Fractal Kelvin T12 AIO Watercooling Kit Review

Cooling/Water Cooling by leeghoofd @ 2014-12-05

Fractal already revealed its upcoming Kelvin water cooling series at CeBIT 2014 in Hannover; at Computex we saw the same prototypes again. Back than the launch date was foreseen for mid-summer. Now on the 9th of December 2014 it is D-day for the new breed of All In One water cooling setups. Fractal proudly announces three AIO models today: the 120mm radiator T12 Kelvin, the S24 being the 240 radiator version and the flagship S36 will be the triple fan version. Today we have a look at the smallest version, the Kelvin T12; this might be together with the S24 the most enclosure compatible version as not all PC cases support a big 360 radiator. It must be said the AIO market is already pretty saturated with versions from Antec, Corsair, Cooler Master, Enermax and Swiftech. What makes this little Kelvin T12 stand out from the crowd ? Time to explore Fractal's latest release.

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A Closer Look Contd.

The oversized copper radiator will improve the cooling performance of this Fractal Kelvin T12 drastically versus the CM 120L Eisberg. The latter which featured a far thinner copper version radiator. Now the radiator as the pump unit are both equipped with a fill port to facilitate eventual refilling. The cooling fluid to be used can be anything from distilled water to ready to use cooling fluids. Because the Kelvin T12 uses a copper base plate and idem ditto radiator no galvanic corrosion should occur, thus no extra additives should be required for hassle free operation.

 

 

 

The Kelvin T12 includes two 120mm Fans of the HPM Silent series, rated at a max RPM of plus minus 1700 RPM at 26.9dB(a). These will make this cooling unit, even when running the Fans at full blast, to be far less audible than the Corsair Hydro H8X series.

 

 

The Fans need to be hooked up straight to a motherboard power connector via the provided Fan splitter cable. Long and short screws are provided to mount the Fans to the radiator. Good to see also a syringe of cooling thermal paste instead of pre-applied thermal paste. The 1g syringe contains enough thermal paste for several  remounts.

 

 

The Kelvin series are compatible with all Intel from LGA775 on and all available AMD sockets. For LGA2011 & LGA2011-V3 there is no back plate installation required. Assembly is pretty straightforward: select the right screws, install the spring and washer and secure it via the provided nut. Slide in both brackets on the pump unit and secure the assembled unit via a Phillips screwdriver; over-tightening is not possible as the spring tension is predetermined, thus a perfect mount can be obtained install after install.

 

 

 

 

On AMD, the installation is also pretty easy, just remove the top plastic mounting bracket and reuse the backplate. Prepare the screws with the springs, washer and nut and bolt the pump unit down.

 

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