (also once per second and averaged). CPU PWM is defined by the voltage regulator heatsink direct temperature probe as an offset different from the same reported ambient room temperature reading for the same CPU Core test (100%, 50%). This helps define a working model of how well the evaluated cooler performs as a process of also cooling nearby hardware under loads, like our overclocked motherboard voltage regulator heatsink.

Without a doubt, the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 provides our Threadripper test bench with the lowest thermal load scores to-date, eclipsing even the massive 420 (3x140mm) radiator on the Corsair H170i Elite Cappelix, which we recently tested.

The Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 also decimates the previous tests we’ve re-run, with the Enermax LIQUTECH TR4 on our 2990WX CPU platform, which consequently should likely no longer be a consideration for Threadripper cooling, no matter the budget due to well-known and thoroughly documented coolant coagulation and other problems found around the web.

As we previously mentioned, fan speeds we observed on the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 were considerably higher than the 2000 RPM maximum defined by the fan spec sheet. We were easily seeing in excess of 2600 RPM measured speeds, which is rather extraordinary for 120mm fans, and they did make quite a bit of noise in the process, which we’ll discuss in a moment.

The pump of the Eisbaer Pro Aurora seemed to deliver a good volume of coolant and there is a substantial pulsating ‘feel’ when we physically handled the tubing while the pump was active. Compared to most AIOs, there is normally a slight vibration or pulsation, whereas the Eisbaer Pro felt noticeably more powerful in flow delivery.

Having such fast-spinning fans often results in elevated noise levels picked up by our sound meter, and the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 is far from silent when running at 100% fan PWM. However, those who are well-versed in setting fan curves in your motherboard BIOS or using a standalone fan controller will easily have the capability to silence the Eisbaer Pro under low CPU loads and only allow it to unleash the full airflow potential when absolutely necessary, tuning the cooler to your needs.

Even with its impressive thermal performance over other solutions, the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 takes a hit on our acoustic efficiency chart, due to higher registered fan noise at 100% PWM. This chart helps us define how well a device cools at both 50% and 100% fan PWM, but also determines how effective it is doing work in the process, by including the decibel levels required to do so.

For power users building high-end AMD Threadripper or Intel HEDT desktop workstation or gaming system, budgets will likely be higher, with a different focus than those looking for a more frugal desktop gaming or mainstream PC build. Considering the cost associated with most of the CPUs and motherboards alone supported by the Eisbaer Pro Aurora, system builders in this realm of performance usually draw from a unique set of criteria, which a frequent aim for ‘the best at any price.

Priced right around $217 on Amazon at the time of writing, the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 is more costly than some other solutions, but does provide hands-down the absolute best cooling potential.

Thermal imaging using our FLIR ONE Pro camera shows only slight differences along the lateral edge of the 360 radiator, coolant tubing and the I/O port of the pump itself at both 50% and 100% fan PWM. The left coolant tube (as seen in our image) is the outlet from the pump to the radiator, where we can see some of the most noticeable temperature differences. The 360mm radiator does seem to do a very good job of maintaining good thermal dissipation at both fan speeds.

Alphacool has shown us again that the company can provide high quality liquid cooling AIO components, cut from the same cloth as its performance watercooling systems. This approach to quality, performance and enthusiast expectation speaks well of the Alphacool team. And it makes it easy to recommend products like the Eisbaer Pro for builders looking to slowly add to their performance build, one component at a time without sacrificing time, expectations, or performance. The Eisbaer Pro Aurora 360 is tough to beat as a great all-around liquid cooling starter loop, without the added headaches that often come with more complicated custom cooling kits.

INNO3D today extended its Nvidia RTX line-up with the addition of two solutions packed to the gills with built-in watercoooling. The INNO3D RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti iChill Black have been built on a hybrid cooling philosophy, which pairs a watercooling block that keeps the GA102 chips inside these high-performance graphics cards cool. A single 90mm fan is in charge of keeping the high-wattage GDDR6X memory subsystem under temperature control. A dual-heatpipe system is responsible for moving the heat produced from the memory chips through to the heatsink array. Stylistically, the cards are painted in an unsurprising black throughout - including the backplate.

When it comes to specifications, INNO3D has kept Boost clocks at a relatively mainstream level, with the IChill Black RTX 3080 Ti ticking at 1710 MHz Boost clocks (a 45 MHz increase over NVIDIA reference), while the iChill Black RTX 3080 ticks at 1770 MHz (a 60 MHz increase from the reference 1710 MHz). Memory configuration is par for the course - 12 GB GDDR6X at 19 Gbps over a 384-bit bus for the RTX 3080 Ti, and 10 GB GDDR6X at the same 19 GBps rate over a 320-bit bus. In terms of I/O, we're looking at the standard 3x DisplayPort 1.4a and 1x HDMI 2.1 outputs we typically see in cards of this category.

A hybrid cooling design tries to hit a perfect balance between cooling performance, noise, and cost. INNO3D's iChill Black graphics cards ship with a 120 mm radiator + fan combo, responsible for keeping the GA102 chips cool enough so as not to compromise performance - remember that NVIDIA's Boost technology looks not only at power consumption, but also thermals, in order to unlock as much performance as possible. 

INNO3D is quick to point out the thermal and acoustic efficiency of their design: the company claims maximum temperatures of 68 Celsius (GPU), 77 Celsius (GDDR6X) and 82 Celsius (VRM circuitry) at 28 dB of noise. However, the company uses the same graphics and temperature points for both the RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti, which is odd as these chips definitely aren't made equal when it comes to their power consumption, operating frequencies, and power profiles. 

Liquid cooling manufacturer Barrowch has released a new all-in-one water cooling kit that features the most futuristic looking CPU block you can buy. The block features a 2.9-inch,1440 x 1440p display with HDMI connectivity.

The screen resolution on Barrowch's waterblock is really impressive, and overkill if we're being honest. With over 700 pixels per inch, this little waterblock has nearly 2x the amount of PPI as a Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphone, giving you as much pixel density as you could ever ask for. The screen itself is a standard LCD display that uses a 5V micro USB interface for power.

The screen's primary use case is for monitoring your computer's sensors, ranging from CPU temperatures to GPU temperatures, system load and more. The screen can also be used in conjunction with AIDA64's monitoring tools to allow for more accurate readings. With the HDMI input, you could also use it as a very tiny computer monitor.

The all-in-one water cooling kit appears quite impressive even without the screen. The block is hooked up to a thick 240mm radiator with dual RGB 120mm fans. Barrowch was able to install a 17W pump and reservoir directly onto the radiator, including an acrylic windows next to the reservoir allowing you to check fluid levels

Because this AIO is a kit rather than a sealed unit, you can add additional radiators and blocks to the cooling system. Turning your 'simple' AIO unit into a full custom loop.

CPU support includes AMD's AM4 CPU socket, Intel's LGA 115x and LGA 2011 socket for HEDT compatibility.

Pricing and availability hasn't yet been revealed.

As noted by TechPowerUp, EK has released its second-generation QuantumX Delta TEC cooling water block, designed to work in conjunction with Intel's Cryo Cooling Technology. The new block is called the QuantumX Delta TEC EVO and brings improvements over the original QuantumX delta block, giving sub-ambient CPU coolers more cooling power and efficiency.

Intel's Cry Cooling Technology was released last year in an effort to bring Comet Lake-S CPUs down to sub-ambient temperatures to increase performance. These coolers use Thermoelectric technology combined with liquid cooling to achieve these low temperatures.

The new QuantumX Delta TEC EVO improves upon the previous design with a new, more powerful TEC plate, allowing for over 50W of additional cooling power. This new TEC plate is also soldered to the bottom of the water block, improving contact and heat dissipation.

The original block was rated for 300W of heat output, so this new block will give you a maximum cooling capacity of 350W, allowing CPU overclocks to be pushed a bit further than before.

Because this block is designed specifically for Intel's Cryo Cooling tech, it is only compatible with Intel 10th gen and 11th gen CPUs, although the previous model has been demonstrated on AMD silicon before.

The new block is currently available at EK's online store for $389.99. If you don't live in the United States, the block is available worldwide at a number of retailers.

TSMC, at the VLSI symposium, recently presented its investigations into on-chip watercooling as a way to battle issues with heat dissipation. And it involves integrating water channels straight into the chip's design. 

As transistors get increasingly compressed together due to denser manufacturing technologies and added vertical 3D chip stacking, temperature becomes an increasingly critical problem to address. TSMC's researchers think the solution is allowing water to flow in-between sandwiched circuits. It's an incredibly simple theoretical solution, but is an extremely difficult engineering feat to pull off safely --for the electronics, that is.

The mathematics are simple: Current cooling solutions typically work via direct contact with a given chip's heatspreader, direct die contact technologies, or full submersion in a non-conducting fluid. Of these, the first two solutions can only efficiently cool the layers they're directly in contact with, which brings huge problems for vertical chip stacking. The lower layers will have much more trouble dissipating their heat, with of damage or having to throttle, either of which would be bad for performance. 

Not only that, but the top layer of the chip will have added strain from having to essentially carry the entire package's heat through to the dissipation layer. And liquid submersion, while efficient and likely better for stacked dies, is expensive and difficult to deploy in professional scenarios that are already geared for air or traditional water cooling.

TSMC carried out testing on a dummy semicondutor - a Thermal Test Vehicle (TTV), which is essentially a heating element made out of copper - in controlled lab conditions. The company tested three types of silicon water channel integration in controlled conditions: It used a pillar-based channel, where water could flow around active semiconductor pillars to cool them down (think of water around an island); a design which featured a trench design (think of a river, controlled by its shores); and a simple, flat water channel on top of the rest of the silicon chip. The water was passed through an external cooling mechanism that chilled the water down to 25 ºC from its journey through the silicon chips.

The company further tested three types of water cooling designs: one with only direct water cooling (DWC), where water has its own circulating channels etched directly into the chip's silicon as part of the manufacturing process; another design with water channels being etched into their own silicon layer on top of the chip proper, with a Thermal Interface Material (TIM) layer of OX (Silicon Oxide Fusion) that carried heat from the chip to the watercooling layer; and lastly a design which swapped the OX layer for a simpler, cheaper liquid metal solution.

TSMC reported that the best solution was by far the direct water cooling method, which could dissipate up to 2.6 kW of heat and offered a temperature delta of 63 ºC. The second-best design was naturally the OX TIM-based one, which could still dissipate up to 2.3 kW of heat and offered a temperature delta of 83 ºC. The liquid metal solution came in last, still managing to dissipate up to 1.8 kW (temperature delta of 75 º C). Of all the water flow designs, the pillar-based one was the best by far.

Of course, it will take years until such exotic cooling solutions are adopted in the mainstream. But this is definitely one of the ways forward to enable continued increases in transistor density, continued improvement in the all-important performance-per-area metric, and for future 3D semiconductors. 

You have to hand it to EK. The watercooling specialist really knows how to think out of the box. The brand just announced its new EK Lignum lineup of products that are partially manufactured out of walnuts (Juglans Nigra).

The waterblock itself is based on the company's EK-Quantum Vector RE RTX 3080/3090 design that's tailored towards Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) graphics cards. The EK-Quantum Vector RTX 3080/3090 Lignum Edition is compatible with the majority of the GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 models that feature a reference design, including Zotac's Trinit GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090 SKUs. Do note, however, the waterblock isn't compatible with the Founders Edition.

EK's decision to use walnut in the waterblock's construction was due to its properties to shrink and expand. The company handpicks and handcrafts each piece of wood. Its open-pore finish leaves the wood with a silky touch. Each waterblock features a distinctive wood pattern so no two Lignum waterblocks are the same.

The brand assures its customers that Lignum products are designed in such a way that the wood doesn't come anywhere near the liquid. The wood is attached to an acetal tops that seals the waterblock so the wood only acts as eye candy.

The EK-Quantum Vector RTX 3080/3090 Lignum Edition features a thicker copper base in comparison to EK's other waterblocks to provide headroom for tall capacitors on graphics cards with reference designs. The objective is to provide wide compatibility without compromising the flow of the coolant. 

The waterblock comes equipped with an integrated solution that cools the GPU, memory chips and VRM (voltage regulation module) as the coolant flows right over each aforementioned component. The coolant also makes contact with the MOSFETs as well as the chokes so there is a minimum chance of hearing coil whine. The optimized flow paths aim to reduce hydrodynamic instabilities and dead spots.

The EK-Quantum Vector RTX 3080/3090 Lignum Edition commands a price tag of $359.99. EK expects to ship out orders in the middle of September 2021. If you're looking for a complete wood theme, EK also sells matching the EK-CPU Lignum waterblock and EK-HDC Lignum 12mm fittings for $189.99 and $17.99, respectively.

Hardline, custom watercooling is typically reserved for the high-end enthusiast: the one who has the money to burn, the time to spend and the chance to risk a leak. The iBuypower Element CL Pro ($1,999 as tested) is an attempt to bring it to the mainstream, adding a small premium over your average prebuilt by using a clever design that builds the system into the case itself.

