nzxt kraken z63 - liquid cooler with lcd display free sample

I used the mounting bracket which came with my case to install the radiator and fans. The mounting bracket was put in between the radiator and fans and then I put the screws in to hold everything in place. You can also screw the fans directly onto the radiator if you want. Then you just need to mount the fans into your case. I would suggest at this stage to connect the IN & OUT daisy chain cables. I made the mistake of installing into my case first then found it too hard to connect the cables so had to take eveyting back out to connect the cables. You have to connect the IN cable to your first fan and then the OUT into second and so forth. The first fan needs to be connected directly to your controller unless you already have RGB fans then it"s just a case of daist chaining them all together.

I have an intel CPU so I didn"t need to change the bracket on the pump. If you have AMD all you need to do is swap it for the correct bracket. Before you mount the pump you need to connect the correct backplate to the back of your motherboard. Then you mount the pump to the CPU and motherboard. The pump comes with thermal paste pre applied however I used my own.

Next step is to connect the fans to your motherboard. In my case I have the nzxt controller so I just connected the fans to the splitters connected to the controller. The other option is to connect the cable supplied to the motherboard and then connect the fans to the fan splitters. If you do this then I don"t think you can control the RGB lights as they need to go through the controller.

Once everything was connected I turned pc on to make sure everyting was working then installed the CAM software. The software is intuitive and easy to use. The fan led can by addressed individually however I just went with one colour. There is also RGB lighting on the pump which can also be changed. The temps on idle are between 30-33 degrees. Whilst gaming it"s nornally 40-50 degrees however on certain CPU demanding games it does go higher. Stress testing on Aida 64 the temps were between 65-70 degrees. Temps will vary depending on what CPU you have so my results will likely be different to yours.

This All-in-One (AIO) liquid cooler is ready for high performance CPU"s with the ability to fit in most cases. Show CPU/GPU temperatures or customize with GIFs with the Kraken Z LCD display.2.36” LCD screen capable of displaying 24-bit color

This All-in-One (AIO) liquid cooler is ready for high performance CPUs with the ability to fit in most cases. Show CPU/GPU temperatures or customize with GIFs with the Kraken Z LCD display.2.36” LCD screen capable of displaying 24-bit color

Just by using CAM"s elegant user friendly software interface, you can do more than simply customize settings; you can now display your favorite animated gifs or system information, allowing for total customization.

Now that you have multiple CPU cooler with screen designs to choose from, you can express yourself in a way that suits your taste through the Kraken’s new 2.36-inch LCD screen with 24 bit color.

CAM’s software is easy to use, allowing you to manage your computer’s performance and appearance. With simple controls, you can customize your NZXT Kraken Z63 with LCD with ease.

A chamfered intake and fluid dynamic bearings are the best choices for high performance cooling. And without a doubt, radiator fans are an essential part of the liquid-cooling process.

The included Aer P chamfers and fluid dynamic bearings are the perfect choice for high performance NZXT water cooling: quiet, long-lasting, and powerful.

The fully programmable display makes it simple to place the pump where it needs to be, and rotate it without affecting the display orientation or image.

Fine nylon mesh sleeves strengthen the rubber tubing, providing durability and protection against mishandling. With the fully programmable display, the pump can be rotated to fit the needs of your motherboard without affecting the direction of the logo or image.

Ever since it was founded back in 2004, NZXT has been focused on the always-lucrative PC gaming market. The company started out with just a few PC cases, yet their unique aesthetics and features were more than enough to let the company establish a solid foothold in the advanced PC market. Several years later, NZXT slowly began diversifying their product portfolio by adding cooling and power products to it. Today, the company produces a large variety of PC cases, cooling, and power products, as well as PC peripherals and accessories.

NZXT entered the PC cooling market nearly a decade ago by releasing all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooling solutions and accessories for them, including GPU mounting brackets. However unlike other manufacturers who have opted to build large, diverse product lineups, NZXT never kept more than a handful of AIO coolers available in their product line-up. Instead, the company has focused on delivering a few quality and aesthetically-unique designs, rather than trying to take the competition down on raw performance alone.

Today we are taking a look at NZXT’s latest liquid coolers, the Kraken X-3 and Z-3 series. These are more of a refresh rather a total upgrade over last year’s X-2 series, but NZXT has made some notable tweaks. Between the two families there are five different coolers in three sizes, covering the usual 240/280/360mm configurations. Both the X and Z series utilize the same cooling hardware, but NZXT has positioned the Z series as a premium option with a novel aesthetic feature – while the X series has RGB lighting on top of the pump base, the Z series tops its base with a full-fledged (and full color) LCD screen.

For this review we"re checking out both the X73 and the Z63, giving us a full view of the performance and features we can expect from most coolers that NZXT currently offers.

The new Kraken Z-3 and X-3 coolers ship in relatively simple packaging, based on the same white/purple artistic theme that NZXT has used over the last few years. A picture of the cooler covers the otherwise plain front of the packaging. Inside the box we found the coolers and their parts well protected by custom cardboard inserts.

