INTRODUCTION

   Roughly 6 years ago one of my industry contacts (and also a good friend of mine now) told me that custom watercooling kits/loops were a niche product aimed mostly towards enthusiasts and serious overclockers so there wasn't much interest by readers for such reviews. Well back then i have to admit that i did agree with him mainly because such kits used to cost quite a bit (and weren't very easy to find) but nowadays between the much reduced prices of complete kits, the number of companies that make such kits and the large number of people turning towards PC case modding things have obviously changed for the best. Because of that we've decided to focus a bit more on such reviews and as promised a few days ago today with us we have yet another complete watercooling kit the NexXxoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT by Alphacool.

   Alphacool are based in Germany and are one of the biggest producers of watercooling components for the PC market. Their products are sold worldwide which is testament to the quality of products they sell and are renowned for being very high performing.

   The NexXoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT watercooling kit has been around for slightly over a year now but compared to the kit released back then the version currently in stores features several tiny improvements including a better mounting system for LGA2011 systems and support for more CPU models. Inside the package Alphacool packs their XT45 Full Copper 360mm radiator (3x120mm), three 120mm 1350RPM fans by Yate Loon, high quality Laing DDC-1T/12V Pump, repack-Laing DDC- 5,25 Single Bay Station (reservoir) and the NexXxoS XP³ Light-Acetal Edition CPU block. Unlike other manufacturers i was surprised to see that Alphacool includes a liter of their Cape Kelvin Catcher anti-corrosive fluid so you don't have to worry about purchasing one separately. Unfortunately this kit is not the top one currently in the Alphacool "first class" product line but it is one of their best ones and thus should give us a good idea about the quality and performance of their watercooling kits.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The NexXoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT watercooling kit is sold inside a black box with the company logo and a large picture of its components on both the front and rear.

A large sticker on the left side has the available components listed and showcased via several pictures.

Every component is placed in its own box so we couldn't find anything wrong with the packaging of the kit.

Contained in the box are the CPU block, reservoir, Laing pump, 360mm radiator, tubing, six 13/10 (10x1,5mm) compression fittings G1/4”, three 120mm 1300RPM fans, 1lt coolant bottle, 24pin ATX bridging plug, 24 long fan screws, 5 Alphacool stickers and all the necessary mounting hardware for Intel 775/1155/1156/1366/2011 and AMD AM2/AM3 compatible mainboards.

THE NEXXXOS COOL ANSWER 360 DDC/XT

As the name clearly states the kit comes with a 360mm radiator which can fit up to three 120mm fans and is 45mm thick (XT45).

It's still not as thick as the 56mm thick RX360V3 radiator by XSPC but it does come close.

The copper fins are perfect in quality and slightly painted black.

We were all surprised to see that the XT45 radiator has a total of 6 copper inserts to place fittings so you should find the ideal pair no matter where you place it (1 cover was missing from the package however).

At first the small Laing DDC 1T pump may not seem as powerful enough (especially compared to its larger brother the plus version) but it's capable of pushing up to 420 liters of water per hour. You will need to connect it with a Molex power cable and if you wish to know its speed or if you want to be warned for a possible malfunction you will also need to plug its 3pin cable to the CPU pins on your mainboard.

The acrylic reservoir takes only a 5.25" bay and that’s the ideal size for me since dual 5.25" ones may not leave you enough space for other devices.

As you can see there's a level indicator at the front but do take into account that you will need to fill the reservoir at least 3 times before the fluid has gone through the entire loop.

The top of the CPU Block is made out of acetal material while the base is made out of pure copper (it also has a mirror like finish).

The three 120mm yate loon fans may not be the best in their class but they are cost-effective models that can spin up to 1350RPM (+- 10%) to produce 47CFM airflow with just 28dBA of noise (according to their manufacturer).

The only serious problem with these fans as you can see is that their cables are not sleeved.

INSTALLATION - FINISHED LOOKS

Although Alphacool doesn't include installation instructions with their kit (not really and the ones online are again "not enough") it's very easy to install it so once again we started from the CPU block.

After that we had to install the pump next to the reservoir as seen above.

Once installed do remember that you need to tilt the entire reservoir for water to get in the pump (you will see the air bubbles coming out while you do that) prior to starting up the kit. Fortunately the opening at the top makes it very easy to fill the reservoir with fluid during that procedure.

One of the things you need to remember is to remove the plastic insert covers and replace them with these ones.

