- Date:
- Thursday , July 10, 2014
- Author:
- Marc Adams
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:

NZXT Kraken X61 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review
NZXT is known to many enthusiasts for its computer cases but not so much for its Kraken series of CPU closed loop liquid coolers. After a year of design NZXT has introduced its new Kraken X61. Its claim to fame is that it is the "world's first variable speed liquid cooler." Let's see what this variable RPM pump does for the new Kraken.
Results: Temperatures
For our stock testing our Intel Core i7-4770k will be kept at 3.50 GHz with a minimal 1.00v. For overclocked CPU testing, we will be running our CPU at 4.4GHz with 1.25v. Idle temperatures will be recorded after a twenty minute period of inactivity. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes. Load temperatures will be recorded after a twenty minute period for air cooled systems, and 30 minutes for liquid cooled systems, at 100% load. To obtain this load we will be using AIDA64 Extreme Edition v3.00.2500. Any fluctuation during the last sixty seconds will reset the timer for an additional five minutes.
Please note we start our charts at 25C which is the ambient temperature at the time of testing. Since we are not testing an active cooling system such as a chiller or Peltier cooler, it is impossible for the temps to be less than ambient. This is why we start our charts at 25C.
Stock Settings

Straight out of the gate the X61 performs well but not quite as good as the X60. It sits in the top third of the grouping but I’m not too concerned. After all, if you wanted to run your CPU at stock settings you could get nearly any inexpensive cooler to do the trick. We want more power.
Overclock Settings

With more power we see the X61 flex its muscles. These numbers are with the fans set to the highest speed and the numbers look good. The CAM software was behaving erratically so we could not use it to set the fan speed reliably. Also, using the built-in ASUS software, the fans are throttled up any time the CPU goes over eighty degrees Celsius which is what would happen in our case with the fans set to low. Even so, we can see just how good the Kraken X61 performs when it it’s allowed to reach its full potential.
Sound
To test the sound output of the fan we first start by disabling all other fans in the PC. We place our meter approximately four feet away from the test system and then collect the dB data.

Now even though we couldn’t run our fans at low during our CPU testing we could for the purpose of sound testing and the numbers look good.
At full speed you have a lot of noise. It isn’t terrible but you won’t want to run it like this in a quiet room. At its slowest speed you can just barely make out the hum of air flowing across the radiator. What’s most impressive is how NZXT managed to improve the cooling performance of the X61 while simultaneously lowering the noise levels. Kudos.

