Antec Mercury 360 AIO CPU Cooler Review

Performance

Stock

In terms of both standard use and even gaming, the Antec Mercury 360 provided decent figures in these terms. While a maximum load temperature of 62c was higher than we anticipated, this isn’t unusual for coolers that are largely designed to work at their best when pushed to the limits.

While we do consider stock tests important, people rarely buy 360mm AIO coolers for stock performances. As such, we would consider the overclocking results in this instance to perhaps be more relevant to the product.

Overclocked

When pushed to the very limits in terms of overclocking, the Antec Mercury 360 gave some solid performance figures. As such, it finds itself amongst much better company than in terms of its stock performance. With a maximum temperature of 68c on overclocked high-stress testing, this is well within the acceptable levels in terms of performance.

It is, of course, hard to deny that it has found itself outperformed by some smaller 240mm coolers, but that as a whole shouldn’t detract from the decent, if underwhelming, figures provided during testing.

Stock Acoustics

In terms of noise levels, the Antec Mercury 360 isn’t the quietest cooler we have ever seen. For a high-performance cooler with 3 fans though, the noise levels are certainly better than expected or indeed that we have seen in other similar coolers.

As this does have 3 fans, the idle noise is obviously a little higher than usual, but when you take into consideration the only mild increase when put to the test, these figures are definitely impressive.

Overclocked Acoustics

When pushed to the limited of overclocked stress testing it is remarkable that the Antec Mercury 360 in terms of noise levels is only 1dBA louder at the maximum level. The gaming figure even fell slightly lower than seen in stock although testing should allow for a moderate degree of allowance.

For a triple-fan cooler to operate on levels comparative to 240mm is certainly very impressive. It certainly speaks volumes of the fan design Antec has provided with this cooler.