ASUS ROG Ryujin and Ryuo AIO kits review - Introduction

Asus ROG liquid coolers Ryujin and Ryuo review
A Liquid Asus manner to RGB Nirvana?

Today, we are reviewing three new ASUS ROG-series AIO coolers, Ryujin and Ryuo. ASUS ROG (Republic of Gamers) is a branding that represents the highest standard from Asus. Ryujin is a legendary Japanese dragon that symbolizes the power of the ocean. It has huge jaws and is able to transform into a human. Ryuo, translated as the dragon king, but also known as the dragon god, is a Chinese water and weather deity. These names really stand from the standard that we are used to on the market.

ROG Ryujin and Ryuo are the latest products from this Taiwanese company known mostly for their motherboards and graphics cards. After the launch of the Thor PSU series (in cooperation with Seasonic) the time has come for their closed-loop liquid cooling systems. Asus have partnered with Asetek for this project, and used their 6^th generation pump design. The ROG Ryujin any Ryuo made a great impression when they were launched at Computex 2018. The features that were the selling point included not only addressable RGB but also the LiveDash OLED display and an embedded fan for cooling the VRM (Ryujin). We have received the 360 and 240 mm versions of the Ryujin and the 240 mm version of the Ryuo (there is also a 120 mm model on the market).

From the technical point of view, the product looks like any other design available on the market. The radiators are of a standard size, namely 27.2 cm in length for the 240 mm model and 39.4 cm for the 360 mm model, with 2.7 cm in thickness and 12.1 cm in width. It is a pity (especially considering the price) that we have ended up with aluminum fins instead of copper ones, which would have allowed for faster heat transfer (but also cost more).

Asus have cooperated with one of the best (if not the best) manufacturers of fans in the market - Noctua! The fans used in this case are Industrial PPC PWMs running at a maximum speed of 2000 RPM that cost no less than 25 EUR. These fans are installed exclusively in the Ryujin model. Regarding the lighting system, only Asus Aura is supported, but this was quite an obvious move from Asus.

  
So what is different here compared with the many other available AIOs? The look? Yes, the design of the pumps certainly makes it stand out from other solutions on the market. There’s also  Ryujin’s built-in fan – will it make any significant difference for VRM’s and M.2? The block is quite big, and all sockets are covered, Threadripper included! So is all of this worth the price asked by Asus? Well, let’s see.