Final Words & Conclusion
Conclusion
The reviewed Asus Ryujin II 360 cooler performed well and handled both tested processors, including the overclocked Core i9 12900K at 5.1 GHz using the 1.3V (and even 1.35V). The noise at the maximum rpm is just too much, but you can set your fan curve to make it more reasonable, especially on the AMD platform. Additionally, there are 240 mm and 360 ARGB variants available as well. The price is relatively high, but the competition's pricing is quite similar for the AIOs with a display placed on a pump. The LCD screen can be handy when displaying temperature, voltage, frequency, or decoration if it displays a logo or various animations with text. Still – the Armoury Crate software is not perfectly stable, and it sometimes has problems with device recognition. Some improvements are applied constantly, but there are better options in the market.
Aesthetics, Design & Installation
Starting with the aesthetics, the Asus Ryujin II 360 looks very good thanks to the LCD screen placed on a pump. The quality braided tubes bend well, and they can be adjusted in many ways to avoid compatibility issues. The pump is rather big, so it can interfere with some motherboards' VRM. The provided Noctua fans don't have RGB (but there's already an RGB variant visible on the Asus webpage); it can be a disadvantage for some. The installation process for Intel is relatively easy; for the AMD system, it was effortless as well. As for the wiring, the stuff looks a bit like wire spaghetti at first glance, but it was relatively easy to manage it and avoid a mess.
The Verdict
The Asus Ryujin II 360 is not cheap, as it costs about 340 EUR. If you are looking for a liquid cooler with (rather discreet) RGB functionality (except the LED screen on a pump), you might want to consider this cooler. There are also 240 mm and 360 mm ARGB variants – if you don't need so much cooling capacity or want some more bling-bling. The Ryujin 360's pump design with the LED screen makes this product an appealing offer (but some may miss the RGB on the fans). The performance is good; even the idle noise levels are more than satisfactory. It could have been a bit quieter under load, but you can fix that with a good fan curve. The cables are long enough, and the tubing (380 mm) is. The included fan/controller hub was a good idea to implement. There's a 6-year warranty here as well. On the other side, the Armoury Crate software is still not always performing as it should have. The packaging should be safer, especially for the radiator, to avoid bent fins. The Noctua fans are great, but they are loud at maximum rpm. The VRM fan should also be limited in rpm, so as not to be as disturbing as it's at the default state. Power is delivered via a micro-USB cable to the pump via the fan hub. If it ever fails, you are out of luck. As for the fan hub – the magnetic mounting would be a nice addition. Speaking of a pump – its size is rather bulky, so sometimes it can be troublesome to install it in motherboards with large VRM radiators. There's still a problem with the fan control based on the CPU package temp, not the CPU core temp. It makes the reaction slower when the load is higher. Last but not least – there's no additional thermal paste other than pre-applied; that's a pity in this budget. The LED screen is a nice feature, but the competition also has it, like the Asetek pump design. So there are no features except the larger display size (and maybe this fan/ARGB controller) that could make the Ryujin II 360 stand out of the crowd these days (as the market has changed for the last three years after Ryujin I debut). Putting all these things together, we can surely approve this product for the whole package, and Asus did a nice job with this cooler, but it wasn't revolutionary – the main focus compared to the predecessor was the larger display. Still, its price is very, very steep, which is a significant drawback for most potential buyers. In this budget, you can already think about some basic custom loop that would perform better (but won't be so flashy looking). That's always your choice, the design or the pure performance.
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