Alphacool Eisbrecher Pro XT45 360mm Radiator Review

Alphacool Eisbrecher Pro XT45 360mm Radiator Review

Welcome to another Extreme Rigs radiator review. Today we’ll being looking at the Eisbrecher Pro XT45 360mm from Alphacool. It’s part of the ever expanding range of water cooling components falling under the new “Eis” (Ice) series from this very popular water cooling manufacturer.

The Eisbrecher Pro (Icebreaker Pro) updates a classic by wrapping the NexXxos XT45 360 in a premium enclosure and adding LED logos to the side panels. Essentially then we have a floating XT45 radiator. This is not exactly what we were expecting when we first heard of a new radiator design, but we’ll hold off on judgement for now.

In this review we’ll take a detailed look at it’s construction because the aesthetic update has certainly grabbed our attention.  It looks fantastic and we hope the performance might also be improved with the introduction of the ABM (Air Breaker Mat). We’ll share the results of our restriction and thermal performance testing, then analyze the performance data and compare some results.

Firstly a big thanks to Aqua Tuning for providing the Alphacool Eisbrecher Pro XT45 360mm review sample. The ongoing support offered by Aqua Tuning is greatly appreciated by Extreme Rigs and ultimately means you the reader can make more informed purchase decisions.

What’s in the Box?

Our Eisbrecher Pro sample arrived in full retail packaging and it must be said that Alphacool have done an awesome job in this department.
The top features a full length “color” image plus the model and company logo.

The box has two parts, made from extra thick, sturdy cardboard and arrives with factory seals giving  the purchaser peace of mind that they have bought a new and factory sealed item.

After cutting the seals and removing the top cover we find the radiator enclosed in a bubble wrap bag and accessory boxes at each end.

It is just packaging but Alphacool seem have gone all out with the Eisbrecher Pro. Opening the box you get a sense that something premium and high end is within. A feeling of excitement about what lays partially obscured takes over while opening the box and has you wanting to delve deeper to find out more. Dramatic wording indeed, but it’s how we felt, kind of like kids on Christmas morning.

Fantastic packaging and on par the best we have seen.

Extent of Delivery: (as listed by Alphacool)

• 1x Alphacool Eisbrecher Pro XT45 Full Copper 360mm Radiator
• Mounting material

Alphacool certainly aren’t giving any clues away as to what accessories we might find in the 3 boxes which are included with the Eisbrecher Pro. We’ll guess that the brown box contains the mounting screw sets, which are presumably the same as the NexXxos series, but what about those two black boxes.

Surprisingly the brown box actually contains an 8mm Allen Key which was bagged inside the box. We correctly guessed that this is for tightening/loosening the port extenders which we’ll discuss a bit later.

Black box #1 was very light in comparison to the other, which had us curious as to it’s contents.

We discovered that inside were 4x sticky backed foam circles, very unusual. We’ve not seen this sort of thing included with a radiator before, so for now black box #1 remained somewhat of a mystery.

That left only one other place the “mounting material” (screws) could be hiding – black box #2.

Inside black box #2 we found 7 x zip lock bags.
3 x bags: M3 x 30mm (12 screws)
3 x bags: M3 x 35mm (12 screws)
1 x bag: M3 x 6mm (12 screws)

Only the last ~4mm on both 30mm and 35mm screw sets have been threaded before a short taper into a thicker shank. We certainly like this process because it is a fail safe for radiator punctures often caused from the wrong length screws being used.
The screws in the short set measure ~6mm in length. These are ideal for attaching reservoir/pump brackets onto the radiator OR to mount the radiator directly to a chassis panel or radiator mounting bracket.

Interestingly we found no stop plugs supplied with the accessories, yet from our research prior to delivery we expected the Eisbrecher Pro to have 6 ports. Perhaps they are pre-installed at the factory? Perhaps we’ll find out as we delve deeper. Onwards to technical specifications!