Alphacool Polar Bear Aurora 360 review - more than just a simple all-in-one compact water cooling | Review

The better is the good enemy, at least from the point of view of RGB Illuminati and rainbow addicts. Because Alphac~~ool~~ has also visually raised the polar bear with addressable LED. Although this pre-filled cooling is at first glance similar to a normal AiO solution, Alphacool, as a supplier of various water cooling components, has the advantage of being able to use things from its own portfolio of custom loops, which makes the matter more versatile and open to its own upgrades.

The price seems to be about. 145 Euro (RRP) is still reasonably appropriate, because you get a full-blown cooling system with a lot of accessories and expansion options and not a completely closed Asetek clone, where the products are also technically very similar and under the disadvantages of these type suffer. The polar bear, on the other hand, is a full-fledged, but also foolproof and thus customer-friendly open-loop solution, which, prefilled and tested, can be easily installed by water-cooling amateurs.

Delivery

Alphacool actually packs everything you need for the most common systems. In addition to pre-assembled and pre-filled cooling, there are mounting systems for the current and of course many older AMD and Intel systems (see technical data below). The brackets are solid and the screwing or Assembly almost self-explanatory. If you don't know more, you will find a pretty good manual to help you. Thermal paste, a triple splitter for connecting the three PWM fans to the motherboard and the three new RGB fans (Alphacool ice cyclone Aurora Lux Pro) with aRGB adapter (5V Preci-Dip for motherboard) and own sRGB controller with SATA connection are also available. That is enough.

The three Alphacool ice cyclone Aurora Lux Pro are specified for speeds between 800 and 2000 rpm, but interestingly they can reach up to 2200 rpm directly at 12 volts and run well below 800 rpm. With 4.8 watts per fan you are in the good midfield and without wanting to spoil too much: they are really good fans, whose frequency spectrum produces a very balanced and pleasantly noisy noise background. There is no lower frequency engine and bearing noise. Well, of course they are also colorful, but I come to that.

Structure and components

When we first take a look at the centerpiece, i.e. the pump housing, we meet good old acquaintances. We have known the high-edged pump inside from the free world for a long time, because the small, again modified DC-LT 2600 can also be found in many open-loop systems. With up to 75 l/m and a decent pressure for the size (up to 0.95 m water column at 12 volts), it is strong enough to be able to cool other components. In order to avoid pointless patent wars with companies like Asetek, Alphacool has simply placed a small balancing tank (GTC) with a pump on a normal CPU water block. This makes things a little higher and more voluminous, but also creates space for more fluidity and a possible refill.

The view ins also shows the alignment of the microchannels in the copper coldplate and the orientation of the jetplate. The rather flat radiator floor is nickel-plated, the plate is fastened with four hexagonal screws. The fastening system is the same as with the normal water blocks of the XPX series and therefore no surprise. Useful and not overly fiddly, even if it would be even easier, of course. But then it would probably be much more expensive again.

You have to make sure that you get the best installation direction later on during assembly. Since the pump should not be operated upside down, i.e. with the viewing window down, only 3 installation directions remain. To the Ryzen of the 3. Generation I will have to lose a word later.

Advantaged for the customer, all components, even if they were industrially hosed with pressfittings and metal sleeves, rely on normal 1/4" openings and threads, which makes a later conversion much easier. The black 9/13 nylon hose is a bit tight in the inner diameter for normal 10/13 compressions, but with a little force even this would be used. The filling opening at the top is convenient for occasional filling or refilling during conversions. By the way, the plug could also be easily replaced by a compression or an angle, so that you could even mount a filling hose.

Together with the slim 360 NexXxos radiator, the entire construction in the cooling circuit is also full copper and this also makes it very different from all AiO competitors including aluminium radiators. In particular, long-term durability is likely to benefit significantly. The quick-release fasteners are ok, but drip a little when they disassemble. If you have enough power in your fingers for 10 compressions, you can also simply cut off the tightly pressed clutch parts later and e.g. replaced by metal icicles.

The NexXos 360 is sufficient in the slim version (30 mm height) together with the pump for almost 400 watts of waste heat, so that you could operate a normal consumer CPU and a graphics card up to 250 watts TDP. However, it is recommended to plan another radiator better. The pump can still do that. Speaking of the pump – with a maximum of 2700 rpm it is hardly audible and should therefore not be controlled by force.