With this build, iBuypower has gone with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and Intel's latest, the Core i7-11700K. While this machine has a nice-looking watercooling setup with aesthetics to match some of the best gaming PCs, the CPU isn't tuned to take full advantage of it out of the box.

Design of the iBuypower Element CL Pro

At first glance, the Element CL Pro looks like a pretty average mid-tower. But a more careful look reveals a clever design built around delivering custom, hardline liquid cooling in a machine that isn't oversized, heavy or particularly fragile.

The front of the desktop features the iBuypower logo, a bit of RGB lighting and a whole lot of nothing. This is by design. The front panel shows off a distribution plate with a combined pump and reservoir. Beyond some of the fill and drain holes, the main item you see in the front is a flow integrator that changes speeds depending on how fast the coolant is circulating through the system.

This plate is attached to a 360mm radiator with three fans that serve as the air intake to the system. The hardline tubing connects to custom aluminum blocks on the CPU and GPU, which iBuypower says it used to reduce weight and cost, but that is also a compromise, as copper parts can handle more heat.

The water blocks on the iBuypower Element CL Pro are also custom-made, and, in theory, could be adjusted to fit different parts.  In theory, the tubes are bent in a way that can be reused. The CPU block can move slightly to the left or right and be re-screwed in, while both blocks can be moved either up or down.

Because the GPU block's ports both exit from the underside of the card, the company claims longer or wider GPUs should work with its block. Both of the blocks are iBuypower branded, including a big chimera-esque creature on the bottom of the GPU. It's not my taste, but it's also not quite visible. At least they support customizable RGB.

The RAM and fans also support customizable RGB so you can make the look you want. There's a single exhaust fan in the rear of the case.

 The left side panel is made of glass, and you get a pretty clean design with the hardline tubing. If you’re trying this to a PC on your own, see our story on how to cut hard tubing for your custom loop.

There are three dust filters on the case: one on the bottom; a magnetic one on the top; and one over the radiator for the distribution plate. That third one is a bit odd. The right side panel, made of aluminum, has a series of holes to allow airflow. But the filter isn't immediately behind those holes. There's a bit of space between it and the radiator, to which the netting is directly attached. This should definitely keep the majority of dust from getting into your radiator and system, but it also means that if you want to detach the dust filter to clean it, you'll need to remove the right side panel, which seems like unnecessary extra work.

The Element CL Pro chassis is 18.1 x 8.1 x 8.5 inches, which isn't drastically small for a prebuilt, but is for a system with a custom loop (and it only weighs 30-ish pounds, depending on the configuration). The MSI Aegis RS 11th is a bit smaller at 17.72 x 16.93 x 8.46 inches and the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 is similar in size at 18.9 x 17 x 8.77 inches. The HP Omen 30L is the thinnest of the bunch at 17.7 x 16.8 x 6.6 inches.

iBuypower Element CL Pro Specifications

Ports and Upgradeability on the the iBuypower Element CL Pro

I do think the Element CL Pro's case could be slightly modernized when it comes to front I/O. It offers a pair of USB Type-A ports and separate 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks. That's decent, but I would like to see USB Type-C here too.

The ports on the rear of the iBuypower Element CL Pro are from the ASRock Z590-C/ac motherboard, including a legacy PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, twin USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, RJ45 Ethernet, Wi-Fi antennas and audio ports.

In many ways, the Element CL Pro has a pretty standard PC case, which, in theory, should make upgrades pretty simple. After all, you have standardized parts, including the CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, power supply and motherboard. You could re-use this chassis on a future build , if you choose, though some of the best PC cases have better front I/O or other special features

With the exception of the RAM and SSDs, though, the other major components will require draining the liquid coolant and disassembling the custom loop. For some, this will be a step too far, but some hardcore enthusiasts won't mind that tradeoff for the aesthetic and potential performance benefits.

On the back of the system, amongst the mess of cables and an RGB hub, are spots to mount two 2.5-inch drives for extra storage. The cable management job on our review unit was interesting. It was clean enough, but the case includes a number of anchors to zip-tie the cable to, and this build used none of them.

Both side panels are easy to take off. The left side panel, a tempered glass window, is held in by one screw, and then you can pull it away from the case. The right side has two screws that you loosen, but don't remove. These are thumb screws, but I found them tight enough that a screwdriver was handy to have around for the first time opening them.

Gaming and Graphics on the iBuypower Element CL Pro

Assuming you can find it in stock, the Element CL Pro comes with an MSI RTX 3070 Ventus 2X OC that is watercooled with iBuypower's custom waterblock. We haven't seen the RTX 3070 in too many prebuilts, with OEMs opting for the RTX 3080 or 3090, so now we'll see how the RTX 3070 fares under water in comparison.

I took the desktop for a spin, running Control at 4K at medium settings, where the game ran between 47 and 54 fps as I explored the oldest house. At 1080p, I could run on high settings with high ray tracing options that go between 50 and 60 fps.

On Shadow of the Tomb Raider (highest settings), the Element ran the game at 115 fps at 1080p and 43 fps at 4K, which is lesser than the RTX 3080 and 2080-powered competitors. It was closest in comparison to the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 and its RX 6800 XT, with scores of 128/50 fps.

There was a similar pattern on Grand Theft Auto V (very high), the iBuypower played at 131 fps at FHD and 42 fps at 4K. The Aegis (153/54) and Omen (151/54) outperformed with RTX 3080s, and the Aurora (145/49) was closest to the Element.

When it came to Far Cry New Dawn, the 3070 caught up in FHD but not 4K. At ultra settings, it ran at 112 fps at 1080p and 73 fps in 4K, beating the Aurora in the former (106 fps) but falling behind in the latter (112 fps). The Aegis and the Omen ran closer to the Aurora.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium settings) ran similarly, with the iBuypower at 92 fps at FHD and 38 fps at 4K, falling behind the rest.

This was also the case on Borderlands 3's highest settings, which the iBuy power ran at 106 fps at 1080p and 44 fps at 4K.

We also stressed the iBuypower with our Metro Exodus gauntlet, running the test 15 times on the RTX preset. The game ran at an average of 80.34 frames per second and was consistent throughout its runs. The CPU ran at an average of 4.46 GHz and an average temperature of 50.54 degrees Celsius (122.9 degrees Fahrenheit). The graphics card ran at an average of 1674.48 MHz and measured an average of 56.07 degrees Celsius (132.93 degrees Fahrenheit).

Productivity Performance on the iBuypower Element CL Pro

The Intel Core i7-11700KF is one of Intel's latest Rocket Lake CPUs, built on its 14nm process. It's an 8 core / 16 thread chip with a base clock of 3.6 GHz and a boost clock up to 5 GHz. In this system, it's paired with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

We were surprised to find that, in some benchmarks, the i7-11700KF in the iBuypower didn't perform as well as the i7-11700K (the same chip, but with integrated graphics). We looked into this a bit, and we think it comes down to this: the ASRock Z590-C/ac motherboard, which we haven't seen on sale but resembles low-to-mid-range Z590 boards, seems to have been set up conservatively. The power limits were out-of-the-box to Intel's guidelines. For many buying pre-builts, that makes some degree of sense, as those customers may not want risk. But with a custom water cooling system, it's also a bit like putting some rims and a spoiler on a Toyota Camry.

"[T]hese systems will be shipped adhering to the Intel default power limits," iBuypower confirmed to Tom's Hardware. "For the total thermal capacity of the loop, we test with combined CPU and GPU loading, and this helps balance total system performance and also fan noise.

"Users may modify these for CPU-only loading scenarios, the board VRM and CPU block are capable of long duration power around 200 watts, but will result in extremely high CPU temperatures if the GPU is also contributing heat to the loop simultaneously (an unrealistic scenario we know, but we can’t predict what folks will do, especially with mining being so prevalent right now). Users wishing to modify these values need to do their due diligence with temperature testing in their own environment."

On Geekbench 5, a synthetic benchmark that tests overall performances, the iBuypower Element CL Pro notched a single-core score of 1,689 and a multi-core score of 8,622. That single-core score is on par with the MSI Aegis, but the multi-core score was far lower than the Aegis' 10,102. Both the HP Omen 30L (Intel Core i9-10900K, 32GB) and Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 (AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB) also had scores in the 10,000's.

The Element copied 4.97GB of files at a rate of 735.35 MBps, beating both the Aegis and the Aurora. Only the Omen 30L was faster, at 978 MBps.

Like Geekbench, the iBuypower fell behind a bit in our Handbrake test, where we transcode a 4K video to 1080p. It took the Element 6 minutes and 35 seconds, while the Aegis took 5:19, the Omen needed 5:14 and the Aurora completed the task in 5:16.

Software and Warranty on the iBuypower Element CL Pro

There wasn't much in the way of software on our review unit. Even most of the usual bloat with Windows 10, like some freeware games from the Windows Store, were absent. Office is preinstalled, but if you don't want it, that's easy enough to remove.

ASRock's Polychrome Sync software comes pinned to the desktop. That's where you can change lighting on the waterblocks, fans and RAM.

The only real annoyance is a link to review your iBuypower system that is pinned to the taskbar, featured under programs in the Start Menu and also bookmarked in the Microsoft Edge browser.

The Element CL Pro comes with iBuypower's standard warranty of one year for parts and three years for labor.

Configurations of iBuypower Element CL Pro 

We reviewed the base model of the iBuypower Element CL Pro. It's a $1,999.99 model with an Intel Core i7 11700KF, an Intel Z590 motherboard, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD and an 80 Plus Gold 650W power supply.

For $2,399.99, you can get the Element CL Pro+, with an 11900K or KF, 32GB of RAM and a 700W power supply, with the rest of the specifications being the same. It's unclear if iBuypower will stick to using the exact parts in our system, or will use whatever is in stock and available.

The company says that systems with RTX 3080 GPUs will be released "at a later time."

Bottom Line

Watercooling is, typically, an expensive endeavor. For many, it's overkill. But for those who want it, it can also be unobtainable due to price or difficulty. For those people, the iBuypower Element CL Pro comes as close to solving that problem as I've ever seen. $1,999 isn't nothing, but it's far more accessible than the prices you pay getting similar systems from a boutique dealer or doing it yourself and you may be able to get it for less with an iBuyPower coupon.

It's not, of course, top of the line. The design is clever, but there are tradeoffs. It's cheaper and less bulky, but aluminum instead of copper could mean the cooling doesn't work as well. And with conservative CPU settings on, it takes a hit on productivity workloads out of the box, despite having the hardline in the first place.

If you want something a bit more high-end and easier to customize down the line without draining liquid, the MSI Aegis RS11th hit the spot with all standardized parts and strong performance.

If you want a hardline system preset without spending an arm and a leg? There aren't too many other options, and this will serve you decently for gaming.

For a whole host of reasons, AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X and Nvidia’s RTX 3080 have been two of the hardest-to-find PC components since late last year. But Corsair has combined them both in a handy, compact, liquid-cooled bundle it calls the Corsair One a200.

The company’s vertically-oriented One desktop debuted in 2018 and has since been regularly updated to accommodate current high-end components. This time around, the options include either AMD or Intel’s latest processors (the latter called the One i200), and Nvidia’s penultimate consumer GPU, the RTX 3080. 

Not much has changed in terms of the system’s design, other than the addition of a USB Type-C port up front (where an HDMI port was on previous models). But with liquid cooling handling thermals for both the CPU and graphics in a still-impressively compact package, there’s really little reason to change what was already one of the best gaming PCs for those who want something small.

The only real concern is pricing. At $3,799 as tested (including 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD), you’re definitely paying a premium for the compact design and slick, quiet cooling. But with the scarcity of these core components and the RTX 3080 regularly selling for well over $2,000 on its own on eBay, it’s tough to discern what constitutes ‘value’ in the gaming desktop world at the moment. You may be able to find a system with similar components for less, but it won’t likely be this small or slick.

Design of the Corsair One a200

Just like the One i160 model we looked at in 2019, the Corsair One a200 is a quite compact (14.96 x 7.87 x 6.93 inches) tower of matte-black metal with RGB LED lines running down its front. To get some sense of how small this system is compared to more traditional gaming rigs, we called Alienware’s Aurora R11 “fairly compact” when we reviewed it, and it’s 18.9 x 17 x 8.8 inches, taking up more than twice the desk space of Corsair’s One a200.  

The 750-watt SFX power supply in the a200 is mounted at the bottom, pulling in air that’s expelled at the top with the help of a fan. The heat from the CPU and GPU also gets expelled out the top. Both components are liquid-cooled, with radiators mounted against the side panels and air getting drawn in through them with the help of the large main fan in the lid. 

The primary external difference with the updated a200 over previous models is the replacement of an HDMI port that used to live up front next to the headphone/mic combo jack and pair of USB-A ports. It’s been replaced with a USB-C port. That makes for three front-facing USB ports, a surprising amount of front-panel connectivity for a system so compact. But there are only six more USB ports around back (more on that shortly).

Overall, while the design of the One a200 is pretty familiar at this point, it still looks and feels great, with all the external panels made out of metal. Just note that the matte finish does easily pick up finger smudges.

