ID-Cooling rolled out the IS-50X, a low-profile CPU cooler capable of handling thermal loads of up to 130 Watts, with a height of just 75 mm. The cooler features a "C-type" heatsink design. Five 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes make direct contact with the CPU at the base, and guide heat through an aluminium fin-stack that's arranged along the plane of the motherboard. The fins are slightly broader towards the portion of the stack that's directly above the CPU socket, and thinner along the periphery, to offer clearance to your motherboard's memory and CPU VRM areas.

A 15 mm-thick 120 mm PWM fan ventilates the fin-stack. This fan spins between 600 to 1,600 RPM, pushing up to 53.6 CFM of air, at a noise output ranging between 13.8 to 30.2 dBA. Measuring 122 mm x 120 mm x 75 mm (with the fan installed), the cooler weighs 385 g. Among the CPU socket types supported are LGA115x, AM4, AM3(+), and FM2(+). The company didn't reveal pricing.

Spire's gamer-centric brand, X2 Products, unveiled the CoolStorm T402B Spider Red CPU cooler. Featuring a conventional tower-type design, the cooler features an all-black aluminium fin-stack, complete with black anodized heat-pipes. The cooler's four 6 mm-thick copper heat-pipes make direct contact with the CPU at the base, conveying heat through the fin-stack. The fin-stack has jagged edges to increase turbulence and heat-dissipation. Ventilating it is a 120 mm fan that has two red plastic accents along the black fan-frame. The impeller isn't illuminated.

The fan features a hydraulic bearing that's rated for 100,000 hours, takes in 4-pin PWM input, spins between 800 to 2,000 RPM, and pushes between 10 and 45.21CFM of air, with a noise output ranging between 20 to 33 dBA. The cooler can handle thermal loads of up to 135 W, and hence gives HEDT sockets a miss. The only CPU socket types it supports are AM4, AM3(+), FM2(+), and Intel LGA115x. With its fan in place, the cooler measures 123 mm x 73 mm x 156.5 mm (WxDxH), and weighs a little over 250 g. Backed by a 2-year warranty, it is priced at USD $45.

Japanese cooling expert Scythe announces a special edition of the Mugen 5 CPU Cooler as part of the ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance series. Outstanding performance with overclocking potential, high cooling efficiency and an exceptionally sophisticated heatsink design are just three of the many advantages the Scythe Mugen series has to offer. Mugen 5 TUF Gaming Alliance incorporates all the features of the acclaimed series and combines them with the unique TUF Gaming Alliance design along with exclusive RGB illumination. For an even more convenient installation, Scythe has implemented the third revision of its Hyper Precision Mounting System for Mugen 5 TUF Gaming Alliance.

The new Mugen 5 TUF Gaming Alliance CPU Cooler features a carefully designed top-cover, which incorporates the unique patterns as well as logo of the TUF Gaming Alliance series from ASUS . The large and translucent surface area in the top-plate is fitted with RGB LEDs. This illumination is further enhanced thanks to the new Kaze Flex 120 RGB fan, offering rich colors and versatile effects. Kaze Flex 120 utilizes eight RGB LEDs inside the ring around the fan motor for consistent and bright illumination. Users are able to take full control of the RGB settings by connecting the fan directly to a RGB-enabled motherboard. This way it is possible to synchronize the colors and effects using the Asus Aura or other compatible RGB systems.

Cooler Master, a global leader in PC component manufacturing, today, announced the launch of the new MasterLiquid ML240P Mirage all-in-one (AIO) liquid CPU cooler. As part of Cooler Master's Pro line of components, the ML240P Mirage elevates the user experience in both thermal performance and spectacular RGB lighting.

Designed and manufactured by Cooler Master's skilled in-house team, the ML240P Mirage uncovers what's inside. Featuring a transparent pump cover, this uniquely designed AIO provides users with a clear view of the operating impeller; coupled with eight addressable RGB (ARGB) LEDs around the internal rim of the pump, users of the ML240P Mirage will be delighted with a hypnotizing light show. All LEDs on the ML240P Mirage can be controlled via Cooler Master's Lighting Control software, now including the new Mirage mode designed specifically for this AIO.

