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EK AIO Basic 240 mm, D-RGB All-in-One CPU Water Cooler with Premium EK-Vardar High-Performance PMW Fans, Liquid Cooling, 120 mm Fan, Intel 115X/1200/2066, AMD AM4

£44.5£89.00Clearance
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The only place EK deviates from the objective is to talk about its RGB lighting on the acrylic cover, claiming that it’s a “light diffuser with a frosted finish for a dynamic lighting display with smooth color transitions.” We think, frankly, it looks like it was made in someone’s shed on their 3D printer, but that’s not particularly relevant to its performance. We’ll let you judge the looks yourself. The far head has a rectangular design and a neat finishing. You can also take a close up look on the fins. We have a few bend fins but the overall finishing is good enough. The length of the far head is 20.70mm. speed with a maximum airflow rating of 77 CFM at air pressure rating of 2.89 mmH₂O. These fans feature 7 blades to ensure high pressure with low noise operations. The installation is an easy task and the comprehensive user guide is provided to help the users in installation. We can’t judge endurance from a review period, so we’ll have to keep an eye on how these coolers develop over years of use to see how EK’s and Arctic’s designs really aged.

The coolers are also tested using Auto PWM function. MSI is using Smart Fan mode in the UEFI/BIOS which is not pure Auto PWM but it is what is available to us. The above picture shows the MSI default fan curve for the Smart Fan mode. Since all the coolers will be tested using the same configuration and settings, same margin of error applies to all.Each fan has a 4-pin PWM fan connector having an approximate length of 485mm. The cable is flat in design. Maybe there's something I need to monkey with in the BIOS to rein in the CPU a bit? And maybe I should be using Argus Monitor for fan control instead?

There is no clearance issue with respect to the DIMM slots and first PCIe slot. Make sure your chassis has clearance for 240mm radiator. Testing Our next thermal data considers the VRM temperature. This is most relevant for air coolers or for coolers like the Arctic unit, which has a VRM fan, but it’s still interesting for standard liquid coolers. Liquid coolers are mounted in an equivalent position to the top of a case, so this gives you a look at expected performance in an equivalent top-mount. The above graph shows the maximum speed attained by the fans on the Auto PWM. For comparison, we have included the rated speed of the fans to have reference in determining the Auto PWM range. 5.1GHz All Cores Ultra-durable design with diamond-cut rotary fittings - The EK AIO comes pre-installed with reinforced and sleeved rubber tubing, each fitted with an aluminum cover to ensure they’re ultra-durable. Its diamond-cut rotary fittings allow for easy installation and adjustment of the rubber tubing, featuring a full range of movement to make the EK AIO suitable for installation in even the tightest spaces. The EK AIO 360 runs at 51.4dBA at 20” distance, led only by the EVGA CLC 360 cooler at 60.4dBA -- you can see how much the results change based on the noise level. The CLC 360 did horribly relative to its size in the 35dBA test, although it does comparatively better at 40dBA in our Intel HEDT testing, but it does maintain a lead at its deafening 60.4dBA 100% speeds. The most interesting data is the EK AIO 240, which manages to equal the Kraken X72 and outperform the Kraken X62. The Liquid Freezer II’s lower-ranking result is expected and, at its noise level of 42.5dBA, it is significantly more efficient and effective than either NZXT Kraken cooler and the EK AIO 240 at 46.6dBA. That said, the NZXT coolers and their older Asetek Gen5 design are starting to show their age. The Kraken X63 in our Intel HEDT bench testing didn’t make any thermal improvements in the pump, only in the fans, and so Asetek looks to be presently in a disadvantaged position versus newer designs. Turns out that suing all your competition out of the market only works for so long before it breeds necessity and innovation.Finally, we put the CPU and cooler through their paces. We revved up our Intel Core i7 10700K to 5.0GHz and tested it at full load. The cooler did create some noise as the temperature rose, but that was to be anticipated. The EK AIO 240 D-RGB outperformed the Noctua NH-D15/S while remaining competitive with the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer 240. On load, the thermals stayed at 54 degrees, which was quite outstanding. Thermal Performance @ OC 5.0GHz EK AIO 240 D-RGB In all of these tests, the EK AIO 240 D-RGB outperformed its well-known competition, the Noctua NH-D15/S, although it fell short of defeating the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240.

All-In-One Affordable, easy to install, maintenance-free liquid cooler with class-leading performance It all comes down to personal preference and usage, as users may be able to determine their needs in the end, since all of these coolers provide almost equal cooling but differ in terms of looks and noise levels. Should You Buy It? This product is compatible with popular RGB sync technologies from all major motherboard manufacturers.The arrow marking on the 3-pin LED connector is to be aligned with the +5V marking on the A-RGB (D_RGB) header. Really interested to hear how you guys find the EK AIO 240 D-RGB. I have one in my Ncase v6.1 now, cooling a 5900X on the Asus Crosshair VIII Impact, with two Noctua NF-F12 Chromax as intake (so pulling in cold air from outside, through the rad) and a Noctua NF-A9x14 Chromax on the rear as exhaust, using thermal grizzly kryonaut, and I'm getting some crazy high temps. This is using Asus FanXpert4 for fan tuning, on the standard profile with the pump set to 100% all the time. Both AIO Basic and Elite Aurum made their video debuts at the EK EXPO Media Day, and you can see them in the immersive 360 Showroom. Availability and PricingNow coming to the ultimate challenge of handling the CPU with all cores set to run at 5.1GHz using 1.345V, the EK-AIO Basic 240 shows its true cooling potential as it is sitting on the top with a minimum of 2°C difference over the other coolers. Conclusion And we see that materialize here: The EK AIO 360 is functionally equal to the NZXT Kraken X72, X63, and H115i Platinum. The other 360s, like the H150i and H360X3, end up charted ahead but within error. Everything we just named is within run-to-run variance or error, and so we can say they’re equal in this test environment. The EK AIO 240 falls closer to the EK Fluid Gaming 240 and older Corsair H100iV2. AMD 3800X Auto Frequency

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