Alphacool Eisbaer LT 360 CPU Liquid Cooler Review

Alphacool Eisbaer LT 360

Tired of the performance of your CPU cooler and being unable to overclock the heck out of your processor? The new Alphacool Eisbaer LT looks set to be the perfect solution for you! There are three models launching today, the LT 120, LT 240, and the LT 360. We have the big daddy of the range, the Eisbaer LT 360 in the eTeknix office today.

It features a thick 100% copper radiator design, a powerful 12V pump, and three premium quality fans. With support for every major CPU socket, it’s got the capability of providing extreme cooling performance, or at least we hope it does; let’s find out!

“The compact Eisbaer LT’s cooler has a copper bottom with an extremely fine fin structure. Alphacool also made use of the popular DC-LT Low Noise Ceramic Pump in this AIO model, well-known for its low noise level. The Eisbaer LT sets a new visual standard with its brushed aluminium plate and silver logo. Its compact structure makes the Eisbaer LT perfect for especially small PC cases with little space for a powerful cooler.” – Alphacool

Features

While this cooler is shipped as an AIO type unit, prefilled with liquid and ready to install, it has a party trick. It features their wonderful quick lock tubing system. You can unscrew the tube, and a valve snaps shut to lock in the fluid. With Alphacool providing pre-filled GPU blocks and more, you can expand the loop with ease to add in a GPU, more radiators, and other hardware, with relative ease.

“Equipped with a quick-lock mechanism, the “Eisbaer” can be effortlessly expanded with further components. As an example, take the upcoming Alphacool GPX-Pro GPU Aio, which also comes with the same quick-lock closures. Of course, we also offer a range of identical quick-lock closures.” – Alphacool

Specifications

For in-depth technical specifications, please visit the official product page here.

What Alphacool Had to Say

Packaging

The whole thing comes in a stylish and well-protected box. All the components are wrapped to keep them neat and tidy and scratch free.

Everything you need is included, such as thermal paste, and brackets for both Intel and AMD processors.

A Closer Look

In the box, you’ll find three Eiswind 12 fans. Each comes fitted with a PWM header and can operate up to 1700 RPM. Their all-black design is neat and tidy too, so they’ll blend in with pretty much any system build with ease.

The radiator design is super tidy, with nice clean edges and a slim radiator design to make it easy to accommodate in most system builds. As this is an AIO type cooler, it comes with the tubing and pump/CPU block pre-installed and pre-filled with liquid. However, it comes with standard 1/4″ fittings, so you can easily change any part you desire with ease.

Quick Release

Thanks to the lovely quick release system, you can unscrew the tubing and expand the loop with a GPU block or any other water cooling hardware you desire. It’s marked with red and blue to ensure you get the cold to warm flow pattern correct if you expand the system.

One of my favourite parts of the design is this lovely CPU block and pump combo. It’s got a nice low-profile design that’s going to be unobtrusive within your system. The top panel is covered with a brushed metal finish, that contrasts well with the chrome finish Alphacool logo.

The massive contact plate is good news for those with larger CPUs. It’ll provide plenty of coverage with ease, helping to shift heat as quickly as possible.

Copper Radiator

The 100% copper radiator is really fantastic quality. There’s a good amount of surface area here, partly from the tightly packed fins, and also because it’s a 360mm long design. Either way, it’s going to be able to handle a lot of heat with relative ease.

the glossy tubing looks neat and tidy too, and comes with a protective spring covering to keep it safe from kinks and excessive bending.

Test System and Methodology

Please note that our testing system was completely revised in September 2017. That means all previous results have been scrapped, and a new set of benchmarks introduced. For a look at our previous reviews, please consult our most recent review that used that system. Please note that we re-tested the Noctua NH-D15S as our base benchmark for cooling results.

