ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic CPU Air Cooler

Introduction

When it comes to the PC Cooling solutions, ID-COOLING is relatively a new name but they for sure are making their way up with some good design and powerful cooling. The world first came to know about ID-COOLING during Computex 2013. The mother company of ID-COOLING is the cooling solution provider for many motherboard and VGA card brands for over 10 years. ID-COOLING is specialized in CPU air cooler, CPU water cooler, VGA cooler, built-in cooling case, computer case fans, server cooler and etc.

ID-COOLING has sent us their budget coolers for evaluation and in this content, we are taking a look at their SE-224-XT Basic cooler. This is at its core a budget-friendly cooler but it has more to it than meets the eye! The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic is a 120mm size heatsink with a powerful 120mm fan. There is no frill attached to it hence no RGB/ARGB lighting on it which in my opinion is a better decision. The heatsink is following a micro wave fins design (V-shaped notches) to provide maximum surface area for effective heat dissipation. The cooler has 4x copper heat pipes which are nickel coated and they make direct contact with the CPU surface. The cooler has ID-COOLING’s Metal-Mecha mounting hardware for easy installation and durability. The bundled 120mm fan is rated for up to 76.16 CFM at 2.16mmH₂O. It surely did not disappoint me!

Product: SE-224-XT Basic

Manufacturer: ID-COOLING

Price: 26.96 USD on Amazon

Price is taken at the time of the review.

Specifications

Packing and Unboxing

The product is shipped inside a cardboard box in a black and orange color theme.

The brand name and logo are printed on the top left side. There is a picture of the cooler in the main section. This is a simple design but quite effective. Saying this after testing the cooler. The model of the cooler is printed at the bottom. Basic here refers to non-RGB style with typical industrial outlook. There is an RGB version of this cooler as well.

The specifications of the cooler are printed in 9 languages. The weight of the cooler is 810gm and the fan is using hydraulic bearing.

Salient features are mentioned in a single wording style. There is definitely minimalistic information provided here. The fan of the cooler has a PWM auto function with silent operations. The universal mounting mechanism is rather simple and easy to use which it indeed is.

The cooler is rated to handle the TDP of up to 180W. The cooler is compatible with Intel LGA-115x/20xx and AMD AM4 sockets.

The opening side of the packing box has the cooler’s model printed on it.

The box contents are nicely tucked inside the white color Styrofoam pads.

All the accessories are placed inside a white color cardboard box.

Contents

Following are included:

1x Heatsink
1x 120mm fan
ID-TG25 Thermal Paste
4x Spacers
1x Metal Back Plate for Intel
2x Intel Mounting Bars
2x AMD Mounting Bars
4x Screw Nuts
4x Intel LGA2011 Double Head Screws
4x AMD Screws
4x Fan Clips
1x Installation Guide

Closer Look

The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic is a budget cooling solution from the manufacturer. It is a 120mm cooling solution in the air cooling category without any frills to it which is understandable as the price of the cooler in this range hints it out. It is time to take a look at the cooler and see what is packs and how it performs.

The dimension of the cooler is 120x73x154mm (LxWxH) where 154mm is the overall height of the cooler. The weight of the cooler is 810gm with the fan. The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic is compatible with Intel LGA115x/20xx and AMD AM4 sockets. There is no information regarding its compatibility with other AMD sockets. The cooler is rated to handle the TDP of up to 180W.

The top of the cooler has a black color fin. The provision of the black color top plate in this price range is too good and provides a neutral/stealth outlook to the cooler coupled with the black color frame of the fan. One can see 4x heat pipes terminating on the top. Their placement gives a clear idea of the displacement inside the heatsink. There is a white color ID-COOLING brand logo in the center giving a nice touch to the overall layout.

The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic packs 46 aluminum fins in such a compact size heatsink making it quite dense and offering a lot of surface area for effective heat dissipation. Clearly, ID-COOLING is not skimping on any critical aspect despite being a budget cooler. The heatsink has what ID-COOLING refers to micro-wave design fins. There are V-shaped notches in the center which aid in better airflow through this area by lowering the resistance. The fin design on the left and the right of these V-shaped notches is identical and follows a flat line with circular inset on both ends.

The above picture shows the displacement of the heat pipes in the fin stack. The heat pipes are almost following the U shape design. They are making maximum contact inside the fin stack on the outer side in an alternate manner. The central portion is largely without any heat pipe contact.

The left and the right sides of the heatsink are identical. This is where the fins are joined together. There are cutouts on the left and right sides of the central portion. This is where the fan clips are inserted into to lock the fan to the heatsink. There is no offset design to the heatsink.

Another angle of view for the front side fins layout.

The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic has 4x copper heat pipes which are 6mm thick and are nickel-plated. They are almost in the U-shape and making contact with the fins on the outer side.

The above picture shows the layout of the heat pipes from the base of the cooler.

There is a protective sticker pasted on the base of ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic with a warning to peel this sticker off before the installation. The base measures 40x35mm approximately.

Peeling the sticker off the base shows that the ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic is following a Direct Contact method. The ID-COOLING calls it H.D.T V3. In a direct touch method, the exposed copper surface on the heat pipes makes direct contact with the heat source which in our case is the CPU. According to ID-COOLING, this enhances the contact intensity by 30%. Please, note that the heat pipes are not following the CDC (Continuous Direct Contact) as there are gaps between the heat pipes on the base. Hopefully, the base of the cooler would be made of the copper as well in nickel plating as is the case with the majority of the coolers.

The mounting plate is pre-installed on the base of the cooler. It has two spring-loaded screws on both ends.

This side shows the mounting end of the spring-loaded screws. The mounting plate is removable as it is installed using two screws. Take a peek at the height of the base of the copper.

The ID-COOLING has provided a non-RGB 120mm fan with their The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic CPU Air Cooler. Here are the specifications of the Fan:

Dimension	120x120x25mm
Speed	600±200 ~ 1800±10% RPM
Max Air Flow	76.16 CFM
Max Air Pressure	2.16 mmH₂O
Noise Level	15.2 ~ 32.5 dB(A)
Current	0.2A
Rated Voltage	12VDC
Operating Voltage	10.8 ~ 13.2VDC
Power	2.4W
Connector	4-Pin
Bearing	Hydraulic Bearing

This fan has 9x blades in the gray color. The center frame is also in the gray color. There is a black and white color sticker on the center with ID-COOLING brand logo printed on it. The frame of the fan is quite sturdy and is in black color. There are gray color cut-to-shape anti-vibration pads on the mounting corners.

Looking at the backside of the fan, there is a 4-arms assembly holding and securing the motor and blades to the frame. One of the arms is wider with a catcher. This is where the power cable wires are routed from the motor to the outer frame. The power rating of the DC Brushless fan is printed on the sticker pasted in the center. The fan model printed on the back is ID-12025M12S. The fan is using Hydraulic Bearing. There is no information provided regarding the useful life of the bearing. The fan is made in China.

The black color power cable of the fan is flat and has a black color 4-pin PWM connector. The length of the cable is approximately 440mm.

Installation

Since the cooler is tested on the Intel LGA2011(v3) socket, here are the steps needed for the installation on this socket.

Install the Intel LGA20xx double-head screws on the pre-drilled mounting holes around the socket.
Place the Intel mounting brackets on the screws facing each other. Make sure that the standoff side is facing upward.
Use screw nuts to lock and secure the mounting brackets on the screws.
Peel off the transparent warning sticker from the base of the cooler.
Apply the thermal paste.
Place the heatsink on the CPU by aligning the spring-loaded screws with the standoffs on the mounting bars and start screwing till the threads run out.
Install the fan using the metal clips.
Connect the fan’s PWM cable to the 4-pin PWM fan header of the motherboard.
This would complete the installation.

Here are the pictures of the assembled cooler.

Clearance

The height of the cooler is 154mm. Keep this in mind while planning your build with respect to the PC Chassis as the chassis should have support for CPU cooler’s height of a minimum of 155mm.
The cooler does not overhang the DIMM slot area hence there is no clearance issue what so ever with regard to any height of the RAM.
The cooler does not block the first PCIe slot.

Here are some clearance related pictures.

Testing Methodology

The Testbed configuration is:

Asus Rampage V Edition 10
Intel i7 6850k
CORSAIR Vengeance 4x8GB @ 2666MHz
Gigabyte GTX 1060 6GB
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
Thermaltake TP iRGB 1250W PSU
Primochill Praxis Wetbench

The following software were used for testing and monitoring.

Asus Real Bench v 2.44
Real Temp GT v 3.70

Here is the settings table for testing:

Intel	Stock Voltage (V)	1.130
	Stock Clock (MHz)	3600
	OC Voltage (V)	1.350
	OC Clock (MHz)	4300
Turbo Boost	Disabled
C-States	Disabled
Speed Step	Disabled
Thermal Paste	Noctua NT-H1
Test Run Time	60 minutes
Idling Time	15 minutes
Fan Speed	Manually set to run at 100% PWM cycle.

We are using Noctua NT-H1 on our test bench for all the coolers testing. This will ensure the standardization and mitigate any performance benefit that may come using the supplied thermal paste. Delta temperatures are reported on the graphs (Delta Temp = Average of all cores’ max temps – ambient temp). The testing is done on an open-air bench system. Once inside the chassis, the temperatures are expected to rise and would largely depend upon the optimal airflow inside the chassis.

Not every run of the stress test may yield the same result. This could well be due to many factors like mounting pressure, thermal paste application, varying ambient temperature. Not to mention the silicon differences even among the same category of the chips. Hence, it is pertinent to mention the testing methodology along with the specifics.

Let’s take a look at the results.

Results

The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic has performed very well which is what I did not expect given the price level. None of the cooler listed in the graphs fall in this price bracket except maybe Verkho series but their performance level is clear. The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic packs a sucker punch for what it costs.

Noise

The sound meter was showing the noise level of the cooler to be 47 dB(A) with an ambient sound level of 32 dB(A).

Conclusion

The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic is a budget air cooler having a 120mm size heatsink and a non-RGB fan. The dimension of the cooler is 120x73x154mm (LxWxH). The height of the cooler with a fan is 154mm. The cooler weighs around 810gm with a fan. The cooler is compatible is with Intel LGA115x/20xx and AMD AM4 sockets. There is no information mentioned regarding its compatibility with the other AMD sockets. The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic has a single tower. It is made of 46 aluminum fins packed together and bonded with 4x 6mm copper heat pipes. These heat pipes are nickel-plated.

The top fin plate is finished in black color and adds to the neutral/stealth outlook when combined with the gray and black accent fan. ID-COOLING did not skip anything from the better outlook of this budget cooler. The heatsink is following the micro-wave fin design which is said to give more surface area. The middle portion of the heatsink has V-shaped notches on both sides. The fins are jointed on the left and right sides.

The heat pipes are making direct contact with the CPU surface and for that part, their contact surface is in pure copper. This is what ID-COOLING has referred to as H.D.T V3 and has mentioned that this would give a contact intensity of 30%. This is not a continuous direct contact (CDC) though as there are gaps between the heat pipes on the base. The base of the cooler roughly measures 40x35mm. The mounting plate is pre-installed on the base and it has spring-loaded screws on both sides.

The bundled fan has no RGB/ARGB lighting on it and is powerful enough to do the job at the end of the day. It is rated for a maximum speed of 1800±10% and has a PWM function. The static pressure rating is 2.16mmH₂O with a maximum noise level of 32.5 dB(A). The fan is drawing 2.4W of power at 12VDC and comes with Hydraulic Bearing.

When it comes to the provision of the mounting hardware, there is everything a user would need even a high performing ID-TG25 thermal paste with a thermal conductivity rating of 10 W/m-k! ID-COOLING refers to their mounting kit as METAL-MECHA. Metal here refers to the rigidity and sturdiness of the mounting hardware. They have also provided an additional set of metal clips which would give the user the flexibility to buy and install a second fan on this cooler.

The ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic is listed at 26.96 USD at the time of the review. There are no frills attached to this cooler which is understandable given the price level but wait this does not mean that the performance is average too! We put the cooler to cool down the 140W Intel i7 8750k even with overclocking. The performance of the cooler in this price range is too good and really gives this cooler a better value for the bucks. The better build quality, quality mounting hardware, high-performance fan, 3 years warranty, no clearance or compatibility issues, and easy installation adds a sucker punch to the performance level that this cooler offers in just $26.96. If you are in the market looking to upgrade the stock cooler or looking for a budget cooler with good performance then look no more as ID-COOLING SE-224-XT Basic has it all for your need.

We are thankful to ID-COOLING for giving us the opportunity to review their SE-224-XT Basic CPU Air Cooler.