Kraken X63 ( 280 mm )
Kraken X63 ( 280 mm )
| Weight: | 1.6 kg |
| Dimensions: | 34.7 x 15.7 x 21.3 cm; 1.6 Kilograms |
| Brand: | NZXT |
| Model: | RL-KRX63-01 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | NZXT |
| Dimensions: | 34.7 x 15.7 x 21.3 cm; 1.6 Kilograms |
Generally happy.
Able to keep up with a Ryzen 7900 (non-X), though idles at around 50c and maxes out around 88c.
AM5 mounting was not included in the box, and had to be requested from nzxt, who shipped it quick from the USA.
If you’re shopping for this, aesthetic is likely a large part of the reason, and I was disappointed at how much cable mess there was attached to the heatsink/display. Obvious that it’s needed, but most images do not show these and give an unrealistic idea of how clean it will be.
As a cooler, way overpriced. As an attractive solution with a cool looking screen, it’s perhaps justifiable. Don’t expect top notch cooling, however.
It arrived with missing amd standoffs, if it wasn’t for that then I’d give it 5 stars as it runs great so far and looks nice too.
looks really clean and isn’t too loud the rub is really nice
Brought for a new PC build, works spot on and love the customisable display.
Highly recommended
Good CPU cooler, good software the only thing that I’m not over keen on is the fans they could be a little bit better, they make a little bit of a whining noise, they is 120mm fans out there that have lower noise and bigger air flow, probably going to change the fans on my next service to a different leading brand
Used on an i7 10700k. Idling temperatures are between 26-28deg C (obviously higher if the ambient temp is higher). Under load (e.g. video encoding) it has never gone above 65deg C and the temps drop rapidly when the load drops.
Uses ALOT of cabling on the pump. It has USB, RGB and another. Cable managing in the front of the case by the pump can be a bit tricky to hide or make look neat. RGB is controlled from CAM software which is pretty good.
The fans are quiet and powerful but the fans are only RGB on one side so limits your aesthetics.
Overall, a good, solid AIO which will last quite a few years. No problems since it has been installed.
Thermal paste is already applied to the heat exchanger so you won’t need to add any more.
No additional brackets required for the LGA 1700 for intel processor. Adjusted the the bracket to outermost position and fit perfectly.
I used to use an old air cooler for my cpu and since I upgraded to this AIO, I have noticed that my idle temps and temps during use are very low. Idling around 10*C and 30-40*C in games (dependant on the game).
The appearance of the cpu block is very cool with the infinity mirror effect and the ability to adjust the logo by twisting it.
Was kind of fiddly to install but that could be due to front mounting the fans, overall great purchase. Highly recommend
With the kraken: 20-27 degrees idle. 33-38 under small load. I haven’t reached above 52 degrees on any of the games I’ve played. And under 100% load for 10 minutes on a cpu burner the lowest temp was 54 high 57. Being able to have the cpu temps on a 5600 x under 60 degrees with 100% load (noise not being an issue at all) is unbelievably good at this price range infact this cooler would be up to high standards with top range aios double the price bought for 115 premium delivery and it’s been my best valued upgrade along with my gpu. (I’ve upgraded all the major components) 100% recommend
Side notes- have done optimisation for the cpu (nothing technical just watch a 5 minute yt video which has helped towards such good temps) bit of a pain to install quite time consuming but I think all that is worth the outcome
It might be a bit on the loud side of things for some but it’s ok, just ok for me. I’d like it to make a little less ofc.
Edited: much nicer temps now I have it front mounted as an intake. Getting CPU idle temps of 31-32 now.
The TEMPs aren’t the best either for me. I’ve set it twice just to make sure too. Getting CPU temps of 38 to low 40s in idle and mid 60s to 70s in games. I know that’s still safe and all, was just hoping for better from this AIO. My CPU is a AMD Ryzen 9 5900x.
Overall I love the look, my hamster in its wheel is just the best! Just not blown away with the performance of it, at that price too.
Great cooler, just awkward to install since the instructions aren’t too clear on how to wire the cables and install the fans to the radiator. Other then that, great product – highly recommend it.