Thermaltake is on a drive to rehash many of its older CPU cooler designs with touches of modernity, such as addressable-RGB LED lighting and newer fans with improved bearings. The latest such effort is the UX200 ARGB Lighting. The cooler is based on a tower-type heatsink in which the fins get narrower towards the bottom of the fin-stack, to improve clearance with your motherboard's VRM and M.2 slots. The aluminium fins and copper heat-pipes are anodized black. The four 6 mm-thick copper heat-pipes make direct contact with the CPU at the base, conveying heat through the fin-stack. The aluminium base has some finnage of its own.

The cooler is ventilated by a 120 mm fan that has 15 addressable-RGB LEDs studded into the bore of the frame, with a silicone diffuser spreading their light. The lighting takes in standard 3-pin ARGB input. The fan itself takes in 4-pin PWM input, features a hydraulic bearing that's rated for 30,000 hours, and spins between 300 to 1,500 RPM, pushing up to 43.34 CFM of air, with a noise output of up to 26.33 dBA. The cooler is designed to handle thermal loads of up to 130W, although it only supports mainstream-desktop CPU socket types, which include LGA115x and AM4. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Thermaltake today rolled out one of the first few low-profile top-flow air CPU coolers that feature addressable-RGB lighting, the UX100 ARGB. The cooler features a classic "fin bunch" design, in which radially-projecting aluminium fins bunch up at the center to form the base. A 120 mm fan is suspended along a shroud over this fin-bunch, which features a silicone LED diffuser along the bore of the shroud.

There are 15 aRGB LEDs studded into this diffuser, which take in 3-pin standard input for addressable-RGB control via software. The fan features a hydraulic bearing, takes in 3-pin DC input, spinning at 1,800 RPM, pushing 38.82 CFM of air, with a noise output of 26.92 dBA. The cooler measures 122.3 mm x 122.3 mm x 66.1 mm, and can handle thermal loads of up to 65W. Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4 and LGA115x (no HEDT sockets supported). The company didn't reveal pricing.

Enermax launched over a dozen new product lines and dozens more individual SKUs this Computex. This article part of a 3-part series that covers their exhaustive booth, beginning with fans, and CPU coolers. At the heart of the company's cooling portfolio this year is the new SquaRGB, a new line of case/radiator fans introduced this February, characterized with an RGB LED diffuser design that supposedly looks like a square with two curved sides. With sizes ranging from 120 mm to 140 mm and 200 mm, Enermax used these fans in nearly all their new products, including standalone fan sets, CPU coolers (both air and liquid types), and pre-installed in their new cases. The bore of the fan-frame is still circular, and the irregular shape surrounding the bore funnels air into the impeller.

During our visit with Raijintek at Computex 2019, it was apparent the company had gone all in when it comes to ARGB lighting. The first liquid cooler on display was the EOS I 240 RBW. Offering ARGB rainbow lighting, this AIO utilized a 240mm high-density radiator with 12 channels along with a full copper water block with 0.15mm micro channels. Pushing the coolant through the system is a pump that has a max rated pressure head of 1.5M and a max flow rate of 80 L/H. Multiple mounting kits are available for modern sockets.

Meanwhile, the EOS II 240 RBW was also on display. It has all the same features as the EOS I but sports a different block design. Where the CPU and pump block on the EOS I looks a bit like a cyclone in regards to its design and lighting elements. The EOS II has a boxy design with grooves and ARGB LED lighting for that extra bit visual stimulus.

During our visit with Noctua, we spotted what every air cooling enthusiast has been hoping for, a brand new top of the line D-type cooler. Noctua's next generation model is of course based on the award-winning NH-D15 and NH-D15S and comes packing 7 heat pipes alongside a 10% increase in surface area for improved performance. It also takes design cues from the NH-D15S by using an asymmetrical design for improved PCIe clearance while also retaining the same fin cutouts for improved RAM clearance of 65 mm.