Specifications

Ports and Upgradability of the Corsair One a200

Since the Corsair One a200 is built around a compact Mini-ITX motherboard (specifically the ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax), you won’t quite get the same amount of ports that you would expect with a larger desktop. Since we already covered the three USB ports and audio jack up front, let’s take a look at the back.

Here you’ll find four USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports, plus two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (one Type-A and one Type-C). Also here is a 2.5 Gb Ethernet jack, three analog audio connections and connectors for the small antennae. The ASrock board also includes a pair of video connectors, but since you’ll want to use the ports on RTX 3080 instead, Corsair has blocked them off behind the I/O plate so most people wouldn’t even know they’re there.

The video connections from the RTX 3080 graphics card live next to the Corsair SF750 power supply, and come in the form of three DisplayPort 1.4a ports and a single HDMI 2.1 connector.

As for internal upgradability, you can get at most of the parts if you’re comfortable dismantling expensive PC hardware. But you can’t add any RAM or storage without swapping out what’s already there (or at least without removing the whole motherboard, more on that soon). That said, the 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 RAM, 1TB PCIe 4.0 Force MP600 SSD and 2TB Seagate 2.5-inch hard drive that’s already here are a potent cadre of components. If you need more RAM and storage (as well as more CPU cores), there’s a $4,199 configuration we’ll detail later.

To get inside the Corsair One a200, you don’t need any tools, but you’ll want to be a bit careful. Press a button at the rear top of the case (you have to press it quite hard) and the top, which also houses a fan, will pop up. But before you go yanking it away in haste, note that it’s attached via a fan cable that you can disconnect after first fishing the plug out from a hole inside the case.

To access the rest of the system you’ll have to remove two screws from each side. But again, don’t be careless, as radiators are attached to both side panels via short tubes, so the sides are a bit like upside-down gull-wing doors. You can’t really remove them without disconnecting the cooling plates from the CPU and GPU.

It’s fairly easy to remove the RAM, although the 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 occupies both of the slots. The 2TB Seagate 2.5-inch hard drive is also accessible from the left side, wedged under the PCIe riser cable that’s routed to the GPU on the other side.

At least the 1TB Force MP600 SSD on this model is mounted on the front of the motherboard under a heatsink, rather than behind the board on the i160 version we looked at a couple years ago.

You can open the right panel as well, though there’s not much to do here as the space is taken up by the GPU, a large radiator and a pair of fans. The latter are mounted on the heatsink and pull the RTX 3080’s heat through the radiator, into the system, and out through the top just a few inches away.

As with previous models, you should be able to replace the RTX 3080 with an air-cooled graphics card at some point, provided it has axial rather than blower-style cooling, and that it fits within the physical constraints of the chassis. But given that the RTX 3080 is the best graphics card you can buy, you may be ready for a whole new system by the time you start thinking about swapping out the graphics card here.

Aside from wishing there were more USB ports on the motherboard, I have no real complaints about the hardware here. If I were spending this much, I’d prefer a 2TB SSD, but at least the 1TB model Corsair has included is a PCIe 4.0 drive for the best speed possible. Technically the ASRock motherboard here has a second PCIe 3.0 M.2 slot, where you could install a second SSD. But it’s housed on the back of the motherboard, which would mean fairly major disassembly in cramped quarters, and remember that you’d have to disconnect the pump/cooling plate from the CPU before even attempting to do that.

Gaming Performance on the Corsair One a200

With AMD’s 12-core Ryzen 9 5900X and Nvidia’s RTX 3080 running the gaming show inside Corsair’s One a200 — and both of them liquid-cooled — we expected Corsair’s compact power tower to spit out impressive frame rates.

We pitted the a200 against MSI’s Aegis RS 11th, which also has an RX 3080 but an 8-core Intel Rocket Lake Core i7-11700K, and a couple other recent gaming rigs we’ve tested. Alienware’s Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 sports a stepped down Ryzen 7 5800X and a Radeon RX 6800XT. And HP’s Omen 30L, which we looked at near the end of 2020, was outfitted with a last-generation Intel Core i9-10900K and an RTX 3080 to call its own.

While the Corsair One a200 didn’t walk away from the impressive competition, it was almost always in the lead in our gaming tests. And that’s all the more impressive given most of the systems it competes with are much larger.

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest settings), the game ran at 147 fps at 1080p on the One a200, and 57 fps at 4K. The former ties it with the Aegis for first place here, and the latter beats both the Aegis and the Omen 30L, just slightly, giving Corsair’s system an uncontested win.

In Grand Theft Auto V (very high settings), the Corsair system basically repeated its previous performance, tying the MSI machine at 1080p and pulling one frame ahead of both the Omen and the MSI at 4K.

On the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark, the MSI Aegis pulled ahead at 1080p by 11 fps, but the One a200 still managed to tie the MSI and HP systems at 4K. 

After trailing a bit in Far Cry at 1080p, the One a200 pulled ahead in Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium settings) at the same resolution, with its score of 117 fps beating everything else. And at 4K, the Corsair system’s 51 fps was again one frame ahead of both the MSI and Alienware systems.

Last up in Borderlands 3 (badass settings), the Corsair system stayed true to its impressive form. Its score of 137 fps at 1080 was a frame ahead of the MSI (and ahead of everything else). And at 4K, its score of 59 fps was only tied by the HP Omen. 

Aside from the One a200’s gaming performance being impressive for its size, this is also one of the quietest high-end gaming rigs I’ve tested in a long time. Lots of heat shot out of the top of the tower while I played the Ancient Gods expansion of Doom Eternal, but fan noise was a constant low-end whirr. The large fan at the top does its job without doing much to make itself known, and the radiators on either side help move heat out of the case without adding to the impressively quiet noise floor.

We also subjected the Corsair One a200 to our Metro Exodus stress test gauntlet, in which we run the benchmark at the Extreme preset 15 times to simulate roughly half an hour of gaming. The Corsair tower ran the game at an average of 71.13 fps, with very little variation. The system started out the test at 71.37 fps on the first run, and dipped just to 71.05 fps on the final run. That’s a change of just a third of a frame per second throughout our stress test. It’s clear both in terms of consistent performance and low noise levels that the One a200’s cooling system is excelling at its job.

During the Metro Exodus runs, the CPU ran at an average clock speed of 4.2 GHz and an average temperature of 74.9 degrees Celsius (166.8 degrees Fahrenheit). The GPU’s average clock speed was 1.81 GHz, with an average temperature of 68.7 degrees Celsius (155.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Productivity Performance

While the Ryzen 9 5900X isn’t quite as potentially speedy on paper as the top-end 5950X (thanks to a slightly lower top boost clock and four fewer cores), it’s still a very powerful 12-core CPU. And paired with Nvidia’s RTX 3080, along with 32GB of RAM and a fast PCIe 4.0 SSD, the Corsair One a200 is just as potent in productivity and workstation tasks as it is playing games.

On Geekbench 5, an overall performance benchmark, the Corsair system was just behind the leading systems in the single-core tests, with its score of 1,652. But on the multi-core test, it’s 11,968 was well ahead of everything else.

The Corsair PCIe Gen 4 SSD in the a200 blew past competing systems, transferring our 25GB of files at a rate of 1.27 GBps, with only the HP Omen’s WD SSD also managing to get close to the 1GBps mark.

And on our Handbrake video editing test, the Corsair One a200 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in an impressive 4 minutes and 44 seconds, while all the other systems took well more than 5 minutes to complete the same task. Video editors in particular will be able to make good use of this system’s 12 cores and 24 threads of CPU might.

Software and Warranty for the Corsair One a200

The Corsair One a200 ships with a two-year warranty (plus lifetime customer support) and very little pre-installed software. Aside from Windows 10 Home, you get the company’s iCue software, which can be used to control both the lights as well as the system fans. The company even seems to have avoided the usual bloat of streaming apps and casual games like Candy Crush, which ship with almost all Windows machines these days.

Configuration Options for the Corsair One a200

If you’re after the AMD-powered Corsair a200 specifically, you have two configuration options. There’s the model we tested (Corsair One a200 CS-90200212), with a 12-core Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, 2TB hard drive, and an RTX 3080 for $3,799. Or you can pay $400 more ($4,199) to step up to the 16-core Ryzen 5950X and double the RAM and SSD to 64GB and 2TB respectively (Corsair One Pro a200 CS-9040010). The latter configuration is overkill for gaming, but the extra storage, RAM and four more CPU cores are well worth the extra money if you can actually make use of them.

For those who aren’t wedded to AMD, there’s also the Intel-based Corsair One i200, which now includes 11th Gen "Rocket Lake" CPU options, with up to a Core i9-11900K and an RTX 3080, albeit running on a last-gen Z490 platform. It starts a little lower at $3,599. But that model is currently out of stock with any current-generation Intel and Nvidia components, leaving exact pricing up in the air as of publicatioon.

We tried to do some comparison pricing, and were able to find a similarly equipped HP Omen 30L, as HP often sells gaming rigs on the more-affordable side of the spectrum. But when we wrote this, all Omen 30L systems with current-generation graphics cards were sold out on HP’s site. We were able to find an Omen 30L on Amazon with an RTX 3080 and an Intel Core i9-10850K, along with similar RAM and storage as our Corsair a200, for $3,459. That’s about $340 less than the a200, but the Omen 30L is also much larger than the a200 and has a now last-generation CPU with fewer cores, plus a slower SSD.

Bottom Line 

With one of the best CPUs and graphics cards, both liquid cooled and quiet, in an attractive, compact package, Corsair’s One a200 offers a whole lot to like. The $3,799 asking price is certainly daunting, but in these times when that graphics card alone is selling on eBay regularly for more than $2,000, the Ryzen 9 5900X often sells for close to $800, and even most desktops with current-gen graphics cards are mostly sold out, it’s tough to which high-end gaming rig is more or less of a bargain than something else.

If you spend some time looking you can probably find a system with similar specs as the Corsair One a200 for a bit less. But unless and until the ongoing mining craze subsides, that system probably won’t cost substantially less than Corsair’s pricing. And with its impressively compact shell, quiet operation, and top-end performance in both gaming and productivity, the a200 is easy to recommend for those who can afford it. Just know that upgrading will be a bit more difficult and limiting than with a larger desktop, and if you need lots of USB ports, you may want to invest in a hub. 

I have been in the modding scene since 2005, creating mostly scratch build projects out of wood, acrylic and aluminum.  The most notable of these have been Sangaku, Yuugou and Chiaroscuro with Chiaroscuro having been completed back in 2008.  After a long hiatus, I completed Morphosis for the Cooler Master World Series 2019 and, for the Cooler Master World Series 2020 contest, which just announced winners in March 2021, I built something really special.

Meet Ikigai (生き甲斐) a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being”, my latest case mod project.  The word refers to having a meaningful direction or purpose in life, constituting the sense of one’s life being made worthwhile, with actions (spontaneous and willing) taken towards achieving one’s ikigai resulting in satisfaction and sense of meaning to life.  In other words, It means I really enjoy building computer cases and I devoted four months of my life to bringing this case to fruition working most nights and weekends.  It’s a passion project in every sense.

The case started as a simple concept, like most of my cases. I wanted a vertical tower style case with less than 20 liters of volume that would take up little space on my desk, one that is water cooled and combines my love of handmade wood joinery, and Japanese design aesthetics. It also  uses CNC machining techniques and integrates the water cooling and electrical systems. Like I said, simple. I also wanted to keep the case open to show off every component, making sure that every angle of the case was aesthetically pleasing.

Components

Proof of Concept Models

Before I began my build, I prototyped with some basic, non-functional wooden models. While the models might not be functional, they are to scale. I wanted to stay under 20L so I needed to be sure to make use of every mm of space.  I decided on a central acrylic panel which would contain the watercooling distribution panel, hide the cabling, and allow the components to be attached.  The top section would hold a SFX power supply and the back would have room for a 360mm radiator with full size fans to provide ample cooling power.  I went through several iterations of these wood models because, even though I was modeling in cad, things change once you have the real hardware, in the real world and it’s all part of my design process.

With some of the final components arriving, I could mock up the case more accurately.  Here I have the radiator and fan assembly in along with the motherboard and graphics card to check for clearances in the watercooling.  This would all be hard piped PETG tubing and I was trying to avoid any surprises later on by planning ahead.

Wenge Dovetail Joints

After at least 3 practice mockup cases, I finally had my final dimensions nailed down and it was time to start the final case design.  I wanted a wood that was beautiful in its own right with a modern-looking grain that didn’t distract from the clean lines of the case design. I decided on Wenge as my wood of choice, a very hard, dense, and brittle wood which seems to be a cross between charcoal and concrete. It was difficult to work with by hand but sharp tools plus perseverance made it happen.

Case Joinery

I started with the main mitered dovetails of the case by first making a practice joint out of cherry.  By doing this, I not only made a visual reference that I could use later to avoid confusion but I dusted off the mental cobwebs; it’s been a long time since I’ve done a joint like this.

I wanted the grain to flow around the case so I cut the entire frame out of one piece of wood, matching the grain around the case as it went along.  This also meant my joints would need to be good the first time around or the grain wouldn’t match up.

