Heat from motherboard components is an issue that comes up all the time with all-in-one
CPU coolers.
Because there's no fan blowing on the VRMs or chipset, these parts heat up and can prematurely
fail if your case's ventilation isn't up to par.
Howdy howdy guys ponchato here and today we're going to take a look at a cooler that promises
to fix this issue: Cryorig's A40 Ultimate.
Thanks to Cryorig for sending this one over for review, and let's get started.
The A40 Ultimate was released back in November of 2015 for a launch price of $110 USD.
It's compatible with AM4, LGA 1151, LGA 2066, and sTR4 sockets for those of you looking
to cool a Threadripper.
The radiator is 120mm wide, 272mm long, and 38.5mm thick which is 11mm thicker than the
standard Cryorig A40.
It comes with two of their QF120 Performance fans for the radiator, which are 120mm fans
that run between 600 and 2200 RPM.
The QF120 is built with Cryorig's HPLN or "High Precision, Low Noise" bearing which
is probably just a variation of a fluid dynamic bearing.
Cryorig doesn't rate the A40 Ultimate for a specific TDP but I'd estimate it to be
somewhere pretty far north of 200W.
Inside the box you'll find the two QF120 radiator fans with a simple black and white
color scheme and no LEDs.
Next is a tiny 70mm fan, their somewhat redundantly-named "Airflow Fan" – this how Cryorig tackled
the motherboard heat problem which we'll examine in detail in a bit.
Beyond that are all the standard mounting backplates, adapaters, and screws, warranty
card, and installation guide.
The guide is well written and surprisingly non-threatening; only about 10 steps and it's
detailed enough that the average user shouldn't have any problems.
Cryorig did start updating their lineup around Fall of 2017 to include AM4 brackets, but
some older stock may still be in warehouses or on store shelves.
If you get one of these pre-update models you can get the AM4 upgrade kit from Cryorig,
but I expect by now all the old stock will have been cycled through and should come with
the AM4 bracket in the box.
Finally, the cooler itself.
Both the radiator and the pump are wrapped in plastic to keep dust off during shipping,
and the pump comes with a plastic protector over the copper cold plate.
Here you can also see the three cables hardwired to the pump: the SATA power connector, the
Y-cable to connect the two radiator fans, and fan cable that plugs into your motherboard's
CPU fan header.
Before we get to installation, let's look at that Airflow Fan, which is how Cryorig
is tackling the VRM heat problem.
It's a tiny fan, only 70mm, and rated for up to 3000 RPM, and otherwise follows the
A40's design aesthetic of black on white.
It mounts to the top of the pump, roughly where a standard CPU air cooler's fan would
be, and blows air down onto the motherboard.
This helps circulate the stagnant air that would otherwise just build up around the pump.
You can also turn it around and have it pull air away from the motherboard but I don't
think that'll be as effective.
The Airflow Fan has a very short cable because it plugs directly into the top of the pump.
Once it's plugged in, it gets the same shared PWM signal that the radiator fans get, so
you can dial it up or down as needed.
Since this is my first all-in-one cooler, one thing I was curious about is how exactly
you mount the fans to the radiator, and then the radiator to the case.
It's actually more straightforward than I thought: The radiator has the same mounting
screw holes on both sides, so it can be used either on the air intake at the front of the
case or exhaust on the top.
Cryorig provides you with two sets of screws, one shorter and one longer, along with a set
of washers – the longer set of screws is used to mount the fans to the radiator, and
the shorter set is used to mount the radiator to the case if you're using it as an exhaust
– otherwise the long screws do double duty of holding both the radiator and the fans
to the case.
The washers are provided to help protect the case, but because of the shape of the MasterBox
Lite 3.1's front mounting locations, I couldn't use the washers.
No biggie.
The A40 Ultimate uses the stock AM4 backplate, so installation of that part is easy – you
just thread the mounting screws into the backplate and it's held in place.
Apparently a lot of AM4 mounting systems only loosely hold the backplate in place before
the heat sink or pump are attached.
It was a little concerning at first, but that actually is how it's supposed to be.
Now here's how I mounted the radiator and fans to the case.
I first threaded all the long screws through the fans, making sure to keep the header wires
clear of the front and backside of the fans.
