LABS TEST / 240MM LIQUID COOLERS
Antony Leather puts six of the latest 240mm all-in-one
liquid CPU coolers to the test
Liquidated
LABS TEST
How we test
W
hen testing CPU coolers, it’s important to examine
performance across different sockets, as the mounting
mechanisms vary between them. We’ve seen differences
here in the past and this month’s Labs test is no different. This month
we’re using the latest 8-core CPUs from AMD and Intel – the Core
i9-11900K and Ryzen 7 5800X – to see how each of our chosen
coolers performs on Socket AM4 and LGA1200 CPUs.
With the Intel CPU, we’ve left it at stock speed, but enabled Adaptive
Boost technology, which can hit 5.1GHz across all cores and also dish
out a lot of heat – a great test for any cooler. Meanwhile, our Ryzen 7
5800X was overclocked to 4.6GHz using a vcore of 1.25V.
We used an MSI MEG Z590 Ace motherboard for Intel testing
and an MSI MEG X570 Unify for AMD testing, along with 16GB of
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro memory. Alongside these components
sit a 256GB Samsung 960 Evo SSD and Corsair CM550 PSU. Both
systems are housed in a Fractal Design Meshify C case and use the
latest versions of Windows, plus the latest BIOS and driver versions.
We use CoreTemp to measure the CPU temperature, before
subtracting the ambient air temperature from this figure to give
us a delta T result, which enables us to test in a lab that isn’t
temperature controlled. We use Prime95’s smallest FFT test with
AVX instructions disabled to load the CPU and take the temperature
reading after ten minutes.
For the Intel system, we take an average reading across all
eight cores in order to compensate for any hot spots that might be
misleading. AMD’s CPUs only report a single temperature reading,
rather than per-core readings, so we list what’s reported in CoreTemp.
We calculate scores based on cooling ability, noise, features, ease
of installation and value, with a weighted calculation giving the final
overall score.Contents
Alpenföhn Glacier Water 240 ARGB / p43
Antec Neptune 240 / p44
be quiet! Silent Loop 2 / p45
Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capellix / p46
Lian Li Galahad 240mm / p47Phanteks Glacier One 240MPH HALOS / p48
LABS TEST / 240MM LIQUID COOLERS