The company plans to release two versions, one with a single fan and of course a dual fan thus offering both a high compatibility and a maximum performance model. The bundled fan will be Noctua's proven NF-A15 PWM model which when paired with the new redesign results in a cooler capable of dissipating over 400-watts on the TR4 socket. Speaking of sockets, it will support all current offerings including AMD, LGA20xx, LGA115x with a separate model for socket TR4. It has a current ETA of Q1 2020 and will come bundled with Noctua's NT-H2 thermal compound.

Zalman had their Reserator 5 all-in-one liquid coolers on display during our visit at Computex 2019. This latest liquid cooler design is definitely unique in the looks department but also features a few design elements that set it apart from competing products. First and foremost is the pump, which is the world's first patented dual water pump with dual blades for improved cooling performance. It also uses a larger diameter (8 mm) tubing for improved coolant flow. Meanwhile, the fans and pump feature RGB LEDs which can be controlled through Zalman's Z-Sync software. When it comes to sizes, the company will be offering 240 mm, 280 mm, and 360 mm versions.

All Reserator 5 based units will have fans that feature AFDB (advanced fluid dynamic bearings) and utilize a spider-leg styled open frame. The 240 mm and 360 mm versions will max out at 2000 RPM while the 280 mm unit will top out at 1500 RPM. When it comes to the pump, it has a speed of 2800-3000 RPM and has a flow rate of 3 l/min. In regards to materials, all three feature a copper block and aluminium radiator. Zalman has made sure to support every socket imaginable here as well including Intel LGA2066, LGA2011-V3, LGA2011, LGA115x, and LGA1366, along with AMD's AM4, AM3+, AM3, FM2+, FM2.

Antec at Computex 2019 showcased a myriad of products, of which we bring you three families in this post: their Neptune ARGB CPU liquid coolers, the Signature Series of PSUs, and their Katana DDR4 memory modules.

The Neptune ARGB liquid coolers are available in either 120 mm or 240 mm AIO configurations, each packing a single or a dual fan setup (I leave it to you to guess which is which)s. These feature PWM controlled fans, have a flow rate of 1.5 L of cooling liquid per minute, feature RGb lighting (in case you hadn't noticed the ARGB in the name), and are rated for up to 40,000 H MTBF at a 25º room temperature.

As of yet unannounced, it seems that Cryorig may be preparing to launch a graphene-coated version of their popular low-profile C7Cu cooler. Cryorig's own website has a product page up for the part, which makes use of graphene's qualities in both durability, lightness and thermal conductivity to increase performance in the part of the market it arguably matters the most - small form factor. This could signal an improvement in heat dissipation capabilities for this small cooler. The C7 Cu version, in full copper, has a 115W TDP specification, so perhaps the C7G will improve in that front.

The C7G FAQ isn't uploaded as of yet, which speaks to the unannounced nature of the product. The only thing we have to go by, for now, is the image for the product on Cryorig's product page, and the users' manual, which while not giving away much in terms of specifications, but does show that there are a pair of mounting clips included for users to mount their 90 mm fans - whether in 14 mm or 25 mm depth.

Scythe announces the release of new dual-towers cooler, Fuma 2, the successor of the Fuma family. With enlarged fins of heatsink and two Kaze Flex 120 mm fans, Fuma 2 increases 15 percent cooling efficiency compared to the first version. Asymmetrical design and cutout allow unlimited access to RMA module, and HPMS III mounting system guarantees convenient and secure installation as well as perfect contact pressure of most modern sockets and platform. The Scythe Fuma 2 is now available in North America at an MSRP of USD $59.95.The specifications follow.

