ID-Cooling SE-914-XT ARGB CPU Cooler Review

Installation

Starting with one of the most basic aspects, ID-Cooling provides you (perhaps surprisingly) with two separate manuals. Don’t panic though, the information has been spread out for the reason. While the main manual provides you with the specifications and installation instructions, the second concentrates solely on how to successfully hook up all of the ARGB lighting peripherals.

The information provided in both is excellent with easy to read instructions as well as exceptionally helpful diagrams.

Mounting

Representing a factor of which I’m always eternally grateful, ID-Cooling has not attempted to re-invent the wheel when it comes to mounting the SE-914-XT ARGB. The system is one that will be immediately familiar for those with any experience in air coolers and, even if you’ve never fitted one before, I promise you that this is about as straight forward as it gets.

Through the simple cross brace mounting system, the cooler screws directly onto it through 2 pre-installed fixing and, overall, while this doesn’t offer anything particularly notable or exciting, it just works!

Admittedly, there is a little more legwork involved in hooking up the ARGB lighting, but are only talking about two individual cables here (one for the fan and one for the radiator) and as such, whether you use the manual connector or your motherboard ARGB sync compatibility, this again shouldn’t prove to be too much of a problem.

Overall Thoughts

From out of the box and onto our test bench, the ID-Cooling SE-914-XT ARGB took us a little over 5 minutes to install which is more than indicative of the fact that it has a very standard, but easy to apply, installation method. Admittedly, hooking up the ARGB added a little time on that, but thanks to the spitter cable, this wasn’t a problem in the slightest.

So, what do we think about that ARGB lighting? Well, quite frankly, we think it looks really good. Admittedly, the lighting cycles are a bit basic and don’t offering anything much beyond what you see in most average ARGB cooling products. A particular highlight, however, has to be given to the portion at the top of the radiator.

Striking an excellent balance of punch and understatement, I think even the most rabid or RGB haters couldn’t fail to appreciate that this does look nice and would suit the vast majority of system set-ups.

So, with it now successfully (and easily) fitted onto our test bench, how does it perform as a cooler? – Well, there’s only one way to find out! – Let’s get this thing heated up!