Review NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB Review: The best on the market – and priced like it

[Admin]

We tested NZXT’s Kraken Elite 360 RGB with Intel’s i7-14700K to determine whether or not it can handle the heat of a modern CPU.

NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB Review: The best on the market – and priced like it : Read more

 

[Sluggotg]

Excellent review! I wish it used a 14900K instead of the 14700K. If someone is going to use a very expensive cooler, they most likely would have spent the money on a 14900K too. Also it would be more informative to those who do have a 14900K and are looking for better cooling.

 

[thestryker]

The performance is very impressive given that they didn't do it with increased radiator volume. Once you're talking ~$300 though that eliminates the clear price advantage over a custom loop so all that's left is ease of use.

 

[saunupe1911]

Their software sucks though. I can't by another NZXT product because of it. I will wait until Arctic builds something that's better.

On second thought my Arctic 360 is only a few degrees behind hit. Yeah no need for an upgrade.

 

[GentleX]

With multiple cables required for RGB and fan connections, managing cable organization can be challenging.

 

[Albert.Thomas]

Excellent review! I wish it used a 14900K instead of the 14700K. If someone is going to use a very expensive cooler, they most likely would have spent the money on a 14900K too. Also it would be more informative to those who do have a 14900K and are looking for better cooling.

That's fair - but honestly coolers pretty much scale the same between the i7 and i9 models.

The main reason I prefer to use the i7 model is because the very best of coolers can keep it under peak temperature in stress tests, but you can't do that with the i9 - every cooler will hit peak temp with the i9! Also I would imagine more folks bought the i7 model.

 

[cix1976]

Hi Albert,
your reviews and tests are great, nothing to say about that.
What would you say if a car magazine, after testing a Ferrari Roma and a Hyundai Elantra, published an article with this title:
Ferrari is much faster than Hyundai.

My answer is: okay, Ferrari is faster but it costs much more!!!

Coming back to the main topic, does it make sense to spend 250€ for a nzxt kraken elite 360 instead of 80€ for an Arctic Liquid freezer 360?

In my opinion no, it does not make sense.

I'll make you a proposal: why don't you also post a chart with the Average Watt Cooled/price ratio?
Then the ranking would change a lot.
Nzxt would have a score of 0.976 while Arctic 3.212, more than triple!!!

 

[Albert.Thomas]

My answer is: okay, Ferrari is faster but it costs much more!!!

My answer: With all respect, I think it is kinda dumb to compare a Ferrari to a Elantra, they serve entirely different markets.

Coming back to the main topic, does it make sense to spend 250€ for a nzxt kraken elite 360 instead of 80€ for an Arctic Liquid freezer 360?

Why stop there? Why overpay for an Arctic Liquid Freezer when there are quality AIOs from Thermalright and ID-Cooling which are even cheaper?!

I'll make you a proposal: why don't you also post a chart with the Average Watt Cooled/price ratio?
Then the ranking would change a lot.
Nzxt would have a score of 0.976 while Arctic 3.212, more than triple!!!

A chart like that would make it look like the only thing worth purchasing would be a $15-$20 entry level air cooler, that would be a bit misleading if you ask me.

 

[enkidude]

Thanks for the review, Albert. You've been pumping out a lot of reviews lately, and I appreciate the effort that goes into each one.

I'm relatively new to CPU cooler performance testing, and I'm curious about the process involved in obtaining the "Average watts cooled" metrics. I'd like to try recreating a similar test myself.

I can wrap my head around finding a max watts cooled - the maximum wattage cooled by a cooler before reaching TJMax, but how do you identify the average in this case? Is it perhaps an average of maximum values across several tests? Or are you somehow logging averages over a certain time frame in a single test?

Thanks again.

 

[monkey_biz]

What I am missing in this review are the functional differences between the Kraken 360 and the Kraken 360 RGB Elite.

If I understand correctly, they are identical save for RGB lighting and a different display. Is that correct?

 

[Kevlar08]

Coming back to the main topic, does it make sense to spend 250€ for a nzxt kraken elite 360 instead of 80€ for an Arctic Liquid freezer 360?

In my opinion no, it does not make sense.

I'll make you a proposal: why don't you also post a chart with the Average Watt Cooled/price ratio?
Then the ranking would change a lot.
Nzxt would have a score of 0.976 while Arctic 3.212, more than triple!!!

I even registered on the site to answer your comment.

As an owner of this cooler, I can tell you that yes the price tag is high, even if I got it on a sale for 220 usd. Yet it is by far the quietest AIO I ever had and as someone that often has to work with the pc for 8, 10 and in some cases even 12 hours per day, it makes (for me ) a huge difference. in fact I only got it after seeing and hearing it working at a friend's house.
To an extent the Kraken 360 spoiled me, since after a few months of ownership I can easily ear the noise from other AIOs and feel somewhat less confortable for that. So for that alone it is - for people like me - worth the price.

In addition it also performs better than the large majority of AIO's what is a plus as I like the cpu to run as cold as possible, and as I write this, with a productivity task on the background my cpu (14900 undervolted) sits at 29 C when ambient air temperature is around 22 or so.

