ID-Cooling SE-234-ARGB Air Cooler Review

A Closer Look

Out of the box the ID-Cooling SE-234-ARGB has a really nice and solid aesthetic. The black and off twice really work together well and, so far, this looks like an excellent cooler.

Let’s delve into some of the details!

Contact Plate

The base of the radiator shows 4 heat pipes (leading from each side of the contact plate). Like the radiator itself, these are finished in black and really add to the overall aesthetic.

The contact plate itself is nice and large and should provide excellent coverage for the AMD and Intel processors supported. It should be noted, however, that you can see some gaps where the copper pipes join the contact plate. This is a concern. While I won’t go into heavy detail as to why, this is a surface that you ideally want to see is as flat and smooth as possible.

It shouldn’t be a major factor in the results, but it could well be the difference between this being a great cooler or just an ok one.

Radiator

The radiator itself has a fantastic look about it. Starting with the most eye-catching aspect, your eye is immediately drawn to the top which has a black cover with RGB lighting aspects to highlighted areas and the edges.

In terms of the radiator itself, you can see in the picture below that this carries an ‘interwoven’ design. This effectively means that the fins slightly overlap to provide the maximum coverage while not overly restricting the airflow. In addition, such designs also mean that, as a whole, the size is slightly smaller than otherwise.

Fan

Out of the box you are provided with a single ID-Cooling designed fan. This is a fan we have seen used in a number of their ARGB products and it has never failed to disappoint in terms of performance and nice, bright, vivid, RGB lighting effects!

Overall

So, initially, the overall thoughts surrounding the ID-Cooling SE-234-ARGB are generally very positive. The biggest factor we take away from this design, however, is just how aesthetically nice it is.

The fan you are provided with provides excellent coverage for the radiator which, all going well, should translate into some decent test results.

In terms of size, the width of the cooler (with the fan installed) is remarkably small. It should be noted, however, that this doesn’t really have any RAM compatibility built into the design. While I expect you shouldn’t have any problems getting this to fit alongside your memory, it is certainly a factor of consideration.

So, overall, it’s a very nice looking cooler. As we said earlier in the review though, looks fall secondary to practicality and performance. Let’s, therefore, see how easy (or hard) this is to install!