Last came the radiator and although the 900D has room for even larger ones this feels right at home.

A UV reactive fluid would look great in these clear tubings but that's easy to find in the market.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY 

   Testing complete water cooling kits or individual radiators is no different than testing CPU Coolers and since we want all of you to be able to compare similar products we created new and separate charts (you can still cross-compare results however since we are using the same test rig). So once again single (120/140mm) watercooling solutions are tested with the radiator mounted at the rear of our test rig while dual/triple/quad (240/260/280/360/420/480/560mm) solutions with the radiator mounted at the top. For the dBA tests complete water cooling kits or radiators with bundled fans are measured both while on idle mode or with the fan controller in the minimum setting and while on extreme load or with the fan controller all the way to the highest possible setting (PWM fans do that on their own without our intervention). Every single test takes place in a temperature controlled room of 23 degrees Celsius Ambient Temp with the help of two AC units placed diagonally inside the room. When testing complete water cooling kits we use the Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. Finally much like when testing CPU Coolers it's very important to point out that just because a water cooling kit outperforms another when tested with our test rig (when we test complete water cooling kits) that does not necessarily mean that the same performance differences will apply 100% for other CPU models and in other situations (such as different ambient temps and system configurations).

     To successfully record the load temperatures we use the latest OCCT application for around 6-10 minutes to push the processor to its limits and after that is done and the temperatures are recorded we wait for about 10-20 minutes for the CPU to cool down and record the idle temperatures. This is done to allow time for the thermal conductive material to achieve the optimal performance level. Same procedure is then repeated with the Passmark BurnIn Test as a failsafe just in case the OCCT results are wrong. This procedure takes a lot more time than the usual peltier/thermometer tests but this way not only can we deliver real world results to our readers based on real CPUs but we can also triple check the results using a variety of programs. Last but not least the temperatures were recorded using both the latest versions of AIDA64 and RealTemp while the noise level tests (when fans exist in the bundle) are performed using a high precision ExTech HD600 Decibel Meter placed about 10-15cm above the radiator. Still although the same testing procedure applies to all units do take into consideration that unlike the official numbers which are measured in special noise isolated labs with just the fans here we also have both the rest of the cooler and the rest of the system (although all system fans are turned off when recording noise levels).

TEST RESULTS

CONCLUSION

   I have to admit that when we were told that Alphacool was planning on sending one of their watercooling kits over we were all very skeptical because quite frankly the NexXoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT has been around for almost 18 months now so we thought that XSPC and their "newer" kits would have it easy. Well you can clearly see from our charts that this was not the case since the NexXoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT surpassed two out of three kits in our charts and ontop of that it came really close to the much newer Raystorm 750 RX360 V3 kit. As a matter of fact the Alphacool kit came even closer during our tests but unfortunately there were quite a few times during heavy load that the CPU did hit the temperature we've listed. Noise levels coming from the fans (the marketing picture above has blue blade fans while our sample came with black) and pump are quite lower than the ones we've seen used in the XSPC and EKWB but at first the pump will make lots of it while trying to fill the entire loop with liquid. Unfortunately from time to time you will hear some noise coming from the pump (fluid being pushed) although certainly not enough to become annoying.

   Alphacool may be a German based manufacturer but their products are widely available so as we speak you can find their NexXxoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT watercooling set for USD239.95 inside the USA (Performance-PCs) and for 197.99Euros inside the EU (Aquatuning). This may not be the price tag many of you would like to see (still less compared to the EK Waterblocks EK-L360 kit) but serious watercooling kits never come cheap and since the NexXxoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT by Alphacool performs extremely well (especially since it makes use of low-RPM fans) most overclockers, enthusiasts and hardcore gamers shouldn't really have a problem with the price. That being said although the Alphacool NexXxoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT isn't the top kit in our new charts (we'll try to get their best to test) it still managed to surpass two out of the three we've tested recently and because of that we're giving it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Excellent Performance
- Noise Levels
- Small Reservoir/Pump Combo
- Acrylic Single 5.25" Bay Reservoir
- 3x120mm Fans
- Socket Compatibility
- 1 Liter Coolant Fluid Included (More Than We Needed)
- Long Tubing Included
- Easy Installation
- Price (Compared To the Competition)

CONS

- Fan Cables Not Sleeved
- Pump Noise (Compared To the Competition)
- Price (For Some)