Cube Water Element MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 All-in-One Watercooling Unboxing Review

MONTECH's first all-in-one water-cooled HyperFlow ARGB 360 is available in black and white as well as 240 / 360 mm dual sizes with four models to choose from. The Apaltek water-cooling solution supports Intel / AMD dual-platform installations and delivers excellent cooling performance for the flagship i9 and R9 processors, with convenient plans such as pre-coated thermal paste and pre-installed splice fans. The watercooler itself has pre-coated thermal paste and pre-installed patchwork fans, bringing users a new choice of all-in-one watercooling that is convenient and lazy, and the after-sales warranty provides six years of total liquid leakage planning to give consumers more peace of mind.

MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 all-in-one water cooling specification:

Intel Pin: LGA 20xx/1700/1200/115x
AMD feet: AM5/AM4/AM3
Pump RPM: 3100 ±10% RPM
Water-cooling head size: 68.8 x 68.8 x 53 mm
Water-cooling head contact surface: copper
Water-cooling drain size: 397 x 120 x 27 mm
Water Cooler Material: Aluminum
Water-cooled tube length: 400 mm
Fan size: 120 x 120 x 28 mm
Fan Speed: 2200 RPM ± 10%
Maximum airflow: 76.2 CFM
Maximum wind pressure: 3.81 mmH₂O
Cooler and Fan Power Supply: Water-cooling Head PWM 4-Pin / Fan PWM 4-Pin
Warranty: 6-year full machine leakage warranty

MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 All-in-One Watercooler Unboxing

When we talk about MONTECH, the first thing that comes to mind is the power supply, chassis and other products, but last year MONTECH was actually planning for an all-in-one water cooling product, and after waiting for more than a year, it was finally put into mass production before COMPUTEX 2024 this year.

MONTECH's first all-in-one AIO water cooler, the HyperFlow ARGB 360, is available in white 360 mm, black and 240 mm.

After-sales warranty part of the six-year warranty, and provide the whole machine leakage compensation program, but assuming that there really is a leakage problem is the need to send the whole machine to the Monarch side of the analysis and testing, although a bit troublesome, but there is better than nothing.

∆ MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360.

∆Supports GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock and ASUS motherboards.

∆ Basic product features.

∆ Product Specification Sheet.

 

MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 is an AIO (All In One) water cooler compatible with Intel LGA 20xx/1700/1200/115x and AMD AM5/AM4/AM3 platforms. 360 mm water cooler with up to 3100 ±10% RPM PUMP provides excellent cooling performance. With the maximum 3100 ±10% RPM PUMP and 360 mm water cooling, it will be no problem to suppress the flagship Intel Core i9 and AMD Ryzen R9 processors.

After taking out the box, you can see the three white 12 cm fans pre-installed on the water cooler, which saves users the effort of installing 12 screws, but this direction is more convenient for users who plan to install the water cooler on top of the chassis, but if they want to install the water cooler on the front, they have to disassemble it and re-install it again.

The 400 mm long water-cooling tubes are wrapped with a nylon braid for added protection. The contact surfaces of the water-cooling head are protected by a three-dimensional plastic cover and pre-coated with a square thermal paste to prevent users from forgetting to peel off the protective film and apply the thermal paste.

∆ New option for white integrated water cooling.

∆ Three-dimensional plastic cover.

∆ Pre-applied cooling cream.

 

The front of the water-cooling head, which can reach a full speed of 3100 ±10% RPM, is designed in the shape of a square with the MONTECH logo in the lower right corner, but unfortunately this water-cooling head cannot be adjusted according to the direction of the water-cooling cap, which means if the user has an obsessive-compulsive disorder and wants the text to be upwards, the water-cooling pipe can only be installed facing the right side.

The water cooling head measures 68.8 x 68.8 x 53 mm in length, width and height, and 53 mm in height, which is not too high, making it relatively friendly for some CPU cooler height-restricted chassis. The water cooling head itself provides a 4-Pin PWM power supply cable to control the pump's PUMP speed, and a male and a female 5V 3-Pin ARGB cable to connect to other ARGB devices and set the The water-cooling head itself provides a 4-Pin PWM cable to control the pump's PUMP speed.

∆ Square water-cooled head with up to 3100 ±10% RPM, but unfortunately without the possibility of freely adjusting the orientation of the decorative top cover.

∆ MONTECH logo.

The ∆ height is 53 mm.

∆ Water cooler head provides cable: one male and one female 5V 3-Pin ARGB, PWM 4-Pin.

