Antec Vortex 360 ARGB AIO Liquid Cooler Review

Performance

Installation was straight forward enough, with a backplate, four screw-in stand-offs, and then four thumbscrews to hold the pump down. Screwing the arms onto the pump was a bit of a hassle though as the holes didn’t line up and I felt I needed three hands, so a little notch to keep the metal in place while I put the screw in would be helpful. Alas, it took me a minute to do a thirty-second job, so it’s not the end of the world.

The fans look utterly stunning though with the ring of LEDs offering vibrant colours, but also that combo of milky white plastic to diffuse the light and the glossy layer give them a really cool aesthetic I’ve not seen before.

It’s the same with the pump, with the plastic shaped to give you some really fantastic reflections and the spiral of RGB looks like it’s floating in the inky blackness.

When it comes to performance, the Vortex is really impressive, being able to give both the Kraken and the RYUO a good run for their money, given that the Kraken costs £200 and the RYUO is £300, while Antec’s coming in at just £99.99!!! The load performance hit 76c, so just 53c over the 23c ambient in the office. Even pushing the clock speeds up, the max average temperature topped out at 81c, which is just +58c over ambient, and what’s more it did this with very consistent acoustic levels, with 41 dBa at normal clocks and 42 dBa when overclocked. Largely though, it wasn’t really much more audible than all of the case fans, which is great!

Stock Temperatures

Stock Acoustics

Overclocked Temperatures

Overclocked Acoustics