I used a dovetail guide by Lee Valley to make the dovetail cutting easier.  Here I am cutting the tails first.

With the first side cut, I transferred the lines to the next piece with a marking knife.  By using the kerf of the joint as a guide, I can be sure the knife marks will be exact.

Next, I repeated this process to make the pins of the dovetail joint, making sure I am cutting on the correct side of the line.  A little pencil marking helps with this also.

Once all of the cuts were made, I used a coping saw to remove the bulk of the waste.  Then I used a guide block and chisels to creep up to my marking knife lines.

Once the main part of the joinery was done, I cut the miters on all four corners with a crosscut handsaw.

To ensure the accuracy of the miters I made a guide block and used a chisel to sneak up on my lines, ensuring a perfect 45 degree angle.  Given how hard this wood was, I had to resharpen my chisels multiple times for this to work well.

After quite a bit of time spent cleaning up the joints, testing and refitting as I went, while trying not to break them, I ended up with tight fitting joints.  This process took about two days and a lot of patience.

First CNC Cuts

After making the dovetail joints, I started the nerve-wracking task of cutting the first of many holes in the Wenge.  I did test cuts of everything, but you never know when a gremlin will ruin your day.

First up is the fan/radiator holes including countersinks for the socket head screws.  I did the countersinks first with a 2mm single flute bit:

 These are the countersunk holes for the bolts that will hold the fan and radiator assembly.

Next, I flipped the piece over and used a double flute 1/4inch bit to do the main cutout:

An important step is to check to make sure everything fits tight, but not too tight.  The wood will still move a bit due to temperature fluctuations and, if it's too snug, some things might crack. 

Kumiko

The design narrative of this case was to combine modern CNC technology with traditional hand tool woodworking. The first step was making the dovetail joints, but I also wanted to bring in some Japanese Kumiko design work as well, something I’ve done a good amount of in the past, but not recently. I chose to make a traditional Hemp flower design made from unfinished Sitka Spruce.

Step one is squaring off the rounded corners left by the CNC router using a sharp chisel.

Next, I took some Sitka Spruce stock left from another project and ripped it down on the bandsaw to width, using a planer to get them smooth and to uniform dimensions.

Now it was time to start cutting the Kumiko pieces, beginning with a border.

To make most of the angled joinery, I made a couple more guides at different angles, using a hand plane to get a perfect fit. 

I used a simple mitered half lap joint for the corners.  This will be the only part of this whole Kumiko panel that gets any glue.  The rest is all friction fit.

With the border done, I started filling in the vertical and horizontal Kumiko pieces.  I used another block jig to keep everything aligned and make cutting easier:

Using jigs instead of measuring saves time and produces a more accurate result.

Soon, the grid was complete and I could start working on the diagonal pieces. I’m doing two different sizes of the Kumiko pattern in these panels so there's two different sized squares.

For the diagonal pattern, I started with the 45 degree pieces, cutting the squares in half.

Now, here is the tricky part.  For the second part of the pattern, I needed to cut almost all the way through the piece but not enough to cut it in half.  This would receive angle cuts on either end then be bent in half at the cut mark.  Then, another small piece can be made that locks it all in place:

After some trial and error, I figured out how long each piece needed to be and where to make the center cut so I could batch these pieces as well.

After a few hours, I had the pattern completed.  Remember, there was no glue used on this, except for the corners.

After that, I needed a break from the handwork and I wanted to take some time to work on figuring out the distribution/pump section of the central panel. I also made many versions of the central panel that holds everything with the distribution/pump section changed a few times.

After the many iterations, I finally settled on this mostly final version.  I would use the CNC router to cut all the channels and holes but I would still need to tap the smaller holes.  For the larger holes, I used a thread mill which also took a bit of practice to get used to.

It took a few tries to get a recipe for the thread cutting, but eventually I figured it out and saved the settings for later use. This would accept standard G1/4 watercooling fittings:

I decided to start on the smallest part in case there was user error and I needed to start over.  For each of these cuts, I used a single flute bit, 1/4 inch, 1/8 inch or 2mm.

Here goes nothing! This will hold the pump and will be the outlet for the cooling loop going into the CPU block. This will get flipped over to bore all of the holes on the other side.

Here’s the finished piece with all of the holes routed.

This is a little out of order but it will all make sense later.  I was going to put wiring access on the motherboard side, but figured out that it made more sense to put it on the GPU side. I did many iterations of this design that I used for mockups but more on that in the wiring section. However I decided to cut the wiring channels while also doing the water cooling part of the distro plate minimizing setups:

I used a 2mm single flute bit and a ¼ inch single flute bit to do all of the machining. Quite a while into it, we have it looking like this. Most of the holes are machined.

One of the last steps is to machine the O-ring grooves for the distribution plate. Getting these right is crucial, otherwise it’s more of a water feature than a water-cooled computer case.

This plate is all done for now. Here we can see the final version versus the practice one. The practice versions are important to do to check that the CNC is going to do what I think it is. They can also help for doing mockups later when I don’t want to use final pieces.

Then I checked the fitment of the O-ring channel and everything looked good.

I used a Cooler Master SFX power supply for this project that is going at the top of the case. I played around with the orientation of this seeing how the wiring would look, facing the wires towards the front was the best option.This got a Wenge enclosure and Kumiko grill piece as well.

Since Wenge is so strong, I decided to make a thinner enclosure, and made a few test pieces as usual to get the basic dimensions. I then resawed some Wenge stock with my bandsaw and glued it together.

I wanted the grain to be continuous like the main case Wenge so I cut it accordingly:

To fit with the rest of the case, I used dovetail joinery again for the corners. I did this the same way I built the main case joints but without the miter in the corners.  Here are the joints cut before getting cleaned up.

After a bit of cleanup, the joints fit together and the basic power supply compartment is done.

I used the CNC machine again to make mounting holes for the power supply.  This will be glued up in a later step.

Next, I needed to attach the power supply compartment to the acrylic distribution panel.  I achieved this by making a small rabbet in the front of the compartment that would fit over the front of the acrylic.

I then made some holes in the bottom of the Wenge to put screws into the acrylic. I also machined some vent holes so the power supply could breathe and so the cables could exit the compartment and head to their respective locations.

One final step before I could take the case further was to attach the acrylic to the Wenge frame. To do this, I made a groove in the Wenge for the acrylic to sit in.

I then made holes in the top and bottom of the wenge for bolts that would attach it all together. With this done, it became one cohesive unit and I could lay out where the graphics card and motherboard would interact with the bottom of the case.

Case Floor

I decided to make a shroud out of acrylic for the motherboard and GPU. This would bring them both up a little off of the bottom of the case, enabling for easier access to the ports on the bottom.  As always, I made a mockup of this before doing the final part.

Satisfied that this was the size I wanted, I made acrylic versions for both the GPU and motherboard.

From there, I could mark and cut where the holes line up in the Wenge bottom of the case.

Lastly, I attached the acrylic from the bottom with more bolts then put a significant chamfer on the acrylic.

I needed to make sure there were no more holes to be made in the Wenge before gluing everything up.  One of the last things to do was make a hole for the power supply cord, a channel for the fan cables, and since I wanted a clean look so I made a Wenge cover plate.

The fitment was a bit of trial and error and sneaking up on the perfect fit.

In the end, it made for a convincing cover that is hardly noticeable.

The bottom is done and ready to be glued to the rest of the case panels.

Graphics Card Fitment

The graphics card is heavy and has water cooling in it so needs to be attached very securely.  It attaches at the bottom into the acrylic, the top into the acrylic, and on the side, also into the acrylic, to provide a stable base for the water cooling tubing.

This was a great place to add some more Wenge details.  I used a piece with matching grain to hold the graphics card “fingers” in place. I routed out the back and screwed it into the acrylic.

To hold the heavy GPU assembly up, I decided to attach a bracket at the top that slips between the PCB and the waterblock. I made a quick test one to see if this would work well enough.  I had plenty of Wenge cutoffs so I modeled it up and got to cutting.

The original plan was to use the router table but the CNC was much safer. The hardness of this wood makes it unforgiving, especially with small pieces.

I also put a small chamfer around the edges and then this can be screwed into the acrylic panel.

Power Cable Brackets

I wanted an elegant way to hold the PSU power cable to the acrylic and decided on some little Wenge brackets. This took a few tries to get something that I liked but in the end I decided on this.

Making the holes on the side to screw into the acrylic was tricky, but the CNC pulled it off and I didnt break any pieces or bits.

 Once I decided where they should go, I could  drill into the acrylic and attach them with short screws.

Wiring Harness

The cleanliness of the wiring was a major focus for me on this build so I thought about it from the very beginning, making sure I implemented cable management in each step.  Given the size of the case there was also limited room for me to stuff cables so I made sure to limit the amount of wires where possible.

I made a wiring harness plate that would go above the motherboard and I made a practice piece to make sure it would work like I wanted. I also started routing some of the wires to make sure my plan was actually working.

With my practice piece made I started on the real one, again made out of Wenge.  Since I needed two pieces for this, I resawed a single piece of Wenge for both, ensuring a perfect grain match.

From there, I cut the pieces on the CNC machine starting with the base piece.

I machined the top, including the little pump cable cover piece which fit nicely into the slot I made for it.

 I need almost no glue..

I wasn’t sure this would work, but to attach the cover to the base, I decided to use the same screws as the rest of the case, meaning I would need to tap the Wenge. Surprisingly this worked great and, with a little wax on the tap, everything went smooth.

I then drilled holes into the main acrylic panel to attach the base piece as well.

To finish the cover plate off, I engraved the Kanji character for “Ikigai”.

Glue Up and Sanding

The glue up was a big moment for me as it meant I was getting closer to being done. It also meant I needed to be very sure I was not forgetting a hole somewhere that I would have to drill by hand later.

I wanted to avoid unsightly glue lines on this dark wood so I dyed the wood glue with some Transtint wood dye.

When I was ready to go, I turned off my phone, put on some relaxing music and got to work. The glue up of pieces you’ve been working on for hours can be stressful so being in the right headspace is important.

Without too much trouble I got both assemblies in clamps.

Once the pieces were successfully glued up, I could begin the sanding process. I started with 120 grit and went all the way up to 600 for a super smooth finish. I also sanded the insides of the assemblies before gluing up to make the process easier.

 Here are both assemblies sanded and ready for finish.

The finish is a multistep process, but I started with a flood coat of Danish Oil to really bring out the grain.  I followed this with a few coats of wipe on Polyurethane to build up the lustre.

Acrylic Finishing

One of the odd jobs left to do was finishing the edges of the acrylic. My CNC does a decent job of making smooth cuts, but I did not want any machine marks.  This is also an easy way of really making the case seem like it is almost done.

To do this, I put a sheet of sandpaper on my table saw and used the flat surface to keep the edges flat too.

I did this for each acrylic edge in the case.

It is not super noticeable, but the edge went from this, with little ridges.

To this, after I used 220, 320, and 600 grit sand papers.

Radiator Shroud

One of the last main elements to figure out was the radiator shroud. I left the design of this until the end since I didn’t know exactly how the case would look at this point and I figured it would be easier to design it later on in the process. 

I used some scrap plywood to make a model of the shroud which would cover the radiator and fan assemblies, simplifying their overall look to match with the rest of the case design.

Again, I chose Wenge for the frame portion of the shroud.

I wanted a simple joint that I could take apart if need be. big friction fit dovetail did the trick.

I layed out the joinery similar to the other dovetails, but this time only making one tail in the center.

Next, I test-fitted the first dovetail with some cleanup left to do.

This is a perfect fit. The top, bottom and one side will be glued up while one side remains friction fit so I can slide it over the radiator assembly.

I used some 2mm anodized aluminum from AC Ryan to make a simple fan grill. I did not want any more eye catching elements on the inside of the case so I kept it simple.

Luckily it all fits well, my test pieces paid off.

Lastly, I machined a slot in the shroud where the fan wiring will be routed to the bottom of the case and out to the power supply.

If I’ve learned one thing from case modding, it is that mesh makes everything look better.  I used some AC Ryan mod mesh on the back of the case under the Kumiko to really make the Kumiko pop.

The holes are big enough that the fans will be fine and it will still filter out some dust as well.

I cut the mesh with tin snips and drilled bolt holes using my practice grille as a guide.

Lighting Groove

Lighting is important to really set off a build so I wanted to light up the acrylic panel. Luckily for me, lighting solutions have gotten super compact since I began modding in 2005, so I used this Alphacool light strip that is only a few millimeters wide.

I routed a groove on the acrylic behind where the power cable sits and attached the light strip.

Watercooling

I chose 12mm clear PETG for this case, using some bends also. I hadn’t done any bending before so this was a new challenge and I have more respect for people who do this often, because it's not easy.

I first laid out all the fittings to see where they'd need to go.

The tools I used are a heat gun and a bending guide to help get 90-degree angles. There is also a silicon rod that goes into the tubing and prevents it from kinking when I am bending it.