With the screws holding them in place, I lined up the radiator mounting holes with the exposed
parts of the screws.
Whenever you're tightening screws in a computer (or most things, for that matter), you should
always turn them back one quarter or half a turn until the threads click.
This helps make sure the threads aren't crossed and lets you know that the screw is
actually lined up with the hole.
Tighten down all the screws, keep in mind there's no need to crank them down like
a gorilla, and the radiator is installed.
The coolant tubes are sleeved and 350mm or 13.8" long.
That length should be fine for the vast majority of MicroATX and standard ATX cases, and was
comfortably long enough for the Cooler Master MasterBox Lite 3.1 here.
Now to install the pump, the first step is to put on the right mounting bracket.
It comes with the LGA bracket already installed, and to swap it out for the AM4 bracket you
simply twist it counter clockwise and take it off.
The AM4 bracket mounts in the same way and locks by twisting clockwise, and it can be
mounted in any orientation you want, depending on where you want the tubing to go and where
to aim the fan mounted on the pump.
Once you decide on an orientation, it's time to mount the pump.
The A40 usually comes with thermal paste pre-applied, but I'll be using my standard paste for
testing, Deepcool Z5.
With that in place, installation is pretty straightforward if not a bit awkward.
Because I wanted the airflow fan pointing towards the VRMs, which on this motherboard
are aft of the socket, I had to hold the pump firmly in place with one hand while I threaded
on the mounting screws with the other.
Once I got three of them mounted, lining up the fourth and tightening them all down was
a cinch.
Next I plugged in the SATA power connector, the motherboard fan header, and the two radiator
fans.
Finally I plugged in the airflow fan and clipped it into the top of the pump.
All in all, a fairly intuitive and easy installation.
With the cooler installed it was time to start testing.
My test bench is a Ryzen 3 1200 overclocked to 4.1GHz at 1.35V on an MSI B350M Gaming
PRO motherboard with 8GB of DDR4-2400 memory.
The graphics card is a passively cooled GT 1030 from MSI, and thanks to Seasonic for
providing the power supply: an 850W Focus Plus Gold which can run passive under low
load.
Because the GT 1030 and Seasonic 850FX run passive cooling and don't produce noise,
the only sound coming from this system is from the CPU cooler itself.
Load temperatures are taken with the CPU running a Prime95 stress test, temperatures are allowed
to stabilize for 15 minutes, and cooling results are reported as deltas; degrees above ambient
temperature.
First we'll look at the idle results.
These are the noise levels and temperature deltas with no programs running and the fans
running at minimum RPM.
The noise level at idle is more important than the temperature delta; even with the
stock cooler the 1200 only sits about 7 degrees above ambient.
On top of that, the accuracy of temperature sensors in CPUs tends to fall off quite a
bit at lower temperatures like these, so take these deltas with a grain of salt.
The noise results, however, are worth noting.
The A40 ultimate, with its three fans and pump, isn't a champion of silence.
It's still not very loud at under 34dB but you will be able to hear it whereas single
fan air coolers like the Quad Lumi or Gammaxx 400 fall somewhere between "hard to hear"
and "completely inaudible".
Now we'll look at the max cooling results.
These measurements are taken under load with the fans at 100% to show the upper limit of
cooling.
In short, the A40 Ultimate can get loud but is a significant step up in performance; almost
6 degrees cooler than the Gammaxx 400 and more than 9 degrees cooler than Cryorig's
H7 Quad Lumi.
But, as always, this bar chart doesn't paint a complete picture, since running any CPU
cooler at 100% is pretty much never worth it.
It's a balancing act between noise and cooling, and we'll take a look at a chart that shows
exactly that in just a minute.
Next we'll take a look at the RPM vs PWM graph to show one aspect of the fan controller's
quality.
The A40 Ultimate is shown in blue and this is just about par for the course.
The bottom fifth of the PWM range sets the fan to its minimum RPM, but this isn't very
surprising since most fans cut off some portion of the range as well.
Now here's the Delta C vs RPM graph to show whether the cooler is limited by airflow or
heat transfer.
A leveling off at higher RPM indicates that extra airflow isn't reducing temperatures
much, and so the cooler is limited by its ability to transfer heat from the CPU to the
fins rather than from the fins to the air.
