Overall and Final Verdict
With our testing out of the way, we can step back and put it all together. Enermax’s new all-in-one cooler lineup is a step in a different direction from what I have seen from them in the past. The Enermax LIQMAXFLO 360 has an integrated fan on top designed to bring airflow back into the area around your CPU to help keep your VRMs running cooler and with CPUs pulling as much power as they do these days that is important. The fan also has addressable RGB lighting which matches up with all of the fans and gives you the flexibility to match the cooler with your build or go crazy with the lighting if that is your thing. Beyond that Enermax included a maintenance kit with the cooler, a welcome change that brings attention to the fact that AIO coolers do lose coolant over time and this leads to bad performance and pumps failing. They also went with a unique wiring setup for their fans which daisy chains them all together and simplifies the wiring which can be a huge mess with RGB fans. It isn’t to the level of some of the linking fan designs like the Uni-Fans which get rid of the wiring between the fans altogether, but it isn’t far off with a simple connection. I was hoping to see performance a step above similar coolers with the thicker radiator but the performance ended up being right in line with other triple fan coolers. The Enermax LIQMAXFLO 360 did however stand out when it came to noise levels, especially when under load. Enermax also is offering a lot of flexibility with their new LIQMAXFLO lineup with a wide range of sizes including a larger triple 140 mm cooler and even more options with the Enermax LIQMAXFLO SR line which has a standard radiator thickness and no RGB on the fans.
The pump design with an integrated fan does mean that the pump/block is taller than other AIO coolers. That isn’t an issue in most situations, but in SFF builds it can be. The thicker radiator can also cause fitment issues in some cases so you will need to be careful with that. Beyond that, I wouldn’t mind a few small changes to simplify the installation, to add on to the time saved with the daisy-chained wiring. Pre-installed fans would be awesome and I have been seeing some coolers have that now. The pump bracket design which works well could use a better way to hold the bracket in place when you don’t have the pump installed, having to hold it from behind when putting the pump on would be a lot easier with a third hand.
For pricing, Enermax isn’t aiming for the highest-end market like Lian Li is with their performance model, which is good because that cooler is still a step ahead in cooling performance (not so much on the noise though). The Enermax LIQMAXFLO 360 that I tested today has an MSRP of $134.99 but it is selling on Newegg for $129.99. This is a little more than what their Aquafusion Adv coolers are selling for right now and aesthetically I do prefer the fan design on those more. But the pricing is in line with what you would expect for a 360 mm addressable RGB cooler with the RGB controller included. Having the VRM cooling is just a nice bonus on top of that. This is a nicer setup than the In Win BR36 which has VRM cooling and is a lot less than the Asus Ryujin coolers which also have VRM cooling.
Live Pricing: HERE
