PCCooler CPS RZ820 Display Review: a flagship-level CPU air cooler with an LCD screen

TweakTown Rating: 99%

Our Verdict

The RZ820 Display may not be your first choice in air cooling your CPU, but the charts and feature set, along with an affordable price point makes this an outstanding solution. If it fits.

Pros

• Aesthetics
• Availability and cost
• LCD screen
• Easy software and slider fan frame
• Outside the box thinking

Cons

• It is huge

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

It's not like PCCooler just popped up out of nowhere. We have known of them for years, but they have had a rush of new products, and what we have seen thus far suggests they are no slouch when it comes to affordable performance. In what we have seen, things are more subdued with that murdered-out appeal we appreciate, but the key point driving those offerings was performance. Without all the flash and distractions other companies use to offer you something other than performance, PC Cooler has made a name for itself in a short time.

Essentially, in the TL:DR version of this product, we have an RZ620 on steroids, install a slick LCD screen on top, and send it into the wild to hunt for the top of the charts in reviews. The real idea is much more involved. Using tricks of the trade along with some outstanding fans, PCCooler has built a monster dual-tower cooler, ready for anything and everything you can throw at it. With varying-sized heat pipes, eight in total, a massive amount of copper and aluminum, and an enormous pre-cooler, we are just getting started on what you will find in their new flagship design.

For those of you who cannot stand the idea of liquid in a PC, or those who are resistant due to all the failure stories out there, PCCooler heard your cries. While major manufacturers have held the crown for many years, with the likes of Noctua, Scythe, Cooler Master, and Corsair leading the pack in our charts historically, it is rare that an underdog comes to us this impressive. Those of you who only use air coolers pay attention, and those of you on liquid cooling may be a bit shocked at how well air cooling has advanced, sneaking up on the once mighty AIOs that typically, thermally, well outpaced any air cooler out there. The CPS / PCCooler RZ820 Display is a cooler that pulls no punches as it impresses in many ways.

The RZ 820 Display came in black, but we also saw an option for white. While AMD gets the standard AM4 and AM5 support, Intel users, even HEDT users, are supported from 115X on up, including LGA20XX.

At 161mm wide, 150mm deep, and 169mm tall, we immediately knew we were dealing with something over 1000g; however, we had no idea it weighed 70g short of 2000g. At the base of the cooler is a copper plate welded to a precooler, with an alternating arrangement of 8mm and 6mm diameter pipes. The pipes then pass through a pair of aluminum fin arrays and are cooled by a pair of fans of different sizes.

The fan on the front of the cooler is attached to the cooler and not easily removed but is on sliders to allow for adjustable RAM clearance. This fan is 150 x 120 x 25mm, but the blades are 120mm. This fan will spin up to 2500 RPM, delivering 78.7 CFM and an astonishing 5.2 mmH2O of pressure. They are shown to be 35.8 dB(A) at this speed, using 0.2A and 2.4W.

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The middle fan is different; this time, 140 x 140 x 25mm, and is easily removable. The central fan will spin at 1500 RPM as its maximum, delivering 71.9 CFM and 2.12 mmH2O. Both fans are 4-pin powered, although the middle fan has a daisy-chain connection so both can be powered from a single header. They also both spin on ball bearings, but the power draw is half that of the intake fan.

On a removable aluminum cover atop the cooler is an LCD screen, five inches in size. The display is set to 1280 x 720 pixels, and is 60Hz with 24-bit True Color, and has a compact software suite to control what is shown.

All things considered, and at the time of writing already knowing the results, at $89.99 to acquire the RZ820 Display, there might be a touch of sticker shock. However, any cooler with this much mass has cost people a lot more in the past, and we are talking Noctua money, and many are fine shelling it out to them. In this instance, you get a beast of a cooler for that money, and they almost toss in the display for free. All that, and the fact that the cooler is backed for 6 years, tells you that you are not buying some run-of-the-mill product. PCCooler is proud enough to call the RZ820 Display their flagship product, and as a potential owner, there is solace in knowing they back you that long, even though the only potential issue is a dead fan.

Packaging

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Silver is big for CPS / PCCooler packaging, and what wraps the RZ820 Display is no different. With triangles all over the front, and the traditional orange one on the left, the only thing left ot see is the huge cooler, shown front and center.

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The right-side panel is basically a repeat of what we just saw, minus all the triangles and the company name.

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The back of the box shows all but one of the specifications, as for some reason weight is secretive until a scale gets involved. Otherwise, the list is easy to follow, comprehensive, and allows a point-of-sale customer to know what they are dealing with. The right side shows the PCCooler address, while the serial and model numbers are at the bottom.

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The left side is simplistic. A lot of silver, the name of the cooler along with its high-performance moniker, and the other half of that orange triangle we saw on the front.

