Alphacool eisbaer 240 review (full review)

Alphacool is well known to liquid cooling fans for offering a large number of high quality water blocks for devices as varied as processors, graphics cards, and motherboards. Among its large catalog we bring you the analysis of its all-in-one liquid cooling kit Alphacool Eisbaer 240 promises to offer excellent performance as well as very quiet operation of its two 120mm fans. If you are interested in buying a pre-assembled liquid cooler for your processor keep reading this review.

First of all we thank Alphacool for giving us the Eisbaer 240 for analysis:

Alphacool Eisbaer 240 Technical characteristics

Unboxing and product description

First, we look at the presentation of the Alphacool Eisbaer 240, which comes in a cardboard box with dimensions of approximately 33.3 cm x 24 cm x 13.6 cm. On the front of the box we see an image of his pump and all the supported sockets are detailed, nor is the brand logo missing in a perfectly visible way.

For its part, the back shows a very similar design, although this time the protagonist is a fan. Little else we find in a fairly simple packaging that does not inform us of the most important specifications of the product before buying it, something to improve in the future.

We open the box of the Alphacool Eisbaer 240 and we find the product very well protected by a piece of cardboard that occupies the entire space and accommodates all the parts of the Kit. Alphacool provides a very complete bundle with a large number of screws and all accessories required to mount the CPU block on all current sockets. We are also provided with two single-dose thermal paste sachets and a thief cable to connect the two fans to the same port on the motherboard.

The Alphacool Eisbaer 240 is an all-in-one liquid cooling kit that mounts a 240mm radiator alongside a CPU block that integrates the pump for fully autonomous operation.

This new kit uses standard G 1/4 ”fittings so that the user can expand their possibilities in a very easy way, we see more and more solutions of this type that allow an expansion to improve their performance. We are therefore in front of an ideal solution for those users who want to water their hardware, but cannot afford a custom liquid cooling circuit or simply want to bet on a pre-assembled product but capable of offering very good performance.

G 1/4 ″ fittings connect the radiator to the 10mm tubes through which the coolant will circulate from the radiator itself to the CPU block to absorb all the heat from the processor and remove it through the flow of air from the fans.

The Alphacool Eisbaer 240 is based on a design inherited from the NexXxos ST30 in which a copper radiator made up of multiple fins, no less than 16 per inch, is used to maximize the heat exchange surface and thus optimize to the maximum cooling our system. With such a large number of fins we will not need to use the fans at a high speed so we will have a very quiet operation and capable of dissipating a large amount of heat.

A logo of the brand is responsible for decorating the radiator, which has a very clean design that looks quite elegant.

It includes two 120mm Eiswind fans with PWM control and the ability to rotate at a speed between 550 RPM and 1700 RPM to generate a maximum air flow of 63.85 CFM and a loudness of 29 dBa.

The CPU block is designed with a body in which the predominant material is plastic, a small window can be seen so that we can see the level of the refrigerant fluid as it evaporates, no matter how well sealed a product comes As this it is impossible to avoid that the liquid is escaping little by little which diminishes its performance slowly. The block base is made of copper and is highly polished for optimal contact with the processor IHS for maximum heat transfer.

This block for the processor has a very easily accessible plug through which we can change its cooling fluid as it evaporates, an important step forward compared to other kits that do not allow maintenance.

The Alphacool Eisbaer 240 pump has a power consumption of 4W and a maximum flow of 70 liters / hour, which is limited by the length of the tubes, which totals 0.85 meters. This pump is capable of moving a higher flow so the kit can be expanded with the addition of longer tubes and some additional block for the GPU.

Assembly and installation

First or we will fix the fans to the radiator, so that the hot air comes out from inside the box. In our case it is in the following situation:

Next we will look for the accessories for our platform, in this case we are going to mount it on a LGA 1151 socket with Z170 chipset. We chose the screws and the rear backplate.

Our second step is to install the two hooks for Intel in the block, no tools are needed, since we simply have to apply pressure and it will fit perfectly.

We proceed to fix the rear installation plate on the back of the motherboard.

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And we will install the screws with their respective springs plus nut.

Remaining a result similar to this one:

Finally we will install the pump power and fan controls to the motherboard.

End of assembly! Test bench and performance tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	i7 6700k
Base plate:	Gigabyte Z170 UD5 TH.
Memory:	32GB Kingston Fury DDR4 @ 3000 Mhz
Heatsink	Cooler Alphacool.
HDD	Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 1080.
Power supply	Corsair AX860i.

To test the real performance of the heatsink we are going to stress the best processor on the market: the Intel Skylake i7 6700k. Our tests consist of 72 uninterrupted hours of work. In stock values and with overclock 4500 mhz. In this way, we can observe the highest temperature peaks and the average that the heatsink reaches. We must bear in mind that when playing or using other types of software, the temperature will drop dramatically between 7 to 12ºC.

How are we going to measure the processor temperature?

We will use the internal sensors of the processor. For that test on Intel processors we will use the CPUID HwMonitor application in its latest version. Although it is not the most reliable test of the moment, it will be our reference in all our analyzes. The ambient temperature is 24º.

Temperatures obtained

Final words and conclusion about

The Alphacool Eisbaer 240 is an excellent liquid cooler that offers really good performance. It incorporates a double grill radiator with a surface of 240 mm and two excellent fans.

In our tests we have been able to check its performance, at rest we have 23ºC while at maximum power at 55ºC. By overclocking the i7 at 4500 MHz we have reached 24ºC at rest and 68ºC at maximum performance. Can you hear the bomb? Just a little, if we close the lid we will have no problem, but with the window open you will notice something.

Another thing that I liked is its installation, which is made relatively quick and easy if you follow the manual and the possibility of expanding liquid cooling with easy-to-remove fittings. Good job!

Its price in online stores ranges from 120 to 144 euros and its availability is immediate. If you want something better than compact ones without leaving yourself a good pinch in a parts cooler, this is possibly one of the best options.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ VERY GOOD PERFORMANCE	- THE PUMP IS LISTENED A LITTLE AT MAXIMUM POWER.
+ ALLOWS TO EXPAND THE KIT WITHOUT LOSING WARRANTY.
+ QUALITY FITTINGS.
+ GOOD RADIATOR
+ FOOD PRICE.