Does Enermax have the new cooler you need? – Enermax Liqtech II & TR4 II 360mm All In One Coolers

In testing, I found that the Enermax fans can really ramp. This is definitely necessary on a 32-core behemoth like the 2990WX. I am thankful for such a processor as it really put the performance of the TR4 II cooler since that chip is known to push up to 250W at stock.

Thermals

To adequately test these processors I used a long render which lasts between 30 minutes to much longer depending on CPU speed and core count.

First up is the monster of the group, the 32-core Threadripper 2990WX. this chip tips the scales gulping up to 250W power under its standard configuration. Therefore we felt it was the aptest load for these high-end coolers. Do note that we do have a 2950X as well but well, what fun is that when you have something like the 2990WX to put through its collective paces? Needless to say, while the chip overall can get rather toasty, the liquid coolers in this test all managed it well and even the non-full cover IHS solutions did an admirable job with the new model Liqtech taking an almost chart-topper with only one of the Eisbaer units from Alphacool barely beating it out.

Here we now have the much more tame 8700K which is indicative of a very popular mainstream platform load. The Liqtech II did a solid job here as well but the AIO solutions form the bigh boys in liquid cooling definitely took the front spot but only by marginal results in some cases by less than 1C. The Liqtech II did rather well and readily beat the Asetek based Fractal S36 cooler.

The noise is something I feel needs to be addressed. I understand Enermax was trying to knock it out of the park so to speak especially claiming 500W+ TDP support. But the fans on the Liqtech II and the TR4 II are the same and they are LOUD when under heavy load. For comparison, the 2990WX which was the one where we noticed the most noise, it simply was such a large amount of noise output it negated any advantage that we received from the full cover cold plate for the Threadripper IHS. We even heard the heavy ramping on the Intel rig, but it never really ramped as often or consistently likely due to the significantly lesser thermal load.

With that being said, I do think that with a better fan choice these could be some very competitive coolers as the others in the test fell within percentages of each other and had a much more pleasant audible experience.