Show Off Your Favorite GIFs on Thermaltake’s New Liquid Cooler

(Image credit: Thermaltake)

Liquid cooling is one of the best ways to add some extra performance to your system, and with RGB becoming more popular as of late, the best liquid coolers are also a great way to add some personality to your build. Announced today ahead of CES 2021, Thermaltake’s ToughLiquid ARGB makes this even easier with a built-in controller for its LED cooling. The new Toughliquid Ultra takes this a step further by equipping its cooling cap with a full LCD screen.

Both The Toughliquid ARGB and Toughliquid Ultra have identical copper waterblocks, aluminum radiators and 15.7-inch rubber pumps. The Ultra’s pumps operate at 3,200 RPM on 4.6W of power, while the ARGB’s pumps hit 3,300 RPM speed and take 4.56W of power.

The Ultra and ARGB also have the same hydraulic fan bearing and LCP blades, which emphasize quiet sound profiles that sit between an advertised 22.3dB-A and 33.2 dB-A, depending on your specific model.

Thermaltake ToughLiquid Ultra (Image credit: Thermaltake)

Each cooler has a waterblock display that draws power, with the Ultra’s taking 10W and the ARGB’s taking 1.25W. That difference in power also points to a chief difference between the Ultra and ARGB. While the ARGB’s customization stops at RGB, the Ultra features its own display.

The ARGB’s six addressable LEDs are compatible with Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock motherboard RGB ecosystems, and the cooler also has an integrated RGB controller to manipulate them directly.

The Ultra kicks things up a notch. The cooler comes with special software that allows it to display system stats, like CPU temperature and clock speed in real time, plus lighting effects and even custom GIFs.

Price and Availability

The Ultra currently has two models -- one with two 120mm fans and one with three 120mm fans -- respectively named the ToughLiquid Ultra 240 and Toughliquid Ultra 360. Meanwhile, the ARGB has three models. The ToughLiquid 240 ARGB Sync and Toughliquid 280 ARGB Sync have two fans, and the ToughLiquid 260 ARGB sync has three 120mm fans.

ToughLiiquid Ultra models start at $210, while ToughLiquid ARGB options start at $120. Thermaltake has yet to provide release dates.

Michelle Ehrhardt is an editor at Tom's Hardware. She's been following tech since her family got a Gateway running Windows 95, and is now on her third custom-built system. Her work has been published in publications like Paste, The Atlantic, and Kill Screen, just to name a few. She also holds a master's degree in game design from NYU.