NZXT AIO allegedly leaks and damages flagship ROG ASTRAL GeForce RTX 5090

Chalk this one up as a nightmare scenario, an AIO cooler leaking fluid onto and damaging a GeForce RTX 5090. To make matters worse, the RTX 5090 in question is ASUS's flagship ROG Astral model, which currently retails for $4,299.99. According to this user's Reddit post, this is exactly what happened to their ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 when their NZXT Kraken AIO leaked, damaging the card.

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As bad as that is, that's only the beginning of the story. According to the user, they purchased the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 in 2025, and in August 2025, their NZXT Kraken AIO leaked, damaging the GPU. The owner then contacted NZXT, who allegedly confirmed the fault was due to a manufacturing defect, so they replaced the cooler and said they would address the damage to the graphics card and motherboard.

According to the post, there were a few months of back-and-forth, including a note that cleaning the GPU "fixed" it. Instead of sending it back, they offered to settle the case and reimburse the user $2,855.99. Which, in case you forgot, is a lot lower than the $4,299.99 price tag for the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090.

Unfortunately, this is only part of the saga: allegedly, NZXT told the user they would return the faulty GPU, but that was not their policy. And with that, they apparently tried to get the user to accept the payout by imposing 24-hour deadlines and using a "take it or leave it" approach. According to the user, it has gotten to the point where they're now filing a lawsuit, prompting several Redditors to say that airing all of this publicly is probably a bad idea when litigation is involved.

Ultimately, this is a worst-case scenario for a failing AIO cooler as it leaked onto one of the most expensive gaming GPUs currently available.