Unboxing and First Look
Alphacool has packaged the Eisbaer Aurora 360 in a sturdy-looking black cardboard box, on the front is an image of the pump housing, lit up in RGB, with various Alphacool logos and a bit of information about the CPU cooler. On the rear is much of the same, there’s a large image of the RGB fans with more Alphacool and Eisbaer logos.
With everything removed from the packaging, we can see exactly what Alphacool has included. There are three Eiszyklon Aurora LUX PRO 120mm D-RGB fans, an extensive range of mounting hardware sorted into bags and labelled for the CPU socket type. As well as a standalone RGB controller, 3-way fan splitter cable, RGB extension cable and the cooler itself.
On closer inspection of the included mounting hardware, it becomes obvious that Alphacool has designed the Eisbaer Aurora series to be compatible with all mainstream desktop CPU sockets. There are mounting brackets and fixings for all current Intel and AMD platforms including socket TR4/TRX40 Threadripper.
The fans included with the Eisbaer Aurora all-in-one cooler are Alphacool Eiszyklon Aurora LUX PRO fans that feature digital addressable RGB lighting. Around the perimeter of the fan housing is a ring of RGB lighting and on the four mountings are rubberised anti-vibration dampers. The fan blades look quite small with a large central hub, so we will see how this affects airflow and cooling performance during testing later.
Alphacool has included a standalone RGB lighting controller with the Eisbaer Aurora, this is ideal of users who don’t have the luxury of RGB lighting integrated into their motherboard. The controller features three buttons for scrolling through lighting effects, lighting colour and the speed of the lighting patterns. There is also a 3-way PWM fan splitter and standard 3-pin Digital RGB extension lead to connect directly to a motherboard RGB header.
The main unit of the Eisbaer Aurora all-in-one cooler looks quite similar to previous versions. Having owned one of the earlier versions myself, I can notice that there are a few subtle changes in this new version. The radiator is one of Alphacool’s NexXxos copper core radiators that is finished in a black coating with an Alphacool logo on two sides.
Changes from the previous Eisbaer AIOs include upgraded rubber tubing, the Eisbaer Aurora is quipped with matte black TPV tubing. Standard G1/4” fittings are used to connect the tubing to the radiator and CPU block, these are a different type to the original Eisbaer and come from Alphacool’s Enterprise Solutions range.
Since this is an expandable all-in-one cooler, which means you can add on a graphics card cooler or an extra radiator later, Alphacool has equipped one of the tubes with a quick disconnect fitting. This allows for fitting additional parts to the cooler without having to drain the system. In the unlikely event that coolant is lost or that the coolant level drops, there is a fill port on top of the CPU block to top up with coolant.
The CPU block has also been updated from the original Eisbaer version and is now equipped with digital addressable RGB lighting. There is an Alphacool Eisbaer graphic on the CPU block along with an Alphacool Eisbaer logo and acrylic window on the reservoir that is illuminated with RGB lighting.
On the underside of the CPU block is a large thermal transfer plate designed for larger DIE sizes of AMD Ryzen processors. The thermal transfer plate is manufactured from high-quality copper and is covered with a nickel-plated chrome mirror finish coating.