NZXT, a leading developer of software-powered hardware solutions for PC gaming, today announces the Kraken X-3 and Kraken Z-3 series, the next iterations in NZXT's award-winning line of RGB all-in-one liquid coolers. This new generation of Kraken gives PC builders more options to uniquely customize their builds while providing enhanced cooling performance backed by NZXT's industry-leading warranty.

New to the NZXT Kraken ecosystem, the Z-3 series (available in both 280 mm and 360 mm configurations) is the quintessential centerpiece to the ultimate gaming battlestation. A beautiful 2.36"(60 mm) LCD screen providing unlimited visual customization, powered by NZXT CAM, is capable of displaying vital system health data as well as any custom GIF. With unparalleled aesthetics, the Kraken Z-3 series provides builders the opportunity to express themselves in an all-new way.

ADATA XPG expanded its cooling products lineup with the Levante 360, an all-in-one, closed-loop liquid CPU cooler. You might pass this for being yet another Asetek-sourced CLC, until you find out that ADATA is including premium Nidec-sourced high air-flow PWM fans with the cooler. Its 360 mm x 120 mm aluminium radiator is plumbed to its pump-block over a sleeved rubber tubing. The pump-block is made of Asetek's Gen 6 pump-block design featuring a ceramic bearing. An ARGB illuminated XPG logo caps the pump-block. All current CPU socket types are supported, including LGA115x, AM4, LGA2066, and TR4 (using the PIB-included mounting bracket).

GIGABYTE today unveiled its first all-in-one closed-loop liquid CPU cooler, with the Aorus Liquid Cooler 240. A star attraction with this cooler is its cylindrical pump-block which has a circular LCD display on top, much like ASUS ROG Ryujin. Unlike the Ryujin, the display is white and takes up color from a circular RGB LED ring surrounding the display, giving it the appearance of a color display. Sleeved coolant tubes connect this block to a 240 mm x 120 mm radiator, which ventilated by a pair of 120 mm fans that have RGB LED illumination.

A single 3-pin addressable RGB connection handles lighting for the entire cooler, while a USB 2.0 header connection interfaces the cooler with GIGABYTE's RGB Fusion software, letting you cycle through its display. The included pair of 120 mm fans feature double ball-bearings, each spin up to 2,500 RPM, pushing 59.25 CFM of air, with a noise output of 18 to 39.5 dBA. The block is made of copper, while the radiator is made of aluminium. Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. The block is compatible with the Asetek-standard round AMD TR4 retention module that's part of Threadripper processors' retail package. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ASUS today expanded its ROG Strix LC line of all-in-one liquid CPU coolers with a new top variant that comes with a large 360 mm x 120 mm radiator for better cooling. The ROG Strix LC series had debuted in May with 120 mm and 240 mm variants. ASUS bundles three of the same 120 mm fans it includes with the pricier Ryuo series, which take in 4-pin PWM input, spin between 800 to 2,500 RPM, pushing up to 80.95 CFM of air, with a noise output of up to 29.7 dBA, each. Characteristic to the ROG Strix LC series, the pump-block features spirally-projecting RGB LED diffusers along the sides, and an illuminated ROG logo on top. All lighting is controlled by addressable-RGB (ASUS Aura Sync RGB). The cooler supports nearly all modern CPU socket types, including AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. The pump-block supports the Asetek-standard AIO CLC retention module AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors include in their PIB packages.

Chinese DIY and AIO liquid cooling components vendor Bykski brought its largest ever collection of new products to Computex, this year. These include nine new CPU water blocks, ten new radiators of various sizes, five new full-coverage VGA water blocks, monoblocks, pumps, reservoirs, pump+reservoir combi-units, and two new AIO CLC CPU coolers. Bykski's collection of CPU water blocks now includes three new models purpose-built for AMD TR4 socket, and six blocks that support LGA2066, LGA1151, and AM4. A few of these, under the CU-RA brand, combine the beauty of RGB LED embellishments, with the brains of an integrated monitoring component. Part of the block's acrylic top, the component features an LCD display and sensors that detect coolant temperature, base temperature, and coolant pressure. Data is put out both as absolute values and as graphical histograms. This sensor unit is also sold as a standalone fitment to one of your coolant lines, to detect coolant temperature and pressure.

