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Antec Mercury 240MM RGB AIO CPU cooler
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-mercury-240mm-rgb-aio-liquid-cpu-cooler-hs-01g-an.html
Intro
I’ll start this review with an apology - if you’re appalled by RGB lighting then this probably isn’t the review for you and definitely don’t look at the pictures. RGB components have become huge in the last couple of years and I’ve made it my mission to make my PC look like something rejected from Blackpool illuminations for going a bit too far.
I recently rebuilt my PC using a Lian Li PC-011 case, a case designed to show off your hardware. It felt right to fill it with an RGB motherboard, some RGB ram and a boatload of RGB fans. The one thing missing from my system was an RGB AIO cooler. Step forward, the Antec Mercury RGB 240 AIO.
Personally I go for AIO water coolers for the aesthetic as much as their cooling prowess. The Mercury is a good looking piece of hardware that leaves your motherboard components visible and adds a splash of colour from both the radiator fans and the centre of the CPU block / pump.
Packaging and parts
There’s certainly no mistaking what you’re getting in the box - Antec have applied the RGB principle to the box as well as the cooler and it makes for an eye-catching package.
Inside, the individual parts are neatly arranged and clearly labelled. It may seem trivial but when you’ve parts for 3-4 different types of CPU mount AND additional cables for the RGB elements, it really does help when you know exactly what screws you’re using with which backplate.
The CPU block / pump is pretty stylish, combining black and white parts that really make it stand out compared to other AIO coolers. The tubing between the block and the radiator is covered with a braided nylon mesh that many cheaper models lack, the fans have a white accent and white rubber around the screw sockets - overall it looks and feels like a quality bit of kit and still looks great when the PC is turned off. Another nice touch is the inclusion of both manual RGB controller and an alternative cable to connect to a motherboard with RGB headers.
Installation
The instructions with the Mercury are relatively easy to follow but pretty basic - it’s a large piece of 2-sided paper printed in black and white. The first side of the instruction sheet covers the different CPU mounts, the second side covers attaching the fans and connecting power / colour controllers to either the included RGB controller or to a motherboard with RGB headers on it.
The instructions cover all three versions of this product (120mm, 240mm and 360mm) and each type of CPU mount so it can be a little over-facing at first but once you’ve identified the section for your hardware it’s simple enough. Personally I’d have preferred a separate guide for each type of mount but if this is where Antec chose to keep the costs down, so be it.
If I was to be super-critical, the instructions have you securing the pump to the motherboard before you attach the fans to the radiators - this limits how much you can manoeuvre the radiator to attach the fans and it’s hard to know how much you can move it around without putting too much strain on the connections. That may say more about my cack-handedness with a screwdriver than the instructions however!
The cooler comes with thermal paste pre-applied so you’re up and running in no time and can get on with the important bit:picking an awesome colour scheme testing performance.
Performance
This wasn’t a particularly scientific test: I didn’t run tests three times and average out the numbers, I didn’t run burn-in tests for 12 hours etc so this is only a rough indication of performance.
The cooler was tested on the following system:
Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming 5 motherboard
Intel 8700k at 4.5ghz and 5ghz
16gb Gigabyte Aorus 3200mhz RGB Ram
NVidia 1080ti Founders edition
Samsung 500gb 960 Pro
EVGA 750w PSU
I used the following software to get some basic results:
CPUID HWMonitor
Passmark Performance test
Realbench
Unigine Superposition
Overall, I found that using the Antec Mercury cooler the CPU idled around 32-33c. This is around 3-4c higher than on my previous AIO cooler, using the same fan profiles.
Under load however, a different story emerged. Running Passmark Performance Test with the CPU at 4.5ghz, the temperatures never went above 60c under load. This is around 8-9c cooler than with the previous AIO.
At 5ghz the cores hit a high of around 82c - again, this is around 7-8c cooler than my old AIO:
Running Realbench (with the CPU at 5ghz) provided slightly higher temps:
With Unigine Superposition (again at 5ghz):
The Superposition benchmark was reflective of the performance of most games - running GTA V, Far Cry 5, Star Wars Battlefront 2 (don't judge me, I got it cheap!) and Destiny 2 produced similar temps when running at 2560x1440 at 120hz.
In terms of the LEDs the only real gripe is that the LEDs in the pump seem to lag very slightly behind the LEDs in the fans and some of the colour transitions - from blue to purple for instance - are a little jerky: there’s a slight leap from one colour to the next. In fairness the lag could be down to the god-awful Gigabyte RGB software but in any case, you probably wouldn’t notice unless you were staring at the PC for some time, which purely in the interests of reviewing this product obviously, I did.
Excuse the tapping in the background - damn mechanical keyboards!
Conclusion
The Antec Mercury 240 RGB can be bought for around £80-£95 at the time of writing this review. This is terrific value for money and it doesn’t appear to have been achieved at the expense of quality, with the whole package feeling like a premium product.
Aesthetically, it looks almost as nice when the PC is off and performance-wise it really…. Err… performs, so I've no hesitation in recommending this cooler.