Arrived well packaged and in good time.
on first impressions i had not realised just how big the radiator was.
Its nearly the size of a landrover discovery heater matrix so plenty of cooling ability.
There is no manual or instructions included so you have to go online to download. i do miss having the manual but i also get that it makes less waste so i can live with that.
everything plugged in just how it should and i downloaded the management software customised the profiles and am delighted with the performance and it is very quiet.
Ran a 10 minute stress test pushing the CPU to 100% across all cores and it kept it at a nice 42 degrees.
the display is lovely and being able to upload pics or gifs is a nice touch.
All in i would highly reccomend this and thus far am yet to find a con. if i was being really picky then i would like to see a generic ARGB interface. as from what i read it is not compatible with your motherboard ARGB headers. but this is just lighting. nothing to do with performance
The z53 nzxt aio is a good aio but it does not have the best monitor on the pump itself. This cpu cooler has good temps and it looks good in most builds. There isn’t many downsides to the cooler other than the monitor inside of it isn’t the best.
Bought this after my MSI MAG coreliquid 240r cooler stopped working and this one is just so much better than my MSI one was as it actually keeps the cpu cool even when gaming, definitely worth it however, I do think the price for it should be just a little bit lower.
The cooling performance is good. With the provided thermal paste I get 30-35 on idle and 50 under gaming load (the most stressful activity for my usage). The issue is the remaining 80% of times I don’t play I need the cooler to be quiet but this one isn’t.
I thought it was the fan but it’s the pump itself, as I disabled all fans on the system to single out the pump noise. Disabled the one chassis fan I have, disabled the two Aer fans on the rad., and disabled the three fans on the GPU radiator.
If noise is not an issue, then the performance is good, but if you do any sort of work that requires quiet then it’s not ideal.
Update: after installing an AIO cooler from another brand. I noticed that the new cooler is noticeably more queit but the pc still has audible noise, even on idle, due to power supply unit fan, and not the AIO cooler pump and fans. So I have increased the rating from 3 to 4 stars.
Super easy to install – had an adjustable bracket for LG1700 and lower. It also had a bracket for AMD chipsets.
So far it is incredibly effective, I haven’t overclocked the processor (yet) but with running intensive games and multi-processing etc my CPU hasn’t topped 30 degrees celsius.
I haven’t played around with the NZXT CAM software much but it is easy to customise the rgb and heatsink display. I am very fond of the dual GPU/CPU temp display but you can also add gifs that come out crystal clear.
The infinity mirror design looks fantastic, but the LED lights aren’t as bright as I hoped; compared to my coolermaster fans.
Good news is, installation was a breeze, though I wish there were fewer wires sprouting from the pump.
Cooling performance seems excellent with minimal noise, great for a bit of overclocking!
CAM software has plenty of lighting customisation and features including fan and pump speed settings. Surprised to also see a AIO liquid temperature read out too!
The cooling is pretty decent, the display is much better than I thought it would be.
Word of warning, make sure you have your stock AMD backplate as it only come with an Intel backplate.
As someone buying their first AIO, it was a bit of a struggle to install. I found the instructions pretty vague especially when it came to the cables. but I got there in the end. For near 200, it cools only slightly better that my previous 20 air cooler, at a 5-10 degree difference. But it’s a great looking cooling method and the LCD display is the cherry on top.
Product comes with a high price tag but for that you get one of best enclosed water coolers on the market. Runs quiet, maintains temperature at & below 60 degree, you can customise the LCD display to show any number of built in system status read outs from cpu loads to cpu & gpu temperatures or you can display a .gif image of your choice that can be uploaded to it by using the CAM software. Installation is easy for somebody who has basic knowledge in building PC’s. Only word of advice if you are thinking about purchasing this product do to check to ensure your case can support it. This 3 fan unit is pretty large and you will need space to install it & not all PC cases support large radiator systems like this so plan your build before you buy. Once installed & running it does look the business & performs extremely well.
