Introduction

When it comes to PC Components, AsusTek is among one of the best names we have in the market. It was founded in 1989 in Taiwan. Ever since its foundation, Asus has seen a phenomenal growth and diversity in its business line. When it comes to Asus, the first associated name that comes to mind is ROG or Republic of Gamers. ROG brand was introduced in 2006 and it focuses on mainstream gamers/enthusiasts with products ranging from Motherboard, Graphics Cards to Peripherals. ROG is now the pinnacle of the Asus products lineup. Strix has been a new addition in ROG lineup and here is what Asus is saying about it: “ROG Strix is the newest recruit into the Republic of Gamers. A series of specialized gaming gear designed for the rebel in all of us, Strix exemplifies ROG’s premier performance, innovative technology, and leading quality, but with its own confident and dynamic attitude. Featuring bold designs and bright colors, this exciting new series possesses a spirit of fierce individualism that charges every gaming experience with thrilling energy. ROG Strix equips players with the necessary speed and agility to dominate their game. A new generation of force has arrived. Join the Republic and experience the power of ROG Strix.”

Computex 2018 has been full of surprises and Asus booth was not behind this surprise Pandora box. Asus showcased their ROG branded CPU Liquid Coolers, Power Supply, and concept chassis designs, all there to further expand into their ROG Ecosystem. They definitely took the audience by surprise. But this was expected given the recent trends in the industry where companies like Gigabyte are releasing their branded coolers, RAMs and what not. ROG being the elitist of all could not lag behind and has made a superb, stylish, and bold entry into a complete ROG branded build concept – coming at more premium pricing.

Asus has sent us their ROG Ryujin and Ryuo CPU Coolers for the review and man was I not thrilled for them! Indeed I was and that is I made a request to Asus for the review samples at earliest to give these bad boys a spin and see that hold for the enthusiasts/gamers. Today, I will be taking a look at Asus ROG Ryuo 240 CPU Liquid Cooler. Asus has partnered with Asetek fruiting their idea of seeding the CPU cooling. What is this naming all about? Well, RYUO is a dragon king in Japanese mythology that symbolizes the power of the ocean and is known as a water deity associated with rainfall and winds. Ryou maintains the weather balance and bestows safety to the people in its region. Ryuo is the first cooler from the ROG brand with a reliable foundation and unique enhancements like Aura Sync lighting and a full-color LiveDash OLED, this liquid cooler brings ROG engineering to a vital part of your PC. This segment has two variants at the moment; 120mm and 240mm. I will be testing the 240mm version. This cooler features Asus ROG Ryuo fan model 12 designed specifically for the radiators with airflow of up to 81 CFM at 5.0 mmH₂O static pressure while spinning at 2500 RPM. Specs on paper seem rather powerful. I am not sure about the OEM of the fans as not much information is available about these fans yet. At the core of the cooling is the Asetek 6th generation pump harnessing the cooling potential of the Asus ROG Coolers with the splendid mix of the 1.77” full-color OLED display which is embedded on the top of the block. The housing of the block is made of aluminum and looks that good in person. This is not all as the block also features the addressable RGB lighting near its bottom that really adds to the look. And as expected this lighting is fully compatible with the AURA Sync lighting. Asus has provided a simple yet robust software called LiveDash to control and customize the output on the OLED display. The user can set it to display the frequency, temperature voltage of the CPU. The user can also set it to display an animation on the screen or pre-defined set of images and banners. As long as the resolution size is 160×128 pixels, with less than 1 MB size in JPEG and GIF, the opportunities are endless. This cooler is compatible with Intel LGA 115x, 1366, 20xx, and AMD’s AM4 and TR4. Please, note that you would need to buy a kit for the TR4. Asus is offering a 3 years of warranty on these coolers.

Item: ROG Ryuo 240

Manufacturer: Asus

Category: CPU Liquid Cooler

Price: USD 188 / PKR 26,300/- [At the time of the review]

The Asus ROG Ryuo 120 will retail at USD 167 / PKR 23,400

Specifications

Packaging and Unboxing

The cooler is shipped in a standard ROG styling packing box made of cardboard. The front side has black color background with the Asus Republic of Gamers brand logo and name printed in the red color on the top left. ROG RYUO 240 is printed in silver color. There is a picture of the unit showing the RGB lighting and OLED display on the block. Asus AURA Sync compatible info label is printed at the bottom right.

