Valkyrie Dragonfang 360 – New player has entered the chat

Key Features

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Key features of the cooler

Dragonfang 360 is a liquid AIO cooler of typical design with a pump hidden inside the cooling block. The pump drives the liquid from the block to the radiator and back via a pair of braided tubes, which are made of a highly durable and at the same time highly pliable copolymer (FEP). As is usual with AIO coolers, an aluminum radiator with a thickness of 27 millimeters is used here. Overall, the Dragonfang 360 is no different in design from most AIO coolers on the market and there are no tricky surprises waiting for you.

The top surface of the cooling block is a visually interesting feature. The whole top of the block rotates freely around its axis and in one half of this rotating part there is a small weight. This ensures that the top will always be in a horizontal position regardless of the orientation of the rest of the assembly. The crossbar with the plastic manufacturer’s logo can be easily removed and rotated if necessary, as it is held in place by small magnets. In addition, the crossbar with the logo as well as the entire circular perimeter of the upper part of the block are lighted by ARGB LEDs.

   

The copper coldplate surface is pleasantly sized and has a thin layer of thermal paste applied to it from the factory, eliminating the worry of the correct amount and/or the correct application method, about which you will find perhaps too many articles on the internet, and they usually contradict each other. However, you will also find a small tube of additional thermal paste in the cooler’s box should you later move the cooler to another build or perhaps upgrade the CPU in your build.

The tubes are mounted in the cooling block by means of swivel fittings, which are a bit unconventionally outside the main axis of the cooling block and are slightly offset to the side. However, this shouldn’t be a problem for compatibility with RAM or motherboard VRM heatsinks. There are a pair of cables coming out of the block that take care of the PWM control (!) of the pump and the ARGB lighting of the cooling block. More ARGB elements can be found on the fans, where however there is no classic ring around the rotor with blades, but four LED segments in each corner of the frame.

What I rate as absolutely perfect is the presentation of the product and its accessories. Well, judge for yourself by looking at the following photos.

   

Everything is neatly stored in a generous amount of protective foam, well labelled and described. There is nothing essential missing in the accessories and on the contrary, you will find nice bonuses in the form of plastic clips for the cooler tubes and also tape to prevent accidental disconnection of ARGB cables. But above all you will find a hub for the fans with PWM control combined with a hub for the ARGB lighting. Paradoxically, however, its presence is hardly needed, because the fans have the option of a serial connection using the included couplers. Realistically, you can get by with two PWM headers and a single ARGB header on the motherboard. However, the hub will certainly allow for much neater cable routing and management in the build.

   

Přiložený manuál je velmi detailní, ale zároveň zůstává přehledný a neměli byste mít problém s žádným krokem instalace chladiče nebo jeho zapojení. Samotná montáž chladiče by však mohla být o něco jednodušší. Nejsem velkým fanouškem trefování se šroubkem do malého otvoru v backplate u Intel patice, kdy si často odřu klouby na prstech o nadrozměrné pasivy moderních základních desek.

Pump, radiator and fan parameters

The Valkyrie Dragonfang 360, due to its classic design, does not stand out from its class, dimension-wise. The cooler supports all modern sockets, the radiator length is just under 400 mm and the block dimensions are also standard. Price-wise, the Dragonfang 360 is a bit worse than its direct competitors, which is at least a bit offset by the longer warranty.

The X12 fans were recently tested by my colleague Samák, whose review can be read here. They are really solid fans with high enough static pressure for use on a radiator, they just have a slight tendency to interfere with the radiator at times and thus make more noise at certain speeds.

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

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.

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Results – 36 dBA

In this category you will no longer find load test results at 210 W. The reason is the impossibility of achieving such low noise at very high load with any cooler I have had the opportunity to test, even with the best 360mm AIOs. However, the results at 125W load understandably remain, and if no value is listed for the cooler, it means that it could not be adjusted to such a low noise level.

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Results – 39 dBA

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Results – 42 dBA

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Results – 45, 48 and 51 dBA

The relationship of temperature to noise is pleasantly linear, there is no bounce or break anywhere, the cooler can be smoothly regulated according to preferences for lower noise or lower CPU temperature. With a 125W load, you can see that this AIO is clearly oversized and can be operated at minimum speed and therefore noise. However, with a higher load of 210W, the cooler is already hitting its limits at lower noise levels, and I would generally recommend sticking around the usual 50–60% PWM duty cycle for the optimal noise to effectiveness ratio of the cooler.

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Results – maximum speed

---

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Spectral analysis of noise

Also new is a spectral analysis of the noise of the cooler. 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.

Today’s article serves as an introduction of a new player on our market, besides the usual review. This is Valkyrie, a company that offers mainly liquid AIO coolers, although you can also find one air cooler in their offer. The focus of today’s article, however, is the Dragonfang 360, which is a liquid AIO cooler that promises solid efficiency at a reasonable price, which of course I intend to rigorously test on my test rig.

Conclusion and evaluation

The Valkyrie Dragonfang 360 is without a doubt a good cooler that doesn’t fall too far behind even the best coolers on the market. It offers high build quality, which is especially true of the supplied Valkyrie X12 fans, interesting visuals, a wealth of accessories and a nice bonus is the five-year warranty as proof that Valkyrie believes in the longevity of its product.

The acoustic presentation of the cooler is also fairly satisfactory except for isolated episodes of aerodynamic noise at certain speeds. However, the overall good impression is somewhat tainted by the higher price, which needlessly undermines this cooler and reduces its chances of success against its competitors. Despite these criticisms, however, the Approved award is still 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