Tuesday, November 21, 2017

EKWB Slim 240 Liquid Cooling Kit Review

For the hard core gamer or performance geek check out this sweet liquid cooling kit.  Its one of the best performing pieces of computer hardware for cooling.  They say it can even cool CPU’s that Windows 10 puts to big of a load on.  LOL JK

An open loop kit is probably the best way to jump into custom liquid cooling. It means you get everything you need inside one convenient box. No worrying that you forgot one part or another.

No fretting that you accidentally got the wrong sized tubing or that your pump won’t work with your reservoir housing. To top it off, kits are usually less expensive than buying all the same parts à la carte.

Last year we saw EK’s Performance line of kits blow away even the best AIO liquid coolers. Today we’re looking at the much cheaper little brother, the Slim 240. At only $200, it’s not much more expensive than a premium AIO and almost half the price of the Performance 280 and 360 . If it can keep up with the big boys, we might see our first true value award for liquid cooling.

Specifications The Slim product line is EK’s lowest-tier kit, offering three different versions based on radiator size. The Slim 240 we’re testing uses a dual 120mm radiator. A Slim 120 and Slim 360 are also available. While the Slim kits are the least expensive EK offers, the components inside are the same EK sells individually.

These kits use solid copper water blocks and radiators, not cut-rate parts. Water Block The Slim kit uses EK’s Supremacy MX water block, the same used in the company’s Predator expandable AIO coolers. It features a solid copper cold plate with a mirror polished bottom. The top is clear polymer with a black anodized brushed aluminum cover plate. The two ports up top use the common G1/4 threading for fittings.

The manual clearly shows the proper flow direction for the ports, though it’d be better if the block itself were labeled. Instead of the pre-mounted Intel bracket that comes with the Predator and most standalone MX blocks, the Slim 240 includes the EVO’s universal mounting kit, supporting LGA 115X, 2011(-3), 2066, AM3, and AM4 sockets.

If you order directly from EK, the company will even throw in additional mounting hardware for AM2 and FM2, or LGA 775 and 1366 for just a penny. Radiator The dual 120mm radiator in the Slim 240 is EK’s SE 240. It uses a solid copper core for both fins and tubes, while the end chambers are brass.

The exterior frame is steel and aluminum. Like most loop components available today, it uses G1/4 threads on the two ports at the end. It’s worth discussing the radiator’s thickness, or rather thinness. Most basic radiators from other manufacturers are 30mm thick, but the SE 240 is only 25mm thick.

While this slightly diminishes the overall surface area for cooling, it does make the radiator a little easier to fit in tight cases. To help make up for this lack of girth, EK stacks the core with 22 fins per inch (FPI). Fans You need a capable fan to work with a 22 FPI radiator, and the Vardars included in the Slim 240 kit deliver.

These are the F3-120 variant, not the F4-120ER that came with the Predator and Performance kits last year. Both share the same scooped seven-blade design, but the F3 has a lower maximum speed than the F4: 1850 RPM compared to 2200 RPM.

It also doesn’t have the extended PWM range that gives the ER variants their name, so the fan can only slow to 50% instead of 25% duty cycle. Pump The pump included in the Slim 240 is an SPC 60A with XRES 100 reservoir combo volute. It looks like a DDC variant, and perhaps you can think of […]

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