Thermaltake's new AIO cooler requires paid OpenAI subscription to generate custom backgrounds for $0.04 per prompt — "AI Forge" feature taps into OpenAI's platform and JiMeng

Thermaltake's AI Forge feature
(Image credit: Thermaltake / Future)

A few months ago, we covered Thermaltake's "AI Forge" feature for the first time, detailing how it can generate custom backgrounds for you based on AI prompts. At the time, we even highlighted how it must connect to the internet to use some diffusion model instead of running anything locally. Today, Thermaltake has finally given the feature a purpose with its new MAGCurve 360 Ultra ARGB Sync AIO, and it turns out that you do need a paid subscription to either OpenAI or JiMeng to create the images.

The cooler itself looks maximalist in the best ways possible. It's another entry in the line of L-shaped AIOs with curved OLED screens, a trend that the Tryx Panorama kicked off last year. Thermaltake's iteration uses a 6.67" AMOLED panel that wraps around the pump block, and features a resolution of 2240 x 1080, which puts it in the territory of a phone display. It's very sharp, but we don't have info on max brightness or refresh rate.

Thermaltake MAGCurve 360 Ultra AIO

(Image credit: Thermaltake)

You need to use Thermaltake's TT RGB PLUS 3.0 software to customize this display, and there you'll find the option for AI Forge. Clicking on it will open up a new window where you can type out a prompt and an image will be generated using one of two available models: OpenAI's Dall-E 3 and JiMeng — both of which require their own setup.

There's an entire FAQs page that tells you how AI Forge works, where you'll also find the manual. For Dall-E, you need to have a paid OpenAI subscription, which you'll need to connect to the TT Plus software with an API key. Each image created with a prompt will cost roughly $0.04 based on OpenAI's pricing structure.

Thermaltake is kind enough to mention that if this is your first time using an OpenAI account (separate from a ChatGPT account), a minimum top-up of $5 is required using your credit card. That $5 can generate up to 125 images. On the other hand, JiMeng is free for the first 200 images, but costs $0.03 per image credit afterward. Either way, you're likely paying up if you want to use AI Forge in the long-term.

On the contrary, you can just use Gemini, ChatGPT, or even Grok to generate images for free, taking the downloaded JPEG and puting it in the TT Plus software manually. The built-in image generation gives you a static image anyway. Funnily enough, the software does include six built-in dynamic backgrounds that don't look far from AI slop to begin with.

Listings for MAGCurve 360 Ultra AIOs have popped up online but there's no official MSRP despite the fact that this cooler was originally unveiled at CES last year. It's available in both black and white. Since it's a brand-new option in the market, there are no reviews for it yet, but the last Thermaltake AIO we looked at ended up placing second in our best AIOs roundup.

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Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer

Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.