Testing
The following components are used for our AIO cooling testing.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
Cooling: ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB White Edition
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair VI Hero
Graphics Card: PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 580
Memory: HyperX Savage DDR4-2666 16GB
Storage: Corsair Force MP500 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Case: Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass
Power: SilverStone SST-ST55F-G
List of coolers being compared:
– Cryorig H5 Universal
– SilverStone PF240-ARGB
– ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240
– Corsair iCUE H115i RGB PRO XT
– Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360 CPU
– NZXT Kraken X63
– NZXT Kraken Z73
– Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX
– Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML280 Mirror
– Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux
– DeepCool LS720 WH
– EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 LUX D-RGB
– Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB White
– Lian Li Galahad II Trinity SL-INF
– Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360 Atmos
– ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB White Edition
For performance testing we will first test idle temperatures. These are taken on the Windows 10 desktop an hour after the system has been turned on.
For load testing we will be running the AIDA64 system stability test with the CPU only checked. This puts a full load on our CPU. We run this test for 1 hour and record the highest temperature throughout the test.
Software
ASUS provides control and customization of the ROG Ryujin III via their Armoury Crate software, and if you have used ASUS’ FanXpert in the past, the interface should be very familiar to you. On the left side of the application, in the Device menu you first need to select the AIO – in my instance, both my ASUS motherboard and the Ryujin III were options here. Once you have the correct device selected, you are presented with a tabbed menu system to configure and control various components of the cooler.
Display
First up is the Display control, where you can make adjustments to the screen on the cooler. ASUS provides multiple ROG-branded options in both animated and static varieties, and I think all of them looked pretty good. But if you want to add a custom animation or wallpaper of your own, there is an option for that as well. You can even add custom text to the wallpapers without having to edit them in an external application. Additionally, you can opt to display hardware monitoring information, with the ability to show up to three statistics at once. Each of the three readings can further be customized to show things like component temperatures, voltages, fan speeds, and frequencies. You can even connect AIDA64 Extreme to show even more custom animated information to the screen.
Clicking the gear button on this page will allow you to adjust the screen’s brightness, enable or disable standby mode, set default animations for when the system is starting, and even configure a temperature warning to give you a visual if things happen to get too hot.
Fan Control
The Fan Control tab lets you adjust the embedded VRM fan and pump speeds. Four preconfigured modes are available – Silent, Standard, Turbo, and Full Speed. Each of these modes can be customized and saved to your liking, and there is also the ability to set the fan and pump to fixed RPM mode, which can be very beneficial if you are trying to keep a certain noise level at all times.
FW & SW Download
The Firmware and Software Download tab is aptly named, as that is all you can do. The firmware update option shows the current version installed on the cooler, and lets you check for updates that might be available. There is also an option to download a free version of AIDA64 Extreme that will pair nicely with the display in order to provide additional monitoring options that can be visualized. ASUS provides a one-year subscription to AIDA64 Extreme, a $59.99 value.
Gallery
Below are a few shots of the ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB White Edition installed and running in our test system, as well as a video going over some of the options available on the cooler’s display.
