Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A 360mm Liquid Cooler Review

1. Sapphire Nitro+ AIO Coolers2. Test Results3. Closing Thoughts4. View All Pages

Almost all of our readers will know Sapphire as a graphics card manufacturer, with the company's Pulse and Nitro+ video cards winning numerous awards from KitGuru over the years. Today we are looking at something a bit different however – Sapphire is entering the high-end CPU cooling market with two all-in-one liquid coolers. Still bearing the Nitro+ branding, let's find out if these new coolers are up to task.

Video Timestamps

Specs and Features:

S360-A

• 360mm, 27mm-thick aluminium radiator
• 3x120mm Sapphire Nitro+ Hybrid Fan Blade 450-2400 RPM PWM fans
• 800-2800 RPM Asetek 7^th Gen pump unit
• ARGB LED lighting in the pump block unit and fans
• 2-year warranty for the pump, tubing, and radiator
• 3-year warranty for the fans
• Modern Intel and AMD socket support (excluding HEDT)

Sapphire's Nitro+ CPU coolers come in 240mm or 360mm form. The smaller of the two retails at £129.95 in the UK, while the 360mm is £169.99 at Overclockers UK. This means that Sapphire is firmly targeting high-end market positioning.

And that point is backed up by the use of Asetek 7th Generation pump technology, as well as dual ball bearing 120mm fans that operate at an impressive 450-2400 RPM speed range.

Those fans use Sapphire's Nitro+ Hybrid Fan blade design that is seen on some of the company's graphics card coolers. In essence, Sapphire blends axial and blower-style designs to try offer the benefits of both but without significant noise compromise. This 12-bladed, joined edge design should help to enhance the focussed airflow output by the individual fans.

One area that really did not impress me was the sheer quantity of cables coming out of the pump-block unit. Six cables to handle pump operation, fan speed control, RGB lighting, SATA power, and the proprietary fan connector is just ludicrous. And that's before the added fan connection break-out cable is brought into the picture.

There are too many cables close to the pump and Sapphire does a bad job at helping a user hide them or make them look tidy. A better approach would have been to bias the cables to the back of the motherboard tray. Or perhaps braid them together so that they look less messy inside a build.

Ease of installation is superb; that's exactly what we expect from the tried-and-tested Asetek design. The ARGB lighting deployed by Sapphire is bright and smooth – I am personally very fond of the fans and the subtle strips of LED lighting on the pump-block unit.

An ‘organic spider' feature is used for the pump cover. This is certainly unique and something different, so I have no complaints. It does, however, increase the pump-block height somewhat needlessly and this could cause issues for SFF chassis users.

RGB lighting is controlled through motherboard vendor software, so there is no need for additional software with the Nitro+ coolers – good job on this point, Sapphire.

Test System:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
• Overclocked Settings: 4.45GHz all-core @ 1.312V (UEFI), Medium LLC – around 1.3V delivered
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master
• Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz 16-18-18-36 DDR4 @ 1.35V
• Graphics Card: Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super 0dB Mode
• Chassis: Fractal Design Meshify 2
• Chassis Fans: 2x140mm 1000 RPM Fractal Front Intake, 1x140mm 1000 RPM Fractal Rear Exhaust, 1x140mm 1000 RPM be quiet! Pure Wings 2 Roof Exhaust (for air cooler testing)
• Power Supply: Seasonic Prime TX-1000
• OS SSD: Corsair MP600 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Testing Methodology:

• For testing, we use a 30-minute looped run of Cinebench R23 and record the steady-state CPU temperature at the end of the test. This ensures that the CPU has had ample time to warm up and reach steady state under all of the coolers.
• Ambient is maintained around 22-24 degrees Celsius. Where there is variation beyond this temperature range, we add in extra repeated tests to ensure consistency.
• We also test each cooler with at least two fresh installs (typically three) to mitigate the likelihood of a dodgy mount spoiling results.

Test Results:

Acoustics

Noise output is… well… dreadfully high. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise with the Nitro+ S360-A using a trio of 2400 RPM fans and a 2800 RPM pump. With noise output levels that were actually quite irritating at full speed, we Sapphire will certainly need to deliver when it comes to cooling performance.

Of course, the fan speed range is 450-2400 RPM with PWM control. And the pump has speed control abilities too. So, this chart just highlights maximum noise output… which is really high!

In order to get the unit running at 40dBA, we had to crank the fans all the way down to 45% duty cycle.We left the pump at its full 2800 RPM speed as its proportion of noise output is not significant.

This 45% duty cycle registered as 1200 RPM on the fans, so there is plenty of headroom available if the cooler power needs ramping up.

Thermal Performance

I guess we now get the other side of the noise versus performance equation, and this is where Sapphire’s new 360mm AIO delivers exceptionally well.

Spinning its three 120mm fans at full speed, the Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A is able to position itself at the top of our overclocked Ryzen 9 5950X cooling chart. It does so by beating out another Asetek-based cooler with high-speed fans and a high RPM pump – the Phanteks Glacier One 360 MP.