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The internal packaging is top tier. With dense foam at the top and bottom, also surrounding the bulk of the sides, it leaves little room for damage. Housing the universal hardware and both socket types of hardware separated from the cooler also ensures your investment is safe to your door.

CPS / PCCooler RZ820 Display

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Staring at the face of the RZ820 Display, we can see how the fan specs were so wild. A 120mm fan blade assembly gets a metallic CPS-branded hub cover, while seven blades rotate around it. The frame of the fan is widened to allow the Slider Fan Frame to work flawlessly, allowing for RAM clearance.

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From the side, we see the front tower has a portion removed for RAM clearance, but we find three sets of tabs down the sides, capturing air and keeping spacing even. What appears to be the second fan is a cover, and the second tower is identical to the first, but no RAM notch this time.

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What we see now is the Wavy Flow Finstack that is prevalent in CPS coolers. The sides are flat, allowing the fans to rest, while the teeth disturb the airflow for better heat removal. All four sides of the fin stacks are like this.

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Laying the towers on their sides, not only do we see a matching fan cover and a bunch of tabs again, but we also see that there are places to attach fans as well. The grooves are still there, so you can swap from these fans, or even add a third, if you think you really need one.

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We have not seen a pre-cooler this big since our early years of reviewing coolers. That huge amount of aluminum, and the fact it's gapped to let the fan sit in it, we'd guess it works way better than anyone assumes immediately. It is also where the hardware is accessed to mount the cooler, so middle fan removal is a must in that process.

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If you look closely, you see a 6mm, two 8mm, two 6mm, two 8mm, then another 6mm heat pipe leaving the base. After some gentle bends to get them into the fins, we see a six-wide layout, and two pipes get put in line at either end. We also see notches around the pipes for soldering the fins to the heat pipes.

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While we appreciate that TIM is pre-applied, the plastic cap did not keep out debris. After cleaning this off, we found fine machine marks in a circular pattern, with the center portion of the base higher than the sides.

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In this image, the intake fan is on the table, and above it is a magnetically attached, machined aluminum cover, with a five-inch LCD screen, the CPS name, and the triangle design in the corner.

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With the cover removed, we can see the 4-pin pad connector for the screen at the top-right, and below are a pair of holes to grip the 140mm central fan. There isn't much to see behind the fan for accessibility to remove the intake fan.

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As we said, the front fan works on a slide system, where the fan is attached to rails, allowing three stages of height, the uppermost allowing 65mm for RAM clearance.

Accessories and Documentation

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Online, the hardware is shown in black paint, but our box contained chrome brackets and a black-chrome Intel backplate. On the left are the AMD brackets, where the Intel brackets are on the right, all of them marked with arrows pointing towards the socket.

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The universal gear covers the Y-splitter 4-pin fan cable, the screwdriver, Intel and AMD mainstream standoffs, mounting nuts, a pair of fan clips, and a set of LGA20XX standoffs for those HEDT users still out there looking for a new cooler.

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Lastly, or firstly, as you opened the box, we have the literature. On the left is a parts list and guide to get you through the install quickly and easily, ending with information on where to get the software. On the right is the insert that teaches you how to manipulate the software once you have it.

Installation and Finished Product

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To get here, we removed the AMD factory latches, installed standoffs into the factory backplate, and set the brackets on with the arrows pointing inward. All there was left to do was secure it all with the knurled nuts.

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After removal of the cup over the base of the cooler, the cover, and the central fan, we are ready to set the cooler in place, after applying your favorite thermal paste. Once done, alternate between screws, and you will run out of threads when properly secured.

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We were lucky with our choice of Viper RAM for our build, as the fan on the RZ820 Display was unimpeded from resting in its lowest position, giving the cooler its best chances at thermal performance. It is a lot cooler, and it could cause clearance issues with PCIe slots very close to the CPU

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The fan is indeed resting on top of the RAM, which is fine in our book. Keep in mind that if you have taller RAM, you will not get the full power of the intake fan and could very likely raise the performance values we show in testing the cooler as shipped.

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We have said words like enormous, huge, etc., when describing this nearly two-kilo cooler, and one look at it from this angle and you see why. It eats almost all the available room above the GPU, except for behind the cooler. Considering they send clips, you can eat that excess space with a third fan and block the entire top half of the motherboard.

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Attempting to boot the system, we are greeted with this stock image displayed during the POST process. Once in Windows, the screen goes blank until you get the display software downloaded and installed.

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Even as we slide around the tower to get a better angle, the image is mostly cooler. We see a bit of the RAM, and connectivity is easy to achieve around it, but this RZ820 Display is one of, if not the, largest CPU air-coolers to date. It's even up there with the heaviest, which was Corsair's title for a while.

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As one of dozens of options between video playback and static images, we chose to ride down the exploding tunnel into space, while the CPU and GPU temperatures are provided. Software offers import abilities, orientation changes, and various things to keep on screen while using the PC.

