SAMA is a brand of Guangzhou AOJIE Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and was founded in 2003 with the aim of developing, manufacturing and selling high-quality and cost-effective computer hardware. The portfolio includes PC cases, power supplies, cooling solutions and peripherals. The manufacturer is still relatively unknown in Germany. But that doesn’t stop us from testing the SAMA L70 360 compact water cooling system today. As always, let’s start with the technical details.
Water cooling test: Technical details
General specifications |
|
| Dimensions (with fan, L x W x H) | 397×120×55 mm |
| Weight (with fan) | approx. 1.5 kg |
| Compatibility AMD | AM4 / AM5 |
| Intel compatibility | LGA 115X / 1200 / 1700 / 1851 |
| Cooling capacity |
N/A |
| Warranty period | 3 years |
| Price |
€ 84.90 * |
Radiator specifications |
|
| Radiator type | Soldered radiator |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 397×120×27 mm |
| Radiator material | Aluminum |
Fan specifications |
|
| Number of fans | 3 |
| Fan designation | N/A |
| Bearing type | hydrodynamic plain bearing (FDB) |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 120 x 120 x 28 mm |
| Fan speed | 800 ~ 2200 rpm ± 10 % |
| Max. Noise level | ≤28 db(A) |
| Max. Volume flow | 122.8 m³/h |
| Max. Air pressure | 2.85 mm H2O |
| Lighting | 12 addressable RGB LEDs (per fan) |
| Rated voltage (fan) | 12 V |
| Rated voltage (LED) | 5 V |
| Rated current (fan) | 0,35 A |
| Rated current (LED) | 0,2 A |
| Rated power (fan) | 4,2 W |
| Nominal power (LED) | 1 W |
| Connection (fan) | 4-pin PWM |
| Connection (LED) | 3-pin 5V (ARGB) |
| Fan cable length | 550 mm |
| LED cable length | 550 mm |
Pump specifications |
|
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 73 x 73 x 66 mm |
| Cooling plate material | copper |
| Speed (pump) | 2000 ~ 3000 rpm ± 10 % |
| Rated voltage (pump) | 12 V |
| Nominal voltage (LED) | 5 V |
| Rated current (pump) | 0,42 A |
| Rated current (LED) | 0,3 A |
| Nominal power (pump) | 5,04 W |
| Nominal power (LED) | 1,5 W |
| Connection (pump) | 4-pin PWM |
| Connection (LED) | 3-pin 5V (ARGB) |
| Pump cable length | 550 mm |
| LED cable length | 550 mm |
| Tube length |
400 mm |
Packaging & scope of delivery
SAMA packs the L70 360 in an unspectacularly designed cardboard box, which is wrapped in a protective film ex works. The box itself is largely unprinted, so the color brown dominates. The white manufacturer’s logo, a blue stripe and a printed image of the AiO water cooling system provide colorful accents. SAMA also places a table with all relevant technical data and a reference to the website on the back.
Inside the box, the manufacturer wraps the radiator and pump in a white plastic film and places the combination in a recycled cardboard mold. The scope of delivery also includes assembly instructions, warranty information, three pre-installed ARGB fans and a box with all mounting accessories such as screws, spacers and thermal paste.
Design & workmanship
SAMA has given the radiator a simple design and made it entirely from aluminum. The fins and the frame are soldered and painted black. The manufacturer has also placed its own logo on the side of the radiator. With a depth of 27 millimetres, it is in line with the average depth of many commercially available compact water cooling systems. The manufacturer has not planned to refill the AiO water cooling system.
With a length of 400 millimeters, the water hoses are long enough to accommodate the radiator anywhere in a conventional midi tower. The rotatable joints on the side of the pump block also contribute to this, allowing flexible positioning in the case. The textile-coated hoses are pressed into metal sleeves on both the radiator and the pump.
The cooling block and the pump housing above it are somewhat more striking. The outside of the housing consists mainly of transparent acrylic glass, which has been placed over a grayish plastic housing. SAMA has incorporated a kind of viewing window to the right of the blue manufacturer’s logo. Behind it, protected by the acrylic glass, are a mirror and an ARGB element. But more on this in a later chapter. Unfortunately, numerous micro-scratches and a very large scratch were visible on the acrylic glass immediately after unpacking. SAMA should consider an additional protective film here.