The backside of the box has Asus ROG brand name and logo printed on the top left in the red color followed by silver color printing of the ROG RYUO 240. There are four pictures of the unit highlighting the special features of the cooler. Specifications are printed below the pictures. Compliance labels to the various regulations are printed at the bottom.

The left and the right sides are identical. They have a black color background and has ROG RYUO 240 printed in the silver color. Liquid CPU Cooler is printed in the red color below.

The top side solid has red color background with ROG Eye printed in the black color in the center.

The bottom side has salient features printed in 10 different languages. There is a white color sticker pasted at the bottom right having information like UPC, EAN, Serial no, and Part No of the unit.

Opening the box will show standard ROG styling inside on the underside of the top cover. There is an Asus ROG brand name and logo printed in the center. The egged carton can be seen which adds rigidity and further protection to the contents.

Contents

Following are included:

1x Radiator

2x 120mm Asus ROG RYUO Fan Model 12 fans

1x Intel Backplate

1x Intel Mounting Bracket

1x AMD Mounting Bracket

4x Thumbscrew caps

16x Washers

8x UNC 6-32x30mm Fan Screws

4x Intel LGA 115x/1366 Standoffs

4x Intel LGA 20xx Standoffs

4x AM4 Standoffs

16x UNC 6-32x8mm Radiator Screws

1x Micro USB cable

User Manual

Closer Look

Asus has made an entry into the paraphernalia of the PC components with the launch of their ROG CPU Coolers named RYUJIN and RYUO followed by the Thor PSU and Chassis. They have expanded further into the ROG ecosystem which may have roots in the industry norm at the moment; nevertheless, it is a pleasing moment for the ROG lovers. They seemed to have come out of the mainly focusing on the graphics cards and the motherboards which are highly popular for their functionality, and styling. Maybe for ROG users, the price is of secondary concern and if that is not the case then the prices of these coolers may surprise and shock them. Coming back to the main objective of this content, here is what Asus is saying about the RYUO coolers, “ROG Ryuo is a series of high-performance CPU liquid coolers designed for compact and mid-sized gaming builds. As the first CPU coolers from ROG, the Ryuo series brings the performance, features and design details you expect from ROG to a vital part of your gaming system. Featuring an embedded 1.77-inch LiveDash color OLED display that enables monitoring of real-time system stats as well as displaying personalized image or animation, ROG Ryuo lets you ensure your system both runs and looks its best. Together with Aura Sync support for harmonized RGB lighting effects, ROG Ryuo coolers deliver stunning aesthetics along with game-changing performance.”

Radiator

It is time to look into the design of this cooler followed by our testing to see what it offers to the users. The dimension of the radiator is 272x121x27mm where 27mm is the thickness or height of the radiator. It is a slim radiator. With 25mm fans, the total height would be 52mm. The total thickness of the unit when assembled was 54.56mm as reported by my digital caliper. This is due to the thick heads of the fan screws.

The radiator is made of aluminum hence it is lightweight. FPI count is 20 on this radiator and fans with high airflow and air pressure make sense here. There are 13 channels in the radiator. The edges of the radiator are angular. The far chamber is relatively thinner which is what we see on almost all AIO coolers. There is 105mm of spacing between any two mounting holes on the radiator housing. The total length of the fins area is 240mm approximately. The depth of the radiator is 121mm. The total thickness of the fin stack is roughly 24.16mm approximately.

There is no protective plating under the mounting holes on this radiator so take care while installing the fans on it as long screws could easily damage the fins that would least impact the performance or worst leakage from the radiator. There is a sticker pasted on the tubes chamber showing the serial no. The far chamber has a sticker pasted on it as well which is standard in all the AIO where Asetek is the OEM.