After extensive research this Cooler ticked almost all the boxes for me. Runs silent under normal load and specifications in general very good. Also uses newest Astek Gen7 pump and the RGB version is quieter than the Non-RGB version.. Managed to get one at discounted price and that made it a no-brainer for me value wise.
This is a fantastic cooler I’ve not installed the supplied RGB fans as I was using some Lian li sl120s instead but fantastic aio cooler one slight issue I had was the very small amount of thermal paste pre applied after installing the new build would overheat rapidly and shut down I removed the pre applied thermal paste and placed my own thermal paste on and all is working exceptionally.
So ide recommend when buying this ide also get some thermal paste remove the pre applied and add your own thermal paste.
Fantastic cooler other than the paste.
Don’t forget once it’s installed and you use the nzxt software you can rotate images/GIFs on the led screen.
I think theyre overpriced and defo not necessary but my son loves it on his gaming pc as he can personalise the display. Downside is that the radiator fans that come with it arent easily repurposed as the holes are too big for the normal fan screws, I replaced them with the RGB fans and thought Id re-use or sell the stock fans but as I stated the holes arent standard and cant be case mounted.
Not too tricky to install and keeps my 5600x very cool without an unsightly huge heat sink and fan right in the middle of the mobo. Only downside is that the colour cannot be set without having the cam software running all the time. Upon boot, it defaults to a white circle and doesn’t retain the colour you set until cam boots up. Just another app I didn’t need in the background.
Great product overall, just beware of the very short tubing on this. It’s short for a reason (to keep the inside of your case uncluttered) but they’ve cut it way too short. I had genuinely 1mm of slack left on the tubes when fitting it to the inside front of my small mid-size case (corsair carbide 275R) even after rearranging everything in the case to accommodate the most direct route from radiator to CPU block. Just be careful.
This is a really well made mid-level AIO cooler.
I’m running this with my Ryzen 5950x and when I’m intensively gaming, this thing really pulls its weight.
I’m not going to lie, the fans are a lot nosier than my Deepcool CF120 case fans when under full load but they pump is quiet enough.
I’ve had to play around with the CAM software to get a good medium between Cooling and Noise levels, and have been able to get a nice average where the CPU is around 60C and fans at around 65% load, which isn’t too noisy, anything over 75% load is very very noticeable.
Software is very intuitive and installation instructions all very clear. Highly recommend this cooler for mid to high level builds
This cools an Intel 11th gen i9 chip (with a 3090 gaming card below) brilliantly.
The X73 is also ideal for the popular HAF X case, with the 360mm radiator fitting below the chassis inside the top (with fans below, ducting air upwards). Four screws even match (holding the whole thing securely), so it’s a piece of cake.
Only mods needed:
1) Remove the existing case fan inside the top (it’s redundant)
2) Move whatever is in the top front computer bay (in our case a DVD writer) down at least one slot, to allow the radiator to extend into this bay. We moved it down two slots.
We would HIGHLY recommend modifying the top of the case (google “Cooler Master HAF X – Case Modifications”) which makes access to the top simple and will allow future easy access without the faff of prizing off all the fiddly wiring to the on-off switch, leds, etc, etc., etc.
Top marks!
an awesome and simple cooler the screen works well although it’s clearer from certain angles and has kinda short hoses that fray easily as they’re covered on cotton braid. only issue I have is the software doesn’t kick in until you either log in or start up by then your cpu is already heating up and then the softwares like….oh damn…better ramp those fans to take that 20 degrees of might run it through the board software instead but simple to install and looks cool and works well…what else matters? 9/10
I mounted it on top, to exhaust the heat out top, and I mounted the fans over the heatsink instead of under which is more usual i think, so pulling the air through. It just suited my case moreso, nothing much in the decision. This was a little tricky to install though as meant holding the fans in place by balancing them on top of the heatsink as I screwed the fans to the case. You’ll see what I mean if you do it that way. But once the first screw catches it is plain sailing after that. Keeps my cpu cool, 25-26 Celsius idle, 30 Celsius up to upper 50s Celsius if in heavier workload. Ambient temps at 15-25 degrees. I know this is kind of useless info if you don’t know my other case fans and case type, but all in all I’m very happy with it. It feels like high quality too.
