Computer Shopper - UK (2020-04)

ISSUE386|COMPUTERSHOPPER|APRIL2020 31

WHENEVERWETESTnewall-in-one(AIOOO)
watercoolers,it’susuallyundertheweighttt
ofNZXT’sKrakenX-2series.The280mm
KrakenX62(Shopper348)remainsthecooooler
tobeatmorethanthreeyearsafteritfirsttt
arrived.Everythingaboutit,fromitseasy
installationtoitsimpeccablecooling
performance and swish yet understated
styling, has yet to be outshone.
All the same,itlooks like its retirement
has come.The X-2series is being replaced
like-for-like with the new X53, X63 and X73
coolers, although that’s not what we have
here.The Kraken Z73 is acompletely fresh
ultra-premium AIO,combining atriple-fan,
360mm radiator with apump-mounted
OLED display. There’s also asmaller Z63
variant, but the Z73 is topofthe chain –and
has the price to show it.

VIEWTO ACHILL
The concept might be familiar to those who
remember the Asus ROG Ryuo 240 (Shopper
375): the screen can act as acustomisable
system monitor,displaying your choice of
metrics such as CPU temperature or GPU
load, and can also displayanimated GIFs
uploaded via the desktop application.
The Kraken Z73, however,takes this
displayfunctionality much further,especially
with GIF support. Whereas the ROG Ryuo 240
required image files to measure 160x128 pixels
exactly and be no more than 1MB in size,the
Kraken Z73 (and its NZXT CAM software)
gives you amuch more generous 20MB size
limit. The original dimensions don’t matter too
much either,asyou manually select and crop
acircular space in the process of uploading.
This grants amuch greater degree of
control over how uploaded GIFswillappear,
and once they’re up,theyplayataclearly
higher resolution and frame rate. On the ROG
Ryuo 240, GIFswere usually slowed down and
more heavily pixellated. That’s if theyuploaded
successfully at all, which theyoftendidn’t, but
the Kraken Z73 does it perfectly every time.
Even if you just want the more
straightforward monitoring abilities, the
Kraken Z73 is well appointed there as well.
Besides there being seven different hardware
metrics to show onscreen, you can also
select afew to have on arotating carousel,
or put both CPU and GPU temperatures on
the same screen. The colours of text,
backgrounds and visualised gauges can all
be customised as well.

VERDICT

ApriceybutsuperblymadeAIOwatercooooler,
featuringbest-in-classperformanceandaaa
customisableOLEDdisplay

ALL-IN-ONELIQUIDCPUCOOLER

Theoptionsformakingthiscooleryour

ooowwwnnnrrruuunnnvvveeerrryyydddeeeeeeppp.MMMooorrreeevvviiitttaaallllllyyy,,,hhhooowwweeevvveeerrr,,,

theKrakenZ73exhibitsthesametight

graspofthefundamentalsthatmadethe

Kraken X62 so good.

HIGHWATER MARK

Installation, forone,isfast and simple.

Mounting the cooler is less fiddly than it

usually is with, say, aCoolerMaster AIO,as

you don’t have to assemble the backplate

yourself: you simply slide the standoff

receptors intoposition foryour motherboard

socket (all the mainstream Intel and AMD

sockets are supported) and screw in the

standoffs themselves on the other side.

Thermal pasteispre-applied on the copper

plate, andifyou’re an Intel owner,things are

made even easier by thepump bracket also

being in place.Ifyou have an AMD CPU,

you’ll need to remove this and attach the

AMD bracket instead.

The only trickybitsare squeezing the

radiator intothe case and tidying all the

cables, though neither of these are down to

design missteps: 360mm radiators always

need plenty of space,especially as this

particular model is 394mm long when you

count the tube connectors, and the pump

needs extra USB and SATA power connectors

to enableits display.

As is befitting of aKraken X62 successor,

the Z73 also takes over as the best-

performing cooler to have sat atop our Core

i7-4700K. This is true even when using the

Silent profile enabled in CAM: at stock CPU

speeds, we measured idle temperatures

between 28°C and 36°C, load temperatures

between 44°C and 49°C, and apeak of 50°C.

With the chip overclocked to 3.9GHz, idle

temperatures stayed between the 28–35°C

range,while load temperatures rose only

slightly to between 48°C and 54°C, the latter

also being the peak.

These results beat –ifsometimes

nnnaaarrrrrrooowwwlllyyy–ttthhheeeKKKrrraaakkkeeennnXXX 666222 ,,,RRROOOGGGRRRyyyuuuooo 222444000

andSilverStoneTundraTD02-RGB(Shopper

377 ),alltop-performingAIOcoolers.Itcan

getevencolderinthePerformanceprofile,

too:atstockspeeds,idletemperatures

satbetween27°Cand36°C,whileload

temperaturesonlyreached42–48°Cwitha

49°Cpeak.Overclockingsawthesame54°C

peak, but idle and load temperatures were

both down on the Silent profile,to26–34°C

and 44–52°C respectively.However,we

preferred the Silent profile: it still delivers

top-tier cooling, but with farlessfan noise.

SQUID’S IN

Normally,thisisthe part where we’d sayhow

great the product is, then advise against

buying it because the price is toohigh. The

Kraken Z73 is close to receiving the same

treatment –£250isanenormous amount to

payfor an AIO –but then most others don’t

have ascreen that can be customised with

your own image files or given some rare utility

as asystem monitor.It’s better implemented

than that of the ROG Ryuo 240, too, and it

genuinely is the best around on performance.

Forhigh-end PCs, then, it can finda

suitable home even in spiteofthe cost.

However,we’ll also be testing one of the

Kraken X-3series next issue; these don’t have

the OLED display, but it might be worth

holding fire until we see whether theycan

match the Z73’s cooling performance at a

more affordable price.

JamesArcher

NZXT KrakenZ73

★★★★★

£250•From http://www.nzxt.com

SPECIFICATIONS

TECHNOLOGYClosed loop•FANS3x 120mm•SOCKET

IntelLGA2066/2011-3/2011/1151/1150/1155/1156/1366; AMD

AM4/TR4(TR4requires separatebracket)•RADIATOR

DIMENSIONS(NOFAN)121x394x27mm•WARRANTYSix

yearsRTB•DETAILSwww.nzxt.com•PARTCODEZ73

The Kraken Z73 is acompletely fresh ultra-premium AIO,

combining atriple-fan, 360mm radiatorwith apump-

mountedOLED display–and has the pricetoshowit