G.Skill Enki 360 LCS liquid cooler review - Introduction

G.Skill Enki 360 liquid cooler review
A first (and successful?) attempt at an AIO product from a RAM manufacturer

Today, we are reviewing an AIO cooler from G.Skill: the Enki 360. It’s a debut for this brand in that sector, just like with Lian Li in July ’20. As for the name, Enki is the ancient Sumerian god of water, so that’s not a bad idea for this kind of product. We’ve received a 360 mm variant of this LCS, but there’s also a 240 mm and a 280 mm version, in case your chassis can’t fit the largest one (no pun intended) or if you’re on a tighter budget. The G.Skill Enki 360 uses the All-in-One formula (yeah, there are lots of these products out there nowadays), so you get the radiator, pump, and fans (3 x 120 mm) coupled into a single, closed-loop. The three PWM fans (non-RGB, with 9 blades) can move up to 93.5 cubic feet of air per minute at speeds of up to 2,100 RPM. The tubing used is 8mm (inner diameter) and sleeved.

The pump cover is illuminated by A-RGB LEDs in all three versions, while the fans remain unlit. The Enki 360 supports all major motherboard RGB systems, such as ASUS Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light, and ASRock Polychrome Sync. The ENKI AIO is also compatible with most mainstream CPU sockets such as:

• Intel Socket 1200, 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011, 2011-3, 2066
• AMD Socket AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1

There is also an AMD TR4 set for mounting hardware - although the product page doesn't mention TR4 compatibility because the cooler only partially covers these enormously large CPUs.

 

What might make it stand out from the crowd of similar products? Well, the ENKI series of AIO liquid coolers feature a higher-density radiator piping design. G.Skill claims it is denser compared to "typical radiators," with the 360mm and 240mm models leveraging 3-4 times more radiator pipes, and the 280mm version using 6 times more radiator pipes. Another thing – stair-shaped micro-fins were used to guide the coolant intake-outtake flow optimally and to eliminate dead zones for efficient heat transfer between the copper cold plate and the coolant. Next one – in an effort to achieve the best contact with the CPU, a custom-tuned convex cold plate design was utilized to optimize heat transfer from the processor and into the coolant. The convex shape minimizes the travel distance of the heat from the CPU’s IHS through the thermal paste to the solid copper cold plate, which maximizes the cooling effect of this AIO.

The last thing (strongly emphasized by the manufacturer) is the included tube of server-grade thermal paste designed for low thermal resistance to enhance thermal conductivity and heat transfer from the CPU to the AIO cooler. How will it perform? We’ll check that, too. The MSRP is 179.99 USD for the 360 mm version (and 149.99 USD for 280 mm, 129.99 USD for 240 mm), and you get 5 years of warranty coverage here. Now, let’s see what this AIO has to offer. A quick reminder: we’ll also show you results for an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, together with the Intel Core i9 9900K.