The EKWB EK-XLC Predator 240 Liquid Cooler Review
by E. Fylladitakis on December 15, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- AIO
- Water Cooling
- Liquid Cooling
- EKWB
Testing results, maximum fan speed (12 Volts)
| Core Temperature, Constant Thermal Load (Low Fan Speed) |
The EKWB EK-XLC Predator 240 is displaying excellent thermal performance in relation to its noise level output, especially under heavy loads. Its average thermal resistance of 0.0752 °C/W matches the performance of the Cooler Master Nepton 280L, a larger and much louder AIO cooler. From all of the AIO coolers that we have ever tested, only Corsair's H100i GTX manages to outperform the EK-XLC Predator 240, by just 0.002 °C/W at the expense of 5.5 dB(A).
As it can be seen from the above charts, the EK-XLC Predator 240 is one of the quietest dual fan AIO liquid coolers that we have tested to this date. At 43.2dB(A), the fans are clearly audible, but they are not overly loud and should not distract the user from gaming or similar tasks. Considering that the Vardar fans are using dual ball bearings, these can be very reliable but it is also a relatively noisy type of bearing - it is interesting that the noise figures are this low.
Furthermore, what the charts fail to communicate is the pump's high pitch whining noise, which adds little to the dB(A) but is uncomfortable. The high pitch noise coming from liquid pumps is a very common problem for AIO coolers. But actually this may be the greatest advantage of the EK-XLC Predator 240, as the pump is imperceptible with the noise of the fans overshadowing it entirely.
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thestryker - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
I greatly appreciate the review on this, and it seems to match what I've seen in other places so that's always good. Going over the little pieces is what I've come to appreciate most about AT reviews. Talking about pump noise is also helpful as it seems like the asetek/coolit ones all seem to have issues here.For me at least this cooler is worth it simply to not give money to asetek. It would be nice if AnandTech could do a quick writeup or something on which AIOs are using the asetek design, and in turn giving them license money. The patent they've been allowed to use as a weapon is pretty absurd and has put us in a sad state for AIO development.
iamkyle - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
The use of a DDC was an interesting choice...Kid98 - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Every 3dB's is a doubling of power....Kid
DanNeely - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Good catch.While we're nitpicking the dB discussion though, the human ear has a log response curve; 10 dB is only heard as roughly twice as loud so the 12.3dB spread between the best and worst coolers is only a bit more than twice as loud even though the sound is roughly 17 times as intense.
Valkyrierie - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
The third fan header is meant to be used in EK-XLC Predator 360.EK-XLC 240 and 360 share the same power board despite 360 having an additional 120mm fan - Most likely, they stuck to one single board for both units to cut costs.
initialised - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
No mention of the DDC pump or it's specs, power consumption, flow rate...wolfemane - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
I don't think power is really all that important with this kit. I'm currently using a koolance 450s running at settings for 26w @ 12v roughly doing 3.2gpm with my custom build. I did before and after power draw checks with an at wall kill-o-watt (I know it's not accurate, but it gives a general feel of whT your pulling) and I only saw a power increase of about 15w. Give or take a few watts. Flow rate is a little higher in use as well but not by much. So unless your really desperate to save on power due to over taxing a low end psu, the power draw of the pump/fans is going to be minimal on an AIO kit like this.And since the pump isn't an adjustable pump why would flow matter? It's traveling over one surface with a fairly large rad, as long as the kit is designed with decent flow and the chip is cooling, why worry about this uncontrollable spec?
With these AIO kits I'd be more concerned with how its performance stands up to competition in regards to actual cooling and noise. Power, flow, pump specs just seem irrelevant. If this was a custom built system then I could see more attention needed for these areas.
I thought it was a great review, I love EKWB and have used them since early Athlon. Nice to see a semi modifiable AIO from them. I even think the price fits the possibility seeing how there is an option for customization compared to other AIOs.
DanNeely - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
I'm surprised the pump's not adjustable. I can adjust my swiftech branded DDC pump using the mobo's fan controller software; it's a bit annoying since it's RPM curve isn't linear; but I was able to tune it to run at ~2/3rds speed (at most 1 or 2 C hotter temps but much quieter operation).londiste - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
https://shop.ekwb.com/ek-xlc-predator-240Pump type: Laing DDC3.1 6W
that is specific enough to find the rest of the specs.
wolfemane - Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - link
Where can we get a set of anandtech labeled tools? Would love to add those to my tech tool box!!