Introduction

Ah, it feels like forever since I last did a new product review involving thermal testing—that is discounting the subtle testing involved in the CORSAIR XH303i kit overview. Let's just say there were growing pains with my environmental chamber, but it's all in the past now, and plenty of watercooling reviews are coming up. I chose to go with a radiator review first since I anticipate being very busy with radiator reviews for the next few weeks, and having sent review samples before anyone else, Alphacool gets the courtesy of being the first. The company has been updating its radiator lineup with the High Performance Edition (HPE) series, first in the thinner 80 mm thickness for server cooling and then in larger 120 and 140 mm sizes to cater to the PC DIY cooling crowd.


Today, we are taking a look at the 360 mm NexXxos HPE-45 from the latest generation of Alphacool's popular NexXxos radiator lineup. The HPE-45 series comes in 120, 140, 240, 280, 360, 420, and 480 mm, and there is an analogous thinner HPE-30 series, as the 45 and 30 refer to the thickness in millimeters. As such, the HPE-45 is a direct replacement for the NexXxos XT45 v1 and v2, and promises a few neat updates in the forms of port options and a re-worked core for better cooling. Let's see how well this works out in practice in our review beginning with a look at the specifications in the table below.

Specifications