[Review] Release the Kraken X40

eminus

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[Review] Release the Kraken X40


The Kraken has been released in Singapore and I managed to catch one to tame my hot Ivy Bridge processor. Here I present you the world first AIO liquid cooler that has the 140mm size radiator. NZXT have always been innovating and bringing in new stuff for us, thought these are made by Asetek I applaud NZXT for having the balls in introducing the very uncommon 140mm AIO Liquid Cooler. The last NZXT cooler that I got was their awesome Havik 140 which have served me well in taming the heat of my Sandy Bridge processor then.

I would think NZXT was right by calling this product "KRAKEN" it surely depicts the mythical monster as the size of this liquid cooler is huge and the tubes are long which are the major description/depiction of the Kraken. Now having a huge area for heat dessipation means that it would be better in heat dessipation thant its 120mm counterpart provided they have the same depth. So now let us begin in meeting the Kraken X40 by NZXT.




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The Box

The box does not have fancy graphics but enough to catch the eye of the cosnumer by its minmalistic look. The front of the box you will immediately see what the liquid cooler looks like and from there you can see that NZXT was the first to introduce AIO 140mm liquid cooler to the mass market. This cooler comes with 2 years of warranty, not as many as the others, but I leave that to NZXT on their decision.

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This side of the box show you what you need to know about the liquid cooler and its accessories. The information given are all relevant it is good for NZXT to do this as it only shows us the information we need to know and not flood us with other information that we dont need.

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This side shows you all the neat features of this liquid cooler, their world first 140mm radiator for AIO liquid coller for the masses. They have their interactive fan control and hue controlled lights which can be managed by their Kraken software that is bundled inside. and lastly but not the least it their 16" long tubings, in which I would say that it is usefull as you will have more options on where to place the cooler especially if you have those big casings like the NZXT Switch 810

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While on this side of the box shows you how the bigger radiator is able to maintain low level noise while not compromising on the performance. It is also shown here that this cooler is compatible with the latest Intel sockets while as we all know AMD sockets did not change much so this means the Kraken X40 supports AMD from a wide range of generations.

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The Package

From opening the box you will immediately see the contents of it, what I can say is that NZXT have package this with simplicity in mind. The raidator is well protected and away from objects that could damage it. The tubes are finely put in place as well as the water block. In the package comes with the 140mm fan, CD software and the manual. Now let me discuss about the manual. Their manual I can say is very well put I mean you can easily follow the instructions and will not get lost on where you are. The images are clear on what ot do and how to do it, as well as the wording on the instructions.

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The Fan

It has the dimension of a normal 140mm fans, it uses liquid state bearing for longer life which is needed especially if you are using it as a radiator fan. The fan that is included is PWM controlled and is variated from 800-2000 rpm. as for the noise of the fan well for me any 140mm or even 120mm fan that crosses the 2000 rpm mark is noisy. The good thing is that this fan is PWM so it can be controlle either by the Kraken X40 or to your motherboard 4 pin fan connectors. The fan is already sleeved by NZXT so you dont need to sleeved it yourself.

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The Mountings

These are the mountings materials you will need to mount the Kraken X40's block to your CPU. they have included the LGA 2011 which is just logical since I am sure that this liquid cooler will be used by those hot Sandy Bridge-E and the upcoming Ivy Bridge-E. NZXT have also provided 8 pieces of screws which means that you can add one more 140mm fan wihtout worrying on where to find long screws. The intel mountings have clearely stated labels for differnt sockets of Intel, good thing is that they are embossed and not printed so it has less susceptibility in fading later on.

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The Liquid Cooler unit

NZXT goes all black from the radiator down to the sleeves of the cable, as they say you wont go wrong with black colors. High quality thick rubber tubes ensures leak free operation as well as optimal heat dessipation.

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Connected to the block are these cable interface.

- 1x USB connector is to be plugged in your internal USB header so the NZXT software can manage the liquid cooler in terms of monitoring, fan speed and lighting configurion
- 2x 4pin fan header is used to connect the fan that is included in the package, you will connect the fan here if you want to manage the speed of the fan in the Kraken software. Also be reminded that you should use the main 4pin header and not the extended one if you are only using one fan so the Kraken software can manage and monitor the fan
- 1x 3pin power cable to power up the fan so plug this into the non-PWM fan header of your motherboard so you will have continous 12v of power.


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The Radiator

As you have already known the size of this radiator effectively is around 140mm, the fin count is around 5/cm and has a height of around 9mm. The thickness of the radiator including its body frame is around 27mm so if you add another 25mm for the fan you need a clearance of around 47mm-50mm in your casing, the rest of the dimension is clearely stated in the packaging.

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eminus

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The Tubes

The tubes uses in by Kraken X40 are high quality thich tubes, the outer diameter of the tubes measures around roughly 11mm while the inner diameter is roughly around 7mm. The length of the tubes is indeed as stated on the box 400mm.


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eminus

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The Pump Block

NZXT uses the round block with a NZXT labelled that is lit up when the unit is turned on, the Kraken X40 uses copper block and on it is the pre-applied thermal paste. The workmanship on the pump is very good. The diameter of the copper block is around 59mm which is good in helping dessipate the heat of the processor. The tubes connected to the pump is securely in place and the wiring are prettly nealtly done.

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Installation

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How the intel mountings would look like

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the Kraken X40 installed on a Arc Midi casing and on an MSI-Z77A-GD65 motherboard.