Heating the tubing evenly and completely is the hardest part. I did a bunch of test bends to get my bearings. Luckily I bought double the amount of tubing I actually needed, because this part is not typically my strong suit.

I used a Barrow tubing cutter and a Primochill tube trimmer to get all the tubes dialed. With some patience as well as trial and error, I got most of the tubing bends done.

The hardest one was the double 90-degree bend going from the Pump Distro to the CPU block.  This took a few tries to get the lengths and bends just right.

RAM Cover

Another simple mod was a cover for the RAM modules. I used the EK RAM blocks made out of black aluminum, but instead of water cooling these, I will make a Wenge cover for them to fit into the theme.

 This was a pretty precise fit using small screws, but it turned out well.

 I will make similar pieces for the rest of the motherboard to help it match the theme of the case.

Wiring

Wiring is easily my least favorite part of the modding process, so I wanted to make it as easy as possible in this case by planning ahead. I made many models of the wiring and mocked it up as much as I could before embarking on the real thing. 

The cables that came with the Cooler Master SFX PSU were also really nice, so this made it easier, although I still ended up making most of the cables myself. I chose to go with bare wires without sleeving to keep the smallest footprint possible.  I also made my own cable combs to keep the wires tidy when they were exposed.

Here is the special cable comb that routes the wires going into the 8-pin motherboard cable.

I used a to make double 8 pin cable combs out of wenge.

After the 8-pin CPU cable was done, I moved on to the 16 pin GPU cable. This had a lot of wires so keeping them straight was a challenge.

The cable combs keep everything organized so I could cut the wires to the approximate length.

It is also super important to make a pinout diagram of the original cables before making your own since they can be different for different power supplies. I’ve almost learned that the hard way a few times.  Here is the finished 16 pin GPU cable.

Most of the cabling is hidden in the acrylic panel, including the lighting which is connected to an RGB splitter.

Cable combs keep things tidy in here too, although things are getting a little more crowded once I start adding the lighting and fan cables. The pump cables still need to go through here as well.

To hide all of the wires and keep them flat so the GPU actually fits, I made an aluminum panel from brushed black aluminum.

With the cover plate on, the GPU side looks nice and tidy.  The rest of the connections will be made on the motherboard side inside of the Wenge wiring box.

The pump gets a bit of sleeving and some Wenge “washers” to help tie it into the theme.

It's about time for the power cord to be installed with the brackets I made earlier. 

The riser cable for the GPU also gets a bit of Wenge trim to hide the PCB.

Power Supply Compartment Kumiko

As beautiful as this power supply is, I wanted to dress it up, adding balance to the case with some more Kumiko.

I did a mockup with some scrap pieces to figure out the best design.

I’m also using the same jig from earlier to batch cut the Kumiko pieces.

At this point, I’m making progress on the grid pattern. Two of these will get the hemp pattern and one will receive a solid pattern to cover the wires.

With the grid complete, I moved on to the diagonals and then the small pieces. Just like on the big panel, I have to cut just enough until they bend but not break.

 I see success with the leaf pattern, so now it is time for the solid panel.

I milled a small piece of Spruce for this. I will cut it to fit, keeping the grain matching from top to bottom.

 I then started cleaning up the ends and sides with a hand plane.

These are friction fit in place and sit flush with the power supply compartment.

I have assembled and disassembled the case parts so many times by now that the final assembly should go smoothly, probably. I can put on the mesh and install the watercooling fittings tightly.

With the fittings in place, I can install the tubing, button up all of the wiring, and get the loop ready to be filled.

With everything working, it’s time to get ready for final photos. I transformed my shop into a photo booth, even drilling a hole through my work bench to avoid photoshopping the cord out 50 times. I think the results speak for themselves.

Gigabyte's AORUS Z590 Extreme Waterforce is one of the craziest motherboards that you'll be able to buy soon for Intel's Comet Lake and Rocket Lake SKUs, and could very well at some point find its way onto our best motherboards list. The board is designed for custom liquid cooling from the start, featuring a large monoblock cooling the CPU and power delivery components. There's also a fully liquid-cooled chipset heatsink, as well as liquid-cooled M.2 heatsinks to keep your high-speed storage devices extra cool.

Aesthetically, the board looks like something designed to draw attention on a CES showroom floor. The entire PCB is covered in matte black and metal, with the chipset and monoblocks featuring RGB illumination. Naturally, there's an RGB-illuminated AORUS logo on top of the rear I/O.

To top it all off, the monoblock features digital water and CPU temperature gauges right on top of the block, and build-in leak protection that will automatically shut down your PC in-case that situation occurs. The monoblock is connected to an internal USB Type-C port to interface with the motherboard's firmware.

As one of Gigabyte's flagship motherboards, the amount of features it has is almost uncanny. For power delivery, the board comes with a 20+1 VRM solution with 100A power stages. This is a very high-end VRM system, with the bonus of being liquid cooled by the board's monoblock. So you should have no problems with the motherboard when overclocking and overvolting Intel's highest core-count CPUs.

For connectivity, you have basically everything you can ask for. Dual Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports, Intel WiFI 6E and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless support, one Aquantia 10Gb ethernet port, plus an Intel 2.5Gb LAN port, and over eight USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, counting both internal USB headers and rear I/O.

We don't know how much this board will cost, but given the number of features included, the price will be high. However, this board is targeted towards consumers who want the best of the best you can get from a motherboard. For those looking for similar features at a more mid-range price, take a look at the MSI MPG Z590 Carbon EK X, which we just took an in-depth look at.

PowerColor has lifted the curtains on the brand's Liquid Devil Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT. The new graphics cards arrive with a full-cover EKWB designed waterblock and are ready to be integrated into your custom watercooling system.

The Liquid Devil Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT jump out of the same mold. Both offerings measure 266 x 162 x 42mm while only requiring two slots from your case. PowerColor has outfitted the RDNA 2 graphics cards with a 14+2-phase power delivery subsystem to unleash Big Navi's full potential without any compromises. 

Both of the cards come with 16GB GDDR6 of memory but their clock speeds differ, with the RX 6900 XT offering a 2,135 MHz game clock, and 2,365 MHz boost and the 6800 XT coming in at a slightly slower 2,110 MHz and 2,360 MHz respectively. Powercolor has also implemented high polymer capacitors into the card that can deal with over 400W of power. Naturally, the EKWB waterblock plays an important role in cooling the graphics cards.

The waterblock features a nickel-plated copper baseplate that effectively transfers the heat away from the GPU. It features a full-cover design that covers all the important components inside the graphics card, such as the GPU, memory and PWM. The waterblock is partially made from acrylic so it also offers some RGB flair. A matching aluminum backplate rounds out the design.

The perks of putting a graphics card under liquid cooling include performance and silence. In regards to performance, Liquid Devil models are up to 6% and 5% faster than AMD's reference specification.

Since not everyone wants to go all out on performance, PowerColor added a handy switch on the graphics card to switch between the vBIOS profiles. Both the Liquid Devil Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT come with two operational modes: Unleash for the utmost performance and OC for stable overclocked performance.

The graphics cards require three 8-pin PCIe power connectors to function correctly. PowerColor recommends a power supply that has a minimum capacity of 900W to feed these monsters. As for display outputs, both offer one HDMI 2.1 port and two DisplayPort 1.4 outputs and the USB Type-C port.

The Liquid Devil Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT will be available starting March 15, but PowerColor didn't reveal their pricing.

The terms Peltier and thermoelectric (TEC) cooling have brightened the eyes of many would-be overclockers over the years, with the promise of sub-ambient cooling under the highest of loads. But with these solutions often came the demand for required liquid cooling systems and a dedicated power supply to in order to operate, keeping them off the list of best CPU coolers for most people. The thermoelectric cooling of yesteryear was certainly interesting and saw scattered use in the most committed of overclocking and cooling forums on the web.

Enter the Cooler Master ML360 Sub-Zero, a 360mm AIO with a built-in thermoelectric cooling plate powered by an 8-pin auxiliary adapter from a standard PSU.  If your power supply has the rating and available power cables, it can support this cooler in your build. Well, your system also has to be an Intel 10th Generation Intel CPU seated in a socket LGA1200 motherboard, since the Sub-Zero is limited to a specific list of hardware. Support for Rocket Lake-S will of course come once those CPUs arrive.

Ironically, while the cooler is advertised as being a Cooler Master and Intel partnership, which encourages the use of Intel’s powerful desktop overclocking software suite, Cooler Master recommends against overclocking powerful i7’s and i9’s with this cooler and suggests sticking with single core overclocking or factory boost speeds. It performs well in some respects, but this isn’t the uber-overclocking device that enthusiasts have dreamed of with peltier coolers of the past.
 

Specifications 

The Cooler Master ML360 Sub-Zero looks the part of an ultra-high end cooling solution, with its sleek blacked-out design and a touch of opulence from the chromed Cooler Master silhouette logo across its brushed pump face. A single LED indicator light illuminates the lower corner of the pump housing, offering the working status of the cooler’s Peltier cooling system.  HAL-9000 would be proud.

Features

Box contents for the ML360 Sub-Zero include just enough mounting hardware for Intel’s LGA1200 platform CPUs, allowing for the Peltier unit atop the CPU socket to have the tension screws integrated into the housing. A motherboard backplate, threaded standoffs and SATA power cable are included to keep things mounted and powered up, while a micro USB to 9-pin header provides the link to your best motherboard. For now at least, software support with Intel’s Cryo Cooling Technology is limited to the following silicon: i5-10600K, i5-10600KF, i7-10700K, i7-10700KF, i9-10850K, i9-10900K and i9-10900KF.

Cooler Master covers the ML360 Sub-Zero for a warranty period of 5 years.

The ML360 Sub-Zero makes use of an integrated Peltier or thermoelectric cooler (TEC), a specialized semiconductor which makes use of DC current to create a temperature differential between specific electrical junctions, using high volumes of current. In short, one side of a Peltier gets very cold while the other gets quite hot.  The ML360 Sub-Zero relies on the cold side to maintain cooling against the integrated heat spreader (IHS) of the CPU, while the hot side is cooled by the rest of the AIO cooler itself.   

As an example, the cooler can easily get idle CPU temps down to actual freezing temperatures, far below ambient room readings.  Normal air or liquid cooling can never allow a processor to reach sub-ambient temperatures due to the physics involved, but phase change and thermoelectric cooling makes this possible.

Requiring the use of an 8-pin auxiliary power, often used to power graphics cards, the ML360 Sub-Zero uses DC power from your power supply to power the thermoelectric Peltier cooling unit.  This also requires a beefy power supply, as the cooler alone is rated to draw up to 200w by itself. So make sure to account for overall system load usage and count on investing in a high-quality, high-wattage power supply.

The base of the ML360 Sub-Zero ships with a pre-applied patch of thermal compound over a base shaped like a copper pyramid with a leveled, plateau face. Power cables from the Peltier DC controller extend down the side of the cooler, where they meet the TEC at the base.   

The perimeter of the cooler features an integrated rubber boot, which is designed to create a barrier or curtain around the CPU socket once the cooler is installed. This is meant to prevent comparatively warm ambient air from circulating near the base of the copper cold plate, allowing condensation to collect near the motherboard socket. This has long been the danger of Peltier coolers, as temperature differentials causing water to form on exposed electrics is obviously very bad. The angled copper base is the area where the greatest threat of condensation or frost collection might occur and possibly drip onto motherboard circuitry below. Hence the rubber barrier around this area.

Cooler Master utilize a new pump design, which is situated in-line between the Peltier unit and radiator. The pump itself is quite significant in both size and mass, giving every indication that it is far more powerful than what is used in standard, everyday AIOs. In fact, when accounting for noise levels, strength of vibrations and tubing pulses, it appears to encroach into custom watercooling pump territory, although this claim would require several standalone tests to confirm.

A trio of 120mm PWM fans and an aluminum radiator make up the heat exchanger portion of the ML360 Sub-Zero. The cooling fans are devoid of any aRGB/RGB lighting effects, sticking instead with a stealth theme for discreet sub-ambient operation.

The flattened of the cooler is expertly milled to rest atop your favorite Intel LGA1200 socket CPU. 

This milled base provides for a quality mount for the ML360 Sub-Zero, making for an even distribution of thermal compound when tension is applied during the cooler installation. 

With the ML360 Sub-Zero up and running and with Intel’s Cryo Cooling Technology software installed, operation of the thermoelectric cooler is relatively simple. Select the service icon in the taskbar and choose whether to run in Cryo or Unregulated mode.  

Cryo mode is the standard cooling mode when the system is under standard loads, beyond idle desktop or light web browsing. The Peltier unit will cycle into this mode and briefly off as needed based on environmental variables to maintain system safety and prevent condensed water from collecting. 

Unregulated mode allows the cooler to operate to full effect, which does prompt a warning box that condensation could collect around the cooler and the motherboard, causing permanent damage. In short, clicking the box to acknowledge this warning is the electronic form of signing a waiver and understanding the consequences. Unregulated mode is typically reserved for brief sessions of cooling where an all-out assault on thermals is required. 