Asetek, the creator of the all-in-one liquid cooler and the global leader in liquid cooling solutions for gaming PCs and DIY enthusiasts, announced the 645LT, an all-in-one (AIO) CPU liquid cooler ideal for small form factor (SFF) cases. Applications for gaming and professional content generation produce excess heat that is difficult to manage in small form factor systems. The 645LT was purpose-built to fit in the tiniest of spaces, including the A4-SFX from DAN Cases, while maintaining lasting system performance.

In developing the 645LT, Asetek looked first to the community to understand what features and benefits were most sought out by enthusiasts and dedicated gamers who want to get the most out of their SFF PCs. The 645LT combines the high performance capabilities of Asetek's latest generation (Gen6) of pump technology -- the same pump used to cool some of the world's fastest supercomputers -- with other advances including unique 90° bends where our tubes meet the radiator for space savings and increased tube lengths for ease in mounting.

Reddit user CarbonFireOC wasn't happy with the temperatures he's been seeing on his Radeon VII, and decided he wanted watercooling. Unfortunately, that early since product release no GPU waterblocks are available for the Radeon VII. What he figured out was that the waterblock of EVGA's CLC 280 all-in-one cooler will fit. This cooler, which is made by Asetek and licensed by EVGA is designed for Intel & AMD motherboards and many similar variants exist from vendors like Fractal Design, NZXT and others.

While performing such a mod on a $700 graphics card is not for the faint-hearted, it shows that with a little bit of creative ingenuity you can achieve amazing results without wasting top dollar.

His 24/7 stable settings on Radeon VII are 2122 MHz core, 1265 mV, and 1252 MHz memory, resulting in a 3DMark Firestrike graphics score of around 33,000. Even at such a high voltage, the watercooling keeps temperatures very low at 40°C GPU, 60°C Hotspot.

In time with Intel's launch of the new Xeon W-3175X 28-core workstation CPU today, Asetek has announced their first, and only to date, certified CPU cooler for the processor. The cooler, code-named 690LX-PN, is a closed loop liquid cooler developed in collaboration with Intel, and approved by the latter to be used with the 28-core behemoth that no doubt needs more ample cooling than most of Intel's desktop offerings. It is rated for a 500 W TDP, thanks to the use of a triple 120 m radiator (copper/brass instead of aluminium, for a change) with fans pre-installed, and their latest Gen6-s pump integrated with a copper cold plate.

The cold plate in question is fairly large relative to the pump, which indicates that the cooling engine itself is not necessarily optimized for the larger heatspreader on the CPU. The cooler is only compatible with this CPU platform, and is also the only cooler approved by Intel for the platform as of the time of this post. It is available for purchase on the Asetek web shop, and comes with a 2-year warranty.

The Intel Xeon W-3175X processor is available today. This unlocked 28-core workstation powerhouse is built for select, highly-threaded and computing-intensive applications such as architectural and industrial design and professional content creation. Built for handling heavily threaded applications and tasks, the Intel Xeon W-3175X processor delivers uncompromising single- and all-core world-class performance for the most advanced professional creators and their demanding workloads.

At CES 2019 we had the opportunity to look at Lian Li's revised PC-O11 Dynamic ROG V2 case which sees numerous improvements compared to previous iterations. It offers a tool-less quick release for all side panels along with improved radiator installation thanks to changed made to the bottom fan mount. Installing a GPU vertically is now a possibility with Lian Li going a step further by also including a seamless anti-sag bracket for stable GPU mounting. Even the dust filters have seen upgrades with the bottom fan filter now being equipped with a plastic frame for increased stability and better usability.

Enthusiasts will be happy to see improved water cooling capabilities with all radiator locations now capable of fitting thicker radiators. They also improved support allowing for the use of up to 360 mm radiator options as well. Those not interested in water cooling can instead use an included plate for more storage space while also hiding the side fan mounts. Overall it is a larger more luxurious case that has seen numerous improvements.