ASUS today launched its cost-effective Republic of Gamers (ROG) Strix LC series all-in-one closed-loop liquid CPU coolers. This cooler is available in two variants, the ROG Strix LC 120 and ROG Strix LC 240, based on radiator sizes of 120 mm x 120 mm and 240 mm x 120 mm, respectively. The ROG Strix LC is headed by a cylindrical pump-block with an illuminated ROG logo on top, and four spirally-projecting diffusers along the sides. The RGB LEDs illuminating the block take in addressable RGB input. The primary material is copper, the company didn't reveal the pump bearing type.

Interestingly, unlike most cost-effective CLCs, this cooler offers 4-pin PWM control for the pump, letting you adjust coolant pressure. Both variants ship with 36 cm-long fiber sleeved coolant tubes. You get one or two ASUS ROG Radiator fans depending on the variant. Each of these takes in 4-pin PWM input, spins between 800 to 2,500 RPM, pushing up to 80.95 CFM of air, with a noise output of up to 37.6 dBA. Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. The company didn't reveal pricing, but it is expected to cost significantly less than the ROG Ryujin/Ryuo.

Be quiet!, the market leader in PC power supplies in Germany since 2007, announces Dark Rock Slim, a compact high-end CPU cooler that offers high physical clearance for any memory module. With a supported TDP of up to 180 watts, Dark Rock Slim offers enough headroom for silently cooling any mainstream processor while keeping the space above occupied RAM slots clear.

Dark Rock Slim is part of the Dark Rock 4 cooler family and works with all current Intel and mainstream AMD sockets. Cooling characteristics, performance and appearance are inspired by the Dark Rock 4 series, with the new compact heat sink providing high clearance for better RAM compatibility. Its high 180 watt cooling performance is achieved with a maximum noise level of just 23.6 dB(A), which is a result of a perfect synergy between cooling fan, heat sink and heat pipe design.

GIGABYTE rolled out the Aorus ATC800 air CPU cooler. Its design involves a conventional aluminium fin-stack tower-type heatsink that's ventilated by two pre-installed custom-design fans in push-pull arrangement. A plastic shroud covers the top of the fin-stack, and frames the two fans. The top-plate is studded with an RGB LED diffuser. The two fans come with RGB LED lighting, too. All three lighting elements take input from a single 3-pin addressable RGB source.

Six 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes make direct contact with the CPU at the base, conveying heat through the aluminium fin-stack. Each of the two 120 mm double ball-bearing fans take in 4-pin PWM input, spin between 600 to 2,000 RPM, push 14.05 to 51.7 CFM of air-flow, with a noise output ranging between 18 to 31 dBA. Measuring 139 mm x 107 mm x 163 mm, the cooler weighs 1.01 kg. It offers 37.4 mm of clearance to the memory module installed closest to the CPU socket. The cooler is rated for thermal loads of 200 W. Among its sockets supported are AM4, LGA2066, and LGA115x. The company didn't reveal pricing.

DeepCool today introduced the Gamer Storm Castle 240 RGB V2 all-in-one closed-loop liquid CPU cooler with an innovation that minimizes the risk of coolant leakages caused due to environmental air-pressure fluctuations. Called DeepCool Anti-leak Tech Inside, the innovation is an elastic pressure-relief bag inside the radiator's reservoir, which has an opening on one end to the air outside. When there is a pressure differential between the air outside and the coolant inside, the elastic bag either contracts or expands, adjusting the reservoir's volume to normalize pressure. DeepCool also extended the design-goal of leakage prevention to the coolant tube design, by using IIR (isobutyline-isopropylene rubber), a material used in slick aircraft tyres that has high elasticity to cope with touchdown. The inner tube is reinforced by fiber-weave sleeving.

