Alphacool Eisbaer Extreme 280mm AIO Liquid Cooler Review

Installation

We always consider that the installation of a cooler is a key factor in determining the suitability for its consumers. There are, after all, a wide variety of designs and some, putting it mildly, are a lot easier than others.

So, with this in mind, how easy is it to install the Alphacool Eisbaer Extreme?… Well, the good news is, it’s pretty straight forward!

As we noted earlier, the main cooler comes practically pre-assembled out of the box. As such, there’s no time required in fitting (or more actually attaching) the main fans to the radiator.

While it is quite bulky, it’s not overly heavy and the tubing it is supplies with is more than malleable. It should be noted that it isn’t particularly long and given that Alphacool strongly recommends the radiator block to be installed in a certain manner, some compromises might be required to exactly where those tubes go in your system. This isn’t, however, uncommon for an AIO design.

Mounting

Rather than having a mounting system which you first have to attach to the motherboard, the pump head directly screws into the backplate. To do this, however, you will have to get the fixings attached to the pump head.

The main bracket attachment itself simply clips around the pump block. From there, all you have to do is attach the fixing screws themselves. This is mildly ‘fiddly’ work. Particularly since you’re trying to do this with the pipes providing more than a little resistance to your movement of the pump head.

In addition, and rather frustratingly, the Intel installation gives you two separate screw attachments. It is, therefore, important that you check the manual carefully to ensure you fit the right ones. If you don’t, the worse case scenario is that you have to remove and re-attach them. No major problem, but it would add about 3-4 minutes to your task in what is, as above, perhaps the most finger intensive part of the job.

Once installed to your motherboard, however, the Alphacool Eisbaer Extreme has a nice solid presentation that, in terms of difficulty, wouldn’t pose too much of a problem for even an absolute beginner.

From out of the box and fitted onto our test bench, this took us around 10-15 minutes. Certainly not bad at all based on most AIO installation systems and thankfully, the manual you are provided with is truly excellent.