Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed
Introduction
Alpenfohn are a quite reputable German brand known for their high quality enthusiast cooling products. In today's review, I will be taking a look at the new Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed all-in-one liquid cooler. The Gletscherwasser AIOs feature RGB lighting as well as customizable top plates that users can change and customize to their liking. There's a remote control for that ARGB goodness as well. A total of eight different versions of the AiO are available( Gletscherwasser 240mm/Gletscherwasser 240mm High speed/Gletscherwasser White/Gletscherwasser 360mm/Gletscherwasser 360mm High Speed/Gletscherwasser White 360mm/Gletscherwasser 280mm. The differences are on the one hand in the radiator size. On the other hand, there is a difference in the fans used, either the Wing Boost 3 ARGB or Wing Boost 3 ARGB High Speed are included.
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From the technical data, we can see that every current socket is readily supported. The Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser AIO feature compatibility with a number of systems and sockets: Intel, you're looking at LGA 1200, 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2066, 2011-v3, and 2011 socket support. On the AMD side, the TR4, sTRX4, AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, and FM1 sockets are supported.
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Packaging & Contents
The box is black with a huge splash of color to grab your attention and let you know that the cooler is ARGB equipped. Looking at the top, you will find the cooler itself illuminated in its default rainbow mode. Below it a number of badges denoting that it supports motherboard lighting control options from pretty much every brand. Meanwhile, the bottom of the box has featuring some key details such as the thermal paste. There is also a hint that the new Gletscherwasser 240 AiO water cooling was developed in cooperation with the overclocker Roman "der8auer" Hartung.
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The basic technical specifications of both the radiator/pump and the included fans can be found at the back.
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You will find a list of the most important features on the left-hand side of the packaging.
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The right side of the box have a monochrome diagram of the cooler, which presents the overall dimensions of the radiator and pump.
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Like pretty much every other all-in-one liquid cooler these days, the Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed comes in a simple box with a cardboard tray for protection. A thin sheet of foam on top keeps things fairly secure, but I wouldn't expect it to protect much of anything. That having been said, while I am not a fan of it over proper foam, the fact remains that the packaging has proven more than adequate time and time again.
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The scope of delivery includes: mounting accessories for all common bases(The brackets are high-quality anodized, as is the radiator), & 120 mm fans, two silver alpine hairdryer stickers, manual, exchangeable logo plates, RGB receiver with SATA power supply, RGB remote control, RGB switch (4 x 3-pin), RGB connection cable for mainboards (3-pin / gigabyte sync), Fan PWM switch (double or triple), thermal grizzly Kryonaut dosing syringe with spatula and its own instructions.
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A Closer Look
The radiator Alpenfohn is using is no different from those on many other closed-loop coolers. It is a 240 mm radiator made out of aluminium with no other defining characteristics.
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When looking at its build quality, I can say it is solid enough with no faults to speak of, such as bent fins. It measures 282 x 120 x 27 mm (L x W x H).
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Alpenfohn has built 12 channels between the antechamber and the end chamber, between which the fine aluminum fins were soldered.
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In the event of a leak, the "leak-free" design automatically regulates the pressure in the cooling circuit and prevents leakage.
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The sleeved rubber tubing is 380mm long, which should be more than adequate to reach the CPU no matter which chassis you use.
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The hoses used are not only firmly connected to the connections of the pump unit, but have also been pressed onto the fixed connections of the radiator.
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The pump is in glossy black, which is very classy. The cooler-pump unit has a plastic housing and a circular cover that is illuminated by A-RGB LEDs. The plate shown comes with the manufacturer's lettering.
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The Alpenfohn lid insert is held in place by a plastic ring and can be replaced with other lid inserts from the accessories. Simply twist the bayonet cap on the pump head, swap the logo plate and close the cap. All plates can be orientated freely on a 90 degrees pattern. There are Logo plates such as AMD, Thermal Grizzly, black and transparent. The lighting is connected with a 3-pin connector, as is the pump.
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An intelligent cooling routing in a two-chamber design within the pump housing offers noise reduction whilst increasing performance and longevity in comparison to conventional designs. The 3-phase motor pump speed can be controlled from 1200 rpm to 2550 rpm. Four mounting threads have been incorporated around the base plate, which serve to accommodate the mounting rails, which are painted black to match the pump housing.
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As for the base, it was honestly very smooth and only had the faintest signs of machining marks. While it is not a mirror finish or anything close, it's still a step above what I normally see on closed-loop coolers. The base plate measures 5.4 x 5.4 cm.
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The two Wing Boost 3 fans High Speed are 120 mm ARGB offerings with an RPM range of 500?2200. Alpenfohn has given the fans a black fan frame.
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PWM and A-RGB connection cables can be seen on the fans. The cables on the fans are long enough, each about 35 cm.
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At all corners there are damping elements made of gray rubber.