All of the coolers share practically the same bundle, which is limited to the basics. Inside the box we only found the required mounting hardware, the necessary wiring, and an installation manual. We should also note that NZXT does not include the TR4 socket mounting plate by default, but they do have one available as an optional part for Threadripper owners.

The NZXT Z63 and X73 come with two 140 mm and three 120 mm fans respectively. The company went with high quality fans, with fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) engines and anti-vibration mounting pads. They are not overly powerful, though with their flat-bladed, high-pressure design they shouldn"t have much trouble overcoming the resistance of the radiator. There is no lighting about the fans, with the company focusing their artistic enhancement efforts on the pump block instead.

Digging into our review samples, let"s start with deciphering NZXT’s cooler names. The first character denotes the series, the second the size, and the third is the version. For example, the Z63 and the Z73 coolers belong to the same series and share most features but their radiator size differs, while the X73 and Z73 are of the same size but belong to different series. Thus the Z63 and the X73 that we will be reviewing today check both of these boxes, allowing us to explore the differences between the Z and X series and measure the thermal performance of both the 280 mm and the 360 mm coolers.

So what sets apart NZXT"s X and Z series coolers? In short, it"s all about displays. For the Z series, NZXT has topped off the the main block assembly with a 2.36” LCD screen. The LCD can be programmed to showcase everything from images and GIFs to real-time data. And despite the low 320×320 px resolution, it is crisp and bright, with beautiful color reproduction.

Otherwise for the X model, NZXT dials things back just a tad and uses a mirrored top with LEDs placed under it. Once powered, the company logo and a ring appear, with the mirror creating an infinity effect about the ring. The LEDs are RGB and users can adjust the colors of the ring using NZXT’s CAM software. On the whole it is a relatively simple and attractive visual setup.

Other than the display topping the main block, the X and Z series coolers are all but identical. The rest of the main block is the same between the two, going right down to the contact plate and mini pumps. So at the base of NZXT"s LCD and LED handiwork lies a circular copper plate, secured on the plastic body with eight stainless steel screws. A layer of thermal paste is pre-applied onto the contact plate. It is not machined down to a mirror finish but it is smooth and entirely flat. The contact plate is not large enough to cover Ryzen Threadripper processors and, although it should work okay, we generally advise against using coolers that are not specifically developed for the TR4 socket on Threadripper processors.

Moving on, let"s talk about NZXT"s radiators. Their different sizes aside, the radiators of both the Z63 and X73 seem to be identical in terms of design. The subtle but significant difference is that the 120 mm fan radiator of the X73/Z73 is 26 mm thick, while the 140 mm fan radiator of the Z63/X63 is 30 mm thick. It"s just a few millimeters, but it"s something that should absolutely be considered confirming the cooler’s compatibility with a given case, as sometimes a few millimeters makes all the difference. Both radiators are typical dual-pass cross-flow designs, with tiny fins soldered on thin oblong tubes. This is by far the most dominant radiator design for AIO systems and rightfully so, as it offers the best efficiency within limited proportions and for the temperature differences that AIO coolers have to deal with.

The hose fixings on the radiator side are immovable, making them a bit less flexible during installation. In order to cope with long-term evaporation losses, NZXT is using what they are calling “ultra-low evaporation” high-density rubber tubing, with external nylon sleeve braiding for additional mechanical protection. NZXT also took the time to punch the company logo on the sides of the radiators.

The Kraken Z63 RGB is an all-in-one liquid cooler that combines powerful cooling performance with ultimate personalization. The 2.36" LCD screen on the pump shows the content you choose via NZXT CAM software, such as image, animated gif and CAM system information. With dazzling RGB lighting, the Kraken Z63 RGB gives a fantastic look to any build.

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The complete list of commands and options can be found in liquidctl --help and in the man page, but the following topics cover the most common operations.

Brackets [ ], parenthesis ( ), less than/greater than < > and ellipsis ... are used to describe, respectively, optional, required, positional and repeating elements. Example commands are prefixed with a number sign #, which also serves to indicate that on Linux root permissions (or suitable udev rules) may be required.

The --verbose option will print some extra information, like automatically made adjustments to user-provided settings. And if there is a problem, the --debug flag will make liquidctl output more information to help identify its cause; be sure to include this when opening a new issue.

Note: in addition to --debug, setting the PYUSB_DEBUG=debug and LIBUSB_DEBUG=4 environment variables can be helpful with problems suspected to relate to PyUSB or LibUSB.

In case more than one supported device is found, one them can be selected with --match , where matches part of the desired device"s description using a case insensitive comparison.

Most devices provide some status information, like fan speeds and liquid temperatures. This can be queried for all devices or using the filtering methods mentioned before.

Fan and pump speeds can be set to fixed values or, if the device supports them, custom profiles. The specific documentation for each device will list the available modes, as well as which sensor is used for custom profiles. In general, liquid coolers only support custom profiles that are based on the internal liquid temperature probe.

Color arguments containing spaces, parenthesis or commas need to be quoted, as these characters can have special meaning on the command-line; the easiest way to do this on all supported platforms is with double quotes.