As far as I've seen, most tower and AIO coolers are limited by heat transfer whereas
most top-down coolers like the Wraith Stealth are limited by airflow.
The A40 Ultimate starts to level off at 30% speed and only drops about 4 more degrees
when you push it all the way up to 100% - that means it's limited by heat transfer.
Finally the most important graph, Delta C vs Noise.
Basically, "how loud is it, and how well does it cool?"
At low RPM the A40 performs almost the same as the Gammaxx 400, but as you turn up the
speed you quickly get a huge drop in temperatures.
At its furthest lead the A40 runs about 6 degrees cooler than the Gammaxx 400 but I
think the best place to run it is around 40-50% speed.
At that point it sits around 4 degrees cooler than the Gammaxx 400 and about 9 degrees cooler
than the Quad Lumi while producing the same amount of noise.
This is also a good example of the general difference in performance between a compact
full tower cooler (the Quad Lumi), a full size full tower (the Gammaxx 400), and an
AIO, the A40.
I wanted to test out the airflow fan's effect on motherboard temperatures as well, and see
if Cryorig's solution actually works.
Here's the graph of VRM and Chipset temperature deltas with the airflow fan off, running at
minimum RPM, 50% speed, and 100%.
The fan is pointed directly at the VRMs and has a very clear effect on their temperature
– over 25 degrees cooler with the fan running at full speed.
The chipset temperature is less affected until the fan is running at 100%, at which point
the indirect airflow is enough to keep it cooler.
It seems that Cryorig's idea does exactly what they set out to do.
I'm also introducing a new part to my cooler reviews and giving them a "Cooler Score".
This score is essentially how close they get to a completely hypothetical "perfect"
cooler with a 0 degree delta and 0 dB of noise, hence it's a combined score for noise and
cooling performance.
The A40 ultimate just barely edges out the Gammaxx 400 at 50.5, and you can see the Wraith
Stealth all the way down at 30.
Keep in mind this is just one way of comparing coolers – compared to most benchmarks or
scoring methods, this puts a heavier emphasis on noise level.
As I add more coolers to my review library, this list will become a good point of reference
when picking out a cooler for yourself.
Finally we'll look at Cooler Score per dollar to compare price to combined noise and cooling
performance.
The A40, unsurprisingly, falls behind other much cheaper options – the Gammaxx 400,
for example, only costs about $20.
At this price range though, someone building or upgrading a PC is probably more concerned
with just the straight up performance, which the A40 excels at, rather than price to performance.
Now for the pros and cons.
First up, the pros.
This thing is very strong.
It significantly outclasses my old favorite, the Deepcool Gammaxx 400 in thermal performance.
Looks like AIOs actually do bring a new level of performance.
Second, I like the styling.
No crazy LEDs, no over the top gamer branding, just a simple black and white color scheme.
Third, installation was way easier than I expected.
I'd never used an AIO before, so I was thinking installation would be a huge pain but it was
actually… not that different from any other cooler.
Plus the installation guide is top notch and Cryorig always does a fantastic job with those.
As for the cons, the first is this isn't silent.
In terms of temperatures this will outclass just about any air cooler, but in terms of
noise unlike air coolers, it won't be completely inaudible at idle.
That's not to say it's obnoxious, since it does only run around 34dB, but if your
goal is completely silent computing then I don't think any AIO will suit your needs.
The second con is, of course, price.
$110 is steep for a CPU cooler, powerful as it may be.
However it's unlikely that a budget builder is going to opt for a cooler like this anyway,
so price may not be a big issue in reality.
If you're looking for a very high end, very high performance all-in-one liquid cooler,
the Cryorig A40 Ultimate is a strong option.
It'll keep your CPU cooler than most, if not all, air coolers, and doesn't take any
wacky installation steps or other hoops to jump through.
Installation is easy, performance is exceptional, and it just looks good.
If you want to pick one up for yourself, click the link in the description.
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So guys if you liked this video hit the like button, if you want to see more hit subscribe,
and if you have any questions on the Cryorig A40 Ultimate or these tests, leave them in
the comments below.
Thanks for watching, I hope I helped, and I'll see you in the next video.
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