Just after I had a chance to take a closer look at Fractal’s Celsius S36 all-in-one water-cooler, that was in combination with their Vector RS chassis, feel free to check that one out, I’ll put a link to them in the right top corner of this video, I already got my hands on its, sort of like a successor, the Celsius+ S24 Prisma and Celsius+ S36 Prisma. Since I have both the 240 and 360 mm versions of it, why not compare them?
It seems like they’re a spin-off of their original brother, but as you’ll now see, it’s far from that. Compared to the regular Celsius series, the CPU block on the Celsius+ is bigger, in particular taller, although the block is smaller in diameter. I assume it’s a bit taller due to housing RGB LED’s and additional hardware for the addressable RGB hub and fan control, while the pump itself by the specification seems to be more or less the same, probably a newer Asetek solution.
The housing also received this rubberized mat finish, which in my opinion looks really nice, while the top of it is almost mirror-like glossy, basically, a fingerprint scanner, carrying Fractal’s logo and a thin RGB LED ring which surrounds it and goes around the outer edge of the block. The ring seems to carry a total of six RGB LED’s, they’re not that distinguishable unless you take a better look at them, so yes, it will give you that uniform and evenly dispersed look, too bad they didn’t dedicate to light up the logo with RGB LED’s also, but rather with a white one, but I must admit it looks pretty clean like this, so I don’t mind it
We again have the option to manually choose between the Auto and PWM mode just by rotating the outer ring, which is now a bit easier to turn, and it also lights up when you change its position. Beside the pump this will also control the cooler’s fans if you decide to use the fan hub on the radiator itself, so the pump speed and the fan speed will be in sync in terms of the voltage they’re receiving, so if a pump let’s say run’s at 60%, the fans will run at 60% too, which for some users won’t be appealing since they would like to control the fan and the pump speed separately from each other, so they can achieve that balance and optimum noise level and performance.
Celsius+ S24 Prism+ Celsius+ S36 Prisma goes RGB
The connector hub which the radiator carries also received an update, now it houses an addressable RGB connector for the fans, and it’s also sent trough the sleeving of the other tube to the CPU block, which is why we now have this other added connector on the block with its own cable, and you just hook it up to an addressable RGB header on the motherboard and control everything over it with whatever software utility comes with the motherboard, depending on its manufacturer, for example, in the case of my MSI’s X570 that was their Mystic Light utility. Unfortunately, the fan cable again is not long enough for it to reach the hub from the bottom radiator position, I don’t know how they missed that one this, plus it can get a bit messy daisy-chaining their addressable RGB cables, although you’ll have enough length to reach the addressable RGB connector on the hub. All of the cables are nicely sleeved, from one end to another, I really don’t have complaints, expect again that the ones for fans are a bit too short.
Speaking of the fans, these ones are coming as a completely new add-on for this series, they are what make this AIO additionally pop-out. Those are of course the Prisma RGB fans which go along with the also RGB lit CPU block, and what’s also interesting is that you don’t have to choose them, you can also go for the non-RGB options called the Celsius+ Dynamic, instead of the Prisma. Although, if you wish to have the highest static pressure possible, which is desirable when it comes to radiators, you should go for the Prisma version since it has around 20% more of static pressure with basically the same airflow and noise levels. So the Celsius+ model and the AIO stands on its own, while you have an option to choose different fans. The difference in price between these two version range from 20 to 30$ in benefit of the Dynamic model.
The radiator size offering has been expanded, now we have a 280 mm version, so that’s with the two times 140 mm fan configuration, alongside the 240 mm S24 Prisma and 360 mm S36 Prisma version which I have here with me. Their dimensions are completely the same compared to the regular Celsius series, we seem to have the same fin density and 30 mm of thickness, the only thing that is different is that these ones are not using the G quarter fittings, so you won’t be able to expand the loop, which is a bit disappointing.
The installation process is identical to its predecessor, so is the socket support, it can go on basically anything, bottom line it was as simple and straightforward as it can be, especially in case of ADM’s platform which I used for my testing, you just need to change the bracket, but this little hook on the other and, latch it on the existing stock cooler bracket, tighten it down and that’s it. The tubing is long enough for it to be put on the front of the chassis, 400 mm to be precise, and at the same time, it provides enough rigidity and flexibility to be put in its place, while the joints are rotatable. For the purpose of this testing, I’ve used a chassis that has a big mesh front panel, so I can provide it with enough airflow and have optimal testing conditions when it comes to so the speak real-life scenario.
Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already because I’m also going to release my review of this very interesting and affordable chassis from SilentiumPC, they’re really hitting the right spots with this one.
Tackling a Ryzen 7 3700X with Celsius+ Prisma duo
For the CPU I’ve used AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X, strapped onto MSI’s X570 MPG Gaming Edge Wi-Fi motherboard. Both the S36 and S24 radiators were mounted on the front of the chassis during their testing, and besides its fan, I’ve put another Prisma 120 mm fan on the back of the chassis servings as an exhaust. For my temperature testing, I’ve used AIDA’s 64 system stability test the bring the heat up so I can clearly see how these all-in-one water-coolers perform.
They were both able to keep the CPU temperature below 80°C, which is what I usually see when I put watercolor on this particular model of the CPU. If you compare the 240 vs 360 rad from Celsius+ Prisma series directly, the difference is definitely there. At stock values, the 360 mm version takes a win with around 3°C of advantage, but once we bump that up to higher values, albeit the Ryzen 7 3700X doesn’t have a high declared TDP, but when overclocked it can push some heat out due to the fact it has 8 cores and 16 threads, the difference basically tempers off to a point where they perform very similarly to each other. In that case, the 240 mm model even performed better compared to the 360 mm, but I assume that’s probably due to a bit different pump or fan speed at that moment, which is confirmed if you compare their results at full fan speed, where the 360 mm model again had better results.
As you’ve probably noticed by looking at the results, the Auto mode wasn’t able to sustain the CPU temperatures when it was overclocked, to a point it would trigger a thermal trip where the whole system just restarts in order to prevent damaging the CPU due to high temperatures. Although both coolers could clearly handle that kind of overclocking based on what I saw when you use PWM control and when you leave it to motherboards fan profile or do a fan curve on your own, it seems like the Auto mode wasn’t set up in a way that it would react that fast to a CPU temperature change, as they’re probably using a thermal probe within the loop itself, measuring the coolant temperature and it tends to heat up slower, giving more time for the CPU to heat up further before the cooler reacts on that.
On the other hand, it did like how the Auto mode silently operated both the fans and the block pump, it was whisper quiet both during idle and load, but of course with a slight caveat, higher CPU temperature and a bit lower boost clocks on a count of that. Although I approve the near-silent operation, It’s clear that they need to work on that ramping curve, it needs to respond a bit quicker and maybe overall make the fans and pump work 10-20% faster, just to additionally ensure a bit lower temperatures.
240 or 360 AIO – worth the difference?
Other than that, the fans are audible above 1500 RPM, which, when it comes to PWM control and the default motherboards fan profile, will be surpassed in the case of Ryzen 7 3700X as it tends to reach higher temperatures, so the BIOS tries to compensate that with higher fan speeds, making the fans run close to its full speed in almost every cooler testing that I’ve so far done with it. In this particular case, as in pretty much all of them when the fans are running close to their maximal speed, that was unbearably loud for me. Based on what I saw with the Auto function, the best thing would be for you to find some middle ground with manually setting the fan profile and pump speed, as this would result in good cooling performance and quiet operation. The pump itself is not loud, I was actually quite surprised with its noise level’s, this might be the one I approve in terms of that, but just maybe, as I’m a bit of noise freak when it comes to rattling and high-pitched sounds, I would have to try it a longer-term basis.
Here’s a short sound clip of the AIO’s with the CPU being under full load, while also showing the sound meter for measurement comparison. During this noise testing the back fan was turned off while the GPU was idling so its fan stop technology kicked in, so you will only hear the pump and the radiator fans, just so you can get a better comparison on how loud only they are in a chassis, or the AIO as a solution in particular.
The price difference between these two particular models is a pretty hefty one, around 50$, which will make you think twice considering that both of them do a more than a good job with a mainstream level CPU like this one, so the question of value for your money imposes naturally, especially comparing it to their competitors. With that said, should you go for the 240 or 360 AIO? Well, the 240 mm version will be a more sensible pick in this case, and that can be applied generally for all other 240 mm AIO models out there when we talk about putting them on a mid-range level CPUs. On the other hand, the 360 mm will deliver you slightly better performance, but more importantly, it will let you lower down your fan speed, thus the noise level, while keeping the performance more or less the same. Of course, if you have a really TDP hungry CPU, every bit of performance always helps, so with having all that it in mind, you should make your pick according to your needs and hardware configuration.
That’s it for this time, thanks for checking out my Celsius+ S24 Prisma review and Celsius+ S36 Prisma review, and if you have any question feel free to hit me in the comment section of my YouTube video listed above or you can contact me via my social media channels!
