EK AIO 240 D-RGB Review: Pretty Performance

EK Water Blocks (EKWB) has long been heralded for its innovation in the enthusiast-grade custom watercooling realm, including options tailored for the small liquid cooler market disguised as expandable closed loop systems like their Phoenix and Predator series.  But the company is back with a new line of closed-loop AIO liquid cooling options for system builders who wish to keep their cooling budget in check while still running EK gear with their PC. Does the AIO 240D-RGB make our list of the best CPU coolers? Let's dig into the details first.

Specifications

Features

EK ships its new AIO 240 D-RGB cooler with mounting hardware for limited CPU sockets, focusing primarily on AMD’s AM4 Ryzen processors and Intel’s mainstream 115x desktop line as well as the 2066/2011x. Installation materials are something we rarely make much fuss over, but the 8-language document provided with the AIO 240 D-RGB is one of the densest installation manuals we’ve ever seen. The cooler measures 8.25 x 5.6 inches (210 mmx142 mm) and weighs a meaty 5.2 ounces (148 g).

EK has developed the AIO 240 D-RGB to pair with its EK Loop Connect management system (sold separately), which provides fan curve control, pump performance, lighting control, data collection and temperature monitoring , via the EK Connect software suite. The EK Loop Connect is a hardware/software solution for those who might be weary of making motherboard BIOS adjustments or want full system control and monitoring on the desktop. But it does add $60 to the price of this cooling kit.

The EK AIO 240 D-RGB ships with a healthy patch of pre-applied thermal paste affixed to the copper cold plate. Complimenting it is a small syringe of EK-TIM Ectotherm compound also included in the event the cooler needs to be reinstalled.  

The top of the EK AIO 240 D-RGB features an opaque acrylic face garnished with a brushed-aluminum EK logo and backlit by a cluster of addressable RGB lighting nodes. Overall, the pump unit itself feels weighty and has a notable density that isn’t often present in many liquid coolers. 

The EK AIO 240 D-RGB base is also a dense acrylic, which has milled channels for mounting brackets on either side of the satin-finished copper cold plate.  The pump’s 5v aRGB header features a 3-pin VDG splitter for motherboards that support this connection rather than the traditional 3-pin. The pump itself is driven and managed via 4-pin PWM, typically driven by a motherboard header and managed via BIOS RPM or PWM curve.

The 90-degree swivel fittings are trimmed with milled aluminum caps rather than the traditional crimp fittings or plastic collars.

Like most AIOs, EK has used an aluminum radiator for the work exchanging heat.  A pair of aRGB Vardar S fans come standard on the EK AIO 240 D-RGB, are 4-pin PWM-managed and can be run in parallel from the same header using the 2-way splitter. Each aRGB fan features a standard 5v, 3-pin aRGB splitter to daisy chain with other devices to assist in cable management. 

Installation of the EK AIO 240 D-RGB is similar to most closed-loop liquid cooling solutions. The larger, knurled screw caps that secure each corner of the mounting bracket make it very simple to work with limited dexterity environments and feature Phillips driver heads to make the final few turns much easier. The tubing of the AIO 240 D-RGB is rigid, but ultimately forgiving. That said, the over/under placement of the 90-degree ports can lead to awkward tubing manipulation that isn’t seen as often in coolers using the side-by-side swivel fitting layout.