This aside, the Castle 240 RGB V2 looks and performs like the original. Its design includes a somewhat tall, cylindrical pump-block with an RGB LED diffuser up top, plumbed to a 240 mm x 120 mm radiator with two included RGB LED fans. The pump's rated noise is 17.8 dBA at its fixed speed of 2,500 RPM. Each of the included fans spins between 500 to 1,800 RPM, pushing up to 69.34 CFM of air, with a noise output under 30 dBA. DeepCool includes retention modules for AMD sockets TR4 and AM4; and Intel sockets LGA2066 and LGA115x. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Asetek, the creator of the all-in-one liquid cooler and the global leader in liquid cooling solutions for gaming PCs and DIY enthusiasts, announced the 645LT, an all-in-one (AIO) CPU liquid cooler ideal for small form factor (SFF) cases. Applications for gaming and professional content generation produce excess heat that is difficult to manage in small form factor systems. The 645LT was purpose-built to fit in the tiniest of spaces, including the A4-SFX from DAN Cases, while maintaining lasting system performance.

In developing the 645LT, Asetek looked first to the community to understand what features and benefits were most sought out by enthusiasts and dedicated gamers who want to get the most out of their SFF PCs. The 645LT combines the high performance capabilities of Asetek's latest generation (Gen6) of pump technology -- the same pump used to cool some of the world's fastest supercomputers -- with other advances including unique 90° bends where our tubes meet the radiator for space savings and increased tube lengths for ease in mounting.

Cooler Master today rolled out ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance co-branded variants of its MasterLiquid ML120L and MasterAir MA410P CPU coolers. For the ML120L this means an illuminated TUF Gaming Alliance decal on the pump-block, for the MA410P it means a unique die-cast metal top-plate over the aluminium fin-stack; and both coolers now come with a special variant of the included MasterFan 120 Pro Air Balance fan with orange frame mount cushioning, an impeller hub sticker, and ASUS' favorite shade of orange for TUF being the default color for all RGB LED elements on these coolers; although you can change the color. The MasterAir MA410P remains Cooler Master's popular work-horse in its air CPU cooler product-stack, while the MasterLiquid ML120L is closer to the entry-level of its liquid cooling product stack, which fit perfectly with the market-segment ASUS hopes to capture with its TUF Gaming Alliance brand.

Update April 4th: This post has been corrected based on new information provided by ASUS, EKWB, as well as other parties. The original story mentioned a silent change to the glue used on the PCB which, as we now believe, is no longer the case in that ASUS is not to blame.

Update April 5th: ASUS has confirmed to us that there has been no PCB change (in terms of components and their heights), it's only a problem of tolerances due to the glue being liquid during production.

ASUS has glued the GPU die to the PCB for many generations, which helps ensure contact and avoids microfractures in the solder balls from physical force or thermal expansion. The nature of this glue, typically an epoxy resin, means that aftermarket cooling solutions, such as full cover or die-only water blocks, have to accommodate for this around the holes around the die. Previous graphics cards had no issue here, because the mounting holes were far away from the GPU die. With RTX 2080 Ti and its super large GPU chip this has changed, and there's only a few millimeters of space left. If a waterblock uses wider standoffs than the design merits, or if the glue spreads out farther than intended, it can result in poor/inconsistent contact between waterblock and the GPU, which in turn can lead to worse thermal performance than ideal.

This time, EK Waterblocks alerted us that the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti had poor contact and fitting issues with their GPU water block for the same, as seen in images below provided by their customer T. Hilal, which interferes with the four standoffs surrounding the package. EK recommends removing these standoffs to ensure a good fit and thermal paste spread, and this does not affect water block performance much in their internal testing. In previous such occasions, EK and others have had to come up with a second version of the block for added compatibility, however it remains to be seen if the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti will merit a similar treatment this time round. As an external reference, Phanteks has separately confirmed to us that their water block remains compatible.

Spire today introduced the LCG-HSR line of all-in-one closed-loop liquid CPU coolers, with two models, the CG-AE-LCG-H24SR-P featuring a 240 mm x 120 mm radiator, and the CG-AE-LCG-H12SR-P "Solo," with a 120 mm x 120 mm radiator. These coolers are characterized by a cubical pump-block, Nylon-sleeved coolant tubes, and one or two included CG-AE-H30K3AR-6PM fans. These fans feature RGB LED diffusers along the inner and outer walls of the frame, with 16 diodes taking input from a standard 4-pin RGB connector. Unlike the fan's standalone package, Spire isn't including RGB LED controllers with these coolers.

