Antec Kühler H20 650 Review

Antec Kühler H20 650 Review

Manufacturer: Antec
UK price (as reviewed): £54.99
US price (as reviewed): $69.99

If you've got around £50 to spend on a CPU cooler, then you've got quite a decision on your hands. There are dozens of great examples - both air and liquid-cooled to choose from and most of these will fit into your average enthusiast case too. Decisions aren't based just on cooling performance either; there's also noise to consider and in some cases colours and bling too as we saw with the Phanteks PH-TC14PE.

Of course, all-in-one liquid coolers are still very much in the limelight and if we had the option, they're probably where our money would go. They top our cooling graphs and many cost less than some of the large premium air coolers out there too. We recently looked at Antec's Kühler H20 950, which received awards for both our test systems thanks to great cooling, excellent software control and easy mounting. However, if £60 is your limit but you still want to delve into liquid cooling, then Antec has a slightly cheaper option.


The Kühler H20 650 is essentially a half height radiator, single fan-version of the Kühler H20 950 and retails for a more modest £55, which is one of the cheapest all-in-one liquid coolers we've seen. It still features the combined fan and pump assembly as its bigger brother as well as the directional blades at the rear to focus airflow.


Thermal paste is pre-applied and there's the same mounting mechanism employed as the Kühler H20 950 too with a ring locking onto the cooler and securing using thumb screws with a backplate used on LGA115X and AMD systems. There's surprisingly few bits to contend with but that's exactly the way it should be, especially with an all-in-one liquid cooler.


The radiator as we've already mentioned is a half height model but while it won't be able to keep up with full size examples like the larger Kühler H20 950, we've found they're not far off in cooling terms and take up less space too. The contact plate and waterblock, being minus a pump, is very low profile indeed so this is one of the more compact all-in-one liquid coolers we've tested. The single fan is actually controlled using an on-board temperature monitor rather than tapping into the motherboard's fan signals, with the temperature also feeding into an illuminated plate on top of the waterblock, which changes colour.


When we looked in the box, we assumed there were two fans, however, the extra fan-shaped contraption is a standoff, which Antec claims reduces resistance at the rear of the radiator between it and the case, improving airflow. The extra screws provided can of course be used to mount an extra fan too. Sadly, one thing that is missing is software control - there's no way to manually control the fan so you're left at the mercy of the integrated firmware dishing out fan speeds based on the temperature.

Specifications

• Compatibility Intel: LGA775 and LGA1366 LGA115x, LGA2011; AMD: AM3(+), AM2(+), FM2(+), FM1
  
• Radiator size(mm) 120 x 159 x 27
  
• Fan size (mm) 120 x 120 x 25 (W x D x H)
  
• Fan(s) 1 x 120mm, 600 -2,400RPM
  
• Tubing length 300
  
• Waterblock height (mm) 26
  
• Stated Noise not stated