Introduction

From the Fractal Design website:

The Path to Reaching Our Goals:

To attain our goal of providing functional, efficient and sleek Scandinavian designed products for our customers, we apply extreme focus, research and passion each step of the way. Taking pride and extra care from the brainstorming phase through to the planning, design and production phase, we are dedicated to bringing you reliable and quality designs.

The Concept - Design:

The concept of Fractal Design is to provide products with an extraordinary level of design, without compromising the important factors of quality, functionality and pricing. Today's computer has evolved into playing a central role in most homes, creating a demand for appealing design of the computer itself and its accessories. Our main product areas are computer enclosures, power supplies and related accessories.

Designed and Engineered in Sweden:

All Fractal Design products have been carefully designed and tested in our Swedish headquarters. The well-known elements of Scandinavian design can be found throughout all of our product lines; a minimalistic, elegant and simple design, embracing the motto of 'less is more'.

Fractal Design has been around for quite some time now, with their claim to fame being their long-lived Define cases. Given their constant strive to innovate and improve on existing products, it's easy to see why they have become so popular. Not content with just cases, they expanded into power supplies and liquid coolers with the Kelvin series of expandable all-in-one liquid coolers a few years ago.

Time flies, however, and now, Fractal Design is looking to bring a better expandable liquid cooler to market. Loaded with features and aggressively priced, it would certainly appear that they want to claim a bigger piece of the pie for themselves. Enter the Celsius series which is poised to be a contender in the increasingly crowded liquid-cooling market.

In today's review, I cover the Celsius S36. Offering a massive 360 mm radiator with an integrated fan hub and concealed wiring, and a pump that offers Auto and PWM modes for speed control, the Celsius has a few tricks up its sleeve no one else has thought of. Let's take a closer look at it without delaying any further.

Packaging

The box Fractal Design uses for the Celsius S36 is pretty large. It measures in at roughly 47 cm long, 17.7 cm wide, and 14.5 cm tall. Starting off, we are greeted with an image of the cooler itself, the warranty's length, and, of course, the fact that it supports AMD's AM4 socket. On the left side are detailed measurements of the radiator, an image as a reference, and a list of supported CPU sockets. Spinning the box around, we are presented with a look at the pump, which has sleeved tubing and hidden cables and a sound-dampening layer inside, as well as a more detailed explanation of the Automatic and PWM fan control modes. Auto has the system intelligently optimize the pump and fans for a balance between performance and noise, while PWM allows for precise control over a software of your choice, using the motherboard's PWM signal.


On the right side are just a bunch of bar codes and a serial number. The top covers the AIO's key points in various languages, while the bottom details said points again in English. Those details include the Dynamic X2 GP12 PWM fans that are included, the integrated fan hub, and the fact that this unit is expandable.

Contents

Opening the box, you are greeted by the stereotypical cardboard tray that protects the liquid cooler. This is obviously par the course for AIOs at this point. However, that foam sheet that is usually included on top is not to be found here. It not being present is a bit interesting, and I would prefer to see it make a return. Better protection within reason is always a good thing.


Everything needed for just about every modern socket is included, including AM4. Out of box, the Celsius S36 is configured for Intel systems.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 12x M3 radiator screws
• 12x M3 short radiator screws
• 12x Washers
• 4x Screw pillars
• 4x Intel 2011 screw pillars
• 4x Updated AMD screw pillars for AM4
• 4x AMD screw pillars
• 4x Phillips head nuts
• 3x 120 mm fans
• 2x Stick-on wire clips
• 1x User's manual
• 1x AMD mounting clip
• 1x Intel mounting clip
• 1x Intel backplate
• 1x Pre-filled liquid cooler