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Corsair had great success with Asetek's low cost liquid coolers back in 2009 and while they have moved onto new pastures, Antec's Kühler H20 620 has slipped into the market with a unique take on the liquid cooling concept.
The reason for buying one of these coolers is simple. You want an easy set up liquid cooler to reduce noise levels and increase cooling performance, particularly for your overclocked system. While KitGuru has always stood behind the amazing Noctua NH D14 cooler, there are some downsides with this cooler, mainly the huge amount of real estate it demands inside a chassis.
Antec are well known for their computer cases and have been an enthusiast favourite for many years now. The Kühler H20 620 is their first liquid cooler however so a lot rides on the performance. It is worth the cost?
Kühler H2O 620 Specifications
- CPU Socket Compatibility: Intel LGA 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, AMD AM2, AM3, AM2+, AM3+
- Low profile pump ensures exceptional liquid circulation while preserving internal airflow
- Easy-bend tubes for maximum flexibility in radiator positioning
- Intelligent noise / speed control fan for quiet, efficient cooling
- Latest generation copper cold plate for optimal conduction
- Cooling Liquid – Safe, environmentally-friendly, anti-corrosive
- Fan Speed: 1450 – 2000 RPM
- Tubing Length: 330 mm / 13.0″
- Radiator Dimensions: 151 mm (H) x 120 mm (W) x 27 mm (D); 5.6″ (H) x 4.7″ (W) x 1.1″ (D)
- Fan Dimensions: 120 mm x 25 mm / 4.7″ x 1.0″
- Net Weight: 0.7 kg / 1.5 lbs
- AQ3- Antec Quality 3-year parts and labor warranty
The Antec Kühler H20 620 arrives in a nicely designed box with the trademark company colours and a clean, high resolution image of the cooler on the front.
Inside, neatly arranged, are all the components. The pump and radiator assembly, a 120mm fan, install manual, mounting brackets and screws.
The manual is a fold out pamphlet, which I have to say was rather confusing in parts.
The Antec Kühler H20 620 Liquid Cooler ships with mounting brackets for both AMD and Nvidia platforms, as well as colour coded front mounted retention holders. The manual doesn't really detail this very well, especially as its printed in black and white and makes no mention of colour. AMD are green, and Intel are blue, in case you are wondering.
The Antec Kühler H20 620 has two connectors wired to the pump and the 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 H20 620 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.
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.
Today, we are using the high end Gigabyte X58 Assassin motherboard which we reviewed last week, you can read this review over here.
The Assassin motherboard is one of the finest products we have reviewed this year, and is a worthy partner for a liquid cooling system, especially as the overclocking options are so comprehensive and detailed.
The adhesive backplate is attached without problem and four metal bolts are passed through to the front of the board. There are a possible twelve positions as can be seen in the images above. This is to cater for various slot sizes.
As we are using an Intel 1366 motherboard, the blue offset clips are used with the retaining mount system, as seen above. This retaining ring should be left in a loose position so the main cooling head can be inserted under it and then rotated into a locking position. This is a very similar method to the Corsair H50 and H70 coolers of yesteryear. It is a little fiddly, but doesn't really cause any issues.
This stage of the process will be dependent on your choice of chassis. Above, the Antec Twelve Hundred case requires a rear mounted exhaust fan to be removed.
As these fans are fed into a rear fan control section for speed adjustments, we need to cut one of the cables. Not ideal, but necessary.
This fan is then attached into the 120mm location. Antec recommend the fan is locked into an exhaust position so warm air is expelled from within, keeping the traditional air flow mechanic in place. As some of you may remember, Corsair wanted the H50 and H70 fans to be mounted in an intake position, therefore pulling in cool air over the radiator. The idea was fine in theory, but we didn't think it worked well within the typical airflow of a normal chassis design.
When the radiator is fixed then the cooling head can be twisted into position underneath the retention block. When completed, then the four screws can be tightened to maintain good clamping pressure.
Installation took about 15 minutes the first time, but would take less on subsequent reinstalls.
Today we are using the latest Intel Core i7 990x Extreme Edition processor which we reviewed a short while ago. This is the current mainstream flagship processor from Intel.
