Closer Examination

There is not much to visually distinguish the Bykski RC TN V2 radiator, and you will notice I am still struggling to call it that consistently. Good thing then that the entire technical designation is printed on either side of the frame! Oh wait, it is just an eye sore and one of the things I urge Bykski to reconsider. The radiator speaks for itself, being a 30-mm-thick triple 120 mm unit. The Bykski logo in the off-gold lettering on the side is plenty enough, remove the rest underneath. There is only one color option here, and we get a black radiator that has a smooth matte finish applied to the iron frame that is likely stainless steel. The overall dimensions are on par with other 30-mm-thick radiators of this class, with the two end tanks adopting a rectangular cuboid shape. Build quality is excellent here, with no paint issues to be seen, no scuffs on the end tank threads, and no bent fins out of the box.


The fan holes are the standard 15 mm apart, which works with just about any case today. There are no screw shields underneath, but the fan holes are offset from the coolant tubes to where the M3 screws will not hit them. I had to be absolutely certain of this since it does seem like there is not much tolerance. At worst, you would bend the fins like I did during my deliberate test if using a thinner fan or longer screws than necessary. This does nothing detrimental to the structural integrity of the radiator core, and the other recommendation I would have would be to either implement screw shields for the sake of the customers or offset the coolant tubes slightly further, which is easier said than done. I would also love to see M4 threading instead, but it is not as critical on this thinner radiator that won't weigh a ton filled up.


The two BSP G1/4" ports on the end tanks are part of the frame, also threaded perfectly, and come with plastic inserts that are really only meant to keep dust out during transit. You would replace these with standard BSP G1/4" threaded fittings when using the radiator as part of your loop regardless. I wish there were more ports here, especially on the other side, to be used as a fill, drain, or accessory port for other things, such as temperature, pressure, or flow-rate measurement since Bykski itself sells a lot of such add-ons. The core adopts the more typical U-flow design for the coolant, with either port being used as the inlet and the other as the outlet, which depends on your plumbing layout for the custom loop. There is a single row of fins/tube stacks with 14 ~1.5 mm thick tubes. This total of a 14-way parallel split of the coolant will decrease coolant flow restriction relative to single-row radiators with thinner tubes (think Black Ice Nemesis GTS), but generally suffers compared to multi-row radiators. The entire core is based on red copper, which itself is just a marketing term to signify the absence of an alloy in favor of a higher-purity copper core. The radiator also weighs more than average as a result, which is one of the quickest ways to determine this is indeed not brass.


While the core composition is different from the norm, the fin stack itself is not. We get the usual serpentine fins that are ~6.5 mm high and louvered lightly, which may increase the contact surface area for air flowing through the core, though it could adversely affect lower RPM/laminar flow regimes. The fins are rated to be 14 FPI in density, but measured in at 16 FPI on my sample. The core itself is ~20 mm thick with a 5 mm plenum on either side between it and the frame, before the screws hit the fins. Without exactly knowing how thick the fin are, this combination leads me to believe that this radiator will be a medium-airflow-optimized cooling solution. That said, we will see how the radiator fares in our testing over the next couple of pages.


Before we go ahead with testing, here's a look at the radiator with the tubing accessories from the previous page. Installation was a breeze owing to the thick, knurled finish on the rotary adapters, and the radiator looks ready to be installed with, say, a CPU block next in line in a top case mount.