NZXT Kraken X31 140mm AIO CPU Cooler Review

Test System Setup

I would first like to thank ASUS, InWin, Corsair, and Fractal Design for supplying products for me to test with.

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

Thermal Results

Looking at the company that the Kraken X31 is keeping in our stock testing, we feel it is right where it should be with the 51 degree result. At this point, it is right up with the Enermax AIOs, and is just slightly outperformed by a few AIOs that are much larger than this cooler.

With the overclocked settings applied, and the tests run, we found the Kraken X31 delivers an average temperature of 71.25 degrees. While it doesn't look outstanding in the middle of the chart, you have to see that it is only 7 degrees out of the lead. While there are a couple of coolers in this range that are cheaper in cost, nothing close to it has software to play with.

Noise Level Results

With the input voltage to the 120mm fan limited, and speed recorded at 1300 RPM, we found the 27 dB rating here pleasing. From over a foot away, it is hard to discern this from any other fan in the system.

With the power to the fan maxed, we saw the speed move up to 1936 RPM at the top end, and here it delivered 52 dB of noise. While this is getting into the noisy range, it is about the average across all coolers we tested.