This cooler is using flexible rubber tubing with sleeves on for better aesthetics. The length of the tube is 380mm. The tubes have OD of 10.82mm as measured with a digital caliper.

Water Block

Let’s take a look at the main showcase of this cooler which is the CPU block. The ROG Ryuo is equipped with the latest cooling-plate design featuring micro-channels that provide more thermal dissipation area for processor heat. This innovative feature reduces thermal resistance for more efficient performance and cooler temps much thanks to the 6th generation of Asetek pumps with Asus customized PCB for added functionality.

The pump housing is made of aluminum and measures 80x80x45mm. It is finished in black color tone and it looks damn impressive in person. The housing is in a circular design. Looking at the back side of the housing, we can see the 90° barb fittings with both tubes at the same level. Tubes can be rotated easily as per the requirement. There are three flat cables coming out from the backside sandwiched between the fittings.

1x SATA cable measuring 310mm approximately

1x 4-pin connector cable measuring 296mm approximately

1x Y-Splitter cable measuring 276+50mm approximately

This does add in the overall cable management challenge and if the user is not good at it, the bulk of cables could ruin the impressive OLED display and RGB lighting.

The top side of the block has NCVM coating and this is where most of the magic is coming from. It features the industry’s first ever embedded all colors 1.77” OLED display which can display almost anything as long as the requirements of 160×128 pixels in JPEG/GIF and less than 1MB size are met. Asus has provided a comprehensive software called LiveDash to control the OLED Display and it has been optimized for Asus motherboards for hardware monitoring like CPU frequency, temperature, voltage, fan speeds etc. The user has the option of flipping the display 180° so there is no need to worry about deciding upon the layout of the block when installing. The top edges of the housing have Republic of Gamers text printed on opposite sides facing each other in the white color. The right side of the block is plain surface without any branding or printing. While you are thinking I am done with the block, it is far from that.

The left side of the block has a micro USB port which is more inset into the housing. It is located near to the rear side. My only complaint with this design is that there is more depth to access the port. Connecting the bundled micro USB cable after installing the block may be problematic. If you are thinking, no biggy, I will install the micro USB cable before installing the block, it simply is not possible as the large bulkhead of the cable will obstruct the mounting corner of the block. Just, take your time with it. In total, we have 4 cables to deal with this block. Giving you heads up just in case!

The top chamber of the block has a height of 19mm. The lower chamber has more width to it. The intersection point of these chambers has another magic show completely hidden from the eyes unless it is powered on. This intersection has addressable RGB LED strip which lights when the unit is connected to the PSU using the SATA cable. This lighting creates a dope effect on the surrounding areas of the CPU socket.

Now that we have taken a look at the block, it is time to take a peek at the bottom. We have a 54mm diameter circular base made of copper and come with pre-applied thermal paste. It seems like Asetek has upped their game in the thermal paste as I have tested the cooler with stock paste and the Noctua NT-H1 and performance difference is not much by any means. Intel mounting bracket comes pre-installed. It can easily be taken off to install AMD mounting bracket. Unfortunately, I could not get much information about the pump but it is rated at 12VDC using 3.9W giving us the hint on the current rating of 0.325Amps. The maximum RPM on the pump as reported in the BIOS was 2780 RPM and I have found it to be silent even running at full speed.

Fans

It is time to take a look at Asus ROG Ryuo Model 12 fans. These are the custom fans introduced with their RYUO coolers and they totally symbolize the ROG concept. First, let’s take a look at their specifications:

Variable Value Dimension (mm) 125x125x25 Speed (RPM) 2500 ± 10% Static Pressure (mmH₂O) 5.0 at 12V Air Flow (CFM) 80.95 Noise 37.6 dB(A) Control 4-pin PWM Voltage (VDC) 12 Current (Amp) 0.58 Power (W) 6.96 Cable Length (mm) 316 (approx)

The fan has a black color plastic frame with 7 impellers designed to cater for the high resistance surfaces. The static pressure rating of the fan is a clear indicator of it. The center has a reflective ROG eye sticker pasted on it. The diameter of the center hub is approximately 40mm. There is no anti-vibration pad on any mounting corner which should have been included in this premium price. Republic of Gamers is embossed on the inner slop frame near to one mounting corner. The frame has an inward slope on each mounting corner. The surface of mounting corners is raised as compared to the overall frame’s height. The raised surface has such a design that it is not raised across the complete length of the corner which makes it difficult to use any anti-vibration pads. There is a spacing of 105mm between any two mounting holes. Though it is a plastic frame its finishing gives the impression of brushed aluminum.