 

[Albert.Thomas]

I'm relatively new to CPU cooler performance testing, and I'm curious about the process involved in obtaining the "Average watts cooled" metrics. I'd like to try recreating a similar test myself.

Keep in mind that results for a test like this can vary depending on the motherboard settings you're using and etc. I'm using MSI's Z790 Project Zero with the crazy MSI settings, using a BIOS from before the stability updates were issued.

For this test, I'll take the cooler from a completely rested state and run Cinebench for 10 minutes, and report the average cpu package power consumption as reported by HWInfo.

 

[millermatic]

We tested NZXT’s Kraken Elite 360 RGB with Intel’s i7-14700K to determine whether or not it can handle the heat of a modern CPU.

NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB Review: The best on the market – and priced like it : Read more

You provide a link to the "Best coolers on the market" in your review. That list currently shows the Lian Li GA II holding the top spot. Interestingly, your review has this cooler in exactly _one_ benchmark comparison. The one on noise... indicating it to be the loudest. How about the cooling performance?

 

[thestryker]

You provide a link to the "Best coolers on the market" in your review. That list currently shows the Lian Li GA II holding the top spot. Interestingly, your review has this cooler in exactly _one_ benchmark comparison. The one on noise... indicating it to be the loudest. How about the cooling performance?

The best of list appears to be based on the previous methodology which can be seen in this review: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...ler-master-ion-360-aio-liquid-cooler-review/2

 

[millermatic]

The best of list appears to be based on the previous methodology which can be seen in this review: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...ler-master-ion-360-aio-liquid-cooler-review/2

Yes... but it's not very helpful if the current "best of" list uses a different methodology. Apples to oranges as it were...

While sound levels are important, it's not my only deciding factor. My comfort level for noise appears to be higher than the author's. It would be helpful to know which cooler performed the best with the PC running flat out. I don't find "which one did best at 38db" to be very helpful.

And it's simply downright strange to not have the (former?) highest performing cooler on the "best of" list not included in this review. Was it simply too loud for the author? The non LCD version is less than 1/2 the price of the Kraken.

 

[thestryker]

While sound levels are important, it's not my only deciding factor. My comfort level for noise appears to be higher than the author's. It would be helpful to know which cooler performed the best with the PC running flat out. I don't find "which one did best at 38db" to be very helpful.

And it's simply downright strange to not have the (former?) highest performing cooler on the "best of" list not included in this review. Was it simply too loud for the author? The non LCD version is less than 1/2 the price of the Kraken.

Honestly it might have just been included in that single graph by mistake. I think the only cooler from the previous methodology which has been published on the new is the LFIII.

 

[Albert.Thomas]

You provide a link to the "Best coolers on the market" in your review. That list currently shows the Lian Li GA II holding the top spot. Interestingly, your review has this cooler in exactly _one_ benchmark comparison. The one on noise... indicating it to be the loudest. How about the cooling performance?

Please note that while I give input and feedback as to what should be on the best coolers page, I do not actively manage it.

The Lian Li GA II is one of the very strongest AIOs I've ever tested with Intel's i7-13700K. The noise results you're referencing were pulled from this system's test data. NZXT's Kraken is one of the strongest AIO's I've tested with Intel's i7-14700K and Ultra 9 285K (I probably should have shown the full results with the latter CPU in this review, but it's too late for that now).

Based on what I know, I'd say that they are similar in overall cooling strength but with the disclaimer I haven't tested them both on the same system.

 

[Albert.Thomas]

And it's simply downright strange to not have the (former?) highest performing cooler on the "best of" list not included in this review. Was it simply too loud for the author?

I moved to a different part of the country earlier this year, and I packed lightly. I only brought a small selection of previously tested coolers when I moved to this new place.

 

[enkidude]

Yes... but it's not very helpful if the current "best of" list uses a different methodology. Apples to oranges as it were...

While sound levels are important, it's not my only deciding factor. My comfort level for noise appears to be higher than the author's. It would be helpful to know which cooler performed the best with the PC running flat out. I don't find "which one did best at 38db" to be very helpful.

And it's simply downright strange to not have the (former?) highest performing cooler on the "best of" list not included in this review. Was it simply too loud for the author? The non LCD version is less than 1/2 the price of the Kraken.

As far as I know, that 'best of' list was written in the first quarter of the year, and it serves as a retrospective for 2023 and early 2024, like an awards show for coolers. They can't update the 'best of' list every month.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but it seems like you're frustrated because all of this information from previous test methodologies and 'best of' lists is not included in this article? Any cooler test data you look at is only relevant in comparison to other tests performed using the same testing methodology and hardware.

If you want to know more, it's relatively easy to find the test for the Lian Li AIO you are discussing: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lian-li-galahad-ii-performance-360.

 

[johnnyr1]

Albert, may I ask why you weren't able to test this on AM5? the previous 2023 version ranked very poor on AMD, so having that info on the new version would be very helpful.

Thank you!

 

[Albert.Thomas]

Albert, may I ask why you weren't able to test this on AM5? the previous 2023 version ranked very poor on AMD, so having that info on the new version would be very helpful.

Thank you!

I'm open to the idea of testing both AMD and Intel setups again, but at the moment I only have access to a 7700X paired with an A620 SFF board.