Cooling - ASUS LC 240 ARGB TUF Gaming Edition

Our last TUF build was nearly 3 years ago, and while we opted for air-cooling then, AIOs have managed to become far more obtainable and mainstream since. Thus, ASUS also offering their LC 240 ARGB unit as a TUF Gaming Edition makes sense. It once again ships in a full-color box with gray side panels, and as with most of these liquid coolers, it is neatly sorted inside a paper mold to ship to you safe and sound. While one could argue that a 360 mm AIO could be beneficial, by opting for a 240 mm SKU, ASUS once again hopes to strike a balance between cost and function the mainstream gamer finds attractive.


As an Asetek-based unit, you will get all the usual mounting elements, including a kit for LGA1700, of course. As an added branding measure, the two included 120 mm fans sport the TUF Gaming Edition logo.


In terms of an AIO, the LC 240 is pretty straightforward with a classic radiator and black, braided tubing once again just providing what is necessary to function.


The pump is where ASUS ensures the TUF Gaming Edition branding is clearly visible with another backlit logo to match that of the GPU perfectly. A copper base will make contact with the CPU and has thermal compound pre-applied.


ASUS also included fans with great design details to give the otherwise understated radiator assembly a bit of eye candy. Each of these is PWM based, and the ARGB connector is generic, so you can easily interface it with other ARGB elements or the motherboard.


The blades on the fan come with a line across the top edge, which may give a slight edge in performance or silence over classic blades, and the frame has that same edgy design texture as on the GPU and motherboard.


With everything assembled, the ASUS LC 240 ARGB TUF Gaming Edition looks great. Some may say that pairing it with an Intel Core i9-12900K may be unbalanced, but, hey, it is either the Intel Core i5-12600K or Intel Core i9-12900K, so having that extra performance should outweigh that a 360 or 420 mm AIO would cool it down even further than the 240 variant.