On systems running Linux and systemd a service unit can be used to configure liquidctl devices. A simple example is provided bellow, which you can edit to match your preferences. Save it to /etc/systemd/system/liquidcfg.service.

The configuration of devices can be automated by writing a batch file and setting up a new task for (every) login using Windows Task Scheduler. The batch file can be really simple and only needs to contain the invocations of liquidctl that would otherwise be done manually.

Make sure that liquidctl is available in the context where the batch file will run: in short, liquidctl --version should work within a normal Command Prompt window.

A slightly more complex example can be seen in issue #14 ("Can I autostart liquidctl on Windows?"), that uses the LEDs to convey progress or eventual errors. Chris" guide on Replacing NZXT’s CAM software on Windows for Kraken is also a good read.

This guide is for controllers that lose their state during sleep (e.g. Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0) and need to be reinitialized after wake-from-sleep. This guide uses Automator to initialize supported devices at login, and sleepwatcher to initialize supported devices after wake-from-sleep.

This is usually caused by having an unexpected kernel driver bound to a USB HID. In most cases this is the result of having used a program that accessed the device (directly or indirectly) via libusb-1.0, but failed to reattach the original driver before terminating.

This can be temporarily solved by manually rebinding the device to the kernel usbhid driver. Replace and with the correct values from lsusb -vt (also assumes there is only HID interface, adjust if necessary):

Alternatively to running liquidctl as root (or with sudo), you can install the udev rules provided in extra/linux/71-liquidctl.rules to allow unprivileged access to the devices supported by liquidctl.

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I really like NZXT’s all-in-one CPU coolers. Traditional fan-cooling is efficient and affordable, but an setup the NZXT Kraken can add style and space to your build. And I purchased an NZXT Kraken X62 for my own system because it is efficient, quiet, and slick. So I was excited to take a closer look at the company’s updated X3 and Z3 coolers to see if they live up to their predecessor.

The X73 is available now for $180, but you can get it with a smaller radiator as the X53 or X63 for $130 or $150, respectively. That’s the same price as the last-gen Krakens. But NZXT also has the Z3 coolers. The Z63 is $250 and the Z73 is $280. I tested the X73 and the Z63.

The X3 and Z3 coolers feature a new Asetek pump. The X3, has improved lighting and the option to rotate the logo on the CPU block. The Z3, however, gets an LCD screen with a ton of customization options.

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The Kraken X2 coolers, like the popular X62, used the Asetek Gen5 liquid pump. NZXT went back to Asetek for the X3 and Z3, but this time it’s using the Gen7. The company is promising quieter performance, but I found the X62 plenty quiet already. In real-world scenarios, I doubt that most people would notice the difference even if the Gen7 pump is better at keeping the noise down in a controlled test.

What’s important here is that the Asetek pumps are reliable and efficient, and that should only improve in this latest update. NZXT also includes a six-year warranty with the Kraken. And that confidence can provide you peace of mind.

The Kraken is also pretty easy to put into your rig. It comes with the brackets you need to hook it right onto an Intel motherboard. And if you need to swap in the parts for an AMD socket, the process is quick and painless.

The nylon mesh for the tubing also provides the flexibility you need to get the cooler into place. Then, on the X3, you don’t even have to worry about getting the logo upright because you can rotate that after installation.

Speaking of the logo, NZXT improved the look of the LED ring to make the Kraken X53, X63, and X73 more stylish than ever. Most of this comes from thicker RGB lighting that improves the infinity-mirror effect. This makes it look like the NZXT emblem is hovering over an endless portal.

The Z3’s standout feature is a 2.36-inch display that can present important information or, more important, GIFs. And look, you can tell me you don’t want an LCD screen inside your PC case, but I just won’t believe you.

Using NZXT’s CAM software, you can set the screen to display the current temperature of your CPU or GPU. This is a smart way to keep an eye on the health of your system without having to keep monitoring software open.

But you can also download and use any GIF you want, which is a lot of fun to play around with. And it’s another way to take ownership over the look of your rig.

While installing the Kraken coolers is mostly painless, I did have one problem. The power header on the CPU cooling unit doesn’t do a great job of guiding in its included cable. This led to me originally plugging it in the wrong way on the Z63. The connection felt like it snapped in securely, so it was difficult to tell the issue. But flipping it around and shoving it back in fixed the problem.

I’m at a point where I’m over complaining about every company having their own software. But it’s still worth pointing out that you may run into some headaches with NZXT’s CAM. The company has made some improvements to the software, but it’s still cumbersome and unintuitive for beginners. And you may encounter some bugs. Keep that in mind.

The NZXT X73 and Z63 that I’m using are fantastic. If you’re happy with the cooling in your PC now, or if you have something like the X62, you don’t need to upgrade. This isn’t some kind of next-gen leap.

But if you want an AIO so you have more room to tinker in your rig or because you think they look better, NZXT Kraken X3 and Z3 are still the best. And sure, the Z63 is $100 more than an X63. But if you think you need that LCD screen, you won’t regret getting it.

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