Enermax Liqmaxflo 360 – Hefty, silent and efficient

Key features

Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Key features of the cooler

Enermax has taken a similar path with Liqmaxpro coolers as the German company Arctic Cooling has tried before. This means a combination of a thicker radiator and fans that are optimized for higher static pressure. The Liqmaxflo 360 variant is (as the name probably makes quite clear) equipped with a trio of 120mm fans from the Silent Flow series.

However, the design of the Liqmaxflo 360 doesn’t hide any big surprises. It is still based on the tried and tested combination of a cooling block with an integrated pump and a radiator that serves as a heat exchanger for the entire loop. These two basic elements of the cooler are connected by 400 mm long rubber tubing, which is fitted with nylon braiding for increased durability and a more attractive appearance. The tubes are connected to the cooling block using swivel fittings, allowing for easier installation and routing whn building.

   

An interesting element is the 60mm fan with ARGB LED on the top of the cooling block, which takes care of cooling the surroundings of the CPU socket. This detail is sometimes underestimated, leading to unnecessarily high temperatures in the CPU power delivery, that is unless your build has well-tuned airflow. The cover of this fan is magnetically attached to the block and can be rotated in 90° increments so that the manufacturer’s logo is always horizontal. A small but useful detail.

   

The copper coldplate is factory coated with a thin layer of thermal paste, which makes installation faster and easier. While the coldplate is large enough for mainstream processors, it is not large enough for AMD Threadrippers. This also explains why this cooler does not support the TR4/sTRX4 socket. However, considering the overall representation of these processors in mainstream builds, it’s a complete marginality. If you do happen to be one of the users of these processors, however, you will unfortunately have to look elsewhere.

   

The supplied fans are equipped with an atypical connector that unifies the routing of PWM and RGB signals and also allows the fans to be connected in series, which greatly simplifies cable management. In the cooler’s accessories you will find an adapter for connecting the fans and the motherboard. The radiator used also features an interesting element. At the end of the radiator we find a screw, under which is hidden a service inlet for refilling the liquid, if the amount of liquid in the loop drops over time to an extent that would threaten to reduce the efficiency of the radiator or threaten noisy operation of the pump due to air bubbles in the loop. In practice, it is never possible to prevent the liquid from gradually evaporating from the loop, which after a certain period of time leads to a reduction in the efficiency of the cooler and, in an extreme case, to damage to the pump due to air bubbles in the loop. This is because the pump uses a ceramic bearing which requires the presence of liquid to lubricate it and excessive wear occurs during so-called “dry running”.

The accessories of the Enermax Liqmaxflo cooler are exceptionally generous. Of course, you will find all the necessary components for installing the cooler on the processor, and of course there are 5mm and 30mm screws for mounting the radiator in a case, or for mounting fans on the radiator. There is also a small tube of extra thermal paste. A nice bonus is three plastic clips for tidier tube routing and also a compact ARGB controller if you’re missing the 5V ARGB header on your board. And also present is the aforementioned cable adapter to connect the proprietary fan connector to the motherboard headers. I myself was very surprised and pleased by the presence of a plastic bottle with an applicator that contains 100 ml of replacement cooling liquid, as well as an adapter for the 24-pin ATX power cable so that you can get the cooler pump running while refilling the liquid without having to boot up the entire computer. This is where we practically reach the line between an all-in-one cooler and a custom-built loop.

   

Installation of the cooler is pretty straightforward and simple and you shouldn’t run into any problems. Everything is detailed in the supplied user manual. As usual, when installing the cooler you use the native motherboard backplate for AMD processors and for Intel processors you use the supplied backplate with adjustable screw spacing depending on the socket – LGA 1700 has a slightly wider hole spacing (78 × 78 mm) in the motherboard compared to LGA 1200/115x (75 × 75 mm).

Cooler and fan parameters

If we disregard the thickness of the radiator, which is 38 millimeters, then Liqmaxflo 360 has pretty much standard parameters compared to other coolers in the same class. If your case has room for a total cooler thickness of at least 65 mm (radiator + fans), you shouldn’t run into compatibility issues. The CPU block with the pump is also quite compact, so there shouldn’t be any problems even with motherboards with oversized VRM heatsinks around the CPU socket.

Enermax uses Silent Flow fans for the Liqmaxflo cooler, which are optimized for higher pressure, which is more than reasonable considering the radiator used. Their speed range is set to a reasonable ratio between noise, airflow and static pressure.

Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Testing methodology

As a test processor and heat generator I use the Intel Core i7-11700K on the Asus TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI motherboard. The entire build is mounted on a Streacom BC1 frame with no fans to provide airflow. Acoustic shielding (acoustic foam on OSB boards) is installed around the test rig to eliminate ambient noise. The Voltcraft SL-100 calibrated noise meter is placed perpendicular to the cooler in a fixed position relative to the motherboard at a distance of approximately 35 cm from the processor socket.