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and this is how it will look like if you add one more fan to the radiator

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Performance (note: my processor is augmented)

CPU: 4.2Ghz@Auto
Kraken Profile: Silent
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


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CPU: 4.2Ghz@Auto
Kraken Profile: Extreme
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


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CPU: 4.5Ghz@1.34v!!!!
Kraken Profile: Silent
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


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CPU: 4.5Ghz@1.34v!!!!
Kraken Profile: Extreme
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


4.5_1.34v_extreme.jpg


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eminus

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the Kraken X40 installed on a Arc Midi casing and on an MSI-Z77A-GD65 motherboard.

IMG_2938.JPG



and this is how it will look like if you add one more fan to the radiator

IMG_2940.JPG



Performance (note: my processor is augmented)

CPU: 4.2Ghz@Auto
Kraken Profile: Silent
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


4.2_auto.jpg


CPU: 4.2Ghz@Auto
Kraken Profile: Extreme
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


4.2_auto_extreme.jpg



CPU: 4.5Ghz@1.34v!!!!
Kraken Profile: Silent
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


4.5_1.34v_silent.jpg


CPU: 4.5Ghz@1.34v!!!!
Kraken Profile: Extreme
Ambient Temp: 27c-28c


4.5_1.34v_extreme.jpg


IMG_2941.JPG


IMG_2942.JPG
 

eminus

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CPU: 4.7Ghz@1.49v!!!!
Kraken Profile: Custom = 100% fan all the time
Ambient Temp: 29c-30c


4.7_1.49v_custom.jpg





Usefull information

Casing Compatiblity(list will be updated by NZXT from time to time):
http://www.nzxt.com/Download/Kraken Case Compatibility 1.1.pdf



My Take:



I was really impressed by the Kraken X40 not that it performs very well on Extreme profile but to the fact that it was able to cool my CPU even at high voltage on a silent profile. The silent profile really I could say is silent as it only hovered around 900-1300 rpm during my tesing. The fan if set to 100% is surely very audible and this is to be expected for a 140mm fan spinning 2000 round per minute.

The installation of the Kraken X40 is very easy and can be done by one person alone which is what I did. The software provided is a bit buggy but I think or should I say I would want NZXT to polish it more.

For those looking for a quiet liquid cooler that is able to maintain its audability while not compromising on performance then I would say this liquid cooler is for you, Caveat to this is that you need a 140mm fan mountings in your casing but I would supposed most of the casings out there have at least a 140mm fan on the rear side.

For casing compatibility NZXT did a great job in creating a pdf file which is updated from time to time so you dont have to make a guess if your casing is compatible or not, now that is what I called true service.
 

nukeshock

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how are you all getting such good temp!!! i am getting 43 c idle and 82 c max load !!!! i re applied the thing like 5 times already !
 

eminus

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bro can you elaborate more on your configuration? also as mentioned above my chip is delided
 

nukeshock

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well me computer is i7 3770k , oced to 4.3 ghz stock voltage
running an XFX 7970 double dissipation which also vents the heat in the case but i have a noctua fan at the side to vent the gpu hot air outside,
8GB g.skill vengance ram
all these are inside a NZXT Phantom 410 the kraken rad is inside the case and the fan is blowing cool air from outside to the radiator and into the case which is all being "flushed out by the back 120mm fan.
my idle temps are 42 degrees , max load was around 80-83
i am not sure if it is mounted properly but i have redone it like 4-5 tiimes with the same result. idle room tmep is between 29-34 degrees , but when i put my hand inside the case through the drive bays it feels cooler~
 

nukeshock

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er just a side question , is deliding the cpu recomended ? could it spoil the cpu ?
and i know it will most probably void the warranty but , i am very very good with an xacto knife set and was able to remove the warranty stickers from my gpu without breaking them and was able to put a waterblock on it till it gave way and i managed to put it all back together even the "warranty void if sticker removed" stickers , and managed to fool them into giving me another.
 

eminus

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go look for spyboy48 here as he is very good in deliding cpu at a very minimal cost

http://forums.vr-zone.com/hardware-depot/2636979-ib-3570k-delidded-temps.html

a question: did you plug the power cable of the Kraken to a 3pin header of the mobo? dont ever plug it in a 4pin header as it might not give enough power to run the pump. for my setup I directly connected it to my power supply with a converter from 3pin to 4pin molex

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nukeshock

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wait the power cable is the connector with 3 pins female right , my case cam with a 3 pin to 4 pin molex adapter that i am using now , i managed to open kraken control eariler on it said usb lost , but i dont know how it got working again but its showing the pump at 3000 speed and fan speed around 2000 rpm
this was the same before when it was connected to the cpu fan header
my temps were similar to the stock cooler on idle ,
i7 not oced stock cooler 43C
i7 not oced full load 96c
i7 oced kraken 42-43c ( 4.3GHZ stock voltage)
i7 oced kraken full load 80C never went above 80 ( 4.3GHZ stock voltage)
but i expected more to stay at atleast 70c 80 is really too high
 
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eminus

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check your usb cable if its loosen it should not be like that
 

nukeshock

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i checked all my stuff already but the temps still wont go down , this is actually a second set , the previous kraken i had could not be detected by the usb
 

eminus

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can you check your vcore at idle? maybe it is high thus the temp
 
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