As 360mm coolers go, the Cooler Master ML360 Sub-Zero radiator fits a normal mount location as any other AIO we’ve tested. The standalone pump uses a pair of machine screws to mount within a set of standard chassis eyelets.  While USB link cables are rather common for many AIOs, having an additional power cable running to your cooler adds a bit of extra clutter to an otherwise uneventful installation. 

For our CPU cooling tests, we use the same hardware, overclock and configuration for each test to minimize environment variables. This allows for results across all coolers tested on the platform to be viable as side-by-side examination for direct compare/contrast. Here’s a list of the components in our testing rig. 

Data comparisons are based on data collected from testing performed on our Intel i9-10850K system, including re-visiting many previously covered products which were originally covered on the prior testing platform which was based around an i7-5930k (4.20ghz @1.20v).  

Prime95 v29.4b8 (no AVX) is used for two-hour intervals, one managing fans at 50% PWM and the other at 100% PWM, with RPM measurements being taken every 3 seconds and averaged across the duration of each 2-hour capture. Omitting AVX instruction sets allows for accurate, 100% loads at chosen clock speeds. Allowing AVX instructions would provide higher, albeit unrealistic, synthetic CPU loads and excessive heat production, less indicative of real-world use.  

This also allows for a greater range CPU coolers to be tested and compared without the need to configure the system differently for smaller coolers which may not handle the excessive thermal loads being generated during testing, while larger coolers might be better equipped to manage heat output produced by the i9-10850K.  

While the test platform is quite capable of a 10-core overclock at 5.0Ghz and 1.265v, we were seeing 360mm AIOs struggle to keep core temperatures in check at lower fan speeds, providing insight that the enthusiast-grade i9’s need excellent cooling if the goal is overclocking.

HWInfo64 is used for real-time core temperature readout, thermal throttling alerts, motherboard power consumption, CPU speed and logging of data, while a CrystalFontz CFA-633-TMI-KU is used to monitor and later average both ambient room (2 probes) and motherboard voltage regulator heatsink (2 probes).

Immediately, we see indication that Cooler Master was correct in that the ML360 Sub-Zero is not intended to handle high-end, all-core overclocks, but designed for a focus on single-core boost.  Interestingly, the Unregulated mode appears to indeed be intended for short term use, as the settings do not seem to hold up under longer load durations.

The trio of fans on the ML360 Sub-Zero hit their peaks at just under 2000 RPM, while the EK AIO Elite 360 and Corsair H150i Elite Cappelix have a bit more to give. Most notable is the pump speed (in blue and green) monitored on the ML360 Sub-Zero, as it corroborates our hands-on experience, indicating that it really is something special. Here’s hoping Cooler Master includes this pump design in other products.

Despite high-end hardware, noise levels of the ML360 Sub-Zero are relatively low. The majority of noticeable sound emanates from the pump itself, rather than the fans.

Even though a nominal fan speed is observed, the difference in thermal load performance creates a wider gap between the ML360 Sub-Zero and the traditional AIOs.

With a listed price of $350, the Cooler Master ML360 Sub-Zero pokes into territory reserved by some custom watercooling kits and creates a chart deficit which looks difficult to recommend. However, this only accounts in a traditional cooler comparison--and traditional the ML360 Sub-Zero is most certainly not.

Images from the FLIR ONE Pro camera show a slight difference in thermal soak at 50% PWM, which is more defined along the length of the radiator, coolant tubing and center of the thermoelectric CPU mount. The pump of the ML360 Sub-Zero also shows a similar heat bloom regardless of fan speed.

Under 100% CPU load using Prime95, there is a significant difference in power supply current draw from the socket with Cryo mode disabled, and then enabled, as we’re seeing an 185w difference between these settings.

It also should be noted that under these loads, our i9-10800k reached 100°C within several seconds with Cryo mode disabled. So the cooler working strictly as an AIO without the Peltier running does not perform like a typical AIO by default.

The design of the cold plate is meant to make use of the cooler’s thermoelectric cooling properties, meaning the ML360 Sub-Zero is ideally meant to have the Peltier cold side keep the CPU cool at all times, while the AIO and pump manages the hot side of the TEC. In short, Cryo mode should be utilized any time the CPU sees moderate to significant loads.

This is confirmed by Cooler Master’s product site for the ML360 Sub-Zero, where it portrays an exploded view of the cooler with the Peltier unit (B) sandwiched between the copper base (C) and an additional copper plate above (base of A), the latter acting as a heat exchanger with the AIO coolant. When the TEC is inoperable, it acts much like an insulator, causing the CPU to quickly heat to high temperatures.

The Cooler Master ML360 Sub-Zero is an ambitious approach to a traditional AIO integrated with a thermoelectric cooler, previously reserved for specialized builds utilizing intricate, often exotic, hardware. The new, powerful pump and promising progress might lend a hand in future product designs.

Clearly the ML360 Sub-Zero is aimed more at those looking to hit peak clocks on single cores for bursty tasks than those looking for sustained cooling on thread-heavy workloads. But there does seem to be promise in the pump used here, and there’s no denying the literal cool factor of seeing your CPU sit at or near zero at the desktop. $350 is a steep price to pay, but the technology used here exceeds that of ambient cooling, bringing CPU temps below the limit of nearly all traditional air and liquid cooling alternatives. And if history tells us anything, it’s that enthusiasts will pay serious money for lower temperatures, whether it’s to break records or just for bragging rights.

If you're a watercooling enthusiast eyeing Intel's upcoming Rocket Lake processors, you may be interested in the child prodigy that resulted from a collaboration between MSI and EK Waterblocks. It's called the MSI Z590 Carbon EK X, and it's a high-end motherboard that comes with a CPU and VRM waterblock from the factory styled to match and for a pretty modest price tag. At least for those looking to liquid cooling, this board could be a strong contender for our best motherboards page.

Of course, $499 isn't nothing -- that's still a ton of money for a motherboard, but if you consider that at the very high-end, some motherboards with waterblocks can easily command price tags well north of $1200, this may not be such a bad deal. It's the same recipe that the companies used for their Z490 series board, and apparently, it was a big enough success to go for round two. 

More IO Than You'll Know What To Do With

The motherboard itself features a classic high-end MSI design with wildly over-specced VRM circuitry with a 16+1+1 Duet Rail power design around the LGA1200 socket. Four DDR4 memory slots are present, a multitude of expansion slots, two M.2 slots, PCIe 4.0 support, and, of course, tons of RGB.

Even the rear IO connectivity is to die for with more USB ports than you'll know what to do with (including 20 Gb/s USB 3.2 Gen2x2), 2.5 Gbe Ethernet, high-end 8-channel audio, and WiFi 6E. The rear IO shield comes pre-installed on the board for better shielding and installation convenience. 

Topped with a Proper EKWB Waterblock

Meanwhile, the EKWB waterblock will take care of cooling, not just the CPU, but also that lavish VRM circuitry around the CPU. It comes with a milled copper block that has been nickel-plated for corrosion protection, sealed with an acrylic top. This acrylic will help the D-RGB effects shine through well, and it'll let you see the water channeling over the CPU and through the block. It even comes with a flow indicator built-in -- so you'll know: if it stops, you need to look at your pump real fast.

The board also comes with EKWB's leak tester and a coupon for $65 worth of credit in EKWB's webshop to get you started on the custom loop you'll need to complete the kit -- which, of course, is required to use this motherboard.

EKWB is taking pre-orders through its webshop starting February 22nd, with delivery in March -- and yes, we have a review of the board coming soon. 

EKWB might be known for its high-end custom watercooling loop parts, but not long ago, the company figured that the AIO market might be suited to them too. It started with the EK-AIO D-RGB, then followed the EK-AIO Elite. Now, the company is following suit with the EK-AIO Basic, bringing Slovenian watercooling to systems designed on smaller budgets. 

At launch, these AIOs are only coming in 240mm and 360mm variants, either with two or three all-black 120mm fans. These fans spin at speeds between 550 and 2200 RPM, which is a decent range with a lavish top end you'll likely rarely need to address. Noise per fan is rated at 33.5 dBA at full speed when they'll produce 2.89mm of static pressure and 77CFM of flow if unimpeded.

Being budget-oriented AIOs, the radiators are made of aluminum and only the cold plate is made of copper for better thermal performance. This is mixed metal, but it's a recipe used in almost all other AIOs on the market, and with the right corrosion inhibitor in the fluid, proven not to be an issue in closed loops.

The pump, meanwhile, is rated to spin at 850 to 2600 RPM, so you can lower its speed when the CPU isn't under load. 

No RGB is present on this unit, but despite being the most budget-oriented option with pricing to match, the pump cover looks as classy as the more premium units and will look good in many systems. At least to me, this looks like a clean, minimalist AIO that doesn't shout 'budget' with its looks, and that's a good thing!

Pricing is set at $90 for the EK-AIO Basic 240 and $120 for the 360mm variant, and both are available for order directly from EKWB immediately.

For some reason, watercooling seems to be increasing in popularity despite the marginal benefits, and now Inno3D is joining the fray with its own offering. In a press release Inno3d have announced that they are applying Alphacool's water blocks to its RTX 3080 and 3090 cards, calling them the Inno3D RTX 3080/3090 iChill Frostbite.

The Alphacool waterblocks feature a unique design with as much acrylic as the company can muster, making lots of the PCB and electronics underneath visible. Because of this, they should respond to the built-in RGB lighting quite nicely. 

Naturally, the cold plate itself is made from nickel-plated copper for performance and corrosion protection, and Inno3D notes that you should be able to achieve 60 to 65c temperatures using 240 and 360mm radiators, though obviously this will also depend on which other components you have in the loop, pumps speeds, fan speeds, and ambient temperatures.

To stand out a bit, Inno3D is providing its own backplate with Inno3D styling.

The boost clock of the RTX 3090 iChill Frostbite sits at 1755 MHz, which is a hair above the reference 1700 MHz clocks. The RTX 3080 iChill Frostbite gets a slightly bigger bump to 1770 MHz over the stock 1710 MHz, though both cards should have a little extra overclocking headroom anyway. The memory clocks have been left untouched, leaving the 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on the 3090, and 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on the RTX 3080 iChill Frostbite running at factory clocks.

Other than that, the graphics cards don't differ from the company's air-cooled variants, featuring dual 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors, three DisplayPort 1.4a ports and one HDMI 2.1 output. They come in at 226mm long and 135 mm wide, and despite being thin enough for single-slot use, they use a dual-slot faceplate for the rear IO.

No word on pricing or availability. Expect a premium for these cards over air-cooled variants, and availability will remain difficult until the RTX 3000 supply issue resolves.

When we built the Mirror Maze system, one of the things we overlooked was installing a sensor to monitor the fluid temperature. Without knowing how warm the loop was really running, I delved into a paranoia-induced adventure with the fan controls. And though I got the system running quietly at a level I felt was safe and kept thermals well under control, I knew it was hardly optimal.

So, I did what any sensible obsessed enthusiast would do: Within one week of finishing the build, I busted off the drain port, painstakingly drained most of the fluid out -- with some heavy two-man acrobatic lifting to get all the fluid where I needed it to be -- ripped out the radiator tubes and chucked a temperature sensor into the loop. While I was at it, I also swapped the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X for a 3900X as the dent I put in the 3700X’s heatspreader during the build wasn’t doing thermals any favors, either.

I was a man on a mission: This system had to run acoustically and thermally perfectly. After all, we did sacrifice the best looks in favor of acoustics by using nine brown Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM fans (even though, I personally dig the Noctua brown-and-beige color scheme), so it would be a shame to have them spinning any faster than is absolutely necessary.

This system had to run acoustically and thermally perfectly.

The temperature sensor I opted for was the Alphacool Eiszapfen G1/4” female to female sensor, which paired with a 7mm male-to-male EK-Quantum Torque Extender fit perfectly between an angled fitting, leaving the distribution plate and a fitting connecting to a run of acrylic tubing. I placed it right at the bottom of the system by the pump, as there was already a GPU power cable running here, cables for the fans, and cables for the pump, making it easy to hide the sensor’s cable in the wire highway.

This was at the first fluid outlet of the EK-Quantum Reflection O11D distro plate, meaning the sensor was placed between the two radiators in the loop order – but anyone familiar with watercooling will tell you that the temperature is pretty much equal everywhere throughout the loop, unless you’re running absurdly low pump speed. And even then, the differences are so minor that you’re still more likely to get different temperature readings from multiple sensors due to variances in their readout than actual temperature differences throughout the loop.

No, one sensor was plenty, and it didn’t matter where it went. I might want perfection, but there really is no point in populating all three sensor headers on the Asus Crosshair VIII Formula Motherboard.

Tuning to Perfection

I then set all the fans to stop spinning when the fluid temperature is below 30 °C, which meant I couldn’t connect any of the fans to the CPU fan header, as Asus doesn’t allow CPU fans to stop entirely. At 30 °C they could start spinning, and by a fluid temperature of 50 °C I wanted them to run at full speed, though they should never need to reach this point. But he, just in case, you know?

After all that, a little more finetuning was required.

