Valkyrie V360 Lite Overview
Available in both black and white versions, our review sample of the V360 is of the latter style, and as the name implies, is a 360mm cooler. If a smaller cooler is needed, Valkyrie also offers a 240mm version. Out of the box the V360 Lite is a pretty standard looking AIO. You have your three 120mm ARGB fans attached to a 27mm radiator, and a pump housing with ARGB accent lighting and a cool design we will cover in a bit.
The first component up in our overview is the 360mm aluminum radiator. This radiator is very straight forward in it’s design, with a white paint job and a bit of chrome Valkyrie branding along the sides. The 27mm thickness is right in line with the standard size we see on most AIOS, and should theoretically work quite well specs-wise with the included pre-installed fans.
With 21 fins-per-inch, the included 120mm B12 ARGB PWM fans included with this kit should do quite well. They have a static pressure rating of up to 4mm-H2O, which is on the higher side of our experiences with AIO fans, and should be plenty to get air moving through the radiator fins at an acceptable performance level.
While not exceptionally long, the sleeved cooling lines exit from one end of the radiator’s end cap, and connect to the radiator via crimped connectors. I found the cooling lines to be very flexible during installation, which is a really nice feature.
Moving over to the pump housing is where we see the standout feature of the V360 Lite – a triangular window that shows off the circuitry of the cooler, giving a look at multiple components used to control the lighting found in the opposite corner. We have seen all sorts of ARGB lighting zones and LCD displays on pump housings in the past, but I think this might be the first one that gives a look at actual components on the inside. It’s a quite unique look, and I think this look at the internal circuit board will go over quite well with buyers.
A standard 3-pin ARGB cable is attached to this top cap to power and control the LEDs inside.
Another cool feature of the pump housing is that this top section can come off and be rotated in 90-degree increments to fit your installation orientation needs.
A simple pin and pad design makes this a no-hassle swap, and magnets help keep the top cover in place. Additionally, the lower cover can also be removed from the pump housing. This is most