ID-COOLING SE-226-XT ARGB CPU Cooler LGA1700 Compatible 6 Heatpipes CPU Air Cooler Addressable RGB 5V 3PIN Connector 120mm PWM Fan, Intel/AMD

When I ran Prime95 on this cooler with my i7-11700K (Non-OC'd, PL1 at 200W, PL2 at 220W, used with B560M Steel Legend motherboard), it did a fantastic job, far better than what I expected with Rocket Lake's ridiculously hot high-end CPUs! Max temps on the 11700K reached 96C and averaged around 92, which for using an air cooler like this with such an extremely power-hungry CPU, goes to show how well it can do!Testing this in Cinebench resulted in some interesting temps too, with the CPU delivering ~95% of its max potential performance (single-core score of 1517 points, multi-core score of 13857 points) and only maxing out thermally at around 82c!In case you are thinking "But those are ridiculously hot temps, who would want their CPU running that hot all the time?" - These are stress tests for absolute worst-case scenarios with this CPU air cooler on a CPU that is known as one of the hottest CPUs of the latest gens (i7-11700K). In game-testing, I have found with this cooler that my 11700K does not exceed 62c in the worst cases, staying relatively cool while delivering very high performance with this air cooler.The only real criticism I have of this CPU cooler is, as others have noted, the ridiculous placement of one of the mounting screws, which requires you to already have your own extra-long screwdriver to reach through the entire cooler to screw in the mounting screw. That's the least cool thing about this cooler, to be honest.ID-COOLING is not consistent either about what the TDP of this CPU cooler is - on their website it's listed as a 250W TDP cooler, but the actual box for the product states it's a 220W cooler. Reasonably, it's wiser to assume the latter (220W), and in my stress tests of this cooler I think that figure is evidenced.Looks-wise, this cooler is fantastic, it's not too flashy but also looks advanced, orderly and neat. The ARGB fan included works very well and maintains colors excellently in my experience (using it with a Razer Chroma ARGB controller-hub).At the end of the day though, I am definitely now a fan of the SE-226-XT. Cools hot high-end CPUs well and looks fantastic too!

So I got an acer orion 5000 with a 12700f and 3080.Before the upgrade it ran great. But I would notice the cpu temps would get close to 100•C. Which is t horrible but close to worrying. I’m sure it thermal throttled a bit and I was losing some performance. The stock cooler looked nice but didn’t do a 12th gen intel justice. So I decided to just upgrade the cpu cooler and wanted air cooling to be safe. So I decided after seeing other reviews on this product.And wow this thing is a beast of a cooler. I went from 100• to about 70• max sometimes less while playing demanding games like warzone and the like. lol for temps are about 35•. This is a single fan model. But I had the original 120mm fan so I used both in a push pull configuration. That is my recommendation if you case allows.If you are in the fence about this model. I can say this is amazing. Also was easy to install. Although I had to remove the whole motherboard but that’s an acer thing.

I purchased this on sale for $35.00 and for the price it's just awesome! Six heat pipes are more than enough for my needs (125W-150W max TDP) and the installation is a breeze. Keeps up with similar single tower coolers from Scythe (Mugen 5) but not at the same level as Thermalright's Assassin series of coolers. Still, no complaints at all.

Tons of complaints here about the cooler not coming with an adequate screwdriver. The one I received did, in fact, include a screwdriver that was appropriate for installing this cooler.I used this cooler on an undervolted i7-13700k and it worked great for gaming. Kept temps well under thermal throttle territory. Somewhere around 75c under extended gaming sessions. That being said, throwing it on cinebench would send it to 95c almost immediately.So why do I give it five stars? Because as a budget cooler, it works great. For gaming workloads it has no issues keeping even high end, high TDP processors at acceptable temperatures. Cinebench is not a realistic workload, and if you test your coolers with this program, you’re going to often have a bad time. Testing for stability is an entirely different matter.I have zero issues recommending this cooler.

So I wanted to switch my i5-6600k workstation back to air cooled as it takes up a lot less space than an AIO and performs just the same for this old CPU. Liquid cooled the 6600k idled at 25-26 Celsius and the same temps with this air cooler. Big difference is the air cooler is MUCH cheaper and takes up A LOT less space than the 280mm AIO it had for 3 months. This air cooler is and upgrade from the original air cooler I had on it that would idle at 32 Celsius. This looks and performs like a dream. i looked at reviews and the #1 problem id seen was getting a screw driver in the small hole to screw it to its mounts but FEAR NO MORE AS THEY INCLUDE A SCREWDRIVER FOR THIS!!!!!! Completely impressed with this air cooler and its performance