Antec Kuhler K240 AIO CPU Cooler Review

Antec has released a lot of AIO coolers over the years, with their Kuhler range being some of the most popular and affordable coolers on the market today.Now they're back once again with the K240 AIO Which promises to be both foldable and very capable. It comes equipped with a 240mm radiator, two blue LED fans and a low profile pump design. Of course, it also support all the latest Intel and AMD sockets; it certainly has everything your typical system builder would require. Even if this were a more expensive high-end model, there's not really anything else that could add or take away, so I'm eager to see how it performs within this price range. What's in the Box Everything you need to install the cooler comes included in the box, this consists of a universal backplate, Y-split fan cable, and some very nicely finished fitting screws, an AMD bracket, and an Intel bracket. Obviously, you can't have a radiator with no fans. In the box, you will find two 120mm fans, each equipped with a white trim edge and built-in LED lighting. Each fan features all black sleeved cables for an ultra clean look, as well as anti-vibration rubber mounts. A Closer Look With the cooler out of the box, we can see that it has a neat and tidy radiator design. It features clean looking straight edges and a boxed off design that keeps everything looking smart. There is a small section on the side of the radiator where you will find the pump housing; this means that the power cable connects to the radiator and not to the CPU block. By moving the wires and the pump to the radiator, it allows for a smaller CPU block and fewer cables around your motherboard. Both of the hoses coming from the CPU block to the radiator or quite thick and durable. They feature woven braiding which keeps them protected and looking professional. Thermal Paste The pump design is fantastic, with a super-low profile design that's sure to look great in your system. Of course, with the cables coming from the radiator, it'll be easy to install and get a clean look. To speed up your install time, the thermal paste is pre-applied. However, we'll remove that and use our standard Noctua thermal paste for our testing today. There's a small Antec logo on the top of the pump. Again, just a clean and simple design, nothing crazy to be found here. Slick Looking Fans The radiator looks great already, but it seems even better with the two 120mm white trimmed fans installed. The mounting kit works great, and the chrome work looks stunning with the contrasting black of the CPU block. The fans have frosted blades to catch the light, but it's the milky white housing on the edges that light up the most. The fan blades to glow a little though, and overall it looks stunning. The lighting is fixed on though, no off function, no effects and no RGB. It's a bit basic, but that doesn't diminish the looks, as it's pretty neat in my opinion. Test System and Methodology Please note that our testing system was completely revised in September 2017. That means all previous results have been scrapped, and a new set of benchmarks introduced. For a look at our previous reviews, please consult our most recent review that used that system. Please note that we re-tested the Noctua NH-D15S as our base benchmark for cooling results. Test system: Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 Z270 Intel Core i7-7700K Delidded w/ NT-H1 under IHS Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti 32GB Crucial DDR4 2400 MHz 512GB OCZ SSD be quiet! Dark Power Pro 800W Lian Li T80 Test Bench All testing conducted using NT-H1 thermal paste We’d like to say a big thank you to Gigabyte, Noctua, Crucial, Intel, OCZ, be quiet!, and Lian Li for providing us with the above testing equipment and their on-going support. Testing Methodology We always use Noctua Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste to make sure testing reveals the efficiency of the tested coolers not the efficiency of the bundled thermal paste Prime 95 is run for 10 minutes to calculate "load" results Unigine Superposition is run for 10 minutes to calculate "gaming" results The average temperature across all cores is taken Fans are left to operate at default PWM profile speeds unless otherwise stated For water cooling tests, all pumps have been operated at 12 volts unless otherwise stated Ambient temperatures should be between 21-23 degrees in all our tests unless otherwise stated Acoustic measurements are taken 10cm horizontally and 10cm vertically away from the CPU cooler with the VGA fan disabled Stock tests are performed using "out of the box" settings for the CPU Overclocking tests are performed with the CPU set to 5 GHz and 1.345v All coolers were tested under identical settings unless otherwise stated. There is approximately a 1-degree Celsius margin of error in our temperature recording software CPUID HW Monitor There is approximately a 1.5dBA margin of error with our Benetech GM1351 decibel meter In all these graphs we may have a few "reference" results of particular products that do not fit within that category for comparative purposes. Software Used CPUID HWMonitor Prime 95 Unigine Superposition (1080 Extreme) Performance Temperatures The Antec K240 was never going to take the top spot given its affordable nature. However, it's off to a solid start, clocking just 59c at full load and only 33c in our gaming test. Pushing up the CPU clocks to 5GHz is a demanding task for any CPU cooler, but again, the Kuhler is holding up great. It scored strong and it pretty much head-to-head with the more expensive BiFrost and Floe Riing coolers. Not bad at all. Acoustics At stock clocks, the fans didn't have to push too hard to keep the heat down, maxing out at around 41 dBa even at full load. The fans and pump were pretty much silent at idle. Pushing the heat up the fans did work a little harder. They remained about the same at both idle and gaming, and pretty quiet overall. At full load, 44 dBa is pretty respectable, and more silent than I expected they would be. You can hear the fans, but again, they're far from a problem. Final Thoughts Pricing At the time of writing, the retail stock wasn't quite available. However, we know it's going to be around the same as their existing range. You can expect a price of around £60 to £70, and possibly less than that. We'll update you soon as we have links. Overview Overall, I think Antec has done a great job on this cooler. It's nothing too crazy regarding design, but there are a few unique tweaks that have been made to set it apart from the crowd. It's going to be friendly to your wallet, it got competitive performance and it looks pretty good too. Build Quality Moving the pump from the CPU block to the radiator is an excellent design choice. It seems to limit the noise from the pump too, as it hides it behind a big chunk of metal. Moving the power cable from the CPU block to the radiator cleans up the aesthetics also, one less cable dragging over the motherboard! Performance It's not the coolest, it's not even the quietest, but it's certainly competitive. It keeps up with a few other similar size AIO coolers, and even some that cost more. When it comes to overclocking, a 240mm AIO is more than enough, and the K240 was more than capable. Aesthetics A low profile pump design is always beautiful. However, add some thickly braided tubing, some shiny chrome mounting kit, and some slick blue LED fans, and you can't go wrong. The clean lines of the radiator are the final winner though, and a far cry from the Antec radiators from a few years back. Pros Competitive performance Reasonable overclocking capabilities Quiet fans Low pump noise Braided cables Pump housed in radiator Blue LED lighting Affordable price Cons Unable to find stock at retailers