Fractal Design Intros Expandable T12, S24, and S36 Water Coolers
Fractal Design finally makes its entry into all-in-one water cooling, and it does so with a statement.
At Computex 2014 we first saw Fractal Design's water cooling implementations, although we haven't seen them show up on the market yet. At the Taiwan-based trade show the new products showed promise, but we would, of course, have to see for real when they actually arrived.
Now, they have. They are called the Kelvin series, and the company has announced the T12, S24 and the S36. All three are closed-loop liquid coolers with 120 mm, 240 mm, and 360 mm designs, but with a little twist, which we will get back to in a bit.
The radiators on the units are made of copper, which enables better heat dissipation than cheaper aluminum radiators. The cold plate (the plate that touches your CPU) is also made of pure copper, although that's something we see on almost all water cooling units.
The pumps are made of ceramic and will spin at speeds of up to 2400 RPM. At max speed they make 25 dBA of noise, although with the voltage regulation support, you'll easily be able to silence them by lowering their voltage without suddenly getting a bunch of rattling noises.
The fans on the units are Fractal Design's Silent Series HP 120 mm fans, which will spin between 800 and 1700 RPM with PWM control. They will make up to 26.9 dBA of noise and push up to 62.4 CFM.
The most notable feature of these loops, though, is their expandable design. Because the radiators and pumps are built with the industry standard G1/4" threads, you can easily open up the loops and add radiators and GPU water blocks, or more. We haven't seen very many all-in-one units do this, and those that do often carry a notable price premium.
Fractal Design's Kelvin T12, S24, and S36 are priced at $99.99, $119.99, and $139.99, respectively. Considering that this gets you an expandable design and copper radiators in a closed loop liquid cooler, those prices seem quite reasonable -- very competitive, actually. Currently, they are being shipped to retailers, so you should be seeing them on shelves any moment now.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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smradda ReplyBah, you'd think asetek would have ditched that tiny hard tubing by now.
Those tubes aren't hard plastic and this isn't made by Asetek. It seems Fractal actually designed and got manufactured their own cooler. The tubes are a soft flexible material with a anti-kinking spring like surround that you can remove. Fractal has been holding off selling it in the USA because of Asetek suing over anyone making water coolers. They're claiming patent infringement over anything that's a maintenance free cooling system with a pump and radiator connected by hoses. Total BS.