KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
After experiencing the excellent installation guide which was supplied with the Fractal Design Kelvin S36 (review coming soon), we were somewhat underwhelmed with Raijintek's offering. The user guide is very basic and only features small diagrams and brief instructions. Thankfully the installation procedure is quite simple so this is not a massive issue. We will be documenting the installation process on an Intel Socket 2011 motherboard.
First of all we must install the retention bracket to our motherboard. This requires us to place four standoffs over the screw threads in each corner of the socket, place the bracket on top and secure into place using the four provided screws.
Then we can simply apply the thermal paste to the CPU and screw the CPU block down into place.
Finally we can attach the fans to the inside of the radiator and screw it into the case. It is worth noting that this cooler does not feature anti-kink coils like the Kelvin S36 and the hoses can kink quite easily. We would recommend double checking that the hoses are kink-free after installing the cooler.
swag
Looks like a decent bit of kit for an entry into WC as it is customisable. Only thing that has stopped me buying an AiO Cooler is that they have dull black hoses. Add in the great perfomance and this looks like a no brainer.
Could this cooler keep my 4690k at 4.6 ghz cool… or i shoulg go air
it actually keeps my i5 4690K cool at 4.6ghz.
i’m doubting you’ll get to 4.6 on air tbh… but who knows, anything is possible.
I’ve been waiting for a while for a review of this cooler to come out, and it’s good to see that it’s a positive one! I’ve been considering this vs the H100i for my next build. The ability to customise it thanks to industry-standard fittings is what’s making me want it.
Would be better to buy the “Core” edition and buy better fans?
I’ve read some discussion on finnish forum that it wouldnt fit Asus Z97-A because of the capacitors on the board are so close to CPU. Anyone got better knowledge of this? I was about to test is as I got mine for Christmas but it was broken when I opened the packaged, and it seems I have to wait until February for a replacement since the store it was bought from was out of stock.
Why would you want that? The stock fans have 4.8 mmH2O static pressure according to its specs, although I have no idea if it’s accurate.
Such a fail review, in every other site i’ve seen the NHD14 only 1 degree c behind the NHD15 which cools better than the H100i at max settings which is loud.
Here you have the H100i beating the NHD14 by almost 5 degrees.. these results are very suspicious. Plus it shows the AIO’S are literally barely any better than large HSF’s and much louder.
I was thinking on installing it push-pull with 4 gentle typhoon.
Heh, I run a i7 4790K at 4.7 GHz, Noctua NH-D14
see that shit…. anything is possible.
what’s your temps Ben?
the stock fans are crap… at least they were for me.
at least the triton is so cheap you don’t have to care too much about just throwing away the fans.
Around 76C Max while playing battlefield hard line. I can hit 90C with Aida 64 / Intel xtu or prime95 stress test. This is probably one of the best overclocking CPU I’ve gotten in the silicon lottery. CPU voltage is 1.30v.
yeah, there’s the difference… Maxed out I don’t go over 56/57c
Great chips tho… I couldn’t get my old 3750K over 4.2ghz. I felt like Intel owed me something better this time. Lol
That’s bad so you couldn’t go past 4.2 and have a stable overclock I guess I got lucky with my three Intel CPUs. I5 3570k i5 4690k and i7 4790k all between 4.5 to 4.7. I could run 4.8 but its not Intel xtu stable on my I7.
Which fans did you install?
i’m using deepcool dead silence fans.. you can see one in my picture in the comments below… i only picked the fans because they matched my build… and it turns out they’re pretty quiet as their name implies.
“AIO’S are literally barely any better than large HSF’s and much louder”
There is this thing called ‘RAM clearance’.
i just bought one for my z97-a asus so i sincerely hope it fits. have you figured out wether it will or not?
Yes I have. It does not fit unless you grind it from the bottom a little. Guaranteed warranty void if installing on z97-a. I put some of the thermal grease on top of the capacitors and installed the pump on cpu. The bottom of the pump was contacting by maybe 1/3 on cpu from the other side and on the other side it was hitting the capacitors. Used a rotary tool to grind maybe 2-3mm away from the side of the bottom of the pump to get it in full contact with cpu.
Does yours have notches on the side of the block like pictured? I’ve been in contact with raijintek and they said it’d be close but they made a new block with notched sides. Wondering if that will make the difference
Not quite sure but I doubt the one I have has bottom like that. From the picture I would say it makes the difference since the notches are deeper than the ones I made myself.
Excellent, thanks for the info. I’ll be posting my results after I receive my cooler (hopefully friday)
Yes you do that please. I can then curse myself for being too hasty.
so far I’m having a great experience with this cooler. It does fit on my asus z97-a motherboard with no modification needed
it fits in there just fine. I found some old pictures and they did indeed change the block design
Have a look on the Raijintek site at just the fans section. Their only 12025 fan has nowhere near that pressure so not sure where they get that from, maybe they’ve doubled it because there’s two of them 🙂
Can i insert it in the Zalman z11 plus?
Hi Phil i just bought this from Overclockers uk and i am really hoping it’s the same unit as you have with the cut outs on the cpu block! I have an Asus Z97-AR MoBo.. as far as i can make out the product codes for the new units are OR100023 (the same as the one i just bought) rather than OR100018.. a lot of the sites selling them show the product code as OS100018/OS100023, which I’m assuming means it’s the OS100018 with updated block! is there anyway some one can confirm this for me only every review I’ve read mentions nothing about there being two different blocks and every picture used on all retailers sites are of the block with out any cut outs, but I’m hoping that’s just because they are old pictures. thanks in advance..
Anyone know if you can possibly use this block in a custom (hardline) water cooling loop? Love the design and I would like to use it for my loop with an additional pump to cool my pc together with a ek gpu block and hard pipes.