The connection is made via a 4-pin PWM connector for the pump, which runs at up to 3000 revolutions per minute, and via a 3-pin 5V ARGB connector for the illumination of the pump cover. The heat from the CPU heatspreader is transferred to the cooling circuit via a 1.4 millimeter thick copper base plate, which is covered with a protective film at the factory.
The supplied fans are made of black plastic (frame) or milky white plastic (rotor blade) and have a speed range between 800 and 2000 revolutions per minute. In addition, the surfaces on all screw holes are rubberized for decoupling purposes and the frame is slightly deeper than usual with a depth of 28 millimetres.
All fans are connected to the mainboard via a single 4-pin PWM or 3-pin 5V ARGB cable. This cable harness terminates in one of the fans and the other two are connected to each other via a short 6-pin cable. This connection cable is so short and flat that it can be hidden in the recesses of the fan frame when installed. This makes the three fans look like a single unit when they are mounted on the radiator.
If you combine the radiator and fan into a complete package, the combination is 55 millimeters thick and weighs around 1.5 kilograms. In terms of weight, the SAMA L70 is therefore average. The depth, on the other hand, deviates slightly from the standard. Depending on the case, the latter could make it somewhat more difficult to position the compact water cooling system above the mainboard.
The overall build quality of the fans and radiator is very good. The paintwork is neat and there were no bent fins or scratches. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the pump housing. Due to the use of very sensitive acrylic glass, we were unfortunately able to recognize micro-scratches and a deeper scratch on the surface of the housing after unpacking. This part should ideally be covered with another protective film by the manufacturer in the future.
SAMA L70 360 test: Assembly
A test system mounted on a benchtable is used for the performance test. This allows us to rule out factors such as heat build-up in the housing. The test system consists of the following components.
- AMD Ryzen 5 1400 @ 3.8 GHz at 1.175V*
- MSI B350 PC Mate*
- Patriot Viper 16 GB DDR4-3000*
- TeamGroup T-Create Classic PCIe 4.0 DL*
- Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1060 6G*
- LC-Power LC550 V2.31 Platinum Series 550W*
SAMA includes a compact but sufficiently detailed assembly manual with the L70, which clearly illustrates all the essential assembly steps with text and pictures. In the first step, it is advisable to connect the radiator to the housing. Once this has been done, the next step is to remove the mounting brackets of the AMD retention module on the front of the mainboard and screw in the appropriate spacers instead.
Two horizontally oriented mounting brackets are then placed on these, which are also painted black for the sake of appearance. Next, screw the brackets in place with four knurled screws and apply the heat-conducting paste. The final step is to place the cooling block on the CPU and screw it to the mounting brackets.
The installation is similar for an Intel system. Here, however, the supplied plastic backplate is used, which must be placed behind the mainboard and screwed to the front with spacers or two mounting brackets.
The mounting system chosen by SAMA is kept simple. The water cooling system is nevertheless very easy to install and the pump block holds firmly to the mainboard. However, if there are any doubts when installing the compact water cooling system, these should be quickly resolved by taking a look at the instructions.
Cooling performance and volume
As already shown in the previous chapter, we use an AM4 system based on the Ryzen 5 1400 and the MSI B350 PC Mate as test hardware. The Ryzen runs overclocked with 3.8 GHz at 1.175 V CPU voltage. To heat up the processor, we fully loaded it with Prime95 (Small FFTs) for 30 minutes in each scenario. We then read out the temperature of the CPU with the CPUID hardware monitor and the room temperature was always around 20 °C during the measurements.
| wdt_ID | CPU-Kühler | Temperatur Minimaldrehzahl (in °C) | Temperatur 50% PWM (in °C) | Temperatur 100% PWM (in °C) | Minimale Lüftergeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) | Minimale Pumpengeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123 | Thermaltake TH280 V2 ARGB | 0,00 | 46,60 | 45,90 | 550 | 1.200 | 1.800 | 680 | 2.100 | 3.200 |
| 124 | Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240 Atmos ARGB | 0,00 | 50,40 | 46,50 | 560 | 1.340 | 2.270 | 1.965 | 6.620 | 10.230 |
| 125 | be quiet! Pure Loop 2 240mm | 0,00 | 50,70 | 46,70 | 800 | 1.070 | 2.080 | 4.150 | 4.700 | 5.530 |
| 126 | Alpenföhn Panorama 2 | 0,00 | 76,00 | 66,80 | 450 | 1.450 | 2.720 | |||
| 127 | Alpenföhn Brocken 4 | 0,00 | 53,60 | 49,60 | 410 | 870 | 1.610 | |||
| 128 | AMD Wraith Stealth | 95,00 | 95,00 | 76,00 | 800 | 1.430 | 2.630 | |||
| 129 | Corsair A115 | 0,00 | 49,40 | 46,90 | 190 | 920 | 1.560 | |||
| 130 | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE | 0,00 | 49,50 | 47,50 | 350 | 1.050 | 1.680 | |||
| 131 | Thermalright Assassin X 120 SE | 0,00 | 53,60 | 50,60 | 340 | 1.070 | 1.690 | |||
| 132 | DeepCool Assassin IV (Silent) | 0,00 | 51,40 | 48,70 | 500 | 860 | 1.330 | |||
| CPU-Kühler | Temperatur Minimaldrehzahl (in °C) | Temperatur 50% PWM (in °C) | Temperatur 100% PWM (in °C) | Minimale Lüftergeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Lüftergeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) | Minimale Pumpengeschwindigkeit (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 50% PWM (in U/min) | Pumpengeschwindigkeit bei 100% PWM (in U/min) |
As can be seen in the table and diagram, the CPU of our test system reaches a maximum of 49.5 °C (minimum speed), 46.60 °C (at 50% PWM fan and pump speed) and 43.7 °C (at 100% PWM fan and pump speed) under full load. With these values, the SAMA L70 360 is very far ahead in our test field and therefore cuts a very good figure not only visually but also in terms of cooling performance.
The pump can be turned way down and therefore operated very quietly. With a comparatively high minimum speed of 800 rpm, the fans are not particularly loud, but could be too intrusive for silent enthusiasts.
SAMA L70 360 test: Lighting options
The SAMA L70 has various ARGB elements that can be controlled via the mainboard. These include both the fans, whose fan hubs each have 12 LEDs, and the pump block, on which there are further LEDs including an infinity mirror below the viewing window. Each is controlled via a 3-pin 5V ARGB connector. To facilitate connection to a mainboard with few connections, the fans and the pump each have a splitter for the ARGB signal. Finally, a few impressions of the activated lighting.
Conclusion of the SAMA L70 360 test
Now we come to the conclusion of the SAMA L70 360. This compact water cooling system impresses with its very good cooling performance and stylish RGB lighting with Infinity Mirror on the cooling block and fans. The compact water cooling system is also easy to install and wire. Finally, the wide speed range of the pump ensures that it is not absolutely silent but can be operated very quietly.
Unfortunately, this only applies to a limited extent to the fans. They rotate relatively quickly at a minimum of 800 revolutions per minute and are at least audible. In view of the quiet pump, this choice seems somewhat questionable. Furthermore, the acrylic glass used is very susceptible to scratches and, at least in our case, there were already some micro-scratches and somewhat larger scratches on the housing cover. Finally, the warranty period of just 3 years seems relatively short when you take a look at the competition.
With a price of € 84.90 *, the SAMA L70 360 is definitely worth a look considering the overall package on offer. However, you will have to live with the relatively high fan speed and a warranty period of just 3 years. Unfortunately, some manufacturers can do much better.
- Very good cooling performance
- appealing RGB lighting with Infinity Mirror
- Simple assembly and cabling
- very good price/performance ratio
- Pump with wide speed range
- Scratches on the pump cover
- Comparatively high minimum fan speed
- only 3 years warranty
SAMA L70 360
Design
Processing
Assembly
Performance
Price-performance ratio
90/100
The SAMA L70 360 has a very good cooling performance, is easy to install and offers a particularly stylish RGB look with Infinity Mirror. However, the biggest criticism of this compact water cooling system is the warranty period of just 3 years.
