EK Water Blocks EK-Nucleus CR360 Lux D-RGB AIO Cooler Review

EK, or their full abbreviation EKWB, which people often say as EK Water Blocks, which really means Edvard König Water Blocks if you want to get really technical, may not have the most unified naming structure, but without a doubt, they're regarded as one of the best water cooling companies in the whole world. However, while they're best known for their custom loop premium cooling components, did you know they also made ready-to-use all-in-one coolers? Presenting the rather clunky named EK Water Blocks EK-Nucleus CR360 Lux D-RGB All-In-One CPU Water Cooler, which costs around £200, I'm eager to see if some of the premium high-end magic from EK can be filtered down into a more easy-to-use consumer-friend AIO format. EK-Nucleus CR360 Lux D-RGB The EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 Lux D-RGB is an all-in-one liquid cooling solution offering a stylish fan-like gradient lighting effect on the pump unit to suit your needs for contemporary addressable RGB aesthetics. It is designed to fit most popular cases on the market today and features a triple fan setup with a slim 360mm radiator. Compatible with most modern processors, it is also ready for the next-gen Intel socket. Addressable RGB Lighting - Customize your all-in-one system to match your setup with its fully addressable RGB lighting effects. This closed-loop liquid CPU cooler offers a plug-and-play solution with a fan-like D-RGB lighting effect around the pump top for all who search for that perfect RGB AIO aesthetics. This product is compatible with popular RGB sync technologies from all major motherboard manufacturers. The arrow marking on the 3-pin LED connector is to be aligned with the +5V marking on the addressable RGB (D-RGB) header. Rotatable Pump Top - The top allows you to re-orient the D-RGB EK badge no matter in which direction the cooler is installed. The orientation can be changed in 90° increments, so if the cooler is installed upside down, rotate it 180 degrees to display the logo right side up. Regardless of the angle needed to install the AIO, it will always offer clean and aligned aesthetics. New Positioning of Rotary Fittings - The AIO CR360 Lux comes pre-installed with reinforced and sleeved rubber tubing, now featuring finer threads. The fittings are covered with an aesthetic black radiator cover at the connection of the tubing and the radiator to ensure a sleek design and flushed line with the added fans. The improved position of rotary fittings on the other side, which are now placed next to each other, allows the EK-Nucleus AIO to be installed in even the tightest spaces. Universally Compatible and Easy to Install - All EK-Nucleus AIOs come with a universally compatible CPU water block, fitting all the latest Intel and AMD CPU sockets. The installation process is very straightforward, thanks to the included manual and mounting mechanism. This product requires enough space to mount a single slim 360mm radiator, making it compatible with almost all modern cases. Technical Specifications Radiator Dimensions (L, W, H): 400 x 124 x 27 mm Radiator Material: Aluminum Fan Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25mm Max Fan Speed: 2200 RPM ± 10% RPM Fan RGB Type: 5V Digital (Addressable) Tubing length: 400 mm Pump Unit Dimensions: 82,3 x 69,2 x 61,6 mm Pump Unit Material: ABS housing, ABS top ring Pump Unit RGB Type: 5V Digital (Addressable) Pinout: 5V, D, Empty, Ground Pump RGB Cable Length: 500mm Packaging & Accessories The box looks pretty simple, with a white box that features a huge photo of the cooler right on the front, showcasing the RGB fans, as well as that lovely-looking RGB pump. We can also see that it supports both AMD and Intel sockets. Around the back, there's a breakdown of key features, such as the pump design, radiator configuration and fans, but it's all pretty straightforward stuff really. The packaging is really nice on the inside, with soft foam inserts and a small welcome pack that contains all the usual screws and fittings. The pump and fans are as well protected as I've ever seen for an AIO, very nicely done. Even the welcome pack is insanely well organised, with every screw and fitting placed in its own unique cut-out. A Closer Look The fans look great, and so they should, as they're the premium EK-Loop FTP, which we know to be pretty decent from past experience. They're, of course, designed to deliver a high static pressure suitable for a radiator installation and feature thick anti-vibration mounts on all corners and both sides of the fan. Of course, they're D-RGB equipped too, with thick frosted fan blades that will help capture the light from the LEDs built into the motor housing. The pump is also RGB, with a squared circle outer housing, and a circle RGB ring on the top. The radiator looks great, has lots of clean lines, and is neatly boxed off at both ends to give it a very tidy-looking aesthetic. IT supports fan mounting on either side too, giving you more installation options. With the fans installed, the radiator pretty much blends into the darkness, while the fan pump out a surprising amount of right for all your PC-illumination fanatics. I love the little EK logo on the pump too, which is also RGB-lit to match the rest of the pump. Test System & Methodology Idle tests are recorded after 10 minutes of the system being left alone after boot with no additional background processes or software running. All load tests are performed in Cinebench R2, first using a single speed run to generate the Cinebench R23 score, then a 10-minute loop to determine the overall all-core average load temperature for the relevant cooler. Clock