   

Stress tests are performed using Prime95 with a duration of 30-35 minutes. Coolers are tested at three standardized noise levels (36, 39 and 42 dBA) and then at maximum speed. In addition, I am gradually adding tests at 45 and 48 dBA levels and you will also find this data in the results over time. The tests are run in two sets based on the thermal output of the processor.

The first set of tests is at 125 W, i.e. the forced PL1 limit of the processor. In the second set, the power draw is then about 210 W (4500 MHz at 1.285 V). However, this second level represents a very high concentration of heat per mm2 due to the small size of the chip itself. Thus, not all coolers can be expected to pass this set of tests at all noise levels. For example, no cooler has reached the 36 dBA level at this load, and I ended up eliminating it from the tests after some consideration.

The highest temperature reached after the test is always recorded. All data regarding temperatures and thermal output of the processor are obtained from HWiNFO64. The measured values are then adjusted against the temperature in the room as the resulting Delta T. The test success limit is set to 75 °C. Any higher value means a risk of processor temperature above 95-100 °C and a risk of thermal throttling. Therefore, if the cooler does not pass the load with a Delta T value below 75 °C, such a test is marked as a failure.

Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Results – 36 dBA

Unfortunately, I was again unable to get results at 36 dBA. For AIO coolers this is practically an unattainable benchmark, as the pump is almost always a little noisier than fans running at minimum speed. The lowest measured noise of the Enermax Liqmaxflo cooler was 38.3 dBA at maximum pump speed, but it did not drop below 37 dBA even at minimum pump speed.

Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Results – 39 dBA

Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Results – 42 dBA

Dnešní článek slouží mimo obvyklé recenze také jako představení nového hráče na našem trhu. Jedná se o společnost Valkyrie, která nabízí především kapalinové AIO chladiče, byť v jejich nabídce najdete i jeden vzduchový chladič. Předmětem dnešního článku je však Dragonfang 360, což je kapalinový AIO chladič, který slibuje solidní účinnost za rozumnou cenu, což samozřejmě hodlám důsledně prověřit na své testovací sestavě.

Results – 45, 48 and 51 dBA

For the next calendar year I’m already planning to expand the values to 45 and 48 dBA, but for now I’m including a simple graph of the dependence of Delta T on noise for this cooler.

The temperature-noise relationship of the Enermax Liqmaxflo is nicely linear except at very low speeds (39 dBA), where the effective airflow through the relatively thicker radiator seems to decrease. The optimum efficiency ratio at acceptable noise levels is, as it happens, around 50–60% of maximum fan speed. Both the pump and the top fan on the pump block are acceptably quiet over their entire speed range, so you can safely leave them to automatic PWM control.

Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Results – maximum speed

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Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Spectral analysis of noise

This is a simple analysis at noise levels of 39 dBA, 45 dBA and at maximum speed of the cooler. For the analysis I use the UMIK-1 microphone from miniDPS in conjunction with True Audio’s TrueRTA application. The resolution of the analysis is 1/24 of an octave and the shape of the spectrogram is an average of 100 samples acquired over 20–30 seconds.

Enermax has recently introduced the new Liqmaxflo cooler model series. These coolers feature a hefty radiator, a fan above the pump to cool the area around the CPU socket, and their loop can even be refilled with liquid. Today’s review will focus on the 360mm variant, the middle of the range (240mm and 420mm variants are also available). I have pretty high expectations for this cooler, so hopefully it will be able to live up to them.

Conclusion and evaluation

I have a very good overall impression of the Enermax Liqmaxflo 360 and its high efficiency makes it one of the top coolers. The thicker radiator does a good job in combination with the solid fans, and this combination makes it possible to run the cooler at low noise without compromising on efficiency too much. The pump is pleasantly quiet even at maximum speed and the same goes for the small fan on the cooling block, which also provides cooling around the CPU socket, especially the CPU power delivery. A nice bonus is the possibility of refilling the loop with liquid, which should extend the overall service life of the cooler.

The only small drawback is a slight rumbling of the fans at certain speeds (slightly below their maximum and then briefly in the lower third of the range), which is probably due to the geometry of the fan blades. This is quite clear in the spectrogram, see the peak at 100–150 Hz. I am also waiting for information from the manufacturer regarding the length of the warranty and will add this to the text as soon as possible. Overall though, the Enermax Liqmaxflo 360 is a very efficient, solidly made and high quality cooler without any major negatives and the Approved editorial award is well deserved.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Key features
• Measurement methodology
• Results – 36 dBA
• Results – 39 dBA
• Results – 42 dBA
• Results – 45; 48 and 51 dBA
• Results – maximum speed
• Spectral analysis of noise
• Conclusion and evaluation