GIGABYTE debuted liquid-cooled WaterForce editions of its Aorus Xtreme GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards early November, with three products, two based on the RTX 2080, and one RTX 2080 Ti. While the RTX 2080 got two variants, one featuring an AIO liquid cooling solution, and another with a full-coverage water-block for DIY liquid cooling; the RTX 2080 Ti at the time only released in the full-coverage water-block trim, with no variant that has an AIO CLC. GIGABYTE changed that today, with the new "N208TAORUSX W-11GC," or Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Xtreme WaterForce.

This card features a slightly spruced up version of the Asetek-sourced AIO closed-loop liquid cooling solution its RTX 2080-based sibling features, with a larger base-plate to draw heat from the additional memory chips and MOSFETs that come with the RTX 2080 Ti. The card features the same factory-overclock as the water-block equipped twin, with a GPU Boost frequency set at 1770 MHz (vs. 1545 MHz reference). The memory is overclocked to 10140 MHz (GDDR6-effective, vs. 14000 MHz reference). The cooler features RGB LED embellishments along the front, top, back-plate, and the two included 120 mm fans for the radiator. It draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three each of HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4, and a VirtualLink port. The card could be priced upward of $1,400.

SilverStone today introduced the Tundra RGB series all-in-one liquid CPU coolers, with the TD-02 RGB and the TD-03 RGB. These aren't mere RGB refits of the TD-02 and TD-03, but complete redesigns to the Asetek platform. You now get the swivel fittings that Asetek holds patents on, along with completely redesigned pump-blocks and radiators. The TD-03 RGB features a 120 mm x 120 mm radiator, while the TD-02 RGB comes with 240 mm x 120 mm; both with 32 mm thickness, and a ridged aluminium radiator-fin design that improves heat dissipation. RGB LED lighting extends to not just a company logo on top of the pump-block, but also the included radiator fans. The included fans spin between 600 to 2,200 RPM, take PWM input, push up to 83.7 CFM of air, with a noise output of 15.3 to 34.8 dBA, each. Among the current-generation CPU sockets supported are LGA115x, LGA2066, and AM4.

ASUS today launched the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Ryujin line of all-in-one liquid CPU coolers for AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors. Positioned above the ROG Ryuo series, which opened to pre-orders earlier this month, the Ryujin was first showcased at the 2018 Computex. These coolers are characterized by a somewhat square pump-block design that resembles a that of a chipset heatsink; but is embedded with a 1.77-inch color OLED display that shows an animated ROG logo by default, but can be reprogrammed to show just about anything, such as clan logos, live CPU temperature/load monitoring, etc. Another innovation that sets the Ryujin pump-block apart from every other Asetek cooler out there, is a tiny lateral-blower fan embedded into the block, which ASUS claims can bring down CPU VRM and M.2 SSD temperatures by up to 20°C.

The Ryujin series comes in two variants based on radiator size, the Ryujin 240 (120 mm x 240 mm radiator), and Ryujin 360 (120 mm x 360 mm radiator). These are 27 mm-thick aluminium radiators, which are ventilated by matte-black Noctua IndustrialPPC 120 mm PWM fans that are part of the package. These fans each spin between 450 to 2,000 RPM, pushing up to 121.8 CFM of air, with noise output up to 31 dBA. As we mentioned earlier, the product pages for both models mentions that the coolers only support AMD socket TR4, with full coverage for the AMD Ryzen Threadripper integrated heatspreader. This could help ASUS command a slightly high price, given that it's catering only to the market that can afford HEDT processors.

ASUS surprised many when they showed off their closed loop liquid CPU coolers at Computex this year, in the form of the Ryuo and the even higher end Ryujin series. Today we see that the Ryuo 120 and Ryuo 240 have made their way on to pre-order pages at popular UK retailers including Overclockers UK. The Ryuo series is based off an Asetek AIO design, presumably Generation 6 as used by other Asetek clients including CORSAIR and EVGA, with either a 120 or 240 mm radiator. ASUS's attempt at differentiating these is by the addition of a 1.77" "LiveDash" full color OLED screen on the top of the CPU cooler block/pump unit, with a USB connector that will no doubt help configure the display and other cooler settings via a software driver. The OLED screen can thus be used to display system stats, cooler settings or, if you wish, even a GIF or a custom static image.

