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The Antec KÜHLER H₂O 920 is shipped in an attractively designed box which follows the Antec company colour scheme, with a nicely presented image of the cooler on the front.
Inside, the cooler is shipped in a protective box, neatly separated. There is a pump and radiator assembly. two 120mm fans, installation manual and mounting brackets and screws.
The Antec KÜHLER H₂O 920 is supplied with both mounting brackets for AMD and Intel platforms, as well as colour coded front mounted retention holders. The manual is a little hard to follow, especially as it is printed in black and white and makes no mention of colour. AMD are green, and Intel are blue, just to clarify.
The Antec KÜHLER H₂O 920 looks very like the 620 version we reviewed before, but the radiator section is much thicker.
Above left, the 620, with 120mm fan mounted is about the same width as the 920 radiator without fans. Above right, both 620 with single fan, and 920 with dual fans, attached.
There are two power cables coming from the 920, which support both 120mm fans (supplied). Above right, both fans hooked into the 920. A single 3 pin header connects to the motherboard to control the fans. Although the 920 also is supplied with a USB cable – this is needed for the interface control via the proprietary Windows software.
The Antec KÜHLER H₂O 920 mounting system is an Asetek standard design. There is a thin metal retaining ring with notches which is attached to a back plate by four screws. The pump has notches on the edges and after this is locked into position, underneath the retaining bracket, the screws are tightened to hold it in place. This is an identical mounting system to the 620. Both are interchangeable. We will delve into this in more detail shortly.
The Antec KÜHLER H₂O 920 hoses connecting the pump to the radiator are thicker, soft rubber hoses rather than the smaller, stiff hoses normally associated with other coolers in this class. The finish and build quality is excellent and the shipping gives a high level of protection for the radiator which was perfect when we took it out of the box. Often we get little ‘nicks’ and bends in the radiator array due to rough shipping and inadequate protection.
The hoses are soft and flexible and are about 13 inches long, making them about 2 inches longer than other coolers with a similar design. They are really easy to work with and the hoses are thicker than previous H70 hoses, expanded in size from 8.7mm to 10.8mm, meaning more liquid can flow through them.
The Antec KÜHLER H₂O 920 head is branded with the company and product name, and the contact head ships with a layer of quality thermal material preapplied. The pump has an extra three pin connector to control the coolers fan, and the swivel mounts and hoses are larger than others we have seen on Asetek sourced coolers. The cooler head has thermal material pre applied.
Many would expect Antec to be using a standard four pin connector for PWM control but Antec are using a simple 3 pin head which we would assume contains wires for power and grounding.
Spot the difference: The Antec KÜHLER H₂O 620 and 920 side by side.
very good cooler, but the 620 seems better value, its under 40 quid.
That looks like my next cooler ! The D14 is great, but its a nightmare for moving things once I system is built. Cant get access to memory with it in 🙁
Reviews ive read say this is pretty much as good as it gets. Im interested myself, as my current cooler is very loud. id like this on the quiet mode.
The only issue I have is the hoses they use can cause evaporation over a long period of time. the smaller metal style hoses stop this. I dont know why Antec have ditched them with Asetek.
What do you mean they cause evaporation?
They are using the older soft style hoses. when the water heats up and cools, there is slight evaporation. its not the best system. this is why some of the other coolers use the harder hoses, to stop this. its not just for appearance.
Read a few reviews of this last week and just ordered one today. I almost crapped myself when I saw a review here. I hate buying stuff that people say sucks, so thank god it was a good review.
@ Roger, why would Antec sell something thats worse than a previous design>? I think you must have the facts wrong.
First of all – thanks Kit Guru for a great review.
For the KG community – with regards to evaporation, Asetek did a considerable amount of testing on rubberized vs corrugated tubing and found there to be no impact on the longevity of the product when comparing the two. They address this in a recent blog post.
http://www.asetek.com/blog/243-questions-of-the-month-may-2011.html
If you’ve got any other questions, I’ll keep my eye on the thread.
Thanks jessie. Good info. I had read on forums that people were concerned about evaporation after a few years.
What is the rated life? Any ideas?
I like these, its like an evolution of the excellemt corsair designs.
I just ordered one in uk, noctua d14 is great but its too big
Is it possible to use better fans in this? Like high grade ones? How does the control system work?
My friend had a corsair unit and it was awesome, but it was a nightmare to fit. I dont like the locking system and the tight little tubes, not very flexible.
This is quite expensive compared to 620. The double sized radiator has added a lot of money. I love the software idea, coolits vantage was a stupid idea if you wanted to change settings.
Any plans for linux software?
@roger – In the same testing mentioned above, Asetek concluded that the KUHLER would last greater than 50,000 hours.
@Eric – you can use other fans if you like. Keep in mind that the thickness of the fans does matter. If you go with thicker fans, you’ll need longer screws. The control system will work the same, but the decibel data will be incrrect as it’s calculated for the included fans.
That is great looking. I might get one myself for the sandybridge system im building. I do like the D14 from Noctua, but the size has always put me off. I like getting access to the memory without having to remove the cooler.
I was using a Noctua U12P SE2 on my OC I7 930 (4ghz, 1.38v) and in hot summer days I kept hitting Max Temp (100!) under load (that’s with 3 case fans + 2 fans on the heatsink).
Replaced it by the Antec H20 920… and I am more than pleased. It does get a bit noisy under load, but CPU temp rarely goes above 80.