So what is Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620.
It’s the first model premade water cooling system released by Antec 1 year ago which offers quite a good performance and very easy to install features, while working at very low noise level and without any maintenance requirements. Is this statement right? I will test and say later.
Now let’s check the water cooling system itself.
So I was expecting a much smaller box to arrive from Antec when I asked for the TrueQuiet Pro fan but still the water cooling arrived in not so big but very stylish carton box painted in black with a picture of the product itself with tons of information and pictures related to the product on all of the box sides.
I almost tore apart the box with teeth and claws just to reach the content of it. And here it is:
After I took all of the parts the Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 looked like that. First thing to notice was the installation manual and just right after the 120mm fan and the premade watercooling system.
So let’s have a closer look at the water cooling itself.
Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 is made of:
A cooling radiator for one 120mm fan that can be mounted on the back or top panel of the case at the 120mm fan slot together with the fan with long bolts. Actually the wholes of the radiator work like nuts.
Black, very flexible and rotating according to the cooling block tubes painted in black that really help a lot when installing the water block.
A copper waterblock with pump attached to it providing the water ciculation inside the system and all covered with plastic with maximum height of 27mm. According to Antec, the water cooling system is maintenance-free and it isn’t possible to open or add extra liquid inside the tubes or the radiator. Of course I am not talking about modding :).
The water block comes with a preinstalled thermal compound.
When Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 was first released the watercooling system was suitable for installing on:
- Intel LGA 1155 / 1156 / 1366
- AMD AM2/ AM3/ AM2+/ AM3+ / FM1
- An installation guide
- Backplates and installation brackets for Intel and AMD sockets
- 120mm fan working at 450 – 2000 revolutions per minute range with airflow level of 81.3 CFM and dimensions which are 120 mm x 25 mm.
- 4 bolts with washers for installing the fan and the radiator to the case
- 4 long push and screw with plastic cover bolts for installing on Intel systems
- 4 long push and screw with plastic cover bolts for installing on AMD systems
- Additional mounting metal and plastic brackets and rubber dumpers
- The water cooling system with dimensions of 151 mm (H) x 120 mm (W) x 27 mm (D) and weight of 0.7 kg.
To keep the tradition, before I move on to the test results, I would like to describe the system used for the test:
CPU: AMD Athlon X4 620 at standard frequency of 2612 MHz and overclocked at 3640 MHz (at 1.5V) per core for the tests.
Motherboard: GigaByte 790X-UD3P
Video card: Sapphire 5830 Extreme 1GB DDR5 256bit
Memory: 2 x 2GB Apacer 800 MHz
Hard drive: Kingston SSD SV100S264G
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
Power supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro 600
Cooler: Cooler Master Blizzard T2
Thermal paste: Standard preinstalled thermal compound on the water block.
Fan mounted on the radiator: Standard 120mm fan provided with Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620
The tests were conducted in a closed system with:
- 230mm fan on the front panel putting fresh air in and spinning at about 700 rpm
- 230mm fan on the side panel putting fresh air in and spinning at about 700 rpm
- 230mm fan on the top panel taking hot air out and spinning at about 700 rpm.
- Room temperature of about 20 degrees.
Testing procedure:
I will install Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 and do tests at default frequency 2612 mHz at idle and stress, then at overclocked frequency of 3640 mHz again at idle and stress using just the standard fan from the package.
So before I do the tests I had to install the water cooling inside the case. Here is the time to say that it was very easy to install and it was done like this:
First thing to do was to install the backplate and the front bracket on the motherboard and put it back inside the case:
The results from the tests at default frequency 2612MHz are:
Idle:
Stress:
The results from the tests at overclocked frequency 3640 MHz are:
Idle:
Stress:
All of the test results have been summed up in the following charts:
And the fan speed during the tests:
After I am done testing and reviewing I believe it is time to express my opinion about Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620:
- Performance – Since this is my first test and review for water cooling system I can’t compare it with another model but according to the results I got I was really impressed. After I finished testing I saw a very nice and I can say really low temperature, especially at 3640 mHZ on the cpu plate and cores which made me thinking that the pre-made water cooling units are not so bad after all, like I used to think before. Very nice results and I am very impressed with the performance.
- About the noise – Overall the pump and the fan are very quiet even I if thought I heard noise like there are bubbles or just the water circulating inside the closed system. Maybe it is normal but still it is much more quieter than an air CPU cooler cooled by a fan working at 2000 + rpm.
- Appearance – When the water cooling is installed it looks really nice and clean. And if the cables are sorted well there is plenty of space inside the case.
According to my review, I’ve decided that Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 deserves the following reward:
Official price (MSRP): unknown
Official warranty: 36 months
I thank Antec for the sample.
Boskorp, the answer is no. There is 230mm intake fan mounted on the side panel spinning at 700 rpm. In chassis without intake fan on the side panel there is temperature rise of the CPU socket surrounding components.
Yeah.. looks good.. a good solution for those wanting to have water without delving in custom water cooling.. (I know it is not a real water cooling, I know it is not up to the task when put next to top air cooler, but still.. it is a niche player.. looks good to me)
Looks good, does system/MB temperatures rise bcz of missing a fan near the CPU area?