When it comes to affordable coolers, the market is heavily saturated with consumers inundated with numerous options. Wading into this sea of competitors is ID-Cooling, which came out swinging. The SE 224 XT ARGB performed well on our Intel i7-8700K, coming in just behind the Noctua NH-U12S for a whole lot less. Meanwhile, the SE 224 XT Basic did even better, beating the benchmark NH-U12S by a few degrees, which makes both coolers fantastic budget options. Stock setting, where the CPU is barely using any power, don't tell us a whole lot, but once overclocked, the increased power consumption and heat generated shows just how capable these coolers are. Alternatives like the CRYORIG H7, be quiet! Dark Rock Slim, Sharkhan APEX 4, or Cooler Master Hyper 212X all fall behind both ID-Cooling offerings.

Now, while both the SE 224 XT Basic and ARGB are good performers, they do have more going for them than just that. Both coolers are well built and feel solid with no bent fins or other issues. Add in some nice foam packaging, simple but strong mounting hardware, and the fact it's easy to install and you clearly have a winning design. My only gripe would be the lack of an ARGB extension cable for that particular model. When it comes to build quality and overall design, ID-Cooling knocked it out of the park even so. It's just too bad you can't find these coolers anywhere as I write this, at least in the United States.

The only real negative both coolers have is the noise level. With the fans at maximum RPM you will hear it with the measured noise level hitting 47 dBA. This is not terrible, but still above our comfort threshold of 45 dBA. To put it into perspective, while the SE 224 XT Basic and ARGB perform similarly to the Noctua NH-U12S in terms of temperature, they are both 4 dBA louder. Meanwhile, other competitors are 2 dBA quieter, like the Enermax ETS-T50 AXE ARGB. Essentially, the stellar cooling performance came at the expensive of a bit more noise, but considering the fan will likely never run at maximum RPM for extended periods unless you are pushing an insane overclock or using a high-end processor, it's not likely to be that big of a deal.

Overall, the ID-Cooling SE 224 XT Basic and SE 224 XT ARGB are exceptional coolers for the price that deliver stellar performance, though at the expense of 1–2°C higher temperatures with the ARGB. As such, I highly recommend either one.