(Reviewing X53 240mm in July 2021)
Well let’s get this out the way to begin with, it’s expensive, very expensive lol.
I’ve used it (along with a Kraken G12) to liquid cool my GPU (to gain performance back from the thermal throttling) and I cannot understate how much of an amazing job its done so far.
For perspective,
I’ve got an MSi GTX 980 Gaming card that’s overclocked and it used to idle at 55c and easily hit 93c not long into a game lol,
So if you’re using this for a CPU it should EASILY do the job compared to my hot box of a GPU lol.
Since installing this my idle temp is now around 20c with a max of 55c during games.
This has given me a legit 40c temp reduction. 40c…. my card performs sooo much better than I ever knew it could lol
Would highly recommend!
The first one I received had an issue, presumably a dead pump, which meant that I had to return it and use a stand in cooler. Once I received my second, installation was as simple as possible (it includes mounting hardware for both AMD and Intel). The tubes are thin and pliable, and the cables are (just) long enough to tidy away effectively in medium sized (ATX) cases.
The screen is great, and the NZXT CAM software is easy to install and then use. I like to switch between the dual temperature screen and the GIF screen, and it is clear and very bright.
The temperatures maintained are good, I never go far past 65 Celsius with a relatively hot (105W) CPU. If you have the money, I recommend.
My first one of these arrived with a cracked fascia, it makes no difference to the operation of the unit and as its cooling my GPU, which is not mounted vertically, you don’t see the face of it when its operating. Installed it with the original fans in a simple push configuration, and the temps were OK. Not a huge difference over the Corsair H55 120mm AIO (2 x 120mm fans in push pull) that I was using before. The noise levels were acceptable though running slightly quieter than the previous older setup.
I have since replaced the fans, now using Noctua NF-P12’s, 4 of them in a push pull config and this has made a huge difference to temps and noise levels.
I now own 2 of these (same fan setup); both cooling my GPU’s and I am very happy with their performance. My GPU(s) 1080 and a Titan XP both run at circa 25 -30 degree C when idling, circa 40 degree C when running nicehash and no higher than 55 degree C on extended WarZone sessions.
Setup: X570-E ROG Strix, Ryzen 7 3700X, H510i case. It is easy to install, I did a pull config (bracket – fans – radiator), fits nicely. Be careful of the top wire harness as you are laying down the entire assembly to fit inside the case. The radiator fans can be connected to 3-way splitter (provided) to the MB or the CAM in the H510i. For the pump, I connected it to AIO cooler port (PWM mode) and CPU (DC mode – 3 pin), USB in the USB 2.0 header and RGB fan out to RGB in for the pump. It came with preapplied thermal paste which is ok. CAM software is good and keeps the noise and temp in check. Important: Keep PC upright, as long as highest point of the rad is ABOVE the pump you are ok, don’t believe in the nonsense in mounting it with pipes at the bottom (does not work in H510 and makes absolutely no difference). Make this PULL air in (intake) and the 2 case fans as PUSH air out (exhaust) for H510i. Temp difference between AMD Wraith cooler and X63 are about 5-7 degrees. Case temperature difference between 7 – 9 degrees in performance mode. Great product.
This piece will be the highlight of your whole computer. It is so worth it, it brings the whole PC together. At first I was unsure about the hefty price, but I would definitely buy it again if I had the chance and for future builds. Only issue I have is my idle temps are quite high (around 50’s), may be due to me having mounted the radiator on the top of my PC. However, I am yet to spot the temp’s go above 75 so I am fine with the high idle temps. In my opinion only thing missing is RGB fans (however, I do like it not being too overboard if the PC already has all RGB fans in it.
My original CPU Water cooler relied on just a single fan and was constantly hitting 80 deg and starting to throttle the CPU. Installing this in its place left the CPU idling at 28 deg and reaching 50 deg max when the CPU was stress tested. Couldnt be happier and have a lot room to start overclocking if I wish to.
