Fractal Design Lumen S28 RGB – Cooler that shines with all colours

Conclusion and evaluation

Today I would like to introduce you to the Lumen S28 RGB liquid all-in-one cooler from Fractal Design. This cooler attracts with its discreet and simple design, which can be easily enlivened with RGB LEDs and uses an atypical build with a pump in the radiator. So the question remains whether this solution is an effective enough alternative against conventional AIO coolers with a pump directly in the block, which of course I intend to test in today’s review.

Conclusion and evaluation

The Lumen S28 RGB is a visually very nice cooler, which also hides some nice details, such as the rotatable top of the cooling block, the possibility of cable connection in series and extensive accessories. It didn’t fare badly in stress tests at all, and is also affordable and offers an overall good balance of price, effectiveness and neat design. The five-year warranty is also a nice bonus.

However, I will openly admit that my first impressions when testing the Lumen S28 RGB cooler were not the best. In fact, the pump is really noisy at full power and when testing at standardized noise levels I had to noticeably lower the fan speed, which resulted in low cooler effectiveness.

After adjusting the pump to 7 V, the noise dropped significantly and the test results started to make much more sense. The operating optimum of this cooler is therefore with the pump running at 7 V and the fans around 40-50% of the PWM duty cycle. However, apart from this niggle with the pump, I didn’t encounter any major problem with the Lumen S28 RGB cooler, so I can recommend it and give it the Approved editorial award.

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
• Conclusion and evaluation