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Thermal Performance
With fan speed set to a maximum of 2000 RPM, the Cougar Aqua 240 offers very solid performance. Even with the powerful Intel Core i9-9900KS CPU configured to 5.1GHz across all cores, the Aqua 240 does a stellar job of keeping the temperature under control which is impressive of a budget cooler like this.
Noise Normalised Thermal Performance
With fan speed tuned down to reach the maximum 40 dBA limit we set in our noise normalised test, thermal performance of the Aqua 240 tails off a little but the performance is still more than acceptable. The Aqua 240 performance is only very slightly worse than the Arctic Liquid Freezer II, which we know is a very capable 240mm closed-loop cooler, so in terms of price per performance, the Aqua 240 is impressive.
Maximum Noise Levels
With the fans running at their 2000 RPM maximum speed, we recorded a peak noise level of 46.6 dBA. This is by no means unacceptable considering the Aqua uses high speed 120mm fans, however, users who require a quiet work environment may find them slightly distracting. Fan speed can be finely tuned to the user's preference since the fans have such a broad PWM speed range, so it's not all bad news and overall we are very pleased with these performance results.
