Performance Summary

With radiators, thermal performance is the most important metric. Liquid flow restriction is one contributor to a loop's overall flow rate, which is also affected by the pump and other components used, and I would, as such, recommend choosing a pump of a head pressure equal to or greater than the combined liquid flow restriction of your individual components (in series) at the target flow rate. It also is incorporated in the design of the radiator core, which in turn influences thermal performance as well, so in an indirect way, it is already represented by the latter. In order to quantify relative performance for a radiator thus, it makes sense to consider the thermal performance metrics only and, thus, a normalized (% based) data set was created and plotted with the subject of this review at 100%.


This is a telling story when it comes to brand representation with Hardware Labs taking the best spots thus far for their current offering of Black Ice radiators. The XSPC and Alphacool radiators end up fighting in the weaker half here accordingly, as of the radiators currently tested. Impressive for the TX360, however, is that it eked out its larger brother (albeit within error margin) which is nearly twice as thick. XSPC also claims the TX series outperforms their older EX radiator series that is 40% thicker, so once again, the whole punching above its weight stance is valid here.

Performance per Dollar

The prices were taken from Performance PCs in the USA, with all numbers reported in USD.


Things look a lot different once pricing is considered as well, with the XSPC TX360 now being a far better prospect, and by a larger margin than with just relative performance accounted for. We will get to the actual pricing on the next page, but it is obvious that the TX360 is priced low enough to more than overcome performance deficits and make it look like of darn good value at this time.