The other differentiation comes in the form of "ROG-designed fans" that claim efficient, instantaneous cooling. The ROG Ryuo 120 and Ryuo 240 are up for pre-order at £129.95 and £149.95 respectively, with the prices including UK VAT. For comparison, the CORSAIR H100i PRO and the NZXT Kraken X52 240 mm coolers currently cost £114.95 and £124.99 respectively from the same store. Both the ROG Ryuo series coolers support a wide variety of CPU sockets, including AM4, sTR4, LGA 115x, LGA 1366, LGA 2011(-3) and LGA 2066. No release date, nor pricing in other regions, is available at this point.

Asetek today announced Acer as a new data center OEM partner. Acer will incorporate Asetek liquid cooling technology into its Altos dual Skylake high performance servers (W2200h-W670h F4). Asetek will be displaying an example of an Acer server with liquid cooling at its booth (#1625) at SC17 in Denver, CO November 13-16th, 2017.

"Given their engineering and design expertise, we are pleased to have been selected by Acer as they incorporate liquid cooling into their next generation of high density and high wattage server designs," said John Hamill, Asetek Chief Operating Officer. "Partnerships with OEMs such as Acer are a key component of our strategy to develop the emerging data center market."

Asetek, a company known for designing water-cooling solutions for PC hardware that it sometimes licenses to other manufacturers, has lost a patent infringement lawsuit it had levied against Cooler Master. The lawsuit, which looked to impede the sale of Cooler Master products Nepton 120XL, Nepton 240M and Seidoen 120 V v.2, stated that Cooler Master was infringing on Asetek's European EP 1 923 771 patent, which describes a water cooling mechanism. This Asetek patent, filed in November 2004 and finally approved in May 2015, is in itself based on Asetek's older, US-bound patents.

However, The Hague's court has accepted Cooler Master's argument that they too have a similar patent to Asetek's, through a so-called "utility model" that already exists in China, which describes (and patents really show their problems here) the "operation of a water pumping engine device with chamber". The The Hague judge also invalidated Asetek's patent lawsuit on the basis that there was not enough inventiveness to it. Asetek and Cooler Master's legal battles aren't anything new; in 2015, a US-based court ordered Cooler Master to pay Asetek $600,000 for patent infringement. This time, it's the other way around, even though it was still Asetek that started the legal battle: the company now has to pay Cooler Master for their legal expenses, which amount to around €113,000 (~$134,204)

The team at Sweclockers have already received their Threadripper review kit. We know this because there was a short-lived video uploaded by the team, unboxing and perusing the contents of one of AMD's delicious Threadripper review kits. Videocardz, however, managed to snag some screenshots of the act, and that content is what we are bringing to you now. Also, kudos for that Dinklebot shirt - that wizzard might have come from the moon, but ours certainly hasn't.

AMD has published a list of coolers that are officially compatible with their upcoming Threadripper CPUs. It's no surprise there needs to be a compatibility list - the new CPUs top out at 16-core, 32-thread monsters which have never before graced the HEDT space, with an accompanying large CPU die size and heatsink. The socket being an entirely new affair, a new retention kit must also be made available by cooler manufacturers.

AMD itself will be offering an Asetek retention kit for AIO cooling solutions on their Threadripper retail packaging, which should make most Asetek-built AIOs to be compatible with the TR4 socket. These coolers are automatically added to the list. However, there may be some other coolers that are compatible with the newest socket that are not listed on AMD's site as of yet. For those cases, AMD reminds us all that we should check with our cooling solution manufacturer whether an adapter is available or not, and whether our current cooling solution is sufficient for the task at hand. Other coolers are now receiving mid-production updates after a certain date to include the compatible mounting hardware. Check the source link for the AMD compatibility page, and the below image for the current state of affairs.

NZXT in a statement today confirmed that its Kraken X61, Kraken X52, and Kraken X62 all-in-one closed-loop liquid CPU coolers support AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors in the TR4 package. The company announced that compatible retention brackets for socket TR4, which work on most Asetek-sourced liquid CPU coolers, will be included in the PIB (processor in a box) package of Ryzen Threadripper processors, by AMD. The company reckons that its Kraken X61, Kraken X52, and Kraken X62 coolers provide sufficient cooling to tame the HEDT beasts by AMD.

