Sapphire Nitro+ S360-A Review – GPU manufacturer tries its hand at AiO CPU water coolers

1 - Einführung und technische Daten 2 - Optik und Haptik 3 - Methodik, Ergebnisse und Fazit

Methodology

A Ryzen 5 3600 has to be cooled at factory settings, in addition 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (2x8GB) DDR4 memory on a MSI B550 Tomahawk (BIOS 7C91vA3). The Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB is running in zero-fan mode for the CPU stress tests only for the image output, and a Fractal Design Ion Gold 750W serves as the power source, all housed in the Thermaltake Core P3 as an open benchtable.

All records are logged with HWInfo64 v6.30-4240 – 2000ms logging, the specified temperature is derived from the sensor CPU Die (Average). The load of Prime95 produces an average of 88 watts of CPU package power. Since I don’t have air conditioning, the values in the graphs are the delta between room temperature and CPU temperature.  This allows all cooling systems to be compared fairly, even if the ambient temperature is different.  The thermal paste supplied with the cooler or pre-applied is used in each case.

I determine the sound level with a Voltcraft SL-200 meter at a distance of 40cm, which works in 125ms cycles in Lo mode. The room was measured at 33.4 dB(A), an external sample table is helpful for the breakdown.

Benchmarks

First, as always, a complete run at maximum speed of the pump and slowly increasing PWM value of the fans:

And then again the other way around, the fans are set fixed at 60% PWM and the pump speed is gradually increased:

Finally, the comparison to other 360mm coolers and the overview of the test results:

Summary and conclusion

Well, here we are. Another AiO water cooling system on the market. Another model from Asetek with no significant changes or innovation. This way, as a manufacturer, you don’t do anything wrong or risk bad press in connection with your own brand, but at the same time you get lost in the swamp of mediocrity a bit. Good for brand-affine customers, but not a game-changer either.

The optics is of course once again a matter of taste and probably for some then the purchase deciding factor, the rest is just more of the already known. The performance is about the same as the rest of the 360mm AiO solutions, but the fans could definitely be a bit quieter. In return, the pump stands out with its humming at low fan speeds.

Another point of criticism is the price for the 240 and 360mm versions here in Germany. Because it is quite high for a standard AiO with a somewhat exotic appearance. Just under 150€ at review time is simply too expensive for a mid-range 240 watercooler. It remains to be seen where the price will go after release, but offers from the competition are more tempting.

The test sample was provided by Sapphire without obligation. There was and is no influence on the tests and results. There was also no compensation for expenses and no obligation to publish.