Installation was straight forward and the cooler comes preprepared with thermal paste applied. Stock paste seems fine.
The CPU cooler does require a few more connections. It needed a SATA connection so chained it off the Hard Disk. It also needed a USB 2.0 motherboard connection which I did not have free. Had to unplug the USB 2.0 ports from the front of my case so the CPU could use the connection. Wasnt an issue as I still had my USB 3 ports.
Overall an excellent purchase. The lighting also looks great.
Bought this to replace the stock AMD Wraith cooler as it wasn’t really up to par with demanding games as it was hitting a high of 90 degrees. So I opted for an aio as apposed to the enormous noctua air cooler.
Easy to install although I wanted to opt to have the pipes exit the bottom of the rad but unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do this as the 3080 was obstructing them and the pipes were being too stretched, so I had to opt for the pipes exiting the top.
Performance wise I cannot fault it, my GPU generally hovers around the 43 degrees mark on the same game that made it hit 90 with the AMD cooler.
I have it installed in a phanteks P400a case but I had to increase the speed of the exhaust fans to keeps air flowing to cool the graphics card. I am aiming to install 2 140mm fans to the front of the case in a pull, push setup to increase air flow through the front.
All in all though an excellent purchase and it is one of the nicest looking aio’s on the market.
– Easy to install
– Very quiet
– Good software
– Infinity mirror looks amazing
With a Ryzen 7 3700x I get around 30 – 40 degrees while IDLE, and around 40 – 60 under full load. It’s worth noting this is using the “silent” profile, so it would definitely be capable of more.
If you care about aesthetics this cooler looks really nice, I’m a big fan of the infinity mirror.
Note: I don’t know if others will experience this, but when I very first used this It made a very audible bubbling noise. Something I was alarmed by, as it indicated air had got into the closed-loop. However, I am glad to say after around 2 hours of use the noise slowly disappeared until it was no longer present. I’m not sure if this is normal, and you just have to break-in a new AIO or what, but the documentation says nothing about it.
The pump is so large that the hoses will cover the first ram slot. This isn’t a problem if you’re running two sticks but to run 4 you’d need to rotate the pump. Something that sounds easy if it weren’t for my other problem with this cooler.
The USB cable is very short and will only be able to be wire tucked away if your board and case have the holes and USB sockets in just the right spots. meaning more then likely you’ll have to run it down the front of the board. Not the end of the world but for a cooler that’s about the looks it’s a let down.
While it’s clearly a good performing cooler one downside is that it’s very, very loud. The pump honestly sounds like any other AIO cooler since 99% all borrow the same basic design, it’s got that high pitched hum a lot of them have. But the fans make the stock AMD fan seem silent. The two 140mm fans when they pick up speed are brutal. I was thinking of swapping them out for the RGB variants to make use of the NZXT Hue2 funtions but I might look into Noctua fans just to bring down the volume.
Mount the back-plate to the motherboard > mount the fans on the radiator > mount the radiator to the case > mount the cooler on the CPU > connect the cables (tip: connect the cables before mounting the cooler as the orientation and angle can be confusing) to the correct headers and what not and we’re good to go.
The build quality is good, the metal finish is as I expect from a 250 product. The fact that the connectors to the cooler can rotate freely whilst offer enough resistance to hold their orientation is great. The fans are a lot more stable (not wobbly) than my Corsair RGB fans, so overall I’m pleased with the end product.
For performance: I’m not a benchmarker, but cooling has significantly improved for me, dropping the load temp from 80+C to 45-50C; idle temp is around 27-30C – all in silent mode. My old cooler was crap though so don’t expect the same performance comparison on your system unless you also cheaped out on your air cooler.
My only physical issue (but not a complaint) is that the domed mounting screws + the washer together form a rather high profile finishing – which is not great for the O11 Dynamic, which uses thin magnetic dust filters with very little head space. As a result the screws pressed against the dust filter actively prevents me from shutting my top panel now. This wouldn’t be a problem with wide flat-head screws, but it’s a very specific problem probably exclusive to my situation.
