SilverStone PF240-ARGB Overview
Before we get to the AIO itself, we first want to take a quick look at the two 120mm fans included with this kit. While labeled as model “APA1225H12”, these fans appear to be identical to SilverStone’s AirBlazer 120R fans. Featuring 9 fan blades with ribbed edges to reduce air turbulence, these PWM fans can run between 600 and 2200 RPM to suit your cooling needs. At each corner of the fans is a rubber pad surrounding the mounting holes, which will help cut out any vibrations and buzzing between the fan, radiator, and case.
Each fan has eight addressable RGB LEDs at the center of the fan, and these lights serve to illuminate the semi-transparent fan blades. Both male and female, 3-pin, 5V ARGB headers are found on each fan to allow for daisy-chaining, in addition to the PWM connector.
The SilverStone PF240-ARGB doesn’t stray to far from the design of most AIO liquid coolers; you have your standard pump/block/reservoir combo unit, your braided hoses on pivoting fittings, and a compact radiator for removing the heat from the loop.
Taking a look at the radiator, we can see a pretty standard design. A plain black frame surrounds the fins, keeping their edges safe, while also providing mounting holes for the included fans and installation. Speaking of fins, the PF240-ARGB’s 28mm radiator has a fins-per-inch (FPI) measurement of 19, which sits towards the middle of the road when it comes to fin density. Anything more dense, and the fans may have trouble pushing air through the radiator, while anything looser may not provide adequate heat transfer from the radiator channels to the fins.
The braided tubing attaches to the radiator with crimped connectors, so no access to the loop is available for adding additional components. We wouldn’t recommend that with this system anyways, as the size of the radiator and the pump just aren’t designed to support additional components. We do have to mention that the radiator material is Aluminum, while the waterblock has a Copper base. While we don’t like to see these two metals in the same loop due to how they can work against each other with regards to corrosion, we have to expect that SilverStone has taken measures with their fluid to reduce problems via additives, etc.
Moving on to the CPU cooler combination unit, we have your typical design found on many AIO units. A plastic body surrounds the pump and reservoir combo, which sits atop a copper base. At the very top of the PF240-ARGB is a mirrored hexagon window, that when lit up with its associated ARGB LEDs, shows off the SilverStone flake logo inside.
Along one side of the cooler body are the rotating fittings that connect the combination to the radiator. Also exiting this side of the cooler are the PWM and ARGB cables for connecting to the motherboard and lighting controller, respectively.
Taking a look at the bottom of the copper water block, we can see that SilverStone has protected its finish with a plastic sticker; make sure to remove this before installation, as it will severely limit this cooler’s cooling capabilities, and could even damage your components. The copper base has a satin finish to it, and does not show any signs of machining tooling, which is always a plus. While we would prefer to see a polished surface here, this finish is definitely acceptable, especially when compared to cooler bases that have noticeable tooling grooves.