The backside of the fan has 4-arms assembly with one arm having more width and inset to provide for the cable route. There is a sticker pasted on the center with ROG eye printed in the white color at the top. ROG RYUO FAN MODEL 12 is printed under the ROG eye. The fan is made in China. Each mounting corner has mounting hole side sandwiched between two recessed surfaces. The cable is flat to my liking. These fans are not RGB if you are looking for this information. I was unable to gather critical information which is MTBF/MTTF of these fans. According to Asus the RYUO Fan model 12 provides 12% more airflow and 7% more static pressure as compared to other AIOs. There are no arrow indicators on any side to show the direction of the blade spin and airflow. These fans are drawing much higher power. I would not recommend using these two fans on a single fan header as most of the fan headers on the motherboard are rated at 1A at 12VDC. These two fans will draw 1.16A when combined using a y splitter. I have tested these fans on a HiAmp fan header rated at 3A.

OLED Display and RGB Lighting

Before moving on to the installation and testing sections, let’s take a look at the Vortex software to control the OLED display and AURA Sync lighting on this cooler. All Asus ROG coolers are AURA Sync compatible which helps the users to synchronize their complete lighting solution based on Asus hardware. AURA SDK is also available for the other manufacturers and developers. Livedash can be downloaded from the Asus website and they work with the Asus ROG coolers. This software has simplified interface which is appreciated and provides the users with the options to show hardware monitoring stats (only for Asus motherboards), animations, logos, pictures, texts, banners, you name it.

The main interface will show the Hardware Monitor as the default menu. The interface has ROG eye printed on the top left side. There is an option to turn the OLED display off/on. There is an option to rotate the display 180° under the OLED display. I really appreciate the Asus design team to take care of this minute detail as it will free the users from the orientation of the block while installing it. Also, as I have tested the cooler on the PrimoChill Praxis WetBench which is an open-air test bench chassis, this feature came handy when I was monitoring the hardware stats while sitting in my chair.

Please, note that you would need AiSuite to control and monitor the fans connected with the cooler. AiSuite can be downloaded from the Asus website. Under the Fan Xpert, the ROG RYUON option will appear showing the custom fan curve which the user can set as per the requirement. Please, note that this is optional is only needed if you are connecting both fans to the Y-Splitter cable coming from the block. I did not use the AiSuite software for monitoring the temperatures as it is not a standard thermal monitoring software on my test bench. It was only used to check and control the speed of the fans and to show to our readers about it. Please, read the testing methodology for better understanding of our testing scheme.

Next, the menu is Image or Animation. The user can use this menu to display any image or animation on the OLED screen as long as the following requirements are met:

Resolution of the image is 160×128 pixels.

Type of the image is JPEG/GIF.

Size of the image is limited to a maximum of 1MB.

Click on Custom Image/animation option to enable the Browse button. Browse and select the desired image and click on the Apply button at the bottom to get it displayed on the screen. Else, the user can use the predefined logos and animation available in the list at the bottom for the display. Red ROG eye is my personal favorite.

Next, the menu is Custom Banner. Here Asus has provided three predefined templates for the image. The user can type the text in the text box located at the bottom and clicking on the Apply button will load the custom banner on the screen.

Next is the lighting control. 6 Modes are available for the addressable RGB lighting on these coolers. These are:

Static

Breathing

Strobing

Rainbow

Color Cycle

Flash and Dash

The user can set the direction of the lighting flow as well as control the speed of the dynamic effects. There is one caveat to it. Selecting any lighting mode will change the lighting mode of the Asus motherboard as well and if you would want to select the different lighting on the motherboard then the one on the cooler then AURA Sync software for the motherboard needs to be used for this purpose. This would make the total no of software needed to be 3 which in my opinion is cumbersome and Livedash should have all the options in it for the users’ convenience.

