Introduction

Alphacool is a mainstay in the PC DIY watercooling hobby thanks to it offering something for everyone when it comes to water blocks, pumps, radiators, reservoirs, and a vast plethora of fittings. We've covered the brand extensively over the years, including with reviews of two CPU blocks last year as part of a roundup. Alphacool had mentioned at the time that those were the last hurrah of that generation of water blocks and there were new product lineups coming soon which includes a new design language for its CPU blocks. As it turns out, Alphacool was talking about its Core line of water blocks, CPU coolers, radiators, and reservoirs. Today we take a look at the new Core 1 CPU blocks and thanks to Alphacool for providing review samples to TechPowerUp!


There are five different versions of the Alphacool Core 1 CPU block as of the time I write this review. These differ only in aesthetics with different colors and options of LEDs or not. The company was kind enough to send two blocks—the Core 1 Black seen in the thumbnail and the Core 1 Aurora Silver seen above—so I could show off two of them. The Aurora versions have LEDs shining through a diffuser strip built into the top whereas the standard blocks are solid there. There's also a white non-Aurora version for those wanting to color match their all-white PC build. Functionally they are identical otherwise, with the same cooling engine that Alphacool promises is both innovative and performs better than anything else on the market. Bold claims need to be tested and we'll do just that in our review today that begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications