Best liquid cooler 2019 (February)

The greatest liquid cooler is the good selection for maintaining your costly, lovingly overclocked processor alive. Sure a typical air-cooler will get the job carried out, however if you wish to hold issues cheery and chilled all through your CPU’s life then all-in-one (AIO) cooler is the way in which to go.

The high cooling producers have been put via their tempo on our take a look at bench, with AIO liquid CPU coolers from AlphaCool, Thermaltake, NZXT, Arctic, and naturally Corsair. But why do it’s essential go all out on a liquid CPU cooler? If you need to push your processor’s clock speeds to satisfy its potential then it’s essential be sure overheating isn’t an element, and that’s the place liquid coolers are available in.

You would possibly assume water and electronics go collectively like chalk and a very soggy cheese, but an efficient pump and radiator combo will transfer warmth away from that CPU quicker than you’ll be able to say ‘thermal throttling’. Of course, they typically characteristic extra RGB LEDs than you’ll be able to shake a stick at, so you needn’t fear about colour-matching with the remainder of your rig.

And all-in-one liquid coolers take all of the ache out of placing the soggy stuff inside your PC. You can create your individual customized loops, taking in GPU cooling when you’re at it, however that’s much more in-depth and a severe construct undertaking in its personal proper.

Where to start: Here’s how to overclock your CPU or GPU

AIO coolers, nevertheless, may be arrange in half an hour and nonetheless make a tangible distinction to your gaming PC.

The greatest liquid coolers are:

Check the newest liquid cooling costs on Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Winner: Best liquid cooler

AlphaCool Eisbaer 240

Approx. $145 | £131

Pros
 Great thermal efficiency
 Cheap
 Refillable and expandable

Cons
 Installation may be tough

AlphaCool has actually outdone itself with the Eisbaer 240. This cooler got here out on high of our cooling charts, and it’s low cost in addition. AlphaCool additionally retains issues customary with its ¼ inch connectors and refillable loop, including much more lifespan and potential for upgrading down the street.

In ditching the software program for this not-so-closed-loop cooler, AlphaCool has made it in order that this succesful chiller runs straight out of your BIOS. It’s not the flashiest of all of the chip-chillers, and sadly there’s no RGB lighting if you’re into that kind of factor, however with a virtually all-black design, sleeved fan cables, and a semi-industrial look, this cooler blends in together with your rig and will get on with the job at hand.

 

Runner-up

Corsair H100i Pro RGB

Approx. $110 | £103

Pros
 Near-silent
 Maglev followers
 Good software program

Cons
 RGB lighting may be hit-or-miss

The newest replace to the traditional Corsair H100i liquid CPU cooler isn’t nearly that new ring of LED gentle across the shrunken pump. It’s not even concerning the extra svelte design of the radiator both. No, the actual boon of the brand new H100i Pro RGB is the noise it makes… or relatively the dearth thereof.

Thanks to the super-quiet maglev followers included within the package deal, and the addition of a Zero RPM mode, the Pro RGB can keep nearly totally silent for a lot of the time your PC’s on-line. Relying on the move of water and the passive cooling of the radiator alone the H100i can hold the CPU cool sufficient to not have to fret the followers till you begin to actually thrash it. That means in plenty of games, ones which can be extra GPU and fewer CPU dependent, chances are you’ll not hear the followers in any respect.

Read our full Corsair H100i Pro RGB review.

Runner-up

Thermaltake 240 Water 3.0

Approx. $114 | £111

Pros
 RGB-palooza
 Simple {hardware} controller
 Quiet

Cons
 Not the best efficiency

Thermaltake’s Water 3.Zero is the marginally extra budget-friendly model of its Premium Floe Riing 240 cooler. It ditches the RGB pump lighting and the app help, fortunately, however nonetheless delivers low-noise efficiency with a little bit extra flash. The fan controller within the field controls fan lighting profiles, nevertheless it additionally permits for both low-noise mode or regular mode for efficiency.