1 of 8

The lighting effects are right on the money and I love the colors. It is not overly done and has even lighting for smooth and better visuals. OLED display is something out of this world on this cooler as we have yet to see such option on any cooler. It is brilliantly done!

Installation

Here are the Installation guides for the Intel LGA-20XX and 115X sockets:

LGA-20XX

Install the LGA-20XX standoffs screws on the mounting holes around the CPU Socket.

Install the fans on the radiator using the supplied fan screws and washers.

Place the water block on the CPU by aligning the mounting holes on the mounting bracket with the LGA 20XX standoff screws.

Secure the block using the thumbscrew caps. Use a screwdriver for this job and go diagonally for even pressure.

Connect the 4-pin PWM cable to the CPU fan header or any of your desire fan header.

Connect the SATA connector to the PSU.

Connect the fans power cables to the Y-Splitter cable coming from the block or use Y-Splitter of your own and connect them on your desire fan header on the motherboard.

This would complete the installation.

LGA-115X

Set the pushpins on the Intel backplate according to the socket. Slide them down for the Intel LGA-115X.

Place the backplate on the backside of the motherboard by aligning the push pins with the pre-drilled holes around the CPU socket.

Use the Intel LGA1115X/1366 standoff screws and secure the backplate with the motherboard. There will be a flex in the backplate giving the impression that it is not mounted correctly. Ignore that it will be secured once the block is installed.

Place the water block on the CPU by aligning the mounting holes on the bracket with the standoff screws.

Secure the block using the thumbscrew caps. Use a screwdriver for this job and go diagonally for even pressure.

Connect the 4-pin PWM cable to the CPU fan header or any of your desire fan header.

Connect the SATA connector to the PSU.

Connect the fans power cables to the Y-Splitter cable coming from the block or use Y-Splitter of your own and connect them on your desire fan header on the motherboard.

This would complete the installation.

Clearance and Installation Notes

The best thing about AIOs is the maximum clearance and compatibility with respect to the chassis, DIMM slots, PCIe slot. This cooler has no such clearance issue. The tubes are not blocking any DIMM slot and RAM modules of any height can be used. Similarly, the block is not obstructing the first PCIe x16 3.0 slot. Make sure that chassis has provision for a 240mm radiator mounting and you are good to go.

Testing and Methodology

Since this is the first time with the Asus ROG fans, I decided to measure their unrestricted airflow using the PerfectPrime WD9819 Anemometer. Since it is a summer season here, I will not be testing the acoustical performance of these fans due to certain uncontrollable environmental noises. These will be subjective based on my experience with testing various fans and coolers thus far. Let’s start with the airflow testing.

Airflow

The airflow rating of these fans is 80.95 CFM and my testing has shown the measured maximum airflow of 87 CFM validating the airflow rating of the Asus ROG RYUO Model 12 fans.

PWM Range

The Reeven Polariz RFC-04 fan controller was used to regulate the speed of the fans. Surprisingly, I could not take these fans down the 1200 RPM making that to be their lower limit. This is something I was not expecting as this reading was coming when the fan controller was at 5V. Maximum speed reading was 2490 RPM which is well within the 2500 ± 10% error of margin (0.4% to be exact). Both fans reached the same speed.

Thermal Testing

Following test bench was used for testing this cooler: –

Asus Rampage V Edition 10

Intel i7 6850k

Crucial Ballistics Elite 4x4GB @ 3000MHz

Nvidia GTX 1080 FE

Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD

Seagate Barracuda 2TB

Corsair AX1200i

PrimoChill Praxis WetBench

Following software were used for the testing and monitoring.

