Finished Looks

With the LEDs off, the SE 224 XT ARGB cooler easily blends in with the rest of the system due to its black top plate and coating, giving it a stealthy appearance until you get a look at the white fan blades. Even so, it's a sharp-looking cooler upon closer inspection, and once you enable the ARGB lighting on the fan, it goes from stealthy to life of the party pretty quickly.


The SE 224 XT Basic, on the other hand, doesn't blend in quite as much as its sibling due to the aluminium fins and nickel-plated heat pipes being a great deal brighter. Meanwhile, the gray fan blades almost give the cooler a similar look to Scythe products, which isn't a bad thing by any means.


Both coolers have no issues with graphics card clearance, but they do get pretty up close and personal with my G.Skill Trident Z memory. Even so, they still clear; it's just a close fit. Thus, a slight offset on the fin stack here would have been appreciated, just to have a bit of breathing room.


The ARGB lighting looks good overall, hitting the right level of brightness for a tasteful look that isn't over the top. Motherboard control was flawless, and there is nothing to really complain about other than the lack of an included extension cable. Well, unless you just detest ARGB lighting, which should have you go with the Basic instead.