The included fans take in 4-pin PWM input, spin between 300 to 2,000 RPM with minimum airflow of 30 CFM, and noise-level ranging between 12 to 35 dBA, each. Both coolers support most common CPU socket types, including AM4, AM3(+), LGA2066, LGA2011(v3), LGA1366, and LGA115x. Spire is listing the CG-AE-LCG-H24SR-P at USD $80 and CG-AE-LCG-H12SR-P at USD $70, in 200-unit bulk quantities. Retail prices will be higher than these.

Thermalright today rolled out the Silver Arrow IB-E Extreme Rev. B CPU cooler. Thermalright has made changes to the design to make sure the fin-stack is slightly offset from the base in directions that free up headroom near the memory area and topmost expansion slot of a typical mainstream-desktop motherboard, giving you easy access to the memory and M.2 slots closest to the CPU socket.

Heat drawn from a heavier mirror-finished nickel-plated copper base is conveyed to the fin-stacks by eight 6 mm-thick heat pipes. The lavish use of heavy copper used in this heatsink make it tip the scales at 850 g, without fans. With both its fans installed, the Silver Arrow IB-E Extreme Rev. B can handle thermal loads of up to 320W. Each of the two included TY-143 140 mm fans spin between 600 to 2,500 RPM, pushing 31.4 to 130 CFM of air, with a noise output ranging between 21 to 45 dBA. Thermalright has updated the CPU socket support to include AM4 and LGA2066, besides LGA115x and LGA2011(v3). The heatsink measures 155 mm x 130 mm x 163 mm (LxWxH). The company didn't reveal pricing.

ENERMAX, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance PC hardware products, introduces LIQMAX III, the new generation of LIQMAX, one of the proclaimed AIO CPU cooler series from ENERMAX. Like the award-winning predecessors featuring superior cooling performance as well as rock-solid quality, LIQMAX III is built with a luminous Aurabelt water-block supporting synchronizabale RGB lighting with RGB motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. LIQMAX III is undoubtedly an excellent choice for mainstream water-cooled RGB gaming rigs.

The premium Aurabelt water-block provides luminous RGB lighting; besides, the exquisite water block is able to support RGB lighting synchronization with motherboards that come with 4pin RGB header(s) (12V/G/R/B). Users can select the preferred lighting styles via the RGB motherboard software.

Japanese cooling expert Scythe presents two special editions of its CPU Cooler models Kotetsu Mark II and Choten as part of the ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance series. Both products bundle their unique advantages with the fancy design of the TUF Gaming Alliance series and gorgeous RGB illumination.

Scythe Kotetsu Mark II TUF Gaming Alliance Edition is based on the award-winning Kotetsu Mark II, offering outstanding performance even for overclocking purposes at impressively low noise levels. The Scythe Choten TUF Gaming Alliance on the other hand, aims for much more compact PC case environments while providing excellent balance between size, compatibility and performance.

Noctua today presented its new NH-U12A premium-quality quiet CPU cooler. The NH-U12A is the latest, 5th generation of Noctua's award-winning U12 series of 120mm size coolers. Conceived to push the envelope of the 120mm form factor, it combines two of Noctua's flagship model NF-A12x25 PWM 120mm fans with a completely redesigned heatsink featuring 7 heatpipes and an increased fin surface area for superior heat dissipation. This way, the NH-U12A can rival the performance of many 140mm sized coolers while offering 120mm class case and PCIe compatibility.

"The original NH-U12 was the very first product we introduced back in 2005 and the U12 series has been at the core of our product line-up ever since," explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "Today, we're proud to continue this successful legacy by introducing the 5th generation that provides even better quiet cooling performance, which enables it to compete with much larger units while offering superior compatibility. In a nutshell, the NH-U12A is an ideal choice for customers who are looking for a cutting-edge cooler that's hassle-free to integrate in most setups."