Test System Setup, Thermal Tests, and Noise Results

Chad's CPU Cooler Test System Specifications

To see our testing methodology and to find out what goes into making our charts, please refer to our 2025 CPU Cooler Testing and Methodology article for more information.

Thermal Results

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Right about now, our hearts sank. Starting things out with a 49°C idle temperature had us removing the cooler and checking thermal paste, reapplying and reinstalling, but seeing that the fans spun at only 1200 RPM up front and 750 RPM in the middle, we calmed down and saw that their PWM curve for idle is set a tad high, but still manageable.

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And this is where we rubbed our eyes to see if we were seeing things right. At 65.9°C, not only is it the best air cooler in our charts by a couple of degrees, but it is also only a degree behind a 360mm AIO. What else can you say but kudos to CPS and PCCooler for this accomplishment?

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Tracking the maximum package temperature, we can see that the RZ820 Display stands tall in this regard too. Right in the mix with many of the AIOs at 68°C, three degrees less than the RZ620, which is the next air cooler in line.

CPU Speed

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While not a huge advantage over the RZ620 and NX600, there was a bump in speed to 5.234GHz, again leading all air coolers in this chart.

VRM Thermal Results

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Remember the pre-cooler and how the fan slotted into it; well, not only does it cool the hunk of aluminum above the base, but it also supplies a ton of air, low to the motherboard, headed right at the PWM. At 55°C, the RZ820 Display ties for second place among all coolers tested.

Fan Speed and Noise Levels

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While the test is running, we track fan speeds, and in the chart is the 1583 RPM of the intake fan. The intake fan is stronger and noisier than the middle fan, which we saw average 1247 RPM. Both numbers are well short of their maximum potential.

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If you thought we were going to go all the way through and not hear the RZ820 Display, well, this is not designed with silence in mind; it is designed for performance and styling. That said, at 52 dB under 100% CPU stress, it's loud for anyone. Most of the time, you will have a chassis or headset reducing what you hear, but it is still audible, except when idle.

Final Thoughts

We have had many impressive designs over the years, but it has been a while since someone, especially a lesser-known brand like CPS or PCCooler, took to the task of making a chart-topping, real flagship solution, in which the masses can get behind it and afford it. We have seen the big boys fight for it over the years, and some win, some don't, but with what we have seen with our RZ820 Display, you don't have to touch anything; just let it eat. If this cooler were provided by the likes of Noctua or maybe Corsair, it would sell for well over $100, and it's likely it would have no screen at all.

Let's be honest. It takes PCCooler throwing the book of tricks at this design to make it all work. Shaped fins, captured sides, even spacing from tabs, a huge pre-cooler, and a metric crap ton of aluminum in the stacks. We haven't even touched the fan choices, and how well that plays out for the RZ820 Display.

With a high-speed, high-pressure intake fan, heat stands little chance but to move out the back of the towers. Adding a 140mm fan with a different speed takes the air that is chopped upon entering, chops it again, forcing it through the second tower with better efficiency than any other tower of this kind. A lot of it has to do with the pre-cooler too, where that huge hunk of aluminum fins gets rid of a lot of the heat before it ever reaches the fins, as illustrated by how chilly it kept our PWM.

As if that weren't enough about the fans, we have the slider system on the intake, which makes installation so much easier, yet does make it tough to clean the fan or the front of the tower. Then we looked at the center fan, which uses rubber pads to keep it from rattling the tower, as it slides into the center of the cooler with no click or anything to truly lock it in place.

At this point, you are getting a ton of bang for the buck, and we have one last feature to discuss that comes virtually free with the purchase of this amazing air cooler. The five-inch screen eats a lot of the cover, and the display is bright enough to enjoy the 1280x720 resolution. You do need to grab the CPS Display software to take advantage, but it is a lightweight and easy-to-use piece of software. Most of the tabs and settings show what the PC is doing: CPU speeds, temps, HDD usage- all the things you can likely find elsewhere- but one tab makes all the magic happen. As said, there are many default options for video and still images, but you can upload your own and customize the RZ820s display to do whatever you'd like.

As we have been saying, at $89.99, how can you pass on the best air cooler in the game right now? You get a seriously weighty bit of kit to set atop your CPU, which also covers HEDT users while many others consider it EOL. At the cost of most others' "flagship" models, plus you get a screen, software, customization, and a cooler that is thermally better than all other air coolers we have tested on this build. Our advice is to buy one; if you have the room, buy the RZ820 Display. Even if you dislike the screen, without software installed, the screen is just black when in Windows, so for all the RGB haters out there looking for a new air cooler, CPS /PCCooler has what you want, and it leaves you with a lot of change compared to many other air-cooled options, or the AIOs the RZ820 Display traded blows with.