It seems that previous rumors of AMD bundling a water cooling solution with their premium HEDT Threadripper line of CPUs both were and weren't quite close to the mark. It appears that no, there won't be a liquid cooling solution shipped with the high-performance, high core-count processors after all - as a quick look at the leaked Threadripper retail packaging might convey due to the laws of physics and size constraints.

Even so, it seems AMD will be shipping a solution for water cooling of sorts... By including an Asetek-compatible retention kit with their retail packages of Threadripper. Asetek's designs are shipped under the company's own brand, as well as in a number of recognized, high-quality brands, such as NZXT's Kraken series, EVGA's CLC Series, and some of Corsair's coolers (such as the H100iV2 and the H115i coolers.) Though with Threadripper's IHS's giant size, it is likely that most water cooling solutions currently on the market won't have a sufficiently-sized base plate to cover the entire IHS area. Effects of this on cooling performance remain to be seen, though it probably won't improve temps.

Asetek today announced that it has received payment of approximately $600 thousand as awarded in a patent infringement lawsuit against CMI USA, Inc. In December 2014, the U.S. District Court unanimously ruled in favor of Asetek on all claims in a patent infringement lawsuit against CMI USA, Inc. ("CMI") involving Asetek's U.S. Patents 8,240,362 and 8,245,764. The jury awarded Asetek damages representing a 14.5% royalty on CMI's infringing sales since 2012. After an appeal by CMI, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an opinion in April 2017 affirming the prior rulings regarding infringement, validity, damages and injunction against CMI. Payment from CMI of approximately $600,000, including interest, was received by Asetek today.

"This award signifies another successful defense of Asetek's intellectual property," said André Sloth Eriksen, Founder and CEO of Asetek. "As part of efforts to build and maintain market share, we closely review and assess all competitive offerings for infringement of our patents. We are pleased with our success in defending them."

Asetek announced today the signing of a development agreement with a major player in the data center space. The end-goal of the development agreement is to have products in the market before year-end and resulting revenue to have significant impact on Asetek's future data center business. The name of the partner will be disclosed at a later date.

"This development agreement is the direct result of several years of collaboration and I am very pleased that we have come this far with our partner. I expect this is the major breakthrough we have been waiting for," said André Sloth Eriksen, CEO and founder of Asetek.

Current data center OEM customers include Fujitsu, Penguin and CRAY. Asetek's RackCDU D2C liquid cooling is used in nine installations in the TOP500 list of the fastest supercomputers in the world, and in nine installations in the Green500 list of the world's most energy efficient supercomputers.

Riotoro made its entry into liquid cooling with a pair of unnamed AIO liquid CPU coolers. What sets Riotoro apart from the others is its choice of high static pressure fans that are optimized for radiators. These fans take input via PWM from the pump-block. The block features a LED lit decorative piece, with the Riotoro logo. There are a lot of design elements that point to Asetek being the OEM.

In this week's episode of TechPowerUp News: AMD dragged into Asetek vs. Cooler Master liquid cooling patent-infringement mess; EVGA and K|ngp|n's 2 GHz GTX 980 Ti conquest that breaks several 3DMark records; and EVGA's new liquid-cooled GTX 970 graphics card.

AMD issued a response to a recent report which states that liquid cooling components maker Asetek issued a cease-and-desist to the company, to stop sales of the Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card, which implements a closed-loop liquid-cooling solution made by Cooler Master. In its response, AMD argues that the jury in the Asetek vs. CMI (Cooler Master) case did not mention the cooling solution of the Radeon R9 Fury X specifically, as infringing Asetek-held patents. The statement reads:

"We are aware that Asetek has sued Cooler Master. While we defer to Cooler Master regarding the details of the litigation, we understand that the jury in that case did not find that the Cooler Master heat sink currently used with the Radeon Fury X infringed any of Asetek's patents."

While AMD is right in pointing out that the original judgement does not name the R9 Fury X, or its cooling solution as an infringing product; there's no word on whether AMD will stop sales of the card. From the looks of it, AMD has no plans to stop sales of its flagship graphics product, and appears to have convincing legal arguments up its sleeves to continue selling the card, in the near future.