The Alphacool Core Ocean T38 240 mm AIO is a testament to the company's ability to shake things up. How so, you ask? Easy, the Core Ocean T38 240 mm may have its drawbacks, which I will touch on later, but what it lacks in finesse, it makes up for in regards to pure value, at least from a liquid cooler standpoint. On the Intel test bench, it absolutely dominated the competition in regard to performance per dollar. But more importantly, it also performed near the top of the charts for 240 mm closed loop coolers as well. Typically the Core Ocean T38 240 ended up just 1- 2°C behind the best-performing 240 mm coolers in the 45 dBA noise normalized tests. It also didn't hurt that, for the first time in a long time, a 240 mm liquid cooler managed to beat out the venerable Noctua NH-D15, while also costing less.

However, a few cracks do appear on the AMD front. Essentially the Alphacool offering falls behind the Lian-Li Galahad 240 by 5-6°C. While it did keep our Ryzen 3900X cool enough to avoid our thermal cutoff point, it doesn't quite perform as expected, considering its thicker radiator. Even in the max RPM tests where the Core Ocean T38 240 mm closed the gap, it did so by letting noise levels get out of control. For example, the Lian-Li Galahad 240 hit a max of 53 dBA vs. the Core Ocean T38 240 at an insane 64 dBA. Even though the Alphacool product was 11 dBA louder with a thicker radiator, it was still 4°C behind the Galahad 240 in the AMD OC Blender test. I think it goes without saying, but Alphacool's latest AIO is similar to the company's other liquid coolers of late, in that it does not quite deliver on AMD's platforms.

So performance can be good, if not great, depending on the platform, but another potential pitfall would be the user experience. Obviously, the excessively loud noise profile does the cooler no favors, but the less-than-ideal mounting hardware doesn't help either. On Socket AM4 or AM5, you will feel like you need a third hand to install the pump block, and while the Intel mounting wasn't as bad, the fact is Alphacool needs to go back to the drawing board and focus on a more user-friendly mounting solution. The warranty of two years also feels pretty weak when most manufacturers offer at least three or more years of coverage.

Overall, the Alphacool Core Ocean T38 240 mm AIO is an ultra-affordable liquid cooler with a splash of ARGB lighting that is killer value if you are running an Intel system. While AMD's performance may not be as good, it was still respectable, making it a tremendous value option, all things considered.