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Temperatures
All temperature charts are sorted with lowest load temperatures at the top.
Across both tests, the OCUK Tech Labs 240 AIO proved, just about, to be the best performing cooler. This is not a huge surprise considering its 38mm-thick radiator, but the results are still impressive. In terms of acoustics, the unit's pump is fairly quiet. However, with our CPU overclocked, the two 120mm fans did become noticeable as they emit a relatively high-pitched whirr.
Despite performing marginally worse, the Deepcool Captain 240 EX is still an impressive AIO. It does get the edge over the Tech Labs liquid cooler thanks to its quiet fans – they were noticeably quieter and generally less intrusive. At stock speeds, too, the unit's pump is louder than the fan noise, which is quite impressive.
The Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120 is quite similar in that respect, as both its 120mm fans proved to be nothing more than a low-pitched hum. The two 240mm liquid coolers do just get the edge when it comes to performance, but the difference is only around 2C so it is not too significant.
I wasn't quite as impressed with the Arctic Freezer 33 Plus. As you can see from the charts, it does perform well for an air cooler, scoring close to Cooler Master's 120mm AIO unit. However, the fan on our unit exhibited coil whine. This could potentially be down to an unlucky unit, so we are waiting on another sample to check whether or not this is an isolated incident. On the plus side, the fan does switch off while the system is idle.
Update 12/6/17: Arctic has supplied a second unit for testing and I can confirm that this sample does not exhibit the same whine that so grated on me previously. The new fan is very inoffensive, and while its max speed of 1350rpm is still a fair bit faster than the Scythe Mugen 5 PCGH, it is far from loud and I would happily have it in my own personal rig.
I am most impressed with the Scythe Mugen 5 PCGH Edition, though, as it is absolutely dead quiet, even under the load. To give you some figures, with the CPU at stock clocks, the fans did not spin above 550rpm, while they only span up to 840rpm with the CPU overclocked. In short, this cooler is undoubtedly the quietest air cooler I have ever used – the fans are so quiet they would be drowned out by a whisper. The lack of noise does compromise the performance figures, but only very slightly, and the Mugen 5 PCHG edition still performs within 6 degrees of the top spot.
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