Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora HPE 360 LCS cooler review - Introduction

Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360 HPE AIO cooler review

Will the new Ice Bear chill even the most toasty CPUs? 

Today, we are reviewing an AIO cooler from Alphacool; it’s an Eisbaer Aurora 360 HPE. We already had a chance to check its predecessor, the Eisbaer Aurora 360, back in 2020 (and it earned the “Recommended” award) and the Extreme Black edition of Eisbaer at the end of 2019 (and it was awarded the “Top Pick” badge). How will the new one perform? Let’s begin with the overall presentation.

It’s available only in one size (for now?), 360 mm. There’s also another variant with the same radiator/fans but with a lower pump/block – and it’s called Eisbaer LT 360 Aurora HPE. Both of them use the DC-LT2 pump. The Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360 HPE has three Alphacool Rise Aurora fan units with a fan speed ranging between 0 and 2500 rpm. The maximum airflow is 118.9 m³/h. The noise levels do not exceed 31.5 dB(A) (but you should remember that almost all manufacturers measure this with their methodology, so you can’t make direct comparisons). Regarding the dimensions, the radiator size is 391.5 x 124 x 30mm (L x W x H), it’s made from copper (when almost all of the competition uses aluminum), and the 400 mm long tube has a sleeved rubber used.

The Eisbaer Aurora 360 had the A-RGB backlight, DC-LT2 pump, and LGA1700 support, and in the HPE edition, you get increased cooling performance. The HPE heatsinks offer better heat dissipation due to more water tubes and copper fins. Additionally, Alphacool equipped the Eisbaer Aurora HPE Edition 360 with three 120mm A-RGB fans with a maximum speed of 2,500 rpm. The original Eisbaer Aurora 360 had a fan speed limit of 2,000 rpm. 

The Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360 HPE is compatible with the following CPU sockets:

• AMD – AM4 / TR4 / sTRX4 / sWRX8 / SP3
• Intel – 1156 / 1155 / 1150 / 1151 / 1200 / 1700 / 2011 / 2011-3 / 2066

We want to underline that now we’re using the Alder Lake processor to check the cooler (previously, there were Intel Core i9 9900K and the 10850K). We’ll check if this AIO will handle the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Intel Core i9 12900K? The price for Eisbaer Aurora 360 HPE is about 180 EUR, and the LT edition costs 160 EUR. It looks relatively reasonable for the AIO with a copper radiator. But, will it be worth it? The warranty period is a standard two years, so that’s not a selling point, as some other manufacturers offer even six years. So let’s head to the specs/feature page, shall we?