Introduction

Alphacool had a lot to show at CES this year, in a simpler time before everything went crazy. Among the new products seen were the Eisbaer Aurora all-in-one (AIO) CPU cooler and an accompanying Eiswolf Aurora AIO GPU cooler. These were both "Aurora" updates to older products, incorporating individually addressable RGB LEDs while also updating the pump and fans for a boost to function and form alike. The Eiswolf Aurora family was due to launch sometime in March, but then COVID-19 struck globally and things changed. It is now July 2020, and Alphacool is ready to show off the now-named Eiswolf 2 family of GPU coolers. We take a look at one today, and thanks again to them for sending a review sample to TechPowerUp!


This image shows how much of a visual stunner the Eiswolf 2 AIO is, and gives a clear idea of the make up—take an Alphacool full cover GPU block, modify the top and terminals to accommodate the pump and tubing, and have quick disconnects (QDCs) in the tubing to help connect the block to a radiator/fan combo, with this tiny loop pre-filled with coolant to allow for a standalone GPU cooler which can also be connected to their Eisbaer CPU AIO coolers via the QDCs. It promises a low entry barrier to custom watercooling of CPUs and GPUs, and we will see how the Eiswolf 2 fares in our test setup in this review that begins with a look at the specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Alphacool had originally planned to do a series of different Eiswolf 2 AIOs for GPUs based on reference PCBs from NVIDIA and AMD, as well as for other GPUs from customers, such as ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, and so on. This review was thus meant to be representative of the entire Eiswolf 2 family, and also why I was sent an Eiswolf 2 AIO for the ASRock Radeon 5700XT Taichi. The GPU block aside, everything else remains identical, so we should be good to go. Note also that the actual product packaging is meant for their Eisbaer Aurora CPU AIO as the packaging for the Eiswolf 2 had not been finalized yet, so I am showing a stock photo of what it will look like when it is launched shortly. The design and color scheme are in line with other recent Alphacool launches, especially other CPU coolers, AIOs, and kits, with a large cardboard box that opens from the side to reveal the contents placed inside a shaped cardboard box. There is a thin sheet of foam above to add some protection during transit.


There are several components in this AIO, which comes separately packed for safer transportation without kinking the tubing and risking a leak. This is one of the benefits of going with soft tubing and quick disconnects, with it also making installation easier. Alphacool includes a product manual that is SKU-specific with installation instructions for the compatible GPUs (example manual for the NVIDIA RTX series AIO here). A thin cardboard box also contains the installation hardware, including a tube of thermal paste, screws and nuts, additional low-profile stop plugs, and a plastic tool to help install/remove these stop plugs. Not pictured here are longer screws to install the fans onto the radiator itself, which also come included in the package as expected.


The other accessories include more installation equipment, such as thermal pads, which come clearly marked for thickness and are referred to as such in the manual. Alphacool also includes an RGB LED adapter cable to connect the LEDs to compatible motherboard LED headers, as well as a simple standalone controller for preset lighting effects that is powered off a SATA connector straight from the PSU.