The first thing I noticed was that the Noctua fans ran much quieter on radiators than as a free intake at the bottom of the case, so I dropped the intake fans’ speed by 10 percent across the board, which seemed to match the radiator’s fans for noise levels. I also set the side intake to always spin, as I found that totally passive, the loop would still warm up to 30 degrees idle, making the system swing back and forth between passive and idle quite often. Turning the side intake to always run kept the loop a hair under 30 degrees most of the time during normal desktop use. Its a bit of a shame that we didn't achieve fully passive desktop use, but the Noctua NF-A12x25’s are totally inaudible at 750 RPM on a radiator anyway, especially when pointed away from the user.

Under load, when running Destiny 2 or Horizon Zero Dawn, the highest fluid temperature I ever observed was 38 °C, but that was after hours of gaming in a small, closed room with no airflow -- it was getting warm in here. The internet also told me that the highest Delta-T you want the fluid at over ambient is around 15 degrees, and while higher isn’t necessarily a direct cause for concern until you reach the pump's temperature limit (usually at about 60 degrees Celsius), at this point I was within that norm for a 25 degrees C room and happy with the noise levels, so I decided that was that and saved the fan profile.

So, just how quiet was the Mirror Maze PC then?

With the set fan curves, in-game, the fluid temperature hovered somewhere around 36 to 37 degrees C, with the 3900X's temperature at 62 °C and the RTX 2080 Super graphics card running at just 55 degrees C. The following chart details the noise levels in different scenarios.

As you can see, the system is extremely quiet. Idle, it isn’t audible over the noise floor of the room, unless you get very intimate with the case. Putting all 12 cores of the Ryzen 9 3900X under full load does practically nothing to raise noise levels, even though the fans for the top radiator and intake enter duty. It's so quiet that when my friend entered the room and saw the system, he commented on how quiet it runs, and he wouldn't believe me when I told him that Prime 95 was running for the past hour at smallest FFTs (maximum heat generation). 

It’s only when you game for extended sessions that the fluid warms up enough to warrant higher fan speeds and consequently noise, and even then, the noise levels are still extremely low. 

For laughs, I also measured the noise level of the coil whine the GPU produces under load in a cold loop before the fans spin up, and it measured 35.2 dB -- right in between the CPU full load measurement and the noise level of an extended gaming load.

To give a point of reference, I set the fans to full speed and measured how much noise the system is capable of producing with the cooling loop running at maximum capacity, and it's safe to say that the noise level there is an order of magnitude higher. The system can get extremely loud. With everything at full blast it's uncomfortably loud, but there is no reason to ever run it like this unless your only goal is pushing overclocks.

To shed some more light on the cooling capacity, the above chart details the fan speeds in the different scenarios. it's clear that the cooling loop, despite using 28-mm thin radiators, is running nowhere near its capacity. Because it's so over-dimensioned, the quiet Noctua spinners hardly need to put any effort in to keep the system cool.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the CPU is running with AMD Precision Boost Overdrive enabled, and the GPU is overclocked with the power limit at 116% (it won't go higher), a core offset of +100 MHz and its memory at +1000 MHz.

Basing the fan curves on the coolant temperature is a much better method of controlling the fans in a liquid loop than with a fixed fan speed, or based on the CPU temperature. When I was running it off the CPU temperature, the fans would spin up significantly at the slightest CPU load spikes, which the loop can absorb anyway. Before the mod they also wouldn’t spin up at all when the GPU was spitting well around 250 watts into the loop – because for some ridiculous reason, it’s still not possible to set motherboard-controlled fan curves based off of the GPU temperature. So before installing the sensor, the only way to have the fans speed up because of the GPU was to set a curve based on the CPU temperature, and then wait for the CPU to warm up from the GPU warming the loop up. Sounds stupid, right? It is. Nobody should control a liquid loop like that.

So long story short: If you’re running a custom loop and your motherboard supports a standard two-pin thermal sensor, do yourself a favor and spend the $10 for a sensor, $10 for fresh coolant, and the afternoon it takes to set up a control mechanism based on what really matters, the fluid temperature. If your motherboard doesn't have this header, you might need to spend a little extra to get a controller that can do this for you, but I reckon it'll still be well worth the effort and expense.

There are a couple approaches you can take to building a PC. By far the most common is a rather pragmatic one, where you build a machine that’s solely meant as a means to a specific end (say, for gaming, or some other specific task, or within a set budget), keeping looks in the back of your head, but mostly as a side concern. But with this build we decided to take a whole different approach.

Today we’re not building a PC that’s not meant to squeeze as much power out of each dollar spent, but rather one that tries to offer the most refined experience -- not just beautiful looks or record-breaking performance. Naturally, when tackling a build like this, custom liquid cooling is a must, as this will help keep the components cool and quiet.

But the whole idea for this build started when Lian Li announced the PC-O11 Dynamic in the special Space Gray Edition. We knew this chassis could be the start of something great, and thus was born what we're calling the Mirror Maze build, a system with tons of reflective, shiny components designed to pump out frames and churn though productivity tasks, but be quiet enough so that you'd barely notice its presence, even when running at peak performance.

Component Selection

To start off with, we’ll guide you through the component selection of this system, detailing the reasoning that went into the choices made for this build, starting with the initial inspiration.

Case: Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic, Space Gray Special Edition

The choice for the PC-O11 Dynamic was an easy one. This chassis is among the most popular water-cooling cases out there, and it brings with it a robust platform of third-party hardware that you can pack into it. But the standard model is common and a little plain, so we’re spicing it up with the special Space Gray edition, a chassis built in collaboration with the PCMR community. It comes with mirrored tempered glass panels that, while making it a major pain to photograph, also make it perfect for the mirror maze theme we’re going for. 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

You would think that for a system of this caliber, we would opt for the most expensive CPU, packing it with either the latest Intel Core i9-10900K or AMD’s stunning 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X. But, we don’t need that kind of CPU power for gaming or most productivity tasks. AMD’s 8-core Ryzen 7 3700X, on the other hand, offers all the performance you really need for high-end mainstream computing. It comes in at about $300, making it a very approachable starting point for this system. Besides, AMD promises support for Zen 3 CPUs on the X570 platform, so there will be plenty of upgrade options in the future.

Motherboard: Asus Crosshair VIII Formula

The roughly $600 price will make this an unpopular option for some, but the VIII Formula is among the top X570 motherboards money can buy, and it comes with an integrated EKWB waterblock for the VRM circuitry. This block isn’t something you expressly need. And yes, I’m aware that this is going to make my cooling runs much more complicated and difficult, but I’m ready to take on that challenge -- or at least I thought I was at the beginning. Note: If you’re considering a build like this, do yourself a favor and skip including the VRMs in the loop. Other than aesthetics, it doesn’t add much value.

What really makes this board great for a build like this is that it’s absolutely smothered in fan headers, RGB headers, sensor headers, and just about every case accessory you could need. It even has a dedicated header for the water pump – though we’ll only be using that header for the PWM signal and RPM readout.

Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Royal, 4x 8GB, 3600 MHz, CL18

Given the theme of this build, logically we went with some very, very shiny memory modules to match. Arguably, it would have made more sense to go for two 16 GB modules for a 32 GB memory configuration, both from a cost and performance perspective, but four modules simply looks better and more complete. At 3600 MHz and CL18 timings, these DIMMs are speedy, too.

Graphics Card: EVGA Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming Black

We decided not to mount the GPU vertically in this build, which meant that we needed a reference-design GPU, since the PC-O11 Dynamic doesn’t support wide cards horizontally. But, Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards are pricey with their fancy coolers, so we’re turning to EVGA for its RTX 2080 Super Gaming Black.

This card still has a great cooler on it already, but it isn’t as costly, and with no fancy PCB design with elaborate VRM circuitry or RGB flashiness, you’re not paying for any goodies on this card that you don’t need. Features like a fancy cooler or RGB can’t be appreciated here since we’re replacing the cooler anyway, so no point in paying for them.

Although the RTX 2080 Super doesn’t make total sense from a value perspective over the RTX 2070 Super when looking at the GPUs alone, the added 10 percent performance it offers (give or take) is in-line with the added 10% of budget spent on the system cost as a whole, so all in all we figured this was the sweet spot: The most GPU without any bells or whistles. Sure, Nvidia’s Ampere GPUs are around the corner, but for now this is what we have to work with.

Fans: 9x Noctua NF-A12x25

You may not be a fan of the classic Noctua brown-and-beige color scheme, but from a pure performance perspective, the NF-A12x25 is one of best fans currently on the market. It’s coming out in black next year, but for now brown is what you get, and we're fine with that.

Before you worry that the fans are going to overpower the system's looks, let me entertain you with my theory: Three of the fans are in a spot where you won’t see them, and the remaining six will have Phanteks Halos Lux light rings installed on them for some wicked RGB. For the other fans, the case has panels with mirrored glass, so what isn’t lit up you won’t see it anyway. Read on to see how this theory pans out.

Fan Accessory: Phanteks Halos Lux

We’re using Phanteks’ Halos Lux to turn the Noctua fans into killer RGB spinners.

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB

Although you could argue it’s a shame not to use the PCI-Express 4.0 that the Ryzen 7 3700X and X570 motherboard supports, the speed gains for PCIe 4.0 in games are negligible, making price and reliability the winning factor here. I needed a drive that I can trust for many years and builds to come, and the 970 EVO Plus is plenty fast at 3500 MB/s read and 3300 MB/s write.

Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum

It’s German, it’s quiet, it’s modular, and it’s efficient. The Straight Power 11 850W Platinum is a PSU that simply does the job without drawing too much attention to itself, and its modular connectivity is perfect for pairing with our custom cables.

Cables: CableMod ModMesh Pro

We’re using CableMod’s ModMesh custom cables with Carbon-colored sleeving and black, anodized aluminum combs. This combo yields a cable that looks strong and industrial, which fits the theme perfectly. The combs keep everything tidy, and the sleeving is quite strong, making these cables very good at staying in the exact position you want them in – but you’ll want to measure the exact lengths carefully, as excess length can get difficult to manage.

Water-cooling Components: All-EKWB

To match the clean, simplistic, and reflective aesthetic we’re going for, EKWB makes some of the most fitting (no pun intended) waterblocks and fittings. These parts match the styling of the Asus motherboard and the case very well.

Best of all, EKWB just released a distribution plate, the EK-Quantum Reflection PC-011D D5 PWM D-RGB, and we’re using it for this build. This is a distribution plate that is custom-made for the Lian Li PC-011D, and it acts as the reservoir and pump, and has fitting ports at all the right spots to make tubing runs a breeze (unless you’re stubborn like me and decide to deviate from the intended layout).

To go with this, we chose the Velocity CPU block with a nickel-plated top finish, an acrylic GPU block with a matching backplate that is nickel-plated, and a huge number of -- you guessed it -- nickel-plated fittings.

In this loop we’ll be using clear fluid by simply mixing EK-CryoFuel with distilled water. Boring? Perhaps, but it’s part of the reflective theme as far as I’m concerned, and doesn’t define a set color theme, allowing you to take the RGB goodness in any direction you fancy.

1. Side Radiator Install

Normally in a build, you’d start with chucking the motherboard in, but we’re starting in a different place. Because the top radiator can only go in once the distribution panel is installed, and the side radiator (which isn’t strictly supposed to be used with this distro panel) only fits if the distro panel isn’t installed yet, we’re starting there. A 360mm radiator doesn’t neatly fit in the bottom of the chassis without modification, and much like leaving empty RAM slots,  I don’t like the 'incomplete' look that would result from a 240mm rad in this case.

We measured it out carefully and though we'd prefer the ports at the bottom, that wasn’t going to work. But with a bit of a squeeze, the EKWB 360mm SE radiator fit in just fine with the ports at the top.

We then installed the Noctua fans with their included radiator gaskets, which ensure no air leaks between the fan housing and the radiator. Believe it or not, the side panel still goes on smoothly, even with the filter, but there’s hardly any room to spare.

2. Distribution Panel Installation

First, we had to drill some holes in the chassis where screws need to go through to secure the distro panel. A 4mm metal bit did the job nicely. I did immediately reach for the vacuum, as I didn’t want any of the metal filings getting to places where they don’t belong.

After this, the distribution panel slid in smoothly, fitting perfectly into place – as if it was made for it (because it was).

At this point, I could sense incoming issues, so I decided it might be best to install two 90-degree angled fittings on the side radiator early. The top radiator would make this extremely difficult once in place.

3. Top Radiator Installation

First, we prepared the top radiator by installing the fans onto it, along with the Phanteks Halo light rings. The long screws that came with the radiator were… too short. But, Phanteks knew this was going to happen, which is why the Halos come with slightly longer screws that were a perfect for reaching a radiator.

The top radiator then went in smoothly, and all the cables were tucked away to the rear to deal with later.

4. Motherboard Preparation

To make the installation easier, we installed the 3700X, Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 SSD, G.Skill Trident Z Royal memory, CPU, and EKWB EK-Velocity CPU block all before installing the motherboard. The memory drops right in, and so does the M.2 SSD, below the cover.

