Antec Kuhler H2O 1250 CPU Cooler Review

Today we are going to take a look at the latest liquid CPU cooler from Antec, the Kuhler H2O 1250. This has been designed to build on the success of the existing models in Antec’s Kuhler range which have become very popular among enthusiasts thanks to their stellar performance and pricing. The all-in-one liquid CPU cooling market has become very competitive over the last couple of years, and it seems that every few months there is a company entering the market with a new product looking to mix things up. Antec was a relatively early entrant to this specific market and has been offering the Kuhler 620 and 920 for a few years now. Earlier this year they added the 1220 to their range, a 240 mm model which was is based on a standard Asetek design. The 1250 is a custom Antec design which has some interesting features we haven’t seen elsewhere. The Kuhler 1250 is supplied in a compact box which is decorated in an attractive black and blue box. There is a large image of the cooler on the front of the box alongside a few icons illustrating some of the key features. Turning the box around reveals a detailed breakdown of the features and specifications of the cooler alongside some images to illustrate them. The inner packaging is substantial and should protect the cooler well during transit. There is a comprehensive accessory bundle included which features an installation guide and software CD alongside all of the screws and brackets required for installation. It’s quite clear from a glance that there is something a little different which separates the Kuhler 1250 from other CPU coolers on the market. Antec have decided to be creative and integrate a pump for the loop into each of the fan motors. While it’s good to see a company innovating, we’re not quite sure why Antec has chosen to go down this route. The pump motors and associated piping add significant bulk to the radiator unit and may cause compatibility issues with some systems. It also prevents users from using aftermarket fans or from setting the fans in a different configuration - because they are fixed to the radiator. We are curious to see if this innovative configuration can improve performance. One advantage of integrating the pumps into the radiator unit is that the CPU block is pretty thin. This is less significant than the thickness of the radiator unit, though, as a thick CPU block is very unlikely to cause any compatibility mounting issues. Turning the block over reveals a smooth copper surface with the thermal paste preapplied. The CPU block is connected to the radiator unit via a pair of thin rubber tubes. One of these feeds directly into the radiator and the other into one of the pumps. There is another tube connecting this pump to the radiator and another two tubes connecting the other pump to the radiator. All of the tubes are very flexible and allow easy positioning of the CPU block. The fans themselves are both 120 mm models which push air through the radiator from the inside. They are speed controlled and spin up to a maximum of 2,500 rpm (as do the pumps). There are a lot of cables emanating from the cooler unit. These consist of two fan cables, four fan controller headers, an internal USB 2.0 header and a 3-pin fan header for power. Antec provide a detailed installation guide with the Kuhler 1250 which guides us through the installation process. We will be documenting the installation process on an Intel Socket 2011 motherboard. Firstly we have to position the arms on the retention ring so that they are in the ‘Intel’ position, securing them into place with four rubber tabs. Then we can attach this to the CPU block by twisting it onto the bottom of the CPU block. Finally, we can secure the CPU block down to the motherboard using the four provided thumbscrews. Overall, the installation process is one of the simplest we've encountered and was extremely quick, too. There is a software utility bundled with the cooler which can be installed from the supplied CD. This is basic compared to what we've seen from the likes of Corsair, however it does let us set the fan speed or choose between two profiles (silent and extreme). There is also an option to adjust the colour of the LED light which is integrated into the top of the CPU block. To test the performance of the Antec Kuhler H2O 1250 we built a powerful X79 based system on an open test bench to push the cooler to it’s limits. As we were testing on an open test bench, we directed a Be Quiet! Shadow Wings 120 mm fan at the VRM circuitry to better simulate the airflow generated in a case. Test System Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K Motherboard: Asus P9X79 Memory: 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) Mushkin Blackline 1600 MHz Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2 Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7950 Graphics Card (noise tests): HIS Radeon HD 5550 Silence Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum P1000W Software Prime 95 (64-bit) CPUID Hardware Monitor Overclocking We manually overclocked the i7-3930K to 4.7 GHz by increasing the multiplier to 47x, leaving the baseclock set at 100 MHz. We set Load Line Calibration to ‘High’, and increased the CPU Current Capability to 120% with a minor voltage increase. Speed stepping was disabled for both stock and overclocked tests. For our temperature tests we loaded the system for 10 minutes using Prime 95 and recorded the CPU temperature using CPUID HWMonitor. We then restarted the system and left it idling at the desktop for 10 minutes before recording temperatures. The temperatures recorded are based on an ambient temperature of 20 degrees C. The cooler performs well in 'Extreme' mode, however the temperatures increase significantly when 'Silent' mode is activated. In our noise level tests we switched off all the case fans and replaced the AMD Radeon HD 7950 graphics card with a HD 5550 passive model so were just taking into account the noise generated by the cooler fans themselves. We measured the noise level with a Digital Noise Level meter at a distance of 1 m from the front of the system. We can see that the Kuhler 1250 is very quiet in silent mode, however the noise increases exponentially in Extreme mode and becomes very loud. The Antec Kuhler H20 1250 is a very interesting design and while it is clear Antec are trying to innovate in key areas we can't say this cooler is a complete success. Antec deserve some praise for working hard to push the boundaries of what is possible and attempting to differentiate their products from the ever expanding list of 'all in one' liquid coolers that use very similar designs. Sadly, we don't think this particular configuration is necessarily a step forward. On a positive note, the installation procedure is incredibly simple and is clearly documented in the installation guide. We can't imagine inexperienced system builders having any problems when installing the Kuhler 1250. With the 'extreme' profile enabled, the cooling performance was certainly commendable, although the noise levels were higher than we would have hoped. If you don't like dealing with fan noise, then this setting should be avoided. The silent profile was much better acoustically, although the cooling performance suffered and many competing products were able to outperform the Kuhler H20 1250. As we go to publication we don't have any pricing information for the Antec Kuhler H20 1250 CPU cooler, but we would expect that it will be competitively priced. Right now we feel this is worthy of consideration, but it all depends on the final retail price. Pros Innovative design. Slim CPU block. Simple mounting mechanism. Cons Poor trade-off between cooling performance and acoustics. Kitguru says: Kudos to Antec for trying something different however the radical design does have some issues.

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Antec Kuhler H2O 1250 CPU Cooler Review

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