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The impeller has 11 Air flow optimized fan blades. The fans are using Fluid Dynamic bearing and IC motor control technology.
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Addressable RGB LEDs are integrated in the frame. With its 16,8 million colours the Wing Boost 3 ARGB offers numerous possibilities to put your case into the right light. With the help of the included remote control and receiver it is possible to adapt the lighting to your own requirements even in systems without a connection for addressable RGBs.
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Installation Process
The assembly instructions are clearly and unambiguously described. A large, illustrated plan is included, which clearly shows and explains the assembly steps for AMD or Intel platforms.
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Before preparing the mainboard for assembly, the first step is to assemble the assembly kit that matches the respective base on the bottom of the pump unit.
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With that done, you can position the backplate on the motherboard before using the black spacers to secure it, as they provide a friction fit over the screws. Next, it's time to apply some thermal paste before securing the pump to the motherboard with the included spring screws. With the Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut, the AiO comes with a high-quality thermal paste optimized for large-area coolers. Main advantages: No dry-out, silicone free and electrically insulating. Graphics card and memory clearance remain a strong point here with no issues to report. Anyone looking to use this cooler can run the tallest memory they can find without a problem, and there should be no issues or conflicts regardless of which graphics card you happen to have either.
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Now, it is time to mount the radiator and fans. Once done, all that remains is to plug in all the various wires to get everything operational. Overall, I would rate my installation of the Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 a 9 on a scale of 1 (hardest) to 10 (easiest). Mounting the cooler is straightforward, and the mounting hardware itself is quite robust - all in all, it is just an easy cooler to install. The ARGB LED illumination is especially good on the fans. It looks good overall, and the cooler's built-in controller works just fine.
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Test System & Methology
Test System:
Cpu:Intel Core i7-6700K@4.8 GHz.
Motherboard:Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z170
Memory:16Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666Mhz
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNova 1200 P2
Storage Drive: 3TB Seagate Barracuda
Boot Drive: SSD 850 PRO 2.5" SATA III 2TB
Chassis: Dimastech Bench Table Easy V2.5
Windows 10 64-bit
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Software:
Speedfan
CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime 95
I am testing the performance as follows:
Ambient temperatures are kept at 23C throughout my tests.
The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
Load temperatures are obtained after running Prime 95′s for 30 minutes.
Performance
True to my expectations and experience we don't see a whole lot of variance at idle. When nothing is going on most coolers will be able to get the CPU to around the same temperature.
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The differences start to take a different shape when a load is applied, however. Keep in mind that as the Liqmax III and H150i Pro are both 360mm radiators, both are expected to perform better than the other dual-fan configurations.
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Appreciate the extra performance? Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed delivers exactly that, albeit with a tad more commotion than some of its rivals.
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The noise levels are pretty much what we expected too. Now, I will say that at full load they do seem a lot louder than many air coolers, and they are. However, in the grand scheme of things, they're no louder than any other AIO we've experienced. The pump was very quiet during operation and therefore hardly noticeable.
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Final Thoughts
So, here we are today with another entrant: the Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed. This is a bit less beefy cooler than 360mm models. The overall looks are as always tasteful as far as I am concerned. The all-black design of the radiator, fans, CPU block and tubing looks great. The tubes are firm and yet more malleable and flexible than others I've used and their length allows for the radiator to be placed in a variety of configurations. The scope of delivery is superb. Everything important for assembly was included, even with a good thermal paste. A pair of Wing Boost 3 ARGB 120mm fans do a good job of accentuating the cooler's visual appeal, which continues to catch the eye courtesy of the logo's and ring LED incorporated into the CPU block. There is a fair amount of wires leading out and into the cooling block. So design-wise there is cable spaghetti and clutter to deal with cable routing wise. Aside from all wires, the product is properly user-friendly to install and we appreciated having a physical installation manual to reference when needed. While the default clocked performance showed more traditional results, it was the opposite when we started to tweak. The kit really showed it has a lot of extra capacity available. In terms of raw thermal performance with the fans and pump speed cranked up to the maximum RPM, the Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed is simply the best 240mm AIO we have tested to date. If noise output is not an issue for you then the cooling is top-notch. So the Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed is easy to install, performs very well, and looks great.
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These issues are just nit-picking and they certainly wouldn't hold me back from buying this cooler. One thing that may put you off a little is the price, at 163 EURO the Alpenfohn Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed is priced at the top end of the 240mm AIO market. This is a lot of money for a two fan LCS, but we can see where the money went to as this is one of the best performing 240mm LCS units available on the market. The cooling system is good capacity wise and the lighting system is dazzling. I can't fathom spending this amount of money on a CPU cooler, but there are plenty of enthusiasts who will break the bank for components that stand out from the crowd. Alpenfohn's Gletscherwasser 240 High Speed certainly does that.
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