The Cam software does add more bloat to my OS, especially when I already use Corsair’s iCue software – but it doesn’t really affect my day to day use.
I’m a bit disappointed by the Cam software as well, as of Oct 2020:
The UI is clean but it doesn’t compliment the UX: the minimalistic look and feel actually hide functionalities – it’s not immediately obvious that you can click on the certain areas to expand additional options – it’s only indicated by the mouse cursor changing to a pointed finger. For example, fan curve settings are hidden unless you click on the Pump and Fan rows.
Also there’s currently a bug where the Dual Infographic display doesn’t work with the Carousel mode (rotate between different displays), it just shows a blank screen when it gets to the dual info screen. This limits the potential of the display which I pay the premium this cooler for specifically.
The lack of Gif display in Carousel mode, or a Gif Carousel to rotate between gifs is also very disappointing, again one of the biggest selling points of this cooler. It should be easily added software side.
All in all I’m very happy for the purchase, but right now I don’t think it’s worth the 100 premium for the display until they improve the software. Will have to see in a few years how it holds out endurance wise.
unpacking to to discover the fans were not installed. but soon realised that this is due to where you may want to install the radiator may mean that you want to lead the fan wires out a different side and whether you want a push or pull configuration on the radiator. the mounting plate allows you to put the cpu block at many angles which would be great if the software would also do the same. The software has +90, -90 +180 rotation for the screen so you ideally mount at those angles if you want to display cpu temps etc.. or your display will look squint. It would be better if the software had finer increments. An option to purchase with ARGB fans would nice rather than having to purchase 2 additional fans to replace 2 perfectly good fans. I opted to leave the origional fans on and see how noisy they were. overall system is quiet. but I don’t tax the cpu and run the fans on the slower side. Easier installation than doing a diy water cooled solution. but not as flash as some of those hard lined water cooled systems. You can find some quite nice gifs to play on the display. but it best suits a gif that loops nicely. and once the gif is loaded to the cpu block it plays from system power on. (you don’t have to wait for any software to load) NZXT cam software is used to change the display.
Runs really quiet and keeps my PC cool as a cucumber. The infinite mirror effect looks nice and theres quite a few options for customization in the NZXT CAM software.
I would say it was worth the money for the aesthetics, if you like that sort of thing, but if you’re on a tight budget and not bothered for looks, just get a Noctua. You can get the same cooling performance from a fan cooler, that goes for all AIOs.
PROS:
– Stunningly Crisp Colorful & Sharp HQ Graphical LCD Display on the Pump
– NZXT Software is Solid, Responsive & a Breeze To Use
– Up-Loading GIFs to the Pump LCD Screen is Ridiculously Easy
– Pump is Quiet in Full Mode
– The Stock Fans are also pretty quiet in full mode too
– Cools my Very HOT AMD Ryzen 3900x CPU like a Pro
– 70c idle with Ryzen Wraith Stock Cooler & 43c idle with the Kraken Z73 on an Extremely Hot Summers Day !!!
– Flexible Pipes make it easy to install
– Looks Gorgeous
CONS:
– Absolutely None
My Current PC Specs are:
– AMD Ryzen 3900X
– NZXT KRAKEN Z73 360mm 3 Fan AIO CPU WATER COOLER
– NVIDIA EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING 11GB
– ASUS X470 ROG Crosshair Hero VII Socket AM4 Motherboard
– 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 Ram 2x16GB 3600MHz CL16 Kit
– Corsair RM850x 80 PLUS Gold, 850w PSU
– Fractal Design Define R6 EATX Case
– Three LG 24in Monitors
God i Love This Cooler LOL
This is my very first NZXT Purchase so i thought id go BiG … i’m glad i did 🙂
I think this product makes all other AIO Coolers look boring … iMO
I Recommend This Cooler & I Hope This Review Helps
The pump is so quiet and the led customisation through CAM is great.
Happy. Although I will say that if I had the spare cash I would have got the AIO with the led display as that would have been so useful at a glance to have monitored temps but I can’t justify the extra 100 just for tha