Fractal Design Kelvin T12 Expandable Pre-Filled CPU Water Cooler Review

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The Fractal Design Kelvin T12 available from most major retailers and can be found at Scan in the UK for £85. This is quite expensive, but looking at the features and build quality, it seems fair to me, as it’s only £5 more than the Corsair H80i GT.

Overview

From the moment I unboxed it, until the moment I had finished with my testing, there was one aspect of the Kelvin T12 that really stood out to me, its build quality. This cooler is easily one of the best I’ve seen in this respect, and this is especially true of the radiator construction. Everything is precision made, perfectly finished and detailed, with high quality components and materials throughout. The fans are excellent and run super quiet and there’s barely a whisper to be heard from the pump design.

Cooling performance wasn’t as great as I had hoped, but it was far from bad and I’m sure the radiator has more than enough cooling potential to also cool a graphics card on the same loop without putting further strain on the CPU block. The use of standard water cooling fittings means that you can expand if you want, but I just see that as a welcome bonus, whereas most users will still find this a great AIO that simply uses more traditional fittings.

Installing the cooler was nice and easy, but it’s the pipes that I liked the most. The pivot mount on the hoses at the pump end are really easy to move and there’s a lot of flex in the pipe, which will prove beneficial to those installing this cooling in smaller chassis.

Overall, this is a really nice cooler with exceptional build quality and flawless aesthetics that would be a credit to any system build. I’d certainly buy one for my own system, but if your primary goal is very high overclocks, you may want to look for something a little more performance focused.

Pros

Exceptional build quality
Expandable design
Thick radiator
Two high-quality fans included
All black fittings and cables
Huge amount of sockets supported
Extremely quiet pump
Reliable cooling performance

Cons

None

Neutral

Cooling performance could be better when overclocking. Pushing the fans harder solves this, but does come at the cost of more noise

“Fractal Design has always delivered durable and well-designed products and the Kelvin T12 is no exception. You don’t have to be a Fractal Design fan to appreciate the quality of this cooler and the super-quiet pump and stylish design will be a great addition to any system build.”