Test system:

• Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 Z270
• Intel Core i7-7700K Delidded w/ NT-H1 under IHS
• Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti
• 32GB Crucial DDR4 2400 MHz
• 512GB OCZ SSD
• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 800W
• Lian Li T80 Test Bench
• All 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 paste
• Prime 95 is run for 10 minutes to calculate “load” results
• Unigine Superposition is run for 10 minutes to calculate “gaming” results
• The average temperature across all cores is taken
• Fans are left to operate at default PWM profile speeds unless otherwise stated
• For water cooling tests, all pumps have been operated at 12 volts unless otherwise stated
• Ambient temperatures should be between 21-23 degrees in all our tests unless otherwise stated
• Acoustic measurements are taken 10cm horizontally and 10cm vertically away from the CPU cooler with the VGA fan disabled
• Stock tests are performed using “out of the box” settings for the CPU
• Overclocking tests are performed with the CPU set to 5 GHz and 1.345v
• All 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 Monitor
• There is approximately a 1.5dBA margin of error with our Benetech GM1351 decibel meter
• In 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 HWMonitor
• Prime 95
• Unigine Superposition (1080 Extreme)

Performance

We’ve already had good experience testing the Alphacool Eisbaer, and the new LT model is just the next evolution of that design. Both have a 360mm radiator design, so it’s hardly surprisingly that they perform pretty much identical to each other. The LT runs just 1 degree warmer at idle and gaming loads. However, it is 1 degree lower while at full load. Of course, that makes it the coolest we’ve had to date.

Stock

Overclocked

Pushing the 8700K to 5GHz really ramps up the heat, but the LT had zero issues dealing with these heavy workloads. It topped out at just 56C, which is simply incredible news for enthusiast overclockers.

Stock

A 360mm radiator means three fans, that would typically mean more noise, but since they’re dealing with such a large surface area they can run at much lower RPM than most coolers, and still deliver amazing performance. It’s one of the quietest coolers we’ve tested. The pump and fluid noises were practically non existant, even while overclocked!

Overclocked

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Alphacool Eisbaer LT launches today with three models available. The 120mm is 79,95 EUR. Moving up the range, the 230mm is just 89,95 EUR and amazingly, the big boy 360mm is just 104,95 EUR. Now, you don’t have to be a genious to see that’s cheaper than most AIO 360mm solutions from the usual big name brands. The LT isn’t just a bargain, it’s a freaking steal for this level of performance. The old model was £130 (150 EUR) when we review it!

Overview

Alphacool continue to impress with their range of water cooling hardware. For those eager to invest in full custom loop cooling, they have an incredible range of products to pick from, although it can get expensive pretty quickly.

Custom or Not?

The only advantage to full custom loop is aesthetics and having total control over the layout. However, the Eisbaer LT is custom loop hardware, ready to go right out of the box. It uses a custom radiator, tubing, and a pump. They’re all fitted with screw fittings, making changes easy. It’s pre-filled too, making setup easy. However, it still delivers the performance we would associate with custom loop configurations.

Build Quality

This is literally the strong point of this cooler. With a 100% copper radiator, it’s a premium quality product. Furthermore, you can pay the same or more for some AIO cooler without the same level of quality. The pump is fantastic, low-profile, super quiet and what you would expect from a premium product. However, it’s the quick release tubing system that wins my most praise. You can quickly unscrew it, not loose any fluid, add a GPU block and more with ease.

Performance

It’s the best cooler we’ve ever tested, there’s no need to sugarcoat anything. It runs cool and it runs quiet, you can’t ask for more. The only issues are that is 360mm, which isn’t suitable for a lot of people’s chassis, but it’s hardly impossible to accomodate either. If you can find a more comprehensive cooler for less money, let me know.

Pros

• Neat and tidy design
• Supports all major socks
• Quiet pump
• Quiet fans
• Incredible cooling performance
• Quick release tubing
• 100% copper radiator design
• Exceptional value for money

Cons

• None

Alphacool Eisbaer LT 360 CPU Liquid Cooler Review