Antec Kuhler H2O 1220 Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Antec’s Kuhler H20 1220 Liquid CPU Cooler currently costs approximately £100 in the United Kingdom. If I were to cite the prices of some competing products then you can begin to put this price into context; £90-95 for the Corsair H100i, £80-85 for the Cooler Master Seidon 240M, £85-90 for the Enermax ELC 240, £95-100 for the Corsair H110 and £70-75 for the Corsair H90.

At this price we can see that the Antec Kuhler H20 1220 is priced higher than expected when comparing the performance and functionality it offers against the competition. If I were to price this unit based purely on performance I would say that £80 seemed like a fair target price.

Another key consideration to note about the Kuhler H20 1220 is the warranty policy offered. The Antec Kuhler H20 1220 has a 3 year warranty compared the Corsair H100i (5 year warranty), Enermax ELC 240 (5 year warranty), Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme (2 year warranty) and Cooler Master Seidon 240M (2 year warranty). This puts the Antec Kuhler H20 1220 right in the middle ground in terms of warranty duration.

Positives

The Antec Kuhler H20 1220 in my mind offers a lot of positives which are worth considering. I have compared these particular benefits against competing products that do not offer the same to show you where the Antec Kuhler H20 1220’s particular strengths lay:

• Excellent flexible rubber tubing which gives it an advantage versus the Enermax ELC 240 and Cooler Master Seidon 240M which both uses hard plastic tubing
• A simple and clean aesthetic from the simple all black design
• The best acoustic performance I have seen from an AIO unit thanks to a totally silent pump (something the Enermax ELC 240 with intermittent rattling/whining and the Cooler Master Seidon 240M with audible buzzing can’t offer), no fan rattling (something the Corsair H100i struggles with) and a wide PWM range on the fans that allow them to start quietly at 600RPM (something the Thermaltake Water 2.0 struggles with starting at a loud 1000RPM).
• A solid and effective Asetek mounting kit
• A well fleshed out pump unit that features four fan connectors and a fan controller which can be used in conjunction with the Antec fan control software to control up to four fans – of which Antec also include the extra fan screws should you want to add some extra fans. A simple but thoughtful touch.

Negatives

However, despite all the positives it is clear that the Antec Kuhler H20 1220 is priced too high. As mentioned already if we were to take it on its performance merits alone it needs to be priced at about £80 in the UK market to be competitive. When considering all the non-performance related positives it does have, I would argue a maximum price of £85 seems like the price where I would say consumers are getting a good deal for their money. Part of what surprises me is that even though the unit costs £100, the included fans are still only average quality and I would of much preferred it if Antec included their TrueQuiet Pro 120mm fans with this unit.

Even after Antec revised the bundled fans and sent me replacements we only saw about 2 degrees extra performance at maximum fan speed, with about 0.5-1 degree extra performance at normal PWM fan speeds. This extra performance is welcomed but these fans are clearly not as good as those equipped on higher end units like the Swiftech H220 and Corsair H100i.

Judgement

The Antec Kuhler H20 1220 is a 240mm AIO CPU cooler done reasonably well. However, the Antec Kuhler H20 1220 is priced too high and consequently I would like to see Antec bundle some better quality fans with this unit and reduce the price by at least 10% before consumers should consider buying this over the other competing products on the marketplace at this current point in time.

Thank you to Overclockers UK for providing this review sample.