Fancy RBG lightings and AIO liquid cooler are some of the things that people have in mind for a ‘gaming PC’ nowadays and ID-Cooling is probably one of the brands that come into the picture if you’re looking for a decent AIO liquid cooler with RGB lightings that will not cost you a limb or two. ID-Cooling has released its new ICEFLOW 240 ARGB AIO liquid cooler a few months ago and we managed to get our hands on one for this review.

While it does packs a ton of RGB lighting and can be synced with most of the major motherboard brands, the ICEFLOW 240 ARGB comes at a surprisingly affordable price of RM 359. The RGB lightings will sure to excite some of you RGB fans out there but I’m not exactly a fan of RGB lightings myself, so I’ll be focusing on finding out what kind of cooling performance the ICEFLOW 240 ARGB can deliver. Let’s see how does it fare against some of the best performing air coolers and budget AIO liquid coolers we have here in the lab.

Specifications

Compatibility
  •  Intel LGA2066/2011-3/2011/1200/1151/1150/1155/1156
  •  AMD AM4
 TDP 250W
 Radiator Dimension 285×120×30mm
 Radiator Material Aluminum
 Tube Material Premium Sleeved Tubing
 Tube Length 400mm
 Waterblock Dimension 72×72X46.7mm
 Cold Plate Material Copper
 Pump Current 0.25A
 Pump Speed 6500+/-10%RPM
 Pump Noise Level 24dB(A)
 Fan Dimension 245×125×27mm
 Included Fans 1pcs
 Fan Speed 900~2000RPM
 Max. Air Flow 56.5CFM( x2)
 Max. Static Pressure 1.99mmH2O
 Noise 16~31.5dB(A)
 Rated Voltage 12VDC
 Operating Voltage 10.8~13.2VDC
 Started Voltage 7VDC
 Rated Current 0.25A
 Power Input 3W
 Bearing Type 2Ball Bearing
 Connector 4pin PWM / 5V 3pin ARGB

Packaging

ID-Cooling did a good job of keeping the design of the packaging simple enough and without any visible gimmicky and overexaggerating marketing message. Most of the information regarding the specifications can be found on the box with ease but I can’t help but notice that the color scheme of the box does resemble the AORUS liquid cooler so much that I believe some will mistook it for an AORUS liquid cooler at first glance.

Inside the box, you’ll find the essentials such as the installation guide, thermal paste, mounting brackets for both Intel and AMD socket, mounting screws for the CPU block and fans, necessary cables for the fans and ARGB lightings, the two in one 240mm fan, and of course, the main unit of the ICEFLOW 240 ARGB.

The Design

Unlike the usual 240mm radiator AIO you’ll find in the market, the CPU block on the ICEFLOW 240 ARGB isn’t exactly the commonly seen water block pump combo that many of us are familiar with – yes, it’s just a CPU water block with ARGB lightings. The RGB lightings on the water block can be controlled manually with the included RGB controller or synced with your motherboard via the ARGB header can customize with the motherboard RGB lighting software.

The ICEFLOW 240 ARGB is equipped with a 240mm radiator which measures at a dimension of 285×120×30mm, which is very similar to most AIO liquid coolers with 240mm radiator available in the market in terms of dimension. As mentioned earlier, the CPU water block doesn’t have a built-in pump like most of the AIO we’ve seen in the past and turns out that the water pump is built in directly to the radiator.

According to ID-Cooling, this is a patented design that is able to push enough water through the radiator which is supposed to provide better cooling performance. We can’t exactly verify if this design is more superior to the traditional design but I do think that such a design is very convenient for cable management as the cables can be hidden much easier this way.

As for the fan included, yes fan, a single 240mm unit that has two 120mm fans looks very similar to one of my all-time fan, the Gentle Typhoon AP-15. While the fan blade design is almost identical to the actual AP-15, the rest of the parts inside are not the same. The only issue I have with the fan is the tight fit on the radiator. It will take quite an effort to get the fan installed as the frame of the fan is pressing against the tubes on the radiator if it is installed on the side with the tube that has the least clearance for this kind of fan design.

Test Methodology

The test is done using the following setup under an ambient temperature of 30°C, and CPU stressed with RealBench, 3 sets of tests, each at a duration of 1 hour, and utilizes as much memory as possible.

CPUIntel Core i7-8700K
MotherboardASUS ROG Maximus X Apex
MemoryG.Skill Trident Z Royal 16GB @3600MHz
Graphics CardGigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 D5 2G
Power SupplyEnermax MaxTytan 1250W
Primary StorageKingston KC2000 1TB
Secondary StorageWD Black 6TB
CPU CoolerVarious CPU Coolers
ChassisCooler Master Test Bench V1
Operating SystemWindows 10 64bit

 

ID Cooling ICEFLOW 240 ARGB Temps 2

While running at its default clock speed, the Intel Core i7-8700K will boost up to 4.7GHz on a 100% load, which is the baseline for our thermal test for this CPU. From the test result above we can see that things aren’t going so well with the ICEFLOW 240 ARGB but do note that it did manage to keep the Intel Core i7-8700K running at 70°C max, which is still a pretty reasonable temperature given that a stock intel cooler will just hit 90°C in just a matter of seconds on maximum load.

ID Cooling ICEFLOW 240 ARGB Temps 1

We then bumped up the clock to 5.0GHz with 1.34V for Vcore and we can immediately see the CPU temperature spiked up to 80°C range on maximum load. Although the high-end air coolers from Noctua still proven to be more superior than the rest, the ICEFLOW 240 ARGB did manage to keep up with the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB from Cooler Master this time, which is pretty okay I’d say.

Final Thoughts

The ICEFLOW 240 ARGB might not be the best CPU cooler out of the bunch but overall, the performance is still pretty decent. Of course, it’s not the kind of CPU cooler you want to get for CPUs like the Intel Core i9-10900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3950X that is known to run hot when running on maximum load. Looking at the cooling performance it can deliver, I’d say it’s more suitable for mid-range level CPUs like the Intel Core i5 and AMD Ryzen 5 with lower TDP.

Even though I’m not really a fan of RGB lighting myself, there’s no denying that it is still the best-looking cooler on our list here if the fancy factor is taken into account, especially it can be synced with your motherboard and customized using the RGB control software for the motherboard. Even if your motherboard doesn’t come with an ARGB header, the included controller will still allow you to customize the RGB lighting from the built-in presets.

For the price of RM 349, the ICEFLOW 240 ARGB is a reasonable option for those who are looking for an AIO liquid cooler that has decent cooling performance and packs with all the RGB aesthetic they need to put up a fancy light show for their system.

Pros

  • Decent cooling performance
  • Fans run quietly on load
  • Come with RGB controller for motherboards that don’t have ARGB headers
  • RGB lightings can be synced and controlled with a supported motherboard
  • Cable management is easier with the pump built-in to the radiator

Cons

  • Very tight fit for the included fan if it’s installed on the side with the tubes on
  • Fans don’t seem to push as much air despite the optimized fan blade design

Subjective

  • Reasonable price for the aesthetics and performance

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