Installing the EKWB Quantum Velocity waterblock was also a breeze. First, we removed the stock AMD mounting bracket, including its backplate. The EKWB backplate together with its rubber gasket was then installed at the rear. Then, four thumbscrews are placed at the front end, a dab of Thermal Grizzly paste was applied to the CPU, the block dropped on, and secured with more thumbscrews. EKWB’s Precision Mount system really makes the CPU block installation a breeze – I’d go as far as saying this step is easier than installing many big air-coolers.

However, during this installation process, my cat decided to pick the moment I was lowering the CPU block into place to jump up from my lap, causing me to drop it, denting the heatspreader. Next to the dent is also a small outward bump. It’s not major, but I doubt it will do us any favors for thermals later on in the build. Fingers crossed.

5. Placing the Motherboard

As much as it’s easier to install things onto the motherboard before installing it in the system, it does lead to one issue: the board becomes quite heavy. So be sure your cat is nowhere to be found before hefting the whole setup into place. After checking in all the usual hiding spots, I carefully placed the board and its components into place, secured it, and finally the system was starting to look like something.

However, at this point I noticed another issue: The CPU block's water ports sat about 1 cm lower than the ports on the distribution panel -- I would have to get creative to solve this.

Fortunately, I had some extra 45-degree fittings, so I grabbed four of these, along with one 14mm extender. This allowed me to get the ports at the correct height for lining up with the CPU block, making sure that the tubes would only need a single 90-degree bend later along in the build.

6. Waterblocking the Graphics Card

Installing the waterblock on the graphics card was less precarious than you would think. It’s certainly a task to sit down and take your time with, but as long as you’re patient with your tweezers while placing the thermal pads and you're carefully with each step of the disassembly, cleaning, and re-assembly with the waterblock on, it’s really not all that scary. For more on this process, see our How to Install a Waterblock on a GPU feature.

About an hour and a half after starting, the EVGA RTX 2080 Super Gaming Black was converted into a shiny, thin, water-cooled GPU. We routed the D-RGB cable that leads to the lit-up ‘GeForce RTX’ on the side terminal under the acrylic part of the block that doesn’t actually cool. If you look carefully, you can spot its connector, but we doubt anyone will spot it once it’s installed, face-down in the system.

7. Figuring out the loop runs

At this stage, we’re almost ready to begin our tubing runs, but because some of the parts didn’t fit quite as we had planned, we needed to spend some time thinking about future steps. This build has taught me that no matter how much you plan ahead when configuring your system, you’re still going to run into issues along the way and you’ll have to adapt.

At EKWB’s advice, we got more fittings than we thought we needed, and thank goodness for that. The adjustment for the CPU’s ports already ate up four 45-degree angled fittings, and incorporating our VRM block used up another two 90-degree angled fittings and a 45-degree fitting on the radiator at the top. Not counting the 14 mm extenders to line the ports up nicely. The GPU also didn’t line up nicely with the distro plate, despite being a reference card, so we used two more 45-degree angled fittings, along with two 90-degree fittings to line these up well.

To reach the side radiator’s ports at the top, we had to use the lower ports on the distribution panel. There is one port that's the outlet from the pump, which you naturally have to use. We chucked two 28-mm extenders on this one, along with a 90-degree angled fitting, which lined it up precisely with the angled fitting we had placed on the side radiator earlier, albeit with a long tubing run with one 90-degree bend in it. We placed the return line on the distribution panel at the top of a channel that would lead to the inlet of the GPU block, relying on another long tubing run with a 90-degree bend.

All in all, while it was certainly complicated, we’d call this stage a big success: With enough fittings, everything lined up such that each tubing run would require only one 90 degree or 45-degree bend, which is key to a successful hard-tube build if you’re a beginner.

8. Tubing

It might come as a surprise, but bending the tubing and fitting it into place was much easier than we expected. The GPU’s tubes were the easiest, requiring no bends at all, and the remaining tubes all required a maximum of one bend. These bends were also exactly 45 degrees or 90 degrees, meaning we could use the EK-Modulus tool to get them exactly right.

So we wet the silicon noodle insert, inserted it into the tubes, and warmed them up using a heat gun. Once they started giving way, we gave them a little extra time to soften up, careful to keep rotating them as we went along. For the side radiator, we bent the tubes too soon, which lead to light kinking, but those corners aren’t visible anyway – so they were good to learn on.

Once bent, we simply cut the ends off the tubes where needed, de-burred and sanded them down so they wouldn’t damage the o-rings, wet them with some soapy water, and test-fit them. In the end, it took a full day to get all the bits of tubing right, but we didn’t ruin a single piece –- it was easy enough, but required lots of patience.

9. Pressure testing, Installing Remaining Bits and Filling

The genius/crazy person in me thought it would be a good idea to pressure test while I installed the last fans and took care of cable management on the other side, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It turns out, the pressure tester works, but it’s an extremely finicky device. The needle will move at the slightest bump on the desk, which led me to believe my loop was leaky -- It wasn’t, though. 

The trick to the pressure tester is to pump up the loop, close the valve, remove the pump, tap the pressure tester a few times to make the needle drop as much as it was going to by external force, and note down where it is on the dial. Then, close the door to the room, and leave. Do not touch the system. Don’t even breathe near it. 

We checked on it periodically, and once it hadn’t dropped after two hours under pressure I was confident my loop was good. So, I unplugged all the cables on the PSU but the pump, jumped the ATX connector, and in the fluid went.

10. All done!

Now that the system is up and running, I have a confession to make: This is the first time I’ve successfully built a custom loop with hard tubing. I attempted this before in 2015 when I did my first ever custom loop, but due to a lack of experience planning my bends, I ended up having to resort to soft-tubing to complete that build.

The Mirror Maze build, on the other hand, actually went quite well. The PC-O11 Dynamic is obviously an excellent foundation for a liquid build, and EKWB’s Quantum-Reflection distribution plate, paired with enough fittings, ensured I wouldn’t need more than one bend per tube. Sure, I ran into a few unforeseen hiccups during the build process, but these were easily sorted out. Even incorporating the Asus Crosshair VIII Formula’s VRM block into the loop went without a hitch.

Fan Curves, Overclocking and Thermals

Not everything went smoothly, though. Remember that I dropped the CPU block onto the Ryzen 3700X’s heatspreader during installation. And, as predicted, the tiny bump didn’t do thermals any favors. We didn’t need to run the chip at stock settings, but enabling AMD’s PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) was the most I was comfortable with. With this, a Prime95 Smallest FFT’s load translated to a CPU temperature of 84.5 degrees, and the CPU boosted to 4002 MHz on all cores. That’s warmer than the CPU should run at under water, but it’s within norms and no cause for concern. So long as you get a CPU that's amenably to high clocks and you don't drop any of the key components, you should see better results here.

Next, I overclocked the EVGA RTX 2080 Super Gaming Black. Using MSI Afterburner we maxed out the card’s power limits (116%), and offset the core clock by +150 MHz and the memory by +1000 MHz. The GPU boosted to a stunning 2100 MHz under load, and under extended tests, the temperatures did not exceed 49 degrees in a 25 Celsius room. I was able to push the chip a little further to boost to 2115 MHz, and though it ran stable and temperatures were still in check, I saw some minor artifacting, so I backed off and kept it at the 150 MHz offset.

For cooling, I quickly found out a mistake in my loop: It lacked a sensor for coolant temperature. The pump speed we were able to fix at 35 percent, as this made it barely audible, and higher flow doesn’t help temperatures anyway. However, the fan speeds were driven by the CPU’s temperature, which isn’t helpful when the GPU is able to dump 250 watts (or more) of heat into the loop, but the loop isn’t instructed to dissipate this heat. This led the fans to ramp up far too quickly when the CPU briefly spiked in temperature. With some testing, I found that running the Noctua NF-A12x25 fans at 40 to 50 percent duty was more than enough to keep the system cooled well, with a solid safety margin, while remaining incredibly quiet. For reference, the coil whine produced by the graphics card isn’t loud, but it was audibly louder than the system’s cooling loop.

A future upgrade would therefore be to add a coolant temperature sensor to the loop, so that you'd be able to set a fan curve based off this reading and push the system to run even quieter. This would remove the noise spikes and only cool the fluid when it actually gets warm due to extended loads.

Nevertheless, we slapped on all the panels and dust filters and ran our usual 15 runs of Metro Exodus to simulate half an hour of gaming. This resulted in an average CPU temperature of 63.2 degrees Celsius, with an average GPU temperature of 46  degrees C. Those are good figures if you consider that both are overclocked. I also pulled out the dB meter and recorded a figure no louder than 38.8 dBA. If you’re familiar with my case reviews, you’ll know that that’s extremely quiet.

Gaming Performance

Performance in gaming is also good. That’s no surprise of course given that this system packs a more powerful GPU than our comparison builds, the Disco Pixel and RGBaby, not to mention the Mirror Maze build is liquid cooled and overclocked. 

Performance in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Metro Exodus appears to scale the way it should, though in Red Dead Redemption 2 and especially GTA 5 we saw performance increases that cannot be explained. Trust me, I set all the graphic setting sliders to the highest level possible in order to get performance to go down, closer to my colleagues systems, but the Mirror Maze has an inexplicable, very significant lead in these titles. I honestly don’t know why – liquid cooling and overclocking helps, as do game updates, but not normally that much.

Conclusion

If you were to ask me what tips I could give you when doing your first hard tubing build, I would tell you to ensure you need no more than one bend per tube, get plenty of angled fittings, use a pressure tester  -- and no, a distribution plate isn’t cheating (but it does make your life so much easier). Other than that, there’s no more to it than customizing the parts to your liking and taking lots and lots of time to do the build right. Because doing it wrong can be an expensive mistake.

The Mirror Maze build ended up roughly as I had expected it would. In terms of looks, the system means business by day with all the RGB lighting off. But at night, when it’s time to play, it’ll put on quite a show – either customized to your liking or going full-on rainbow. 

Performance is impressive as well, with a lofty GPU overclock, and even so, the RTX 2080 Super’s core remained at a maximum temperature of 49 degrees C. Chuck a synthetic load on the CPU and GPU at the same time to maximize heat output, and the Noctua NF-A12x25’s easily manage to quietly keep thermals under control without even approaching what experienced gamers and enthusiasts would consider 'loud.'

The primary hurdle with a system like this -- and it's a big one, particularly in times like these -- is cost. The primary components (sans cooling) in our build will set you back  ~$2,905, but with all liquid cooling and related bits, you'll looking at a price tag of about $4,350. 

No one ever said custom, near-silent cooling on a high-end PC was going to be cheap. If you want to save yourself some time and money (OK, a lot of money) and don't mind taking a step down in the aesthetics department, you could opt instead for a good AIO cooler and and a premium headset to drown out the extra fan noise. But if you have the cash and time to spend on a custom loop, a build like our Mirror Maze will serve you well for several years to come, while standing out as a show piece wherever you decide to put it.

Zadak is a relative newcomer to the PC hardware scene, having only been around for a couple years. But that isn't stopping the new kid from showing off what it can do -- its new child, the MOAB II Elite, is one seriously good looking custom, water-cooled case, succeeding last year's MOAB II system.

Measuring 311 by 193 by 371 mm, (12.2 x 7.6 x 14.6 inches), and weighing in at 7.5 kg (16.5 lbs) this case is designed for Micro ATX motherboards and uses a riser cable to mount the GPU vertically. The brains of the PC is on the left, and cooling hardware including a 240 mm radiator and power supply are on the right. Sandwiched between these two sides is the water reservoir itself, milled into the center of the chassis to reduce tubing and the risk of water leaks.

Only the CPU is water-cooled, but MOAB II Elite does that in a stylish fashion with its own water block featuring RGB.

A case such as this wouldn't be complete without RGB, which is why next to whatever RGB your motherboard supports, the MOAB II Elite also comes with RGB for the chassis and along its baseplate. The chassis also has a water level indicator, temperature display, and a capacitive touch power switch. 

As far as motherboard compatibility goes, this case can be used with a select number of Intel motherboards from the B360M, Z390M and Z490 range. AMD motherboard options are right now limited to the GIGABYTE B450M GAMING and GIGABYTE B450 AORUS M. 

No word on pricing yet.

If you're running an AMD Threadripper system with a TRX40 chipset and want the ultimate water block to cool your CPU, Bitspower's got a strong contender in the Summit ELX. Standing out here is a handy OLED screen that helps you monitor your CPU temperature or other system data. 

The water block will only fit Threadripper CPUs installed in X399 and TRX40 motherboards and requires a custom loop to complement it. The cold plate is made from nickel-plated copper to ensure excellent cooling performance without the risk of corrosion.

The good news is that it comes with G1/4" threads, which is practically an industry standard for mounting water cooling fittings. 

Unsurprisingly, the block also comes with addressable-RGB lighting, which is compatible with major lighting ecosystems from various motherboard manufacturers.

Bitspower's website has the Summit ELX TRX40 OLED water block listed for pre-order. The blocks cost 4200 Taiwan dollars (TWD), which translates to about $140.