NZXT Kraken 240 AIO Cooler Review

Performance

Installation was pretty much what you would expect if you’ve ever done any AIO. The radiator fits in the top or front of a case easily enough, and the tubes are surprisingly easy to adjust to your needs. The pump uses a backplate held by four long standoff screws, and then four thumbscrews hold the pump right onto those screws. It’s that simple and doesn’t take more than a few minutes. Orientation doesn’t matter either, as the LCD can be rotated in software to suit your installation.

Stock Temperatures

Stock clocks clearly aren’t an issue for the Kraken, scoring 87c on our i9-12900K, which will easily hit 100c+ on most mid-range air coolers.

Optimised Temperatures

With our optimised settings locking in a fixed clock speed and improved voltages for the CPU, the Kraken hit an impressive 69c, the lowest score we’ve had so far, and with a 5c lead, this one may be hard to beat!

Stock Acoustics

The stock acoustics are also the strongest we’ve seen so far, and at 33 dBa the fans are only slightly louder than the four 120mm case fans which typically sit at 31.5 dBa on their own.

Optimised Acoustics

This did result in a little more fan noise, taking it up to 36 dBa, which is still exceptionally quiet still, but also we saw the temperatures were fantastic too, so this is a big win-win.

Stock Cinebench

Optimised Cinebench

Overall Improvement

Locking the voltage clock speeds of our i9 resulted in a slightly higher fan RPM, but largely the Kraken remained one of the quietest coolers we’ve tested, and also the coolest. However, despite the reduced temperatures this still resulted in a +279 points in Cinebench, and with a score of 27662 it also scored our highest Cinebench R23 score so far.