speeds are left at the default factory settings provided by the CPU and our NZXT Z690 N7 motherboard. Optimised settings lock the CPU P-Cores to 4.9Hz and the E-Cores to 4GHz at a voltage of 1.3v. Fan speeds for the case are set to 30% at all times. Pump RPM is fixed to 100% for liquid coolers, and CPU cooler fans are left to the motherboard "automatic" and "normal" profile unless otherwise stated. Acoustics are measured from 2ft above the NZXT H7 Flow PC case, using a decibel meter, with all side panels and filters in place on the case and as stated, the case fans are left at 30% (just to the point where they become comfortably audible over ambient), to represent a real-world usage scenario. We are no longer testing coolers on an open-air test bench for this reason. As of 20/07/2023, all coolers featured on these charts were retested to reflect our improved methodology, and as such, reviews prior to this date can not be fairly compared to the new results. However, we have been periodically retesting older coolers, which is why you may see their performance figures here, and why they may not align with previous test results from the same product in their respective reviews. Test system: NZXT Z690 ATX Intel Core i9-12900K @ stock and & 4.9 GHz all P-Core 4 GHz E-Core 1.3v Aorus RTX 2080 16GB Crucial DDR4 4400 MHz XMP 512GB NVMe SSD Thermaltake Tough Power 750W NZXT H7 Flow RGB Case All testing is conducted using NT-H1 thermal paste We want to thank Gigabyte, Noctua, Crucial, Intel, Thermaltake, NZXT and more for providing us with the above testing equipment and their ongoing 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 Cinebench R23 is run for 10 minutes to calculate “load” results Multiple readings are taken with the average of the package temperatures calculated for our recorded result 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 60cm vertically away from the CPU cooler Stock tests are performed using “out of the box” settings for the CPU 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 Cinebench R23 Unigine Superposition Temperatures Wow, it came so close to being the best AIO we've tested to date right away, scoring a very impressive 70c at full load, and a very low idle of just 25c too. Optimisation of our i9-12900K saw some staggering improvements too, with load temperatures dropping by 7c, again, one of the best results we've seen. Acoustics At idle, the fans are very quiet, but at their full load, they're quite loud. This is fine though, the cooler is built with performance in mind, so the fans have a very high RPM for this purpose. However, there's plenty over overhead here to dial them way back to suit your acoustic taste. When I optimised the drop in temperature resulted in a lower fan noise too, putting them more in line with other triple fan coolers. CineBench R23 It's no surprise that the impressive cooling performance quickly translated to one of the best Cinebench scores we've had, with 26954 at stock is good enough to beat around 50% of our overclocked and optimised results. Again a really fantastic score here, absolutely into the enthusiast territory here, with a blisteringly high score of 27397 points. How Much Does it Cost? The EK Water Blocks EK-Nucleus CR360 Lux D-RGB All In One CPU Water Cooler - Black is not cheap, coming in at £199.99 it's actually as expensive as many rival offerings premium coolers that offer an LCD display in the pump. However, you don't get any fancy TV on your cooler here, just some fairly straightforward D-RGB integration. However, while you are paying seemingly a lot for a "simple" AIO, it's anything but simple. The overall build quality from the CPU block to the radiator is simply sublime, and you're getting a great quality cooler for your added investment. Overview Of course, paying for something that's well made is one thing, but that superior build quality clearly translates to superior performance. This is by far one of the best-performing coolers on the market right now. So you can keep your fancy LCD displays, because if you just want to keep your CPU as cool as possible, then this will more than get the job done. At stock and overclocked settings, it delivered some of the lowest idle and load temperatures we've seen. What's more impressive is just how powerful these fans are, and sure, at full RPM you are going to hear them, but when they're going the CPU load temperatures just plummet with impressive haste. You can absolutely afford to put them on their silent profile, given that it's already one of the best-performing coolers, making the fans quieter at the cost of a little more heat still leaves its performance as some of the best around. EKWB has a strong reputation for enthusiast cooling hardware, namely with their custom-loop components. However, it's clear they've infused some of that premium technology into their CPU block, pump, tubing design, the lovely adjustable fittings on the radiator, and their premium quality fans. Every component is as good as it can be on an AIO cooler. Sure, you can get a cooler that looks as good for half the price, and one that cools pretty good too. However, if you want one that coolers better than the rest, well... then EKWB has got you covered. Should I Buy One? A premium price for a premium cooler seems like a fair trade. It is expensive, but really when it comes down to it, the killer performance speaks for itself. Not that rival coolers at the same price are bad, far from it, but at £200, you have a choice of a rival cooler with an LCD display on the pump, or the EKWB with its more basic RGB integration, but seriously kick-ass cooling performance... I'd pick the EK cooler every single time myself.