Alphacool is a German top dog in the world of water cooling. Both all-in-one water cooling systems and custom water cooling systems are offered – Alphacool has been convincing with quality since 2003 and is therefore not a new name in this field. In addition to products for gaming computers, server solutions are also available, and the product range is quite broad.
Today we have the Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge RGB for you in the test. This is the successor of the CPU Eisblock XPX – which we have installed in our how-to, among other things. Is an upgrade worth it? How does the successor perform? You can find out here in the test.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Alphacool |
| Bottom plate material | Nickel-plated copper |
| Base | Intel 2011(-3), Intel 2066, Intel LGA 1200, Intel 115x, LGA 1700, AMD AM5/AM4/AM3/AM3( )/AM2/AM2( )/939/FM2/FM1/G34/940 |
| Lid material | Acrylic (2nd version available as full brass) |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 70 x 70 x 32.5mm |
| Connection | 2x G1/4″ |
| Available colors | Acrylic Black, Acrylic Chrome, Brass Black, Brass Chrome |
| Price | € 87.35 * |
Workmanship and design
- Impeccable workmanship
- Simple design, refined with RGB
The Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge is available in several variants. Our black version impresses with a clear acrylic top, so you can look inside. From the top you can see a black ring that enhances the top. The Alphacool logo is enthroned on the lower right corner. Additionally, the inside is illuminated by 15 built-in RGB LEDs. Only one aRGB cable (5V) leads away from the cooler.
As usual, the cooler comes with a protective film on the cooling surface to survive the shipping journey intact.
On the outer side, the cooler is adorned with a matte black border. Qualitatively, there are no shortcomings in our copy – clean edges, the hole for the fittings is flawless and haptically, the cooler certainly feels good.
In the connectors can be found for mounting “In” and “Out”, so you can connect it correctly. It is a simple but very efficient solution, which we think should be standard.
But what is the difference from its predecessor? The differences are subtle, but quite relevant. The entire underside is now made of brass, so the cooler is more robust, heavier, and simply looks higher quality. The Edge version is additionally more angular to visually stand out from the other XPX series coolers.
Mounting
- Proven system from Alphacool
- Easy and fast
The assembly is identical to its predecessor, which we tested in the Water Cooling HowTo. This is easy to implement. In our test, we installed the cooler on an AMD system.
For this, only the mounting rails are pushed onto the cooler, then the cooler is screwed to the backplate. Only washers and a spring are still needed.
The spring makes the whole construct comfortable – so you almost don’t have to worry about overtightening the screws.
The holes for the fittings have been done very cleanly, so you can just screw them in without any force. No jerking, grinding, or the like. – very smooth running.
To complete the installation, caps are still pulled on the screws, so that they are visually hidden – quickly done and easy as pie!
Let it shine!
Lighting-wise, Alphacool relies on the standard three pin aRGB connector. The connector can be plugged into compatible motherboards and then controlled via MSI Mystic Light, ASUS Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, etc. Effects etc. therefore depend on your motherboard.
What depends directly on the XPX Aurora RGB is the luminosity – and it is impressive! The case practically shines from the CPU cooler and we really like it visually. If you like powerful lighting, you will definitely find it here.
Performance
- Solid performance
- Small improvement over strong predecessor
To finally evaluate the cooler, we of course installed it in a test system. We use the system from our water cooling HowTo to compare the Alphacool XPX Aurora Edge directly with its predecessor.
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X box
- MSI B550 Tomahawk
- Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 3000 MHz
- NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3080 Founders Edition
- Seasonic FOCUS GX-750
Paired the system with a custom water cooling system with 3x 360 mm radiators.
To create a comparable base, we use a fixed voltage with regulated overclocking. This is therefore not affected by PBO or other boost settings. The fans and pump are also fixed to fixed values.
In order to keep comparable temperature values, we normalize them to 22 °C room temperature, so that a realistic comparison is given here. We then use Prime95 with the Smallest FFTs to get the maximum temperature on the CPU.
The XPX Aurora Edge comes with a larger cooling fin area, so it should be particularly well suited to cooling larger CPU dies.
| Fan and pump | temperature XPX Aurora Edge | Temperature Eisblock XPX |
| 50 % PWM | 71.4 °C | 72.9 °C |
| 100 % PWM | 68.3 °C | 69.8 °C |
The values show – there is no big performance jump. But that’s not a bad thing, since the Alphacool XPX was already one of the best coolers on the market in terms of performance and no more quantum leaps can be expected here. The custom loop universe is quite complex – it’s very difficult to expect massive performance gains from a single component. It depends, as always, on the overall design – matching fans, enough radiator area, etc.
Conclusion
In summary, has brought a very sensible, solid update to the market. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t have to. The predecessor already had some strengths in its position in the market, and the Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge adds a few more.
The performance is still in the upper class, the workmanship is still at the highest level, and in our opinion, the design has been improved even more.
The cooler is priced in the mid-range. We think that the price is fair – quality has to be paid for, but you don’t have to pay a big brand surcharge, as is the case with some competitors.
If you are looking for a new cooler for your cooling circuit, we can definitely recommend the Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge RGB!
Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge RGB
Design
Workmanship
Mounting
Performance
Value for money
97/100
Super refresh of an already good product. Clear recommendation!
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