NZXT Kraken X73 RGB AIO Liquid Cooler Review

Installation

The NZXT Kraken X73 RGB is not provided with a physical installation manual and, put simply, I personally have a huge issue with this! – I shouldn’t necessarily single out NZXT for this issue, incidentally, as they are not the first cooling manufacturer I have seen do this. Whenever I do encounter this problem, however, my blood does start to boil!

So, what do you get to help you fit this cooler? Well, you get a slip of paper with a QR code and web address that takes you to the NZXT Kraken X73 RGB’s official online instruction manual. Something that’s not much bloody use if your only internet access is through your PC that is presumably awaiting its new and fancy cooling solution.

So, I’m going to kick this ‘installation’ aspect of the review with a huge complaint. NZXT, stump up an additional couple of dollars and provide a physical manual with your cooler!

Mounting

Getting back to a more positive note, with the daisy-chain fans, you do not have to hook up an absolute mess of cables to get this working correctly. Without this method, which isn’t used anywhere near as often as I’d like, cabling can sometimes make (and particularly 360mm triple-fan designs) a very intimidating proposition.

What the NZXT Kraken X73 RGB makes up for in cable management, however, is largely lost in what is, for a beginner, an undoubtedly ‘involved’ installation process. To give you an example of this, each fan mounting screw has to utilize a washer. So for 3 fans, that’s 12 screws and that is time consuming and fiddly work.

More so, however, with the ARGB lighting, while cabling is minimized, you still need to attach the same cable from the pump head to the RGB fans to ensure a synchronized operation. Throw that in with the fact that the pump head requires power from a USB motherboard header (rather than a standard SATA port) and, overall, while not hard, there’s more work to installing this cooler than you might expect (or hope).

Fortunately, however, putting these points aside, there are still many aspects of the installation method that should be praised.

As noted earlier in the review, the pump head mounting clip is amazingly simple to fit. Simply slide it over the base, twist it, and it locks in place. With this design, you could have this pump head ready (or swapped) for Intel or AMD within literally seconds.

More so, with the motherboard mounting system, this is, again, about as easy as it can possibly get. And, we should note again, if you accidentally install the pump head the ‘wrong way up’, a simple twist by hand can quickly correct that in seconds.

NZXT CAM

In terms of RGB functionality, the use of the NZXT CAM software is, pretty much, a required aspect. While it offers a huge mass of individual RGB lighting and pre-set functions (to both the pump head and fans), however, you can decide for yourself whether you really want another piece of software installed on your PC simply for the control and functionality of lighting effects.

The software itself isn’t overly easy to use, but give it 10 minutes of poking around and you’ll undoubtedly have a lot of fun trying out all the different RGB functionality and control on offer.

More so, however, NZXT CAM also provides you with a surprisingly detailed amount of information on your PC in general. CPU/GPU temperatures, clock speeds, RAM occupancy, network usage, storage. Although not the primarily reason you should install this, it’s exceptionally good information and presented very well.

As with most manufacturers software, it isn’t perfect. In truth, we would struggle to name someone who did make good RGB custimization software. Comparing them all, however, NZXT CAM is undoubtedly one of the best in terms of ease of use, information, and functionality.

Overall Thoughts

From out of the box and onto our PC, the NZXT Kraken X73 RGB took us roughly 30-minutes to install. A time that could’ve undoubtedly have been halved if NZXT just went to the trouble of providing you with a physical manual.

Call me old, but I don’t like reading instructions off my mobile phone screen!

Once fitted, however, the RGB lighting is absolutely fantastic with a wide range of customization features available to both the fans and the pump head. With it’s ‘infinity glass’ style design to the pump, it’s actually hard to say which, between this and the fans, are the more eye-catching aspect.

So, in terms of design and aesthetics, the NZXT Kraken X73 RGB is (with a few grumbles on the installation front) clearly hitting the ball out of the park. The only matter left, therefore, is to see how this performs as an actual AIO liquid cooler!