Asus Real Bench v 2.44

Real Temp GT v 3.70

The thermal paste being used on the test bench is the Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste. Since Asus asked us to test the coolers using the stock paste, so I have tested the cooler using the stock paste and then the Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste as well. The use of a same thermal paste for all coolers will ensure the standardization and mitigate any performance benefit that may come using the supplied thermal paste. Delta temperatures are reported on the graphs. The cooler is tested on stock clocks i.e 3.6GHz using 1.136V manual VCore. The Asus RealBench 2.44 is used to stress test the cooler’s performance. Each run of the test was of 60 minutes followed by minimum 15 minutes idle time to let the system cool down. The fans and pump were set to run at their 100% RPM. CPU is overclocked to 4.3GHz with 1.350V manual Vcore. The max temps on each core is summed up and divided by the core count to give the average figure. Delta temperatures are calculated by subtracting the ambient temperature from the average temperature. 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.

Let’s take a look at the results. On stock clocks i.e 3.6GHz at 1.13V, the chip was idling at 2.83°C using stock paste. Under stress test, the cooler was doing a delta of 21.83°C on stock paste. Using the Noctua NT-H1, the under load temperature was 21.0°C a marginal 0.83°C difference from the stock paste. It is clear the stock paste is that good to give you the better thermal performance. This cooler has definitely taken a top slot even on a stock paste but with a difference range of 1°C – 2.29°C. Asus clearly means business with these coolers.

With overclocked chip at 4.3GHz using 1.350V, the chip was doing 40°C under load using stock thermal paste. With Noctua NT-H1 it was doing 39°C. This again confirms that the stock paste is indeed good for better thermal performance. Using the stock paste the thermal performance range is 1° to 1.5°C which could be bettered using the aftermarket stock pastes as all the other coolers were tested using the Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste.

Acoustic Performance

I could not measure the sound level of the unit due to certain environmental noises that would invalidate the actual sound level reading from the sound meter. Based on my experience with the fans and coolers testing so far, these fans are noisy and definitely warrant a custom fan curve. I am a sort of guy who wants silent or near silent operations and these fans are not falling in this category.

Conclusion

The Computex 2018 was full of innovation and new ideas. This was seen at Asus booth as well where they showcased further expansion into the ROG ecosystem with ROG branded CPU Coolers, Power Supplies, and PC Chassis. This definitely gained attraction and ROG lovers have been waiting and wanting the new stuff from the Asus’s premium ROG brand. Well, finally the wait is coming to an end with the launch of the Asus ROG Ryujin and Ryuo CPU coolers along with the Thor PSUs. The Asus has partnered with the Asetek to bring in fruition their new breed of All-In-One coolers. These coolers are using the Asetek’ sixth generation pumps with presumably Asus modified PCB for added functionality. The Asus ROG Ryuo is the cooler targeted for the enthusiasts while their flagship cooler is Ryujin. We are expecting their cooler for mainstream somewhere during 2019. The ROG Ryuo all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler brings the performance benefits of the ROG Ryujin liquid cooler in a more affordable package. Its aluminum pump cover is an optimized shape for high airflow yet skips the Ryujin’s extra shell in favor or a more spartan and conventional look. Ideal for mid-size builds and smaller form factors, the ROG Ryuo features Aura Sync lighting and a full-color LiveDash display that strikes the right balance between purely cosmetic enhancement and functional system monitoring.

The dimension of the radiator is 272x121x27mm where 27mm is the thickness or height of the radiator. It is a slim radiator. With 25mm fans, the total height would be 52mm. The total thickness of the unit when assembled was 54.56mm as reported by my digital caliper. This is due to the thick heads of the fan screws. There is 105mm of spacing between any two mounting holes on the radiator housing. The total length of the fins area is 240mm approximately. The depth of the radiator is 121mm. The total thickness of the fin stack is roughly 24.16mm approximately. There is no protective plating under the mounting holes on this radiator so take care while installing the fans on it as long screws could easily damage the fins that would least impact the performance or worst leakage from the radiator. Asus is using the sleeved rubber tubing measuring 380mm with OD of 10.82mm.

