NZXT Kraken 280 – RL-KN280-B1 – 280mm AIO CPU Liquid Cooler
NZXT Kraken 280 – RL-KN280-B1 – 280mm AIO CPU Liquid Cooler – Customizable 1.54″ Square LCD Display for Images, Performance Metrics and More – 2 x F140P Fans – Black
| Weight: | 2 kg |
| Dimensions: | 42.7 x 21.5 x 16 cm; 2 Kilograms |
| Brand: | NZXT |
| Model: | RL-KN280-B1 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Manufacture: | NZXT |
| Dimensions: | 42.7 x 21.5 x 16 cm; 2 Kilograms |
This is a good piece of kit if you looking for a white finish.
Leds are great and the customizable gif is a nice touch!!
So easy to install, quiet and the software allows you to customise easily.
Nice interface for controlling speeds, lighting and display.
Used it on my GPU (RTX 2080ti)with an additional NZXT mount.
I have seen tempature drops to an average of 55 degrees Celsius from 80+ at 100%
Nice and bright display, fans are nice and quiet yet seemingly powerful.
I fitted this on an NZXT H9 Flow. The ideal orientation for the rad would be to mount it vertically on the side of the case with the hoses at the bottom and it was maybe an inch or two off of fitting that way so I had to fit it on the top side of the case
A rad should always be on an intake side, because you don’t want hot exhaust air heating up your rad – you want cold intake air cooling it
It works great now but I had to move some fans around for a different orientation (side as exhaust, rest of the fans as intake, rad under the top fans) because the hoses weren’t quite long enough for best orientation (top as exhaust, rad intake on the side), 4/5
I’m blown away by the quality of this aio. The quality of the picture is even better than it looks in the video, it’s truly stunning. It was super easy to install and is silent. It’s a shame the white version doesn’t have white wires coming from the top but it’s a small issue. The software works perfectly and gives quite a lot of options for the fans as well, but I didn’t bother much as mine are on the top and so not really seen. I’ve been running Baldurs Gate 3 at 4K all max settings and the CPU hasn’t gone above 50C so cooling is top notch. Really cool piece of kit and the favourite thing in my build.
PC specs:
Mobo: ASUS ROG STRIX B760-A Gaming wifi
GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA Aero RTX 4070
AIO: NZXT Kraken Elite RGB 360
CPU: Intel i5 13600KF
RAM: Corsair 32GB DDR5 RGB
Fans: Lian Li S120 infinity x6
Strimer: Lian Li 24pin rgb strime
Overall I love this AIO but the only thing that lets it down is that the fans can’t be re used as case fans. I wanted to use some noctua fans on the radiator but I cannot re purpose the original ones
Easy enough to install even though it can seem tricky with all the cables that come off the single break out cable and there is 2 cables for each fan so there can be a lot of cables I built the aio outside of the case first I put the fans on that is which made it easier you do need to available SATA power sockets to plug in both the pump power and the rgb controller and you do need a usb 2 port on your motherboard to attach the cable to control the pump screen and also for the rgb controller it does include a usb splitter for this but a very easy install and setup well worth it for modern cpu
I find this very reasonably priced, easy to install and the NZXT software is very easy to navigate. I’ve used this with a high end r3d Ryzen 7 and it does a brilliant job
Better lcd screen than z73’s. Fits perfectly in my h9 flow. Very quiet and easy to install.
For better performance you can replace the fans with Arctic p12 max or Phantek T30 but you will have to deal with more noise.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the colling performance of this cooler has been great (so far), but everyone reading this is probably also enticed the little LCD screen. Now I thought it was a bit of fun, but probably a gimmick, oh how I was wrong, to have that information (CPU temp, GPU temp, etc.) constantly available is brilliant! When it works…
I’ve had this for little under a week, and the dispay is on, but not displaying anything. I’ve fully updated the firmware etc. But nothing as of yet. I’d read other reviews where people had experienced this temperamental nature, so I wasn’t super suprised when it happened. Hopefully it’s just in need of a firmware update, however, this being said, the cooler’s operation does not depend on it.
It seems to be cooling my system really well, and this is it’s primary function, hence the 4-stars.
I bought this cooler when there werent many reviews yet online hoping for the best – and it completely delivers. The cooler itself looks amazing and the customisable screen (albeit square on the non-elite versions) is a lovely feature that to me makes it worth the price. I mounted the 240mm radiator in the front of my case and the included fans seem nice enough. The cooler requires the use of NZXT CAM software to customise the display and fan profiles, however I dont mind this too much at all. There are many nice preset settings for the screen display and the software is easy to use. The cooler seems to be doing a great job of cooling my 13600k.
The cooler requires a cable in the top side which connects the 2 included fans, and connects to the CPU_FAN header on the motherboard as well as to a SATA power connection. This can cause the inside to be a bit messy upon first impression, however I didnt even try to manage the cables so i cant complain or comment on this too much. I certainly think the extra cables are worth having such a nice display considering the price of the cooler is not in the premium range for an AIO.
I want to say this is only my second ever AIO and first ever with an LCD screen, I switched from air to water earlier this year and for a while I used a 240 AIO from a different brand but my 5800X3D clearly needed more cooling capacity.
I decided to upgrade to this new Kraken from NZXT after seeing the video on it my Jays2Cents. This new 280mm Kraken AIO is really well priced imo considering it has an LCD display built into the CPU block, by comparison the equivalent sized Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 RGB is around the same price but doesn’t have that functionality. The packaging is great and the guide is easy to understand. I have it mounted at the front of my 4000D case as intake but I think I will see if I can move it to the top, because I’ve noticed the temps inside the case have risen slightly. Also I replaced the fans with Arctic P14s, which I highly recommend doing with this AIO. The pump is super quiet, even in performance mode I struggle to hear it and the fans are fairly quiet too. I played Division 2 yesterday for around 8 hours and CPU didin’t go above 65C at 80W PPT.
Overall I really recommend this cooler!