Cooling

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

Performance

We should note that when it comes to our testing, and particularly the charts we produce, the ID-Cooling SE-914-XT Basic is at something of a comparative disadvantage. Put simply, when we perform these tests, the charts do generally only reflect the numbers when price tags are a definite factor of consideration. So, keeping it simple, when you look at what this goes up against in our testing, while the results don’t look overly positive at first, you have to note that it’s going up against some very strong cooling solutions here that cost significantly more money than this.

With that being said though, when you do look at our results, the ID-Cooling SE-914-XT Basic manages to easily rub shoulders with many of those more expensive cooling alternatives providing a very respectable 54C result at max load on stock settings. Another key highlight is the acoustic performance, whether at stock or overclocked settings, the ID-Cooling SE-914-XT Basic was remarkably quiet and as such, if you value low-noise output from your system, this cooler definitely puts a big checkmark in that box!

Is this cooler viable for overclocking? Well, as you can see in the results below, in terms of CPU temperature control, not really. Anything above 70C in those remits, while acceptable under many CPU guidelines, is still generally higher than most would like. Then again, if you are genuinely thinking about overclocking and you’re looking at coolers within this price range, you either need to think about spending more money on a higher-performance design or, alternatively, just not bothering at all!

To summarize, the ID-Cooling SE-914-XT Basic isn’t the best cooler we have ever encountered, but then again, we didn’t expect it to be. For the performance it provides for its pretty impressively low price tag, however, it is surprising just how well it does manage to truly compete with some of the best (and significantly more expensive) brands and models out there!