 

Pre-locked three 12 cm white fan size of 120 x 120 x 28 mm, the thickness of the fan and the conventional fan is about the same, 28 mm should be included in the thickness of the four corners of the vibration pads, the fan itself is the maximum speed of 2200 RPM ± 10%, featuring a maximum airflow of 76.2 CFM; the maximum wind pressure is 3.81 mmH₂O, the specifications of the performance of the heat dissipation is also a good The specification for cooling performance is not bad.

The special feature is that the fans are connected to each other using a special series of short cables, so that the three fans can finally be connected to the motherboard through the 4-Pin PWM and 5V 3-Pin ARGB connectors of a single cable, which makes the installation of the entire cable much more convenient.

∆ Three 12 cm white fans, 120 x 120 x 28 mm, airflow 76.2 CFM, air pressure 3.81 mmH₂O.

∆ Three fans in series design is quite friendly for the whole cable.

∆ Three fans require only one connector each for PWM and ARGB.

 

The 360 mm size water cooler has dimensions of 397 x 120 x 27 mm. The thickness of the water cooler is 27 mm for a conventional one-piece slimline water cooler, and with the 28 mm labeled for the fan, the overall installation will take up 55 mm of mounting space.

The ∆ cold plate is a regular thin plate 27 mm thick, and with the fan it will be 55 mm.

∆ Single-wave water-cooled rows.

∆ Where the cooler drain meets the water-cooled pipe, next to it is the water-cooled liquid charge port.

 

The MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 comes with a set of Intel and AMD related grommets, as well as a water-cooling hose clamp, needle cooling gel, cooling gel plastic spatula, cooling gel applicator patch, a set of short screws to secure the cooler to the cooler, and a brass column mounting swivel sleeve.

∆ Accessories at a glance.

∆ Each package of screws is labeled with a foot position, so I give it a good review, but from this hand-rotating gyroscope shaped brass column, I can tell that this water-cooler is Apaltek's solution.

∆ When you need to reapply the cooling cream, you can use the patch, but it looks like you can only use the patch once.

∆ The water-cooling tubes can be used in the center to straighten the line in addition to fixing the direction of the water-cooling tube spacing.

 

HyperFlow ARGB 360 Water Cooler Installation and Demonstration

MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 all-in-one watercooler is installed on Intel LGA 1700 platform, and we will show you the process and the lighting effect for your reference.

∆ First place the reinforced backplate against its four holes, there is a double-sided adhesive available for the backplate contact surface, but it is not recommended to use the double-sided adhesive if you are a person who will change water coolers often.

∆ Fix the hand turning gyro brass columns at the opposite corners first.

∆ If there is not enough room in the installation for you to put your hand in and use it, you can use a brass post to secure the hand sleeve to assist in its use.

∆ Then take the common spring nut from the AMD snap kit and attach it to the four side brass posts, again diagonal locking is recommended.

∆ Because I have OCD, I still mounted the water cooling tubes towards the right side, and the actual installation with the ITX motherboard will not jam the memory.

∆ Unpowered display.

 

Let's take a look at the ARGB's lighting effect by turning on the platform and powering it up.

∆ Energized display.

∆ The water cooler head has a serialized cable so you can synchronize the lighting effect with the fan.

∆ Water-cooled overall display.

∆ Water-cooled headlight display.

The ∆ MONTECH text will also show through the light.

The ∆ fan light effect is a reflection of the light effect from the center of the shaft.

 

MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 Cooling Performance Measurement

MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 all-in-one water cooler was installed on a bare test platform with Intel Core i9 13900K processor and MSI MEG Z690I UNIFY motherboard. During the test, the PUMP and fan slots of the all-in-one water cooler were set to run at full speed in the BIOS of the motherboard. The actual test was conducted in a closed room with 24 °C air conditioning, for reference only as the ambient temperature in a normal room is difficult to control.

We use AIDA64 FPU, Cinebench 2024 multi-core test to simulate the temperature data under extreme load conditions, and we will also play Raiders of the Lost Ark 2077 in 1080P resolution to present the game running conditions, while the data collection is done by using HWiNFO64 to collect and record the maximum temperature and power consumption of the CPU and CPU Package. power consumption.

