Antec Kuhler 920 quick review.

Caporegime
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OCUK product page - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-006-AN&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Product homepage - http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA0MzcwJjE3

The outer packaging gives a quick overview of the more unique features and specifications.

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The unit itself came well packaged and no damage to the radiator fins, included are a installation manual and a cd with the ChillControl software.


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The mounting hardware is simple to understand and the plastic spacer blocks are colour coded, Green for AMD and Blue for Intel. On the left is the Intel retention ring and rear bracket, on the right is the AMD retention ring and rear bracket.

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The connectors is very simple too, you have two fan connectors for the two supplied fans, a USB connector for the software to control the pump and settings a 3pin fan header is also used for power.

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The copper head is flat and comes with a silver paste pre-applied.

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Mounting the unit took about 20mins and was straight forward.

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The Antec logo is illuminated and the colour can be changed, more on this later.

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The ChillControl software is a simple program which shows fan speed, pump speed, water temperature and the sound level. There are three selectable profiles, silent, extreme and custom. There is a page which shows the fan speed and temperature history, a page which allows you to select the temperature at which the fan ramps up and also at when to go full speed when in the custom profile. The final page allows you to alter the Antec logo colour using a simple RGB adjustment, Celsius or Fahrenheit display, skin profile and thats about it.

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Test setup.

i5 2500K running at stock with Turboboost enabled making 3.4GHz under load, 4.5GHz was also used.
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4
Corsair Dominator DDR3 4GB
Palit Sonic GTX570
Antec DF-85 case
Antec high current pro 850W PSU
Crucial C300 SSD and Samsung F3 500GB

The Antec Kuhler 920 was tested against a Titan Fenrir V2, the paste used on both coolers is Artic MX-2, the temps shown are immediately after 10 minutes of Prime95.


Titan Fenrir V2 @ stock speed with Turboboost.
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Antec Kuhler 920 @ stock speed with Turboboost
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Titan Fenrir V2 @ 4.5GHz
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Antec Kuhler 920 @ 4.5GHz in silent mode
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Antec Kuhler 920 @ 4.5GHz in extreme mode
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The following is a small video showing various Antec logo colours and also the fan speed noise in the two main settings, the side panel of the case removed for this.


Summary

This is a well made product with good performance in silent mode, the extreme mode offers better cooling than my Titan Fenrir but is very loud and is audible in when in a different level of the house. The silent mode is quieter than the Fenrir and the cooling is comparable. Installation was childs play and even the most novice of users could get this fitted in well under 30mins.

There is also no "clicking" noise reported by other users, either I got a good one or my hearing is on its way out.

The main advantage of these types of coolers is the small footprint the CPU/pump head takes up, so no memory slots are obstructed.

8/10
 
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Keep always being tempted by these kits but the temps just are not enough lower than my Antec Venom which is completely silent up to a fair old whack. 100% is audible but only ever pulses every now and then on my fan profiles with IBT going and 4 cores at 100%.

If I ever did a new build I would consider but as a replacement item for my air just not seeing a good enough justification. Might just do a full custom loop if I ever decide to fiddle with water. Seems more fun :D
 
I do think that compared to a decent air cooler, there really isn't much in it to warrant the cost. What it does give you is the ability to use whatever memory modules you wish, and not have your motherboard being stressed by a big cooler (if there is value in that?)

If I could have got hold of a silver arrow I would most likely have bought one of those... but I couldn't... these looked like fun lol. Anyway.. the pump is pretty quiet, and the fan's are not intrusive, and I only had a noisy pump when it first started.

The software needs to give more control over the fans however, it's VERY limited. If you want to set a hard limit for the fan's there is probably a way to force it with the setup, but it should be easier.

Also.. why bother to show pump speed, if they don't give you any control over it?

Also.. I had to cut my rear bracket slightly to fit on the MSI Z68A-GD55 G3 board as the screws on the back of that protrude, and the bracket wouldn't physically fit in place :-(

I'm on auto overclocking on an 2500k @ 4.2Ghz with 1.35V's running IBT with 4 threads, and getting a MAX of 72C at present when in auto custom mode (max 1200RPM fan speed). Temps were measured using the Click II BIOS temp though. This seems much MUCH higher than stulid's which is a little worrying. (Although he was using real temp)

Would really like stulid's input as mentioned a few posts up :-) ( I noticed my liquid temps are about 7 degrees higher than stulids as well @ 35C when idle!
 
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I just ran IBT in a custom test with max memory, silent setting on the chillcontrol software.

Overclocked to 4513.4MHz

Average temp across the cores (add all four together then divide by four) = 67C

But I have just put some new paste on that hasnt "cured" yet (less than 30mins old)


Shall I do a standard test with no overclock but turboboost on?
 
Are you using real temp to measure temperature?

Perhaps I should change the paste from the standard (Which I think I screwed up as installation was problematic) to some IC Diamond 24? Which brings me back to liquid temps..your's seemed much lower than mine?
 
When you say bios defaults, do you mean stock voltage etc as well?

I just used the OC Genie on my board (auto overclocking lol), and my liquid temp at idle is about 35 C (Which seems a bit high).

I'll download realtemp later :-)
 
Could you possibly go to 4.2Ghz and tell me what your liquid temp is (witch turbo boost on though). My chip is at 1.35v though from the auto tuning, so that might be the issue. Also, perhaps your case is better than mine for airflow.
 
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