OcUK product page - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-012-AN&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2262
Antec homepage - http://www.antec.com/product.php?id=706544&pid=58&lan=nz
Packaging.
Accessories.
Installation manual, software disk and all the bits you need to mount to nearly all popular socket types.
This is the mounting ring, the one ring fits all sockets by sliding the lugs around the circumference. Then lock the lugs into position with these plastic bits.
These two brackets allow you to shift the position of the Kuhler radiator away from motherboard VRM heatsinks or any other obstruction at the top of a case.
They fit like so and you have a bit of adjustment due to the slotted holes.
The kuhler.
This is certainly different, the pumps are now part of the fan motors, there are two pumps and the coolant gores into one pump then out through one side of the radiator, up into another pump and then back out through the other side of the radiator and off to the CPU block.
The 240mm radiator looks to have an average fin density to me, very similar to the H100i.
This is one of the two fans which I wish they had made with black fins, I also wonder how much air flow is lost from the sides with there being no fan frame?
Mostly black cables a little bit of colour is shown where the individual cables go into the USB plug.
The Antec logo is illuminated via RGB. You can select your own colour or let the colour change dependant on CPU temperature.
Cold plate base comes with silver based thermal past pre-applied.
Installation tip.
The four metal nuts that go into the back plate must be seated correctly.
This is how they normally sit and everything seems fine, but.
If you clamp the cooler down to the backplate really tight then there is the chance you can chew the plastic up and they just spin in the slot making further tightening up or loosening difficult. Instead make sure they are seated beneath the surface line.
This can take quite a bit of force to do, the installation instructions make no mention of doing this.
Included software.
Included on the enclosed disk is Antec's new GRID software for easy control and logging of the Kuhler.
Very simple indeed.
Noise and LED illumination.
Below are two quick videos I have made showing the LED illumination and the fan noise from this Kuhler.
Performance.
Test setup.
I recorded the maximum CPU core temperatures with Coretemp after running AIDA64 CPU stability test for 20 minutes and divided the total by the number of cores.
The latest 3Dmark release was left to do a full run of all tests. Cinebench 11.5 64bit CPU bench was also used.
I have a Hilka Thermometer & Hygrometer to measure the ambient air temperature.
Z77 Stock.
Z77 Overclocked.
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X79 Stock.
X79 Overclocked.
Conclusion.
I am not totally blown away by this new Antec Kuhler, I found installation more tricky to do than the H100i (which has one of the best mounting i have experienced on all in one watercoolers but the inclusion of those two mounting bars to distance the radiator away from the side of a case is a great touch. Performance is just behind the H100i and it equally as loud when the maximum fan+pump speed is selected, quiet mode is just that though and does equal highend performance heatsinks. I do not like the way you cannot change the fans and I wished Antec had included screws to fit an extra two fans to allow you to do push/pull but the H100i is also guilty of this. Price is good and undercuts the H100i by £5 along with a 3 year warranty.
Pros.
• Performance almost as good as its rivals.
• Price is competitive to rivals.
• Able to adjust the radiator mounting position to further improve clearance issues.
• Well made.
Cons.
• Stuck with the fans for life.
• White fan blades.
• Installation not as easy as its closest rival.
(I've only really had experience of swiftech kits in the past so nothing to compare pump noise to but its a lot noisier than I'd have thought) and theres a bit of a dank mildewy smell expelled from it when in use which again I've not experienced with past watercooling setups. The fans can't be heard in normal use until you hit extremes but academic with the pump noise. I'll probably end up binning it or throwing it over to my other rig for extreme overclocking at some point and giving something else a whirl.