I'd like to say a big thanks to Ace Modder and Antec for letting me try out this hardware.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-mercury-240mm-rgb-aio-liquid-cpu-cooler-hs-01g-an.html
Intro
I’ll start this review with an apology - if you’re appalled by RGB lighting then this probably isn’t the review for you and definitely don’t look at the pictures. RGB components have become huge in the last couple of years and I’ve made it my mission to make my PC look like something rejected from Blackpool illuminations for going a bit too far.
I recently rebuilt my PC using a Lian Li PC-011 case, a case designed to show off your hardware. It felt right to fill it with an RGB motherboard, some RGB ram and a boatload of RGB fans. The one thing missing from my system was an RGB AIO cooler. Step forward, the Antec Mercury RGB 240 AIO.
Personally I go for AIO water coolers for the aesthetic as much as their cooling prowess. The Mercury is a good looking piece of hardware that leaves your motherboard components visible and adds a splash of colour from both the radiator fans and the centre of the CPU block / pump.
Packaging and parts
There’s certainly no mistaking what you’re getting in the box - Antec have applied the RGB principle to the box as well as the cooler and it makes for an eye-catching package.
Inside, the individual parts are neatly arranged and clearly labelled. It may seem trivial but when you’ve parts for 3-4 different types of CPU mount AND additional cables for the RGB elements, it really does help when you know exactly what screws you’re using with which backplate.
The CPU block / pump is pretty stylish, combining black and white parts that really make it stand out compared to other AIO coolers. The tubing between the block and the radiator is covered with a braided nylon mesh that many cheaper models lack, the fans have a white accent and white rubber around the screw sockets - overall it looks and feels like a quality bit of kit and still looks great when the PC is turned off. Another nice touch is the inclusion of both manual RGB controller and an alternative cable to connect to a motherboard with RGB headers.
Installation
The instructions with the Mercury are relatively easy to follow but pretty basic - it’s a large piece of 2-sided paper printed in black and white. The first side of the instruction sheet covers the different CPU mounts, the second side covers attaching the fans and connecting power / colour controllers to either the included RGB controller or to a motherboard with RGB headers on it.
The instructions cover all three versions of this product (120mm, 240mm and 360mm) and each type of CPU mount so it can be a little over-facing at first but once you’ve identified the section for your hardware it’s simple enough. Personally I’d have preferred a separate guide for each type of mount but if this is where Antec chose to keep the costs down, so be it.
If I was to be super-critical, the instructions have you securing the pump to the motherboard before you attach the fans to the radiators - this limits how much you can manoeuvre the radiator to attach the fans and it’s hard to know how much you can move it around without putting too much strain on the connections. That may say more about my cack-handedness with a screwdriver than the instructions however!
The cooler comes with thermal paste pre-applied so you’re up and running in no time and can get on with the important bit:
Performance
This wasn’t a particularly scientific test: I didn’t run tests three times and average out the numbers, I didn’t run burn-in tests for 12 hours etc so this is only a rough indication of performance.
The cooler was tested on the following system:
Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming 5 motherboard
Intel 8700k at 4.5ghz and 5ghz
16gb Gigabyte Aorus 3200mhz RGB Ram
NVidia 1080ti Founders edition
Samsung 500gb 960 Pro
EVGA 750w PSU
I used the following software to get some basic results:
CPUID HWMonitor
Passmark Performance test
Realbench
Unigine Superposition
Overall, I found that using the Antec Mercury cooler the CPU idled around 32-33c. This is around 3-4c higher than on my previous AIO cooler, using the same fan profiles.
Under load however, a different story emerged. Running Passmark Performance Test with the CPU at 4.5ghz, the temperatures never went above 60c under load. This is around 8-9c cooler than with the previous AIO.
At 5ghz the cores hit a high of around 82c - again, this is around 7-8c cooler than my old AIO:
Running Realbench (with the CPU at 5ghz) provided slightly higher temps:
With Unigine Superposition (again at 5ghz):
The Superposition benchmark was reflective of the performance of most games - running GTA V, Far Cry 5, Star Wars Battlefront 2 (don't judge me, I got it cheap!) and Destiny 2 produced similar temps when running at 2560x1440 at 120hz.
In terms of the LEDs the only real gripe is that the LEDs in the pump seem to lag very slightly behind the LEDs in the fans and some of the colour transitions - from blue to purple for instance - are a little jerky: there’s a slight leap from one colour to the next. In fairness the lag could be down to the god-awful Gigabyte RGB software but in any case, you probably wouldn’t notice unless you were staring at the PC for some time, which purely in the interests of reviewing this product obviously, I did.
Excuse the tapping in the background - damn mechanical keyboards!
Conclusion
The Antec Mercury 240 RGB can be bought for around £80-£95 at the time of writing this review. This is terrific value for money and it doesn’t appear to have been achieved at the expense of quality, with the whole package feeling like a premium product.
Aesthetically, it looks almost as nice when the PC is off and performance-wise it really…. Err… performs, so I've no hesitation in recommending this cooler.
I'd like to say a big thanks to Ace Modder and Antec for letting me try out this hardware.
Glad you like the product.