While we could use an open test bench, we like to try and mirror more ‘realistic’ conditions, so we have built the system inside an Antec Twelve Hundred chassis. Room ambient temperatures are maintained at a steady 20c throughout testing. We use diodes to measure core temperatures.
Intel System:
Processor: Intel Core i7 980x
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58 Assassin
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Power Supply: Corsair TX850W
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred
Memory: GSkill RipJaws DDR3 2000mhz 6GB 7-8-7
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD5670 Ultimate Edition
Comparison coolers:
Corsair H50
Corsair H70
Coolit ECO A.L.C.
Coolit Vantage A.L.C.
Noctua NH D14
All other coolers were set to their default fan speeds for this section of the review.
The Kühler falls in right behind the Noctua NH D14, which is impressive, outperforming the Corsair H70 at ‘low' default fan settings.
We are overclocking the Intel 990x to 5ghz on this board with the core voltage set to 1.5, extremely high levels and a quick way to judge ultimate overclocked cooling performance.
Great results from the Kühler H20 620 cooler and almost neck and neck against the Corsair H70 with fans set to high.
Recently we have changed our method of measuring noise levels. Ambient noise in the room is around 20dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
Generally this is a quiet fan, generating very little noise, even when partially loaded. Often it will idle around 30 dBa, peaking at 34 dBa when stressed or cooling an overclocked processor with increased voltage. It is significantly quieter than the last generation Corsair products.
Corsair had great success with the Asetek manufactured H50 and H70 liquid coolers. The combination of easy fitting, low noise levels and excellent cooling performance ensured very healthy sales figures.
The Antec Kühler H20 620 Liquid Cooler is set to continue the success story for the rebranded Asetek products. This product is slightly different however, because it is not listed as an OEM product by Asetek and there are no specifications detailed either. Asetek direct interested parties to the Antec product page. We have no idea of the pump flow and fan airflow characteristics, but as the hoses are thicker on the Kühler product, we would assume that the water flow has been improved from the previous generation products.
The Kühler is an excellent performance cooler ideal for use within an overclocked system. It is clearly superior to the older designs and manages to keep up with the Corsair H70, which has dual fans, a thicker radiator and emits more noise in performance mode.
It still can't outperform the Noctua NH D14, but there are key benefits with the Kühler design. For one, it takes up less physical space and ensures that other components can be easily accessed, such as memory modules. While the NH D14 can cause fitting problems for oversized memory heatspreaders, the Kühler can be paired with any memory on the market.
Installation of the Kühler is extremely easy, although the instructions could be worded a little more clearly. The build quality is top class and all of the individual components look perfectly capable of withstanding many years of abuse.
The pricing is the icing on the cake, at £45 inc vat in the UK, this is easily one of the biggest bargains so far, this year.
Pros:
- Price point is fantastic
- fan speed is adjusted automatically
- CPU cooling performance is class leading
- no maintenance required
- very quiet, even when fully loaded
- build quality is excellent
Cons:
- no means to expand to chipset or GPU coolers
Kitguru says: One of the finest performance CPU coolers on the market. Pricing is exceptionally good also.
£45, damn thats a hell of a price, its 20 quid less than the D14.
Thats a really good looking product, no doubt about it. the price is amazing. i thought it was £65, same as H70.
I was waiting on a few good reviews of this. I think this will be my next purchase. I still have my H50 from when it was released and its a bit tattered looking now.
I think antec hit the price spot on. a lot of people who normally wouldnt spend 60 quid on a cooler will go for this due to the 45 quid asking price, same as frio, but smaller and better. seems like a win win
Very impressive cooler for the money. The thicker hoses are definitely helping.
ordered one online for £42, thats a hell of a bargain as you say.
Good review, great cooler. Just to let you know, there is a small typo in this article on page 2 – ‘ships with mounting brackets for both AMD and Nvidia platforms’.
The thing sucks – three time as expensive as a simple Corsair fan system and twice as loud. There is no way to control the RPM, it will constantly be over 1400. I just got this thing installed and it is driving me mental.
I implore you not to buy this piece of crap.