NZXT Kraken X40 Liquid CPU Cooler Review

NZXT’s Kraken series is something we have been aware of at eTeknix for a while. We have been expecting these to hit the market for an absolute age and since we heard rumours that NZXT’s Kraken series was supposed to demolish the competition, we just couldn’t wait to take a look.

As much as everyone probably wanted us to start with the flagship Kraken X60, we are opting to review the Kraken X40 first since it is the most affordable of the two.

You may be wondering – “what is so special about the NZXT Kraken series?”. Well that is an easy one to answer. NZXT’s Kraken is using a 140mm design, compared to nearly every other all-in-one liquid cooler on the market which uses a 120mm design.

What we mean by this is that the NZXT Kraken X40 comes with a 140mm fan and 140mm radiator (the NZXT Kraken X60 comes with two 140mm fans and a 280mm radiator). This is in comparison to the rest of the market that is still predominantly using 120/240mm radiators and 120mm fans. NZXT are saying that due to this increased size there is more surface area to the radiator which means more cooling performance and better acoustics – but obviously this is going to come at an increased price. As always, we want to know if this increased price still makes this product good value for money.

Increased fan and radiator size aside, the NZXT Kraken appears to be more or less identical to every other current generation Asetek all-in-one liquid cooler I have seen. The pump is the same, the mounting kit is the same, the radiator is the same and the tubing is the same.

You can check out the specifications of the NZXT Kraken X40 here, but without any further ado, lets move on to the review.