The ROG Ryuo is equipped with the latest cooling-plate design featuring micro-channels that provide more thermal dissipation area for processor heat. The pump housing is made of aluminum and measures 80x80x45mm. It is finished in black color tone and it looks damn impressive in person. The housing is in a circular design. The top side of the block has NCVM coating and this is where most of the magic is coming from. It features the industry’s first ever embedded all colors 1.77” OLED display which can display almost anything as long as the requirements of 160×128 pixels in JPEG/GIF and less than 1MB size are met. Three cables are coming out of the block. These are all flat cables. One is 310mm long SATA cable to power the OLED Display and addressable RGB LEDs. The second one is the pump’s power cable measuring 296mm and the third is a y-splitter cable measuring 276+50mm to connect two fans on the radiator with the unit to be controlled using the software. There is a micro USB port on the block which is located much inside the block and it may cause inconvenience when installing the USB cable. Cable management using 4 cables is a challenging task. The block has a copper base with 54mm diameter and comes with pre-applied thermal paste. Addressable RGB LEDs are located on the intersection point of the top chamber and the bottom chamber and create some stunning lighting effect.

Asus has bundled ROG Ryuo Model 12 fans with the Ryuo coolers. These are the custom fans introduced with their RYUO coolers and they totally symbolize the ROG concept from their design. The fan has a black color plastic frame with 7 impellers designed to cater for the high resistance surfaces. The center has a reflective ROG eye sticker pasted on it. The diameter of the center hub is approximately 40mm. There is no anti-vibration pad on any mounting corner which should have been included in this premium price. There is a spacing of 105mm between any two mounting holes. Though it is a plastic frame its finishing gives the impression of brushed aluminum. These fans are rated at 2500±0% RPM. Their static pressure rating is 5.0 mmH₂O at 12VDC. Maximum airflow rating is 80.95 CFM. Sound pressure is rated at 37.6 dB(A). Their power rating is 0.58A, 6.96W at 12VDC. During our testing of these fans, it was observed that these could not go below 1200 RPM. These fans are drawing higher power. Don’t use them on a single fan header as most of the motherboards’ fan headers are rated at 1A, 12VDC. These fans would draw 1.16A when combined which could damage the motherboard and these fans. I have tested these fans on a HiAmp header rated at 3A.

Asus has provided an easy to use software called LiveDash to control the OLED Display and AURA lighting. The plus point of the design is that this is fully AURA Sync compatible and can be used to sync overall lighting zones on the Asus motherboards and graphics cards. The requirement to out a display on the screen is to use an image/animation of 160×128 pixels with a maximum size of 1MB using the JPEG/GIF only extensions. The LiveDash is optimized to display the hardware monitoring stats on the screen like CPU temperature, voltage, speed etc. This can only be done on the Asus motherboards, keep that in mind. To control the fans’ speed, you would need to download and install the AiSuite software. This functionality is not available in the LiveDash. As such we are dealing here with three software which to some or many, may sound cumbersome. OLED screen display is a killer element of the design and man, am I not loving it! It is absolutely fun and addressable RGB lighting creates stunning effects around the CPU socket.

The thermal performance of this cooler is very good and it has taken a sweet top slot even on the stock paste. The quality of the stock paste is definitely good as there is only a 1°C difference between it and the Noctua NT-H1. On stock clocks and with overclocking, the cooler emerges as a winner though the margin of win is narrow on the higher clocks. Unfortunately, this performance is coming at the expense of noisy fans for which I would suggest setting up a custom fan curve. At around 1800-1900 RPM the sound level was what I could bear with but above that, they were getting louder. Asus is offering 3 years of limited warranty on these coolers which is nice though, in this price range, 5 years warranty should have been provided. Corsair’s new Hydro series coolers also based on the Asetek’s 6th generation pumps but are costing much less and come with 5 years of warranty. Of course, they lack the OLED Display after all.

The Asus ROG Ryou 120 is listed at USD167 / PKR 23,400/- whereas the Ryuo 240 is listed at USD 188 / PKR 26,300/- at the time of the review. Now, this is a premium price tag for a cooling solution whose main function is to cool the CPU though it is doing that in quite a style much thanks to the OLED display and addressable RGB lighting. EKWB Fluid Gaming A240 kit is listed at USD 159.99. Just saying! I am thankful to the Asus Pakistan for giving the opportunity to review their ROG Ryuo 240 CPU Liquid Cooler.