Put simply, if you have a highly demanding cooling workload, such as an overclocked Ryzen 9 5950X putting out over 220W of heat, the Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A will deliver exceptional levels of performance. It is loud, but the performance is there in copious amounts

With the coolers locked to 40dBA noise output by reducing their fan speeds, we see some degree of cooling efficiency for the units tested.

Even with over half the speed cut off its fans, the Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A still does well at handling our overclocked Ryzen 9 5950X. But it cannot quite maintain its top-of-the-chart position. This time, Sapphire slots in just behind the Fractal 360 AIO and level with the Phanteks competitor.

This tells us that Sapphire’s choice of fan is very good in terms of noise efficiency, but not quite as strong as the 120mm blowers used by Fractal for example.

Firstly, it is critical to note that small difference in the displayed delta temperatures are not critically important for our PBO testing. The clock speed and cooling power achieved – when balanced against the reported temperature – are the important metrics.

Jumping back to full fan speed data with PBO testing, the Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A once again positions itself at the top of the chart. Yes, this is a case of Sapphire blasting its way above the other coolers with faster fans and therefore higher noise output. But that will be relevant to users who need that top-end cooling power when their processor’s heat output really ramps up.

Here, Sapphire’s Asetek-based cooler is very slightly better than the Phanteks competitor. This is by virtue of a minuscule increase in manager CPU package power and a minor increase to the associated chip frequency.

And now looking at VRM temperatures for our manually overclocked 5950X and Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master motherboard, Sapphire does exceptionally well… somewhat surprisingly.

Unsurprisingly, ASUS tops the chart thanks an equipped high-performance VRM fan on the pump-block unit. But Sapphire is only a few degrees behind and is notably above the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 with its less capable integrated VRM fan.

This is more nuanced than Sapphire’s high-speed fans simply blasting to the top of the chart, as proven by the data from the Phanteks competitor. Instead, it looks like the advertised Nitro+ Hybrid Fan Blade design is actually proving useful for enhancing VRM cooling with our specific chassis, positioning, and motherboard heatsink setup.

With the fans dropped down to 40dBA noise level, though, we do see quite a reduction in performance that puts Sapphire’s unit more in-line with the rest of our test pack.

Performance from the Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A is impressive. Built around the Asetek 7^th Generation pump design and a 27mm aluminium radiator, Sapphire uses a tried-and-tested approach for an AIO liquid cooler.

The Nitro+ Hybrid design fans do a good job, particularly at their high-speed 2400 RPM operation. And while this does indeed make the cooler very loud at full speed, there is plenty of headroom for instances where that heat dissipation power is a necessity.

Plus, you can use the ample speed range to balance between noise and performance; even when locked to 40dBA, the AIO still performs well.

In terms of styling, Sapphire’s ARGB lighting is smooth and bright. No, the package isn’t as proficient as some of the new LCD pump unit coolers on the market. But you don’t get that level of expense either. I think Sapphire strikes a good balance in the area of aesthetics and design features.

I was not impressed by the sheer quantity of cables coming out of the pump unit. This made cable management difficult – I think Sapphire needs a better approach here.

And Sapphire’s warranty is not very good for a £129 240mm AIO or £169 360mm AIO. 2 years for the AIO cooler pump, radiator, and EPDM tubing in addition to 3 years for the fans really doesn’t cut it in the 2021 market at this price point. Most competitors, including Arctic, Corsair, NZXT, and Fractal all have far superior warranties.

Price on this unit is a point for debate. Focussing on the Nitro+ S360-A, £169 is high-end 360mm Corsair and NZXT RGB territory, and it is well above pricing for the likes of Arctic’s and Fractal’s triple-120 offerings.

With that said, the Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A unit’s cooling performance is excellent and the stylish lighting package is worthy of credit. So perhaps the £169 price tag isn’t too tough to swallow, though it would be made a little more palatable if Sapphire bumped up to a 5-year all-round warranty.

The Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A has an MSRP of £169.99 and is available at Overclockers UK. The 240mm Sapphire Nitro+ S240-A is £129.95 at Overclockers UK.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

Pros:

• Excellent cooling performance.
• Maintains strong noise-balanced thermal performance.
• Sapphire Nitro+ Hybrid Fans work well for speed control and VRM cooling.
• Good-looking ARGB lighting.
• Excellent ease of installation (ignoring cables) and compatibility thanks to Asetek.

Cons:

• Expensive at £169 for the S360-A in the UK, but justifiable.
• Warranty situation is poor.
• Cable management is made tricky.

KitGuru says: The Nitro+ S360-A represents a good job by Sapphire in offering up a high-performance AIO cooler with very few performance compromises and a good overall quality of design. This is a superb first effort at a high-end AIO liquid cooler, so we are excited to see what Sapphire can offer up next.

Become a Patron!