Antec’s Kühler 950 is the cheapest product in the Labs, and it’s also the only one that includes a preinstalled fan. The 950’s front spinner is sealed behind a grid of tubes and held in place by the unit’s main pump.
That’s a smart decision when it comes to installing the Kühler, as it means less faffing, but it could make the unit impossible to fix if that fan malfunctions.
Build quality is good throughout, though, and a second 120mm fan is supplied and can be attached to the rear of the unit. The pre-installed fan and pre-applied thermal paste both save jobs during building, but the Kühler still wasn’t straightforward to install.
The mounting plate is compatible with both Intel and AMD sockets, but it has four fiddly adjustable bits of rubber that need to be moved around. Plus, once the mounting plate is attached to the copper baseplate, it doesn’t often stay attached.
Meanwhile, a universal plastic backplate attaches to the rear of the motherboard with double-sided tape, but there’s no way to secure the four metal nuts that have to thread through it, which means they need to be held in place at the rear while you try to attach the baseplate at the front.
We had to take the motherboard out of our test case for installation and, even then, it wasn’t easy.
The fans are attached using two 4-pin connectors, which attach to a splitter that comes out of the pump, so they don’t need to be attached to a motherboard fan header.
A USB connector is then used to control the Kühler with software, which is basic but has solid features; the LED on the waterblock can be set with RGB sliders, or set to automatically adjust its colour based on the coolant temperature, and the fans can be set to Extreme, Silent modes or custom speeds.
The Antec’s Silent mode was impressively quiet, but it didn’t prove effective in our cooling tests. Its LGA1150 delta T of 64°C was the highest of any product on test, and its LGA2011 delta T of 63°C wasn’t much better against much of the competition.
Extreme mode proved irritatingly noisy, but the extra volume didn’t help the Kühler to deliver significantly better performance.
In our LGA1150 test rig, the 950’s revised delta T of 58°C still wasn’t competitive, although its LGA2011 result was more competitive when compared with other 120mm coolers.
SPECIFICATIONS
CompatibilityIntel: LGA1150, LGA1366, LGA2011; AMD: Socket AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1
Radiator size (mm) 120 x 50 x 159 (W x D x H)
Fans 2 x 120mm Stated noise 22-45dB(A)
Conclusion
Antec’s Kühler H2O 950 makes plenty of noise in Extreme mode and very little when its Silent option is selected – but when either is chosen, it proved unremarkable when it came cooling – a happy medium between both settings will achieve the best balance between noise and cooling.
The Kühler H20 950’s key attribute isn’t its cooling, quiet operation or features though – it’s the $60 price. While its cooling performance isn’t competitive next to pricier coolers, the results are still reasonable, making the 950 still worth considering if you’re looking for liquid cooling at the cheapest price possible.
VERDICT
Not the coolest or the quietest on test, but its low price makes it a reasonable budget alternative.
Where to Buy
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