Okay, on the one hand, I am a little sceptical of the 'screen for inside your machine' trend that. As someone whose office [[link]] setup [[link]] does not enjoy a wealth of space, attention-grabbing components don't make a lot of sense for my rig as my desktop tower is tucked out of the way under my desk. What's the point of a flash screen I'm not going to even look at?
But there are a number of strong counterarguments steadily wearing away at my resistance to the idea. Chiefly, it is just pretty cool-looking, isn't it? For another, the smaller 280 mm radiator sibling of the CPU cooler we crowned as having the is now as part of the early Prime Day sales—so why not strap a screen to that bad boy?
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To be super clear, the unit our Zak got to grips with in his review features three 120 mm fans, while the subject of today's deal, the NZXT Kraken Elite 280 RGB, only features two 140 mm fans. But don't fret—140 mm fans are better for keeping the noise down, and you're still getting the same glorious screen for much, much less.
Alright, enough waffling. The screen in question is worth writing about because it's a chunky IPS panel offering a 60 Hz refresh rate on a 640 x 640 resolution display. Controllable via NZXT's Cam software, you can use it for more than just getting a read on your CPU and GPU temps at a glance—as soon as I figure out how to get Miku Hatsune on this thing, I will be truly unstoppable.
Anyway! Zak also found plenty to like besides that snazzy, circular screen or its diffused ring of RGB lights, mind. Namely, the downright sensible cable management; you won't be fighting against a tangle of stray breakout cables here.
As for the fans themselves, Zak wrote, "They're not the quickest or pushiest fans out there, that's for sure. In my testing, although the Kraken Elite 360 did manage to maintain its averages fairly consistently across the board with its competitors, the time taken to return to idle was significantly slower than the likes of, say, .
"That's likely as these fans actually spin quite slowly by comparison, a boon for noise levels (with the F360 RGB Core only landing 45.2 dB on the decibel meter), but less helpful when you're looking to bring that CPU temp back down to idle levels."
In other words, while the three-fan model Zak reviewed did manage to keep things relatively cool under load without sounding like a jet engine, it took a little longer to cool off after. But chances are, if you're interested in this deal, you're not here because you want the absolute best cooling money can buy—you want a great deal on a decent cooler that also happens to have a banging built-in screen. The smaller NZXT Kraken Elite 280 RGB is definitely that.
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1. Best overall:
2. Best midrange:
3. Best budget:
4. Best RGB:
5. Best budget RGB:
6. Best for radiators