Installation

With a universal and simple mounting hardware design, installing the SE 224 XT Basic or SE 224 XT ARGB is incredibly simple. First, position the backplate on the motherboard. Then, slide the plastic spacers over the screws, at which point you can secure everything in place by sliding the mounting arms over the screws and locking them in place with the four Philips-head nuts.


Now, apply some thermal paste and mount the cooler on the CPU, alternating every couple of turns to ensure even spread and pressure. Once done, you can attach the fan to the heatsink using the included fan clips.


At this point, all you need to do is plug the fan in, and in the case of the SE 224 XT ARGB the ARGB cable. Depending on your motherboard, the ARGB cable on the fan may be too short. It would have been nice had ID-Cooling included an extension cable as not all motherboard layouts are the same.

Overall, the installation was nearly effortless, and I would rate it a 9 on a scale of 1 (hardest) to 10 (easiest). The mounting hardware is simple and exceptionally easy to work with. It is also sturdy, unlike some of their competition that makes use of cheaper plastic mounting hardware. If ID-Cooling had included an extension cable, they would have earned a perfect 10/10 here. Instead, I had to grab a cable I had handy in order to route the cable behind the motherboard tray to keep the wiring neat and tidy.