By: Ben Joubert
March 10, 2017
The other day, I was at a Korean BBQ restaurant. This restaurant is fairly different from a typical restaurant. On one hand, there is an area where you can sit down and order food normally from the kitchen already cooked. On the other hand, the more fun experience, albeit a little counter to the idea of a restaurant, is you get to cook your own food. There are a couple of tables of varying sizes with a grille in the middle, but since it is embedded in the table, it is not very large. However, it is big enough for the number of people sitting around it, which would be a maximum of four. The idea is you order the different types of meat you want, and the kitchen gives it to you raw with a bunch of other sides as well. Then you get to cook the meat right in front of you. It is pretty cool; I am sure some of you might think it is pointless to go out to a restaurant only to cook your own food, but it is more for the experience than anything else really. One of the things I noticed at the restaurant was the extensive fire suppression system they had. It had to be for so many fire hazards and all the people all cooking their food. It must be quite the task to keep the entire place safe, but also at a decent temperature, so it is not boiling hot for all the customers. I did not think it was uncomfortably hot in the restaurant, but it could well be with a grille right in front of you. Temperature regulation is a tricky business, and any computer enthusiast knows this, especially those with some fancy aftermarket coolers. Just like a fire suppression system using water, why not one for your computer? Well, for plenty of reasons, but luckily water and cooling go hand in hand. Today, we have one such water cooler from CRYORIG, namely the A40 Ultimate. This cooler promises good temperatures for not just the processor, but the surrounding components as well. Read on to find out more!
The CRYORIG A40 Ultimate arrived to us here in Calgary, Alberta, with its bigger brother, the CRYORIG A80. The "40" and "80" respectively refers to the 240 mm or the 280 mm radiators attached to each of these versions. The package arrived from New Taipei City, Taiwan, which meant it traveled quite a long way to arrive. For such a long time spent traveling, it arrived in decent condition. There were a bunch of dents and scratches all over the box, but the packing tape kept everything together, and there was no damage to the retail packaging, which is the more important part.
In a fairly typical enthusiast fashion, the CRYORIG A40 Ultimate has an all-black container, but there are some exceptions such as the accents of blue to further drive home the CRYORIG theme. The front seems slightly cluttered with the picture to the left, and plenty of reading material found toward the right of the picture, but it does not take away from the overall aesthetic. The top of the box is mostly plain black, while the sides have more features and one of the main selling points, which is the 70 mm fan mounted on top of the water block to keep the surrounding motherboard components cool. The back of the box is where most of the specifications are found, such as the radiator's dimensions, pump dimensions, tube lengths, and other such important information.
Before we move on to the rest of the review, here are all the technical specifications, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Specifications
Model Name: A40 ULTIMATE
Radiator Dimensions: L272 x W120 x H38.5 mm
Radiator Material: Aluminum
Pump Dimensions ( with fan ): L88 x W88 x H116.2 mm
Pump Dimensions ( without fan ): L88 x W88 x H52.8 mm
Tube Length: 350 mm
Tube Diameter: Ø10 mm
Fan Model: QF120 Performance
Fan Dimensions: L120 x W120 x H25.4 mm
Fan Speed: 600 ~ 2200 RPM ±10 %
Fan Noise Level: 13 ~ 37 dBA
Fan AirFlow: 83 CFM
Fan Pressure: 3.33 mmH2O
Fan Ampere: 0.43 A
Airflow Fan Dimensions: L70 x W70 x H25.4 mm
Airflow Fan Speed: 1500 ~ 3000 RPM ±10 %
Airflow Fan Noise Level: 15 ~ 27 dBA
Airflow Fan AirFlow: 25 CFM
Airflow Fan Pressure: 3.1 mmH2O
Airflow Fan Ampere: 0.12 A
Out of the box, we find everything needed for a quick installation on either Intel or AMD motherboards. Other than the radiator and fans kept tightly in place to avoid any bumps during transportation, everything else is found in different plastic bags. The manual and a little product registration guide packet are packaged together. The product registration guide allows one to get an extended three-year warranty on top of the three-year warranty, which is quite a bit of time. The rest of the installation components are also divided up into separate plastic bags, making the entire process of figuring out which pieces are for what motherboard quite easy. Overall, I found the different components well packaged to keep them safe. All the different bits and pieces for installation are well organized as well.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware; Installation
3. Test Results
4. Conclusion
