Introduction
In this article, I am taking a look at a new cooler from darkFlash, It is a Nebula DN 360 black. This cooler is also available in white and there are 240mm size versions available as well. The salient features include:
- Non-directional symbol pattern designed
- 3-stage motor water pump for performance and quietness
- An all-in-one cable for fans on the radiator
- Radiator made of Aluminum
- High-temperature resistance and pressure-resistance synthetic tubes
This AIO cooler is compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200/1700 and AMD AM5/AM4/AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM2/FM1 sockets. There is no support for the Intel LGA20xx socket. This cooler uses a 3-stage motor design in the pump and a single cable connection for the daisy-chained fans.
This cooler has an MSRP of €144.99 at the time of this writing. This cooler comes with a 3-year warranty.
Nebula DN 360 Specifications
The pump is rated for 30 dBA sound output which is high for the liquid coolers. The pump is rated at 12VDC. However, there is no power consumption rating provided in the specification sheet.
Packaging and Unboxing
The shipper seemed to be in a rush as they wrapped the original packing box with the packing tape and shipped the cooler as it was. The standard practice is that the cooler is shipped inside a proper cardboard outer packing box to save the original packing box.
You can see that the fans are pre-installed which is a new trend that is booming quickly. The accessories are placed inside a white color box. There is a user manual placed over the top.
Accessories
Let’s see what is provided in the accessories department.
There is a printed user guide provided with the cooler that illustrates the installation of the cooler on the supported sockets.
There are:
- 1x Intel Backplate
- 1x Intel Mounting Ring
- 1x AMD Mounting Ring
- 4x Intel LGA115x/1200 Spacers [Black]
- 4x Intel LGA1700 Spacers [Blue]
- 4x AMD Standoffs
- 4x Mounting Screws or Thumb Screws
- 12x Radiator Screws
- 1x Thermal Paste Tube
I took the fans off to show the fan screws.
Closer Look
It is time to take a look at the unit starting with the radiator.
Radiator
The radiator is made of an aluminum material. The complete housing is in black. It has a size of 397x120x27mm (LxWxH). After installing the fans, the overall height of the unit will be 53mm including the heads of the fan screws.
There are 12 channels for coolant flow. The FPI count is 20 which would mean you would need a high static pressure fan for optimal airflow through the radiator. There are no bent or pressed fins. The overall build quality is good.
Looking at the tube connection side of the radiator, you can see that both tube connections are far apart. They are located on the dedicated inlet and outlet ports. There are black clamps that hide the tube connection with the barb fittings.
I am showing the side view of the unit. There is darkFlash branding in white on the center frame of the housing. You can see that the far block has a slim size compared to the near block of the radiator. darkFlash uses rubber tubes that are IIR + EPDM dual material. These are designed to withstand pressure and high temperatures. These tubes run to 450mm in length.
There is a narrow gap between the side frame and the actual fin stack. Also, there is no protective plating under the side frame for the protection of the fin stack. You are good as long as you use darkFlash provided screws. Remember, fans come pre-installed so there is nothing to worry about.
Pump Block
Let’s take a look at the elegant design of the pump block.
darkFlash has a different design approach on the Nebula DN series of the coolers. The top has aluminum plating and the inside looks like a jet engine design. The center has an ARGB backlit reflective plate that looks quite nice in person. darkFlash mentions this as a non-directional symbol pattern design. There is an A-RGB ring diffuser on the border of the black design block. If you turn off the LED, the pattern design disappears.
The above picture illustrates the concept.
The housing of the block is made of ABS material and it has a dimension of 86x72x59mm. Looking closely at the base, you can see lockers on which the ring mounting brackets are inserted. The pump uses a 3-stage power motor providing a flow rate of 1.6L/minute with ±10%.
Looking at the backside of the housing, you can see rotary fittings for the tube connection. These can slide on the sides to provide some flexibility during the installation.
There is a flat cable coming out from the base on one of the sides of the main housing.
This cable has a 3-pin power connector for the pump and standard 3-pin 5V ARGB connectors.
There is a copper base measuring approximately 53×59 mm. There is a warning sticker pasted over the base that needs to be removed before the installation. This sticker provides safety to the base.
Fans
darkFlash has provided 3x 120mm ARGB fans with this cooler. Each fan has 9x blades. The trailing side of the blade has stripes that maximize the airflow. The forward edge seems to be flat before taking a curve. The blades are frosted for vivid ARGB illumination. The center has darkFlash branding. Each mounting corner has an anti-vibration rubber pad.
There is a 4-arms assembly on the backside. They have a flat surface that would interrupt the air coming from the fan meaning there is no focused flow. These fans are made in China. There is a sticker on the center with darkFlash branding. The cables are flat and are routed through one arm that has a wider body.
These fans are using proprietary connectors that are 7-pin design. The idea is to daisy-chain these fans using a single cable and then use that cable’s connectors on the motherboard. As long as it is a smart daisy-chain design that reduces the cable clutter, I would take it.
The above picture shows a single cable that has 3 proprietary connectors that are attached to the fans. The opposite end of the cable has a standard 4-pin PWM connector and socket along with the standard 3-pin 5V ARGB connectors.
The above picture shows the daisy-chained fans. This makes the life of the user easy and since the fans come pre-installed, darkFlash has already taken care of the installation and connection.
Salient specifications of these fans include:
| Dimension | 120x120x25mm |
| Speed Range | 800 – 1800 RPM ±10% |
| Noise Level | 30 dB(A) |
| Air Flow | 61.7 CFM |
| Static Pressure | 1.26mmH₂O |
| Bearing | Hydraulic Bearings |
| MTTF | 40,000 hours |
| Rated Voltage | 12VDC |
Installation
We are not covering the details of installation. I only report if there is any issue or observation recorded during installation. I did not encounter any issues during the installation and it was a convenient task. You can integrate the cables coming from the pump block into the fans’ single cable or connect the pump’s power connector to a pump header on the motherboard and the fans’ power connector on the CPU_Fan header.