 

Testing Platform

Processor: Intel Core i9 13900K (QS)

Cooler: MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 (full speed)

Motherboard: MSI MEG Z690I UNIFY ( BIOS version: 7D29v1G )

Memory:T-FORCE XTREEM DDR5 8000 MT/s 2x 16 GB

Display Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Quick Silver 8G OC

Operating System: Windows 11 Professional 22H2

System Drive: Plextor PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 512GB

Gaming Disk: Intel 670P 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe SSD (Solidigm)

Power Supply: MONTECH TITAN GOLD 1200W

Graphics driver: GeForce Game Ready 552.22

Case: STREACOM BC1 Benchtable V2

 

I would like to add a few things, the first is that I have updated the BIOS version of MSI MEG Z690I UNIFY to version 7D29v1G, the second is that the default PL1 / PL2 of MSI MEG Z690I UNIFY is 288 W. I will be using the default settings of this motherboard to conduct the test, which means that the average power consumption is limited to 288 W in the long term, and the extreme power consumption (for Turbo Boost extreme state) is also 288 W in the short term. The power consumption (for Turbo Boost extreme state) is also 288 W. The rest of the settings: Game Boots_off, XMP_on, water-cooling fan and PUMP_full speed.

In the AIDA64 CPU load test for everyday applications, the 13900K was around 185 W; the temperature peaked at 70 °C, while the maximum temperature during a game of Cyberpunk 2077 was only 66 °C. The 13900K was also tested in the AIDA64 CPU load test for everyday applications.

In the high-pressure load test program, the 13900K with a maximum power consumption of 229 W reached a maximum temperature of 76 °C in a round of the Cinebench 2024 multi-core program, while the thirty-minute long stress test AIDA64 FPU program reached a maximum of 74 °C. The maximum temperature of the AIDA64 FPU program was 76 °C in the Cinebench 2024 multi-core program.

1. AIDA64 FPU_30 Minute
2. AIDA64 CPU_30 Minute
3. Cyberpunk 2077 1920 x 1080 (FHD)_5 Minute
4. Cinebench 2024 Multi Core_1 Round

• CPU temperature is measured by the diode in the slot to measure the internal (core) or external (case) temperature, but there is no way to know exactly whether it is the internal or external temperature that is measured, and most monitoring software uses this item to display the CPU temperature.
• CPU Package temperature is recorded by all Digital Temperature Sensors (DTS) in the package as the average of the maximum temperature over 256 milliseconds, and is the HWiNFO64 recommended CPU temperature observation value, which is also used as a benchmark for overheating and downclocking of the processor.

∆ Thermal performance.

∆ Cinebench 2024 Multi Core_1 Round has a maximum temperature of 76 °C and a fan speed of 2214 PRM; PUMP is 3200 PRM.

 

Then the author manually adjusted the voltage and unlocked the upper limit of PL1/PL2, and set the upper limit of Turbo Boost Short Power Max and Turbo Boost Power Max to 290 W in Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel XTU) software.

With a maximum temperature of 93°C after more than 10 minutes of AIDA64 FPU testing, the author estimates that the upper limit of heat dissipation of this MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 is around 310~330 W. The author also estimates that the maximum heat dissipation of this MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 is around 310~330 W.

∆ Unlocked the motherboard's preset upper limit and tested with 290 W for more than 10 minutes with a maximum temperature of 93 °C.

 

Conclusion

As MONTECH's first all-in-one water-cooled cooler, HyperFlow ARGB 360 cooperates with Apaltek, no matter it is the accessories, design, cooling performance, warranty specification, all of them have a good performance. During the development process of MONTECH, the author also gave a lot of comments to the market and I'm glad that they listened to the comments and produced a product without disappointment.

The MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 comes with a complete set of accessories, including an extra set of thermal paste applicator for future users who need to replace the thermal paste. The water-cooling pipe clips may not look like much, but mounting the water-cooling to the chassis will be very important for those who want the aesthetics of the piping, and the fan also uses a spliced short-circuit setup that eliminates any need to think about cable management when installing the machine. The fan also uses a short spliced cable setup, so you don't need to spend any more effort to straighten out the wires when installing the machine.

 

The thermal performance of the Intel Core i9-13900K, which is partially suppressed by 290 W, can be suppressed to a maximum of 93 °C without triggering overheating and downclocking. Most motherboards nowadays, when paired with the 13900K/14900K, the default settings or operating modes will set the PL1/PL2 at around 253 W (some flagship high-end models will completely free up the power consumption). The MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 360 should be able to completely suppress overheating and overclocking on most platforms with 13900K / 14900K, but will still overheat and overclock if it encounters a completely liberated setting (except for ice bucket and liquid nitrogen...).

After talking about the advantages, I still need to mention the disadvantages. I personally feel it is a pity that the water-cooling header cover cannot be adjusted, after all, not all 100 %s are installed with the water-cooling tubes facing to the right, so it would be better if the angle can be adjusted. The fan is a bit noisy when running at full speed, but users can adjust the fan curve to get a better sound performance.