At inventory speeds, this cooler is greater than succesful, and as one of many most cost-effective choices it’s an ideal purchase for somebody that desires a quiet liquid-cooled construct. This cooler is succesful with some delicate clockspeed tuning, however for something a little bit extra intensive, you would possibly need to look elsewhere.

Winner: Best giant liquid cooler

Corsair H115i Pro

Approx. $130 | £115

Pros
 Maglev followers
 Near-silent operation
 Capable for overclocking

Cons
 Pricey

The Corsair H115i Pro RGB affords good efficiency with extremely low noise. The two ML-Series 140mm followers mix the low-RPM efficiency of the bigger blade dimension with the low-friction operation, because of the magnetic levitation design. This mixture is conducive to the incredible airflow these followers produce with little noise in any respect.

With Corsair on the helm, and RGB within the identify, it’s simple to guess that this cooler comes fitted with a handful of rainbow LEDs to gentle up your rig. Surprisingly, these little luminous electrodes by no means made it into the followers, though that’s seemingly excellent news in your checking account. Corsair’s H115i Pro is a welcome addition to any silence-focused construct – largely since you’d barely realize it was there if it wasn’t for the significantly chilly CPU temps.

Runner-up

NZXT Kraken X62

Approx. $133 | £140

Pros
 Stunning design
 Great efficiency

Cons
 The CAM app wants work
 …plenty of work

NZXT likes to make its merchandise stand out from the group, and the Kraken X62 isn’t any completely different. This chunky 280mm cooler incorporates a distinctive infinity mirror lighting design that makes the Kraken x62 an unbelievable construct centrepiece.

 

Overall, that is probably the most stunning-looking cooler of the lot. NZXT has a sure aptitude for lavish designs, and also you received’t discover many different coolers that draw the attention away from a flashy graphics card as a lot because the Kraken x62. Unfortunately, NZXT couldn’t carry this degree of element over to its CAM app, which left this chiller with mediocre efficiency. If you aren’t petrified of kicking fan management again to BIOS, then it ought to be, at the least, a quieter unit.

Winner: Best low cost liquid cooler

Arctic Liquid Freezer 240

Approx. $85 | £78

Pros
 Cheap
 Great efficiency
 Four followers included

Cons
 A little bit ugly

Arctic is providing the most cost effective chiller we’ve checked out by far. But Arctic is without doubt one of the few producers to incorporate sufficient followers within the field to arrange a full push/pull configuration proper out of the field. Thanks to those further followers spinning away in your rig, this cooler affords nice cooling potential and worth for cash, and was nearly our decide as one of the best liquid cooler total.

With value/efficiency metrics off the charts, it’s actually no shock the Liquid Freezer was an in depth second for the highest spot. No it’s removed from the prettiest design on this planet, and Arctic have ditched all of the RGB aptitude, however in return you get a cooler that will get the job carried out – with no pointless options, and no irritating software program. Kudos, Arctic.

Sure, going to the intense effort of including a full water cooling loop to your gaming rig will provide you with one of the best mixture of efficiency and pretties, nevertheless it takes a hell of plenty of work. And in case you’re not constructing a showpiece machine, or a super-overclocker, then likelihood is you simply need one thing easy to sit back your chips with.

And that’s the great thing about the all-in-one liquid cooler. The AlphaCool Eisbaer is our present favorite, providing the choice to widen out the closed loop because of its customary 1/4-inch connectors and refillable reservoir. It’s additionally not too expensive both.

Plenty of energy: These are the best CPUs for gaming

But Corsair’s vary delivers some glorious liquid coolers too, with the Pro RGB Pro capable of run in a totally silent, passive mode, and the 280mm model providing nice chip-chilling efficiency.

Then on the extra price range finish of the market, the Arctic Liquid Freezer is the most cost effective package, but nonetheless comes with 4 followers to allow a push-pull setup for further cooling. Now there’s no excuse to not liquid chill your chips.