My NZXT Kraken X60 experience

C

c3k

2[H]4U
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Sep 8, 2007
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Folks,

I've just put together a 4770k, delidded (hammer and vice), into a Fractal XL R2.

I purchased the Kraken X60 to cool it. I hemmed and hawed a bit over the purchase. I hate USB connections for coolers or fans. Well, there were/are plenty of great reviews.

I bought it.

I also bought some noctua fans to replace the originals, based on my experience with noctua and the reviews which universally panned the kraken fans when they're at high speeds. Note that they don't usually ever need to go to a high speed, but if they do, they can be noisy.

Anyhow, everything seems cool. But.

Yeah, "but". My fan speed, in the nzxt monitor program, shows 0, but they're spinning. (It wasn't always reading zero. I've done a lot of reboots, as I add hardware.) Also, there is no cpu temperature reading. (A bit of sleuthing turned up the need to download and run a hardware monitor beta 0.6 program. That provides the nzxt utility with the cpu temps. If you close that third party program, nzxt's kraken software only reads the water temp.) The utility that controls the fans is rough. I cannot go below 25% fan speed. Nor can I allow the water temp to go above 65C without the fans at 100%, in any of the 3 fan profiles. They're locked at those two endpoints.

My noctuas are quiet, the cpu is cool. (CLP on the die, the lid held on by retention spring pressure, NH 1T between the die lid and the kraken water pump.) I haven't started testing or cranking volage yet. My initial impression is that it's a good cooler, hardware wise, but the software certainly needs a bit of work.

- no cpu temps
- incorrect pwm (4 pin) fan speed sensor reading
- lack of fan control at either end of the spectrum
- poor support links on the nzxt website. By "poor" I mean almost non-existant.
- the pump speed scale has 600, 1200, 1800, etc., listed, but they have FIVE hashes, not 6, for each 600 rpm increment. That means each hash is 120 rpm. Why not just 100 rpm? (Minor, but there it is.) Fan speed rpms go up by 500 and have the same FIVE hashes for each increment. That makes sense.
- The changeable LED pump light is a feature: the software makes it very difficult to understand how to change it.

I do -not- regret buying it, but I certainly wish the software side was as well integrated as the hardware side.

Right now, having just performed a full antivirus scan of a 1Tb hard-drive, 2/3's full and compressed, the NZXT software shows coolant at 27C, the CPU's at 26, 26, 27, and 28 (I'm running the third party software to allow this. I've got to re-run it every boot.) My fan speed shows 0. The pump speed fluctuates from above 600 to 1000 rpm. (At one point it was holding at 3200. Shrug.) It's quiet, it's cool. Of course, I'm not playing a game or stressing the cpu in any manner. Consider this just a jot above idle...

Ken
 
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Review is pretty much on point, I just got the same All-In-One cooler over the weekend and threw it into a new NZXT 630 case. Only thing I will disagree with is:

- The changeable LED pump light is a feature: the software makes it very difficult to understand how to change it.
Click to expand...

^ That was actually pretty easy to figure out, I changed mine to a full red to match the rest of my interior lights in a few seconds.

The rest of the review is absolutely true though, I would've gone with Corsair's version if I knew support info is totally NON-existent on NZXT's official website.

Does the unit do the job? Yes it does, I'm pretty satisfied with the performance, at room temperature (roughly 68 degrees F), with just internet browsing at the lowest fan setting [25%] my CPU cores are idling at 38, 34, 38, 34 celcius. (i7 930 at 4.4 Ghz, 1.312 VCore)

however I'm little upset that after spending the money on it, that I'm left with an amateur software control panel that doesn't even work as intended. I mean seriously the fan speed dial not working and CPU temps not displaying is just inexcusable.

I would recommend the Corsair H110 over this, overall as a total package I'm sure their product and suppor is better. And even more mystifying is why this actually costs more than the Corsair unit.



***Also, this is their official recommendation on their own product***:

http://www.reddit.com/r/NZXT/comments/1libj0/kraken_control_software/
 
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Weird to hear these problems with the CP. The version i am using came off the box CD...

I've had 0 issues using it with an X40.
 
wtourist said:
Could non oem fans be an issue?
Click to expand...

Could be. However, my noctuas were showing speed correctly the first few reboots. Now, zero.

A PWM fan should be a PWM fan. If the Kraken only works correctly with NZXT fans, then they should state that, or use a connector which is non-standard.

One correction: I stated the fans MUST go to 100% at 65C water temp. It's actually at 60C water temp.

Ken
 
LED control: I'd like the light to change with temperature, a feature available. The strobe, the fade, the interval settings are all a mystery to me. The light has never varied, despite adjusting temperature thresholds and colors. I don't know whether I'm doing something wrong or if it is non-functional. Instructions would be appreciated.
 
I just use a dedicated fan controller with Noctua 140mm fans. No fuss and works great.

I tried the included software but it is evident they didn't put much thought into it from how unpolished it is. The program itself needs a separate program to work, so hwmon opens up every time windows is started. And since it doesn't minimize by itself, you need to minimize it every start up to the tray. The page switching is slow, the fan adjustment needs several clicks to register, and most annoying of all, the program for some reason is very small and has 8 point size fonts. I guess they where going for a "small footprint."

Other than the unpolished software, the actual hardware is great. It performs comparably to my previous custom 360mm loop, probably from the fact most processors aren't heat monsters nowadays.
 
wtourist said:
Could non oem fans be an issue?
Click to expand...

I don't think so...mine is using only the 2 OEM supplied fans.

Also the OEM fans are very LOUD at full setting, although it is questionable why they would need to be running at full blast for a prolonged period of time aside from stress testing...this may be a huge turn-off to most people.
 
I've had the X60 for a couple months now. It is keeping my 965be nice and cool while at 4ghz. The cooler itself is good. As the OP said though the software could use some work. I have mine mounted to the top of my Antec 300. I am using the two NZXT supplied fans plus the 140mm Antec fan that came in the top of the 300. It works well so far and I haven't had any issues.
 
To Fix CPU Core Temps not showing up correctly on Kraken Software

Within the NZXT Kraken Control install directory, there is a sub-folder called OpenHardwareMonitor. Run OpenHardWareMonitor.exe, you will have to go into the settings for it and allow it to run on Windows startup & run minimized. (Out of sight out of mind) along with the Kraken software. It got my CPU core temperatures to populate. Alternatively you can download openhardwaremonitor from http://openhardwaremonitor.org/downloads/ and do the same as above.

To Fix Fan Speed not showing up correctly on Kraken Software

*This is assuming you are connecting the 2 enclosed fans to the kraken unit and not directly to your motherboard.*

I don't know how else to explain this easily to anyone having the fan speed issues not showing up on the Kraken software gauge but I'm going to give it a try:

There is a long cable that connects from the pump to a SATA power cable. On that cable there are 4 sockets in a line to connect fans into. In order for the fans to show up on the monitor you have to connect the 2 fans that come with the unit into the 2 sockets that are closer to the pump-side of the wire. I guess if you picture the wire laid out in a straight line it you might be able to visualize it better. This fixed the issue for me, I hope this helps anyone else with the same problem.
 
I wish I knew how people were getting such low idle temps with an overclocked CPU. With an i5-4670k at stock, my idle temps are always between 35C - 38C in a room that's always between 20C - 22C. I replaced the stock fans with some Noctuas as well, and what's crazy is that it doesn't seem to matter if the fans are running at 500 RPM or 1300 RPM, the temps only fluctuate by 1-3C at most. Is there some secret way to seat it, or do I need to replace the thermal compound that came with it? Most reviews claim it's good, yet the cooling performance is probably the worst I've had with any computer I've built over the past eight years.

As far as the issue on getting fan RPM to show, that's easy. I was having the same problem when I changed out the fans. Of the four fan connectors, only one of them has four pins. That's the one in charge of relaying information, so you need to have at least one of your fans connected to it. That's it.
 
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Wattson said:
I wish I knew how people were getting such low idle temps with an overclocked CPU. With an i5-4670k at stock, my idle temps are always between 35C - 38C in a room that's always between 20C - 22C. I replaced the stock fans with some Noctuas as well, and what's crazy is that it doesn't seem to matter if the fans are running at 500 RPM or 1300 RPM, the temps only fluctuate by 1-3C at most. Is there some secret way to seat it, or do I need to replace the thermal compound that came with it? Most reviews claim it's good, yet the cooling performance is probably the worst I've had on any computer I've built over the past eight years.
Click to expand...

Seating can be a big issue if the HS is not making full planar contact with the IHS.

The sad part is that most online reviewers don't check to see if optimal contact is being made. I know the [H] has in the past. If you've replaced fans, redone the paste etc, seating could definitely be the culprit.

Also, alot of people just simply BS with lower-than-actual numbers for the sake of 'looking good' online. Most people will white-lie if they can get away with it.

My Kraken X40 keeps my 3770k idle @ 30-34C in a push-pull config with side case open. Ambient temp is ~78F.
 
Problem is, I have no idea how I could have screwed up the inital seating. It's pretty straightforward. You line up the screws, and then screw them down in an "X" pattern. I'd tighten them by hand until I could give it one more twist past all the way screwed since tightening it too much could be just as problematic. So I have no idea if it's not tight enough, if the thermal compound needs replaced, if the hoses are not setup optimally, if the fans are not as close as they should be etc..

The only issue I had with the installation was the backplate. It does NOT fit the socket 1150 correctly. People claimed that it fit without any issues, but that's not true. To get it to fit, you have to set it off-kilter, or you simply won't have a backplate. That doesn't really change the orientation of the water block though since that's dictated by the motherboard layout.
 
Hmmm Could just be seating. I run my 2700k at 5ghz, and after 3 hours of prime95 hovered around 82c.

Of course I was using 4 140mm promlimatech vortex fans...
 
Wattson said:
I wish I knew how people were getting such low idle temps with an overclocked CPU. With an i5-4670k at stock, my idle temps are always between 35C - 38C in a room that's always between 20C - 22C. I replaced the stock fans with some Noctuas as well, and what's crazy is that it doesn't seem to matter if the fans are running at 500 RPM or 1300 RPM, the temps only fluctuate by 1-3C at most. Is there some secret way to seat it, or do I need to replace the thermal compound that came with it? Most reviews claim it's good, yet the cooling performance is probably the worst I've had with any computer I've built over the past eight years.

As far as the issue on getting fan RPM to show, that's easy. I was having the same problem when I changed out the fans. Of the four fan connectors, only one of them has four pins. That's the one in charge of relaying information, so you need to have at least one of your fans connected to it. That's it.
Click to expand...

Do you have speedstep enabled? I've clocked my 4670k back a bit, at 4.3 right now, and it only ramps up when gaming or video encoding. Just browsing it stays at 800mhz and very cool with an H80i. Really no need to run at full speed 24/7.

gnyv.jpg
 
Wattson said:
Problem is, I have no idea how I could have screwed up the inital seating. It's pretty straightforward. You line up the screws, and then screw them down in an "X" pattern. I'd tighten them by hand until I could give it one more twist past all the way screwed since tightening it too much could be just as problematic. So I have no idea if it's not tight enough, if the thermal compound needs replaced, if the hoses are not setup optimally, if the fans are not as close as they should be etc..

The only issue I had with the installation was the backplate. It does NOT fit the socket 1150 correctly. People claimed that it fit without any issues, but that's not true. To get it to fit, you have to set it off-kilter, or you simply won't have a backplate. That doesn't really change the orientation of the water block though since that's dictated by the motherboard layout.
Click to expand...

No, see, it's not you causing the issue with seating because of improper installation - it could be a warped (virtually invisible) IHS of your chip, or a warped base on the water block itself. Not saying it's either, but would it be possible for you to take a pic of the paste pattern and post it here?
 
HydroBudz said:
Do you have speedstep enabled? I've clocked my 4670k back a bit, at 4.3 right now, and it only ramps up when gaming or video encoding. Just browsing it stays at 800mhz and very cool with an H80i. Really no need to run at full speed 24/7.
Click to expand...

Just checked, and yeah it's still on in the BIOS. What I did change however was my power management setting. I changed it from balanced to performance, which is what I did with every PC (my previous PC is sitting at 26C on air overclocked...). So I just changed it back to balanced and set the min useage to 1% and left the max alone. That dropped my idle frequency (was sitting at 3800mhz!), but it's still way too high for no apparent reason. Idle is jumping between 880 and spiking back up to 3800. This makes no sense. Although at least the idle temp is now at 32C. Still seems a few degrees high though.
 
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Sorry for the necro, but man what a difference the thermal compound makes. Also, due to the shitty Kraken software (it goes by coolant temp, not CPU temp), I just decided to hook up the fans to the motherboard and control them through AI suite. I just applied some AS5 after removing the supposedly "good" compound that comes pre-applied on the Kraken and my idle and full load in Prime95 temps dropped by a good 6C. I normally use AS5, but I decided not to bother this time around because the Kraken's was supposed to be decent. After it sets, it should drop another 1C - 3C.
 
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