D-RGB Lighting
Since darkFlash uses standard connectors, the ARGB lighting is compatible with the RGB Sync technology of the motherboard manufacturers. I have used the GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G DDR5 motherboard and control the lighting using the RGB Fusion 2 app. The lighting was working fine. Here are a few pictures.
Testing
We have used the following configurations for testing:
- Intel core i7 12700k
- GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G D5
- XPG Lancer RGB 32GB DDR5 Kit @ 6000MHz
- GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 VISION OC
- Sabrent Rocket Q 500GB NVMe SSD [For OS]
- CORSAIR AX1200i Platinum PSU
- Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout
The test table for Intel core i7 12700k is:
| Clocks | P-Cores 4.8GHz, 5.0GHz
E-Core 3.8GHz, 4.0GHz |
| Voltage | 1.20V, 1.31V |
| C-States | Disabled |
| Speed Step | Disabled |
| Rest of settings | Stock, Auto |
| XMP | XMP Loaded where available |
| Thermal Paste | Stock |
| Thermal Paste Application | Pre-Applied or X method |
| Headers | CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT, and PUMP Headers |
| Stress Software | CINEBENCH R23.2 |
| Stress Run Time | 30 minutes |
| PC Idle Time | 5 minutes |
| Monitoring Software | HWInfo64 |
| OC Tool | Intel XTU |
The ambient temperature was in the range of 25°C to 25.5°C. Since the variation in the ambient temperature is within 1°C, we are reporting absolute temperatures in the graph. 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.
Disclaimer: Every silicon is different hence no two SKUs are likely to take the same voltage to yield the same performance at the same thermals per se but the margin would be close. Not every stress test run may yield the same result which could be due to various reasons like thermal paste application, ambient temperature variation, the mounting pressure of the cooler, etc. This is very why we have listed our variables and their settings.
Result
The darkFlash Nubela DN 360 has a decent performance as it matches the likes of mainstream coolers from Cougar, InWin, and be quiet! The noise output is almost at 43.8 dBA which is a decent sound profile.
I have recently started testing coolers using 5.0GHz on the P-Cores. This cooler has a good performance.
Conclusion
darkFlash has recently released another mainstream cooler in two sizes 240mm and 360mm. These coolers are named Nebula DN and they are available in white and black. I have taken a look at the Nebula DN 360 black cooler. This cooler is compatible with Intel LGA115x/1200/1700 sockets and AMD AM5/aM4/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2/FM2/FM1 sockets. There is no support for the Intel LGA20xx socket.
The radiator of this cooler is aluminum made with complete housing in black. It has a dimension of 397x120x27mm (LxWxH). The overall thickness of the unit will be around 53mm after installing the fans. It has a 20 FPI count and 12 channels for coolant flow. The build quality is good. darkFlash used IIR and EPDM rubber tubes on this cooler. These tubes are mentioned to withstand pressure and high temperature and these run to 450mm in length.
darkFlash uses a Non-Directional Symbol Pattern design over the top of the block which looks like a turbine with a circular plate in the middle. There is a ring diffuser running on the border of the design. That ring and the top plate are ARGB backlit for some cool looks. The pump of the unit uses a 3-stage powerful motor capable of providing up to 1.6L/minute flow rate with ±10% margin. The pump is rated at a 30 dBA sound level. It is not PWM regulated. The copper base measures approximately 53×59 mm.
There are three 120mm ARGB fans. Each fan has 9x frosted blades. There are stripes on the trailing edges of the blades. The mounting corners have anti-vibration pads. The center has ARGB LEDs. These fans are rated for a maximum of 1800 RPM ±10% generating 61.7 CFM airflow at 1.26mmH₂O static pressure. These fans are rated at 30 dBA noise level. They use Hydraulic bearings with an MTTF of 40,000 hours.
The main feature of these fans is that they use proprietary connections. There is an integrated 7-pin port on each fan to which the cables are pre-routed from the center. There is a single large-size cable provided with the fans. This cable has 3x proprietary connectors that are attached to the fans making them daisy-chained. The fans come pre-installed on the radiator. The cable has a standard 4-pin PWM connector and socket along with standard 3-pin, 5V ARGB connectors on the opposite ends making it compatible with the RGB sync technology of the motherboard manufacturers. Also, standard power connectors for the fans’ motors are compatible with the 4-pin PWM headers of the motherboards.
One caveat of this design is that in case of fan malfunctions, you would have to rely on darkFlash for the provision of replacement and I am not sure if these fans are available in a standalone version of the shelf. Speaking of the installation, you would need 10 items to install the block on the Intel LGA1700 socket. Installation is convenient.
This cooler is listed at €144.99. This is not a bad price for this cooler. This cooler has a decent performance when compared to the likes of Cougar, and InWin, and be quiet! coolers. However, darkFlash offers a 3-year warranty which is the lowest but matches the warranty of be quiet!. In the end, what matters is the customer service. The sound output of this cooler is good. I believe the use of mediocre fans has given this cooler a disadvantage. More powerful fans would have raised the bar in my opinion.
Pros:
- Decent Thermal Performance
- ARGB Backlighting on top
- Non-Directional Symbol Pattern design
- 3-Stage Motor for the Pump
- Daisy-Chained Fans with a Single Cable
- Pre-Installed Fans
- Standard Connectors on the single cable
- Easy Installation
- Better Noise
- Price
Cons:
- 3-Year Warranty
- Proprietary Connectors on the Fan
- Fans’ performance seems mediocre
