For quite a while Antec was quiet and shut when it came to their AIO CPU Liquid Coolers, the last time we heard from them was when they brought in the Antec Kuhler H2O 650 and 1250 which just failed leave the desired splash in the market! This in turn puts a lot of pressure on Antec to bring out something new and something successful to get rid of the ghosts of past & solidify their position in the market once again.
So today we have with us their latest offering in the AIO section, we have with us today the Antec Kuhler H2O H600 Pro AIO CPU Liquid Cooler. It is a 120mm cooler and launched along with its bigger cousin the H1200 Pro which is in fact a 240mm cooler!
Looking at the spec sheet we can see that the Antec H600 Pro comes with a 27mm thick single radiator paired with a 120mm PWM LED fan that can go all the way up to 2400RPM.
Packing and Accessories
Antec stuck to their conventional packing style and opted for a sky blue and black combination. The top features the H600 Pro fitted on top of Gigabyte G1 Sniper motherboard (talk about detailed photography) along with the product name and a slogan mentioning about its safe, environmental friendly & non corrosive nature.
Open the box and we see everything packed in a molded cardboard case with air pillows separating everything & also imparting extra safety.
Along with the Kuhler H600 Pro inside the package you will also find the 120mm PWM LED fan, thermal paste tube. two small plastic bags with 4 long and 4 short fan mounting screws, installation instructions, backplate and all the necessary bits and pieces to install the cooler onto INTEL LGA 775/1150/1151/1155/1156/1366/2011 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1/FM2 mainboards.
Simply looking at the H600 Pro unit you can see that its different from what all is available in the market today. The cooler is simple and has a matte black finish to it.
Antec decided to use 315mm long FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene) tubes instead of 300mm long PA (polyamide) ones. These tubes are more flexible and are ideal for tight builds where space is an issue like in case of mITX chassis.
The pump used in the H600 Pro has a activity LED attached at the top and features a 3-phase liquid engine with graphite pump bearing which always according to Antec make it more durable and whisper quiet.
The radiator measures in at 155mm x120mm x 27mm and is elegantly designed with just an Antec marking on one corner.
Fin thickness is 0.28mm with 1.3mm separation which makes it quite dense and should provide good heat dissipation. The 7 blade 120mm PWM blue LED fan has a reported speed of up to 2400RPM (1800RPM on the box) to produce airflow of up to 78.9CFM with just 35dBA of noise.
The pump is powered by 3-pin header and a SATA cable with a near edge to edge copper cold plate to maximize the contact area for optimum heat absorption. You need to apply a thermal paste before installing this unit since it doesn't come with a pre-applied thermal compound.
Installation and Benchmark
Installing the Antec H600 Pro is not an easy job especially for a first timer due to the numerous plates and screws that it comes with. Thankfully all of them are well market both in the pouches aswell as in the installation manual that it comes along with!
I used it with a LGA 2011-3 socket so mine wasn't too difficult but still I had to install an extra set of bolts in which the retention screws of the cold plate would fit into, its a request to Antec to ease up their installation mechanism a bit. Other than that their were no compatibility issues whatsoever!
Our test-bench for monitoring the H600 Pro performance was as follows --
CPU: Intel Core i7 5930K
Motherboard: Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5P
RAM: Kingston HyperX Predator 16GB DDR4 (4x4) 3000Mhz Memory Kit
Cooler: Antec Kuhler H2O H600 Pro
Graphics Card: Asus ROG STRIX RX 480 8GB OC GDDR5
Storage: Corsair Neutron GTX 480GB SSD Adata SP550 M.2 120GB SSD
Power Supply: Corsair AX860i 860W 80+ Platinum
Case: Antec GX1200 Mid-Tower Cabinet
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
To test the Antec Kuhler H600 Pro we installed it inside the Antec GX1200 case with the cooler radiator mounted on the top as intake to provide optimum air flow. The ambient temperature was 30°C and the processor was kept at stock frequency stressed to full load and then allowed allowed to cool down for 10 minutes. After that we OC the 5930K to 4Ghz at 1.2v and followed the same procedure. Readings were taken at idle and load conditions.
Temperature Readings
The readings are represented in form of delta temperature to provide a much more clearer insight about the cooler's performance.
Considering that its a six core Haswell-E chip the Antec H600 Pro has done an exceptional job for a 120mm cooler!
Noise Level
The noise level was recorded from a distance of 3 feet since that's generally the distance at which most people sit from their system. Also all the case fans were turned off to provide accurate results.
For that kind of performance the cooler does make some noise especially when under load, the maximum we recorded was around 42dB
My Verdict
At this point of time there aren't any new 120mm AIO CPU Coolers present in the market even though that's the sweet spot for most of the builds and cases! Antec not only revamped their cooler lineup with the Kuhler H600 Pro but also gave the customers something new to look at in the market.Priced at around Rs 5000 its not the cheapest options out there but certainly the most straight forward and highly compatible one. The installation procedure can surely get a lot of people confused and Antec really needs to work upon it. Also since there is no monitoring software for this cooler the glowing Antec logo on the pump should change color to indicate CPU temperatures for on the go monitoring.
The H600 Pro is highly recommended for budget system builders who want straight forward-hassle free performance especially those who use smaller cases with cooler compatibility issues as the FEB tubes are really very flexible and a 120mm radiator can easily fit in the rear fan mount area.
I give the Antec Kuhler H600 Pro a 7/10 earning our Silver Award!
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good review
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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