ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB Air Cooler Review

ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB While ID-Cooling may have more recently been focusing on their AIO liquid cooler designs, that doesn't mean to say that they have forgotten their more basic roots of proving a cost-effecting solution via the air-cooling category. Admittedly, air coolers are getting somewhat unfashionable these days. With the SE-224-RGB, however, ID-Cooling has looked to bring a lot of modern features to remind us that air-cooling is still a more than viable option for PC builds! Representing the latest release from their SE line of products, the SE-224-RGB features (as the name would suggest) RGB lighting, but with a sync capable design to ensure that in conjunction with all your other RGB, this can be a nice new addition to the party! Features 4 heat pipe designRGB sync capable lighting (compatible with ASUS, Gigabyte & MSI)PWM fan design allowing for high levels of speed controlUniversal CPU socket support Technical Information For more in-depth specifications, please visit the official product page via the link here! Dimensions Exterior Packaging ID-Cooling has often taken a very basic approach to packaging. Being an air-cooler after all, there isn't a lot you need to know about this product. Placing a nice clear view of the cooler on the front of the box work, however, beyond this there is very little details. You are told the motherboards in which the sync RGB lighting can work with, the compatible processor sockets, and you are also given some (exceptionally cramped) specifications to the rear. On the whole, while it is simplistic, it does tell you (nearly) everything you need to know. Socket Compatibility Accessories! Supporting a solid range of processor sockets from both Intel and AMD you are given all the accessories you need out of the box to ensure you can get this fitted to your system. A nice addition is the inclusion of a manual controller for the RGB lighting. This is exceptionally useful (in fact, required) if your motherboard doesn't support RGB sync lighting. The parts are well organised and as such should provide you with no difficulty in getting this ready for installation. A Closer Look The radiator design has a nice and solid appeal to it. Without a doubt the first thing that catches your eye in the manner in which the silver contrasts to well against the heavy black top cover. The top itself has a very nice aesthetic presentation with the white trim working well against the black background. This is, of course, one of the main key areas of the RGB lighting and as such, when turned on, both the logo and RGB strips to the side will give a nice solid presentation. A matter of some curiosity is the 'wave effect' pattern that ID-Cooling has given to the fins. Exactly why they have done this is unclear. They certainly don't mention much about it in the manual. One has to therefore presume that it's either designed to help the airflow or just to give it a pleasing appearance on the eye. Overall, and surprisingly for a air cooler radiator, there is more than enough going on here in the design to make us confident that this should tick both the boxes in terms of appearance and performance. Contact Plate Surprisingly, the contact plate for the ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB has a 4 heat-pipe design which should allow for excellent heat dissipation to the radiator. We should note, however, that there is something of an optical illusion going on the image below as it looks like 5! Trust us though, it's 4. The contact plate itself is nice and large and it is somewhat unusual given that the heat pipes are clearly visible. It's usually more common to see these (or more accurately not see these) obscured beneath the contact plate itself. Whether this will be good or not will, of course, require some testing! Fan The cooler it provided with an ID-Cooling design fan which, like the radiator itself, comes with RGB lighting effects. On the whole there isn't a huge amount to say about the design. It looks solid and reliable (which is good) but offers little in terms of aesthetics while the lights are off. With a rated speed of up to 2000RPM that is clearly pretty fast and with a 56.5CFM, it can clearly move a decent amount of air. It is at least reassuring that if required, this fan can clearly get that air moving which is, of course, more than a little important. Overall When assembled, the ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB represents a very solid looking design and, on the whole, despite it's rather small size, it does manage to look more than a little imposing. As can be seen in the picture below, it does have a surprisingly slim design. This should ensure that you should never experience any issues with ram compatibility or clearance, even if you decided to fit a 2nd fan to it (which is possible). As we noted earlier as well, the silver, black and white highlight design makes this look rather attractive even with the RGB lights are not turned on. The RGB lighting as well looks excellent when turned on. As such, on the whole, so far this cooler is ticking a lot of the right boxes. How is it to install and when operating though? - Lets find out! Installation With the packaging rather sparse of details, there was a part of me that wondered if this would be translated in the manual and unfortunately it was. The manual you are provided with is not fantastic. You are told what you need to know, but with such a basic level of detail (and with very small diagrams) that you have to pay particularly close attention to make sure you get it right. The cooler itself is mounted by fixings that screw into the contact plate. While this design isn't unusual, in this instance it's very delicate work. I've often seen these brackets given loose mounting points to hold them in place while you screw. For the SE-224-RGB, however, that is not the case. You have to get the screw in place and just hope that you can get it attached before your hand wobbles and everything falls apart. Based on usual air cooler remits, the ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB is no easier or harder to fit than most standard low-cost air coolers. From out of the box and onto our test system, it took me around 15-20 minutes to install. There are definitely more than a few ways it could've been made earlier and given the RGB attachments, a more detailed manual would've been nicer. It may give beginners a few head-scratching moments, but if you are familiar with fitting them then this will pose no difficulties. RGB in Action While we can, of course, write profusely about how the RGB looks and operates, it is much easier to show you. The only factor of note that we would add to it, however, is that the inclusion of a manual RGB controller is a solid addition to the cooler. While RGB sync capable monitors are getting more common, there are still a lot of people who don't own them. As such, having this as an option (which we used in the video below) is more than a little handy. Test System & Methodology As you may appreciate, we review a lot of coolers here at eTeknix. As such, our prior results sheet was getting more than a little crowded. We have, therefore, applied a new system in which we have picked those coolers we consider most popular or most relevant to this design. Please note that we re-tested the Noctua NH-D15S as our base benchmark for cooling results. Test system: Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 Z270Intel Core i7-7700K Delidded w/ NT-H1 under IHSRadeon R7 Passive GPU with 2GB VRAM8GB Crucial DDR4 2400 MHz512GB OCZ SSDbe quiet! Dark Power Pro 800WLian Li T80 Test BenchAll 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 pastePrime 95 is run for 10 minutes to calculate "load" resultsUnigine Superposition is run for 10 minutes to calculate "gaming" resultsThe average temperature across all cores is takenFans are left to operate at default PWM profile speeds unless otherwise statedFor water cooling tests, all pumps have been operated at 12 volts unless otherwise statedAmbient temperatures should be between 21-23 degrees in all our tests unless otherwise statedAcoustic measurements are taken 10cm horizontally and 10cm vertically away from the CPU cooler with the VGA fan disabledStock tests are performed using "out of the box" settings for the CPUOverclocking tests are performed with the CPU set to 5 GHz and 1.345vAll 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 MonitorThere is approximately a 1.5dBA margin of error with our Benetech GM1351 decibel meterIn 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 HWMonitorPrime 95Unigine Superposition (1080 Extreme) Performance Given its size and stature, we were not exactly expecting a record-breaking level of performance from the ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB. Despite that, however, it still managed to provide excellent results both in temperatures and acoustics while our system was running at stock performance. This was honestly much higher than we expected and clearly indicates that as a cooler, this is a more than a solid option. Admittedly, when overclocked, this cooler does run out of steam. While the noise levels only get a little more vocal, the temperatures soar right up into the high 70's. So, while you could hypothetically use this for overclocking, we certainly wouldn't recommend it. For standard system operation though, this clearly has more than enough under the hood. Stock Temperatures Stock Acoustics Overclocked Temperatures Overclocked Acoustics How Much Does it Cost? The ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB retails for a price in the region of $35 and in terms of air coolers that is certainly within the remit of the 'entry-level' area of pricing. When it comes to considering if it is worth the money, however, I think it is. Inexpensive air coolers are not exactly hard to find. It is, however, difficult to find one (for this price) that offers motherboard RGB sync compatibility. For that reason alone, it certainly tips to the scales into definitely representing some good value! Overview In terms of the design and presentation, the ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB is exceptionally solid. Despite this being a low-cost cooler, it neither looks nor feels cheap. In fact, if our testing showed anything, it's actually a rather impressive cooler as long as you don't start asking too much from it. It isn't overclocking friendly, but then for this price overclocking shouldn't be on your list of priorities! With some nice strong RGB effects as well, combined with the sync compatibility, it offers a surprisingly solid package for a very nice price point. Should I Buy One? You'll never struggle to find an inexpensive air cooler. It is, however, always difficult to find those that actually offer a genuine level of performance. With this in mind, how does the ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB fit into the picture? - Well, there are a number of factors to consider. At stock levels, it has exceptionally good temperature and noise performance. It has strong RGB effects that are also sync capable and it has a design and aesthetic that is hard to fault. For a low-cost cooling solution, one that offers you more than a little extra on the market average, the ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB is an excellent option. Pros Excellent designStrong aesthetics with the lights on or offExcellent performance at stock levelsExceptional RGB controls with manual adaptor and sync compatibilitySignificantly better than many of its price point alternatives. Cons None Neutral The manual would benefit from better detailVery little practical overclocking potential ID-Cooling SE-224-RGB Cooler Review