NZXT Kraken X61 RL-KRX61-01 280mm All-In-One Water / Liquid CPU Cooling Solution

Pros: Build: Quality tubing, new fan design, thicker radiator. Replacing: Stock Haswell cooler Installation: This was installed into a Fractal Define r4, installation itself is simple enough, but the radiator is actually larger than 140mm. Only two screws could actually be secured on the top left and bottom right sides (luckily) but I had to use longer screws to make it work. Performance: This cooler brought my temps down 10+c, that's using the stock thermal paste on the cooler in a tight case, very happy. Look: You can customize the LED to any color you can make with a RGB scale and liquid cooling looks clean. Software: I personally really like the CAM software. CAM displays all the information you need in a nice looking package will track your liquid temps and will allow for different speed profiles, awesome.

Cons: -You need NZXT profile for CAM -Price, but in comparison to other CLCs not bad at all. -Not completely compatible with Define r4

Pros: Easy installation<br>Self sealed, ready to go.

Cons: Lack of installation material in the box

Overall Review: First thing you need to do is go to the link included on the skimpy 1 page instructions. Following the online walk through makes this a really simple install. <br>Previously, I have stayed away from liquid cooling systems until now. No way I was going to go through the cutting of hoses, installing hose clamps and the priming the system. These self sealed systems are fairly fool proof.<br>The system is very quiet. If I set it to the "Silent Mode" I don't hear any fan noise unless I put a large load on the CPU. Even in the "Standard Mode" with the fans defaulting to 50% you can barely hear them. The X61 mounted to the existing fan holes on my Corsair Vengeance C70 case (no mod required). ****UPDATE**** After having this cooler for 10 months I have changed it from a 5 egg to a 4 egg. This is due to the fact that by this time now, both fans have failed. They start making a loud rattling noise. The first one failed after a couple of months use, and now at 10 months the second has failed in the exact same way. NZXT sent me a replacement for the first one. I have now put in a second request (at 10 months) for a replacement. I'm still waiting to hear back from them.

Pros: Great temps and the fans are super quiet. Purchased two of these for my cpu/gpu in H440 case. Looks amazing and performs great. Under load the cpu hits 51-55c @ 4.2ghz. Gpu temps hit max 69-71c playing bf4 for an 1-2 hours. Can adjust rgb light and fan speed through camera.

Cons: Software can use a little tweaking.

Overall Review: Highly recommend, and it comes with a 6 year warranty from NZXT! My specs are: i7 4770k @ 4.2ghz MSI G45-Gaming Mobo Corsair Vengeance Pro 16gb(2x8gb) @ 2400 PNY GTX 770 4gb OC Edition Rosewill 750w Modular 80 Plus Gold Intel 530 Series SSD 240gb Toshiba 2TB HDD x2 Kraken X61's GPU/CPU Black/Red NZXT H440

Pros: For starters, as most people worry about with liquid coolers, I didn't obtain a leaker! Now then, lets get started. This is a great CPU cooler, my i7-6700k is keeping nice and chilly with the 1.4voltage running through it (poorly binned cpu so I am only obtaining 4.5ghz on that) at 27c idle, with the max temps under 100% stress with RealBench hitting 65c. At 1.4 volts, that's a winner to me. Especially when I have it on silent mode in the CAM software. Which is my next topic of discussion, the CAM software gets a lot of knocks, but personally I don't see what can be hated on here, it's good at displaying information, accurately at that. My temps fall in line with AiSuite for the CPU and Precision X software for the GPU. There is also easy customization within the CAM software that will help you utilize it however you'd like.

Cons: I have no cons, it runs silent operation, and cools my CPU to temps that I consider superb.

Overall Review: The RGB lighting was a great effect as well, I'm glad NZXT took that route. It allows for a little more pop with builders who do aesthetics, as I am one of those builders. NZXT Kraken X61 i7-6700k @ 4.5ghz ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger EVGA 980 Ti FTW G.Skill RipjawS 2400 cas 14 EVGA SuperNOVA 1200w psu NZXT H440 Razer Edition.

Pros: Things like many other closed loops: - Its a sealed close loop cooler... - keeps your CPU very cool compared to a normal fan/heatsink Diffrences: - its a 280mm close loop cooler, i know there are more 280's out their but this is a very uncommon size. but what comes with the size is a larger surface area that allows better cooling of your coolant. in turn helping to cool your cpu - and thats what this thing does... cools the hell outta your cpu - The LED RGB liquid heatsink is nice due to its color changing lights and you can turn it off if youd like. - Software (there are pros and cons). NZXT's CAM software is a great idea, it has a great sleek look too it and you can monitor CPU/GPU speeds as well as the load on many of your componenets. anddd it allows you to control the LEDs on your liquid heatsink. all in all i think its a great start and it can only be improved.

Cons: -its definetly a larger radiator... but if you have a large enough case i wouldnt worry about it. so not enough to knock off an egg. -The software needs some updating, there has been a couple times where my software stops accelerating the fans based on coolant/CPU temps. and there are some unneccessary features that i wish i could minimize. but again its a great idea and can only get better with feedback and updates. - mounting bracket on heatsink is not the best one ive seen but it does the job

Overall Review: couple of installation thoughts for you: - USE NZXT's original fans that come with the radiator. they are 4 pin and controllable to an arrange of speeds. and... there RPM's are fantastic you will really see the result on NZXT's CAM software. and if your worry about matching a color in your case... the fans are white so the will only reflect the color being shined in the case. - another thing, the mounting ring for the heatsink is... well kinda cruddy. be carefull when tightening it down. -again, all in all another awesome product by NZXT!

Pros: Easy installation, quiet and cool. Never went too high on my i7 6700k even when overclocked to 5ghz. LEDs were nice too, although they never turned off.

Cons: After a year of use one day my screen went black. Blamed my GPU, a 980ti. Had just done an update on it. Oddly my system didn't detect the card at all so I powered done and opened up the side of my case only to discover coolant leaking everywhere. Quickly I tried to remove the Kraken and it started to spray coolant as soon I touched the hose. The motherboard was soaked, the CPU definitely sitting in a puddle, coolant spraying directly on the RAM. My beautiful $3,000 machine I turned on 14 months prior ruined due to shoddy workmanship. Totally a manufacturer defect where the hoses connect to the unit that bolts directly above the CPU. I'm beyond pissed and will do everything possible to steer all customers away from this product. At this point clearly NZXT and Newegg offer no sort of replacement for products damaged.

Overall Review: I went with this product because in early 2016 this was the best review product on the market, at the time even better than a Corsair. One always knows when opting to use a liquid cooler that leaks can happen. But now this product has several reviews that this is a common occurrence after some time. Clearly poor materials are being used on something that should not fail so quickly. Sadly now I will never use liquid cooling again. This was a hundred dollar time bomb that took out $3000 of other excellent equipment.

Pros: Keeps everything cool, looks great.

Cons: Monitoring software slows everything down exponentially and 5 months after installation one of the fans is making a terrible noise

Pros: Solid cpu core temps. Fans are pretty quiet even i performance mode on CAD. NZXT rgb logo is very attractive. Really couldn't be happier.

Cons: RGB color slider isnt perfect. First looked for just simple red in CAD but everuthing was coming out looking either too pink or too violet. Only noticed this is the red color pallet. Found a true red after a bit of playing around but in order to get a true red you have to go to the darker color scheme of red but the illumination isnt very bright. Settled on a blue accent and quite like it.

Overall Review: I saw all the negative comments about CAD before ordering. After having it now...i fail to see what the fuss is about. If anyone has had experience with Corsair's software with something like the H100i, then you will know what BAD software looks like. CAD is not bad. Yes there are better programs for system monitoring, and yes it's unfortunate that the manufacturer requires you to use THIER software, but its not as bad as some make it out to be. The interface for CAD is pretty simple and i just use guest mode to keep from having to log into it and i dont see any exessive tasks or load on the cpu from CAD. One last note, you will need to go into your device manager and manually tick the box that tells the board to kill power to the usb header when the pc is off. The NZXT logo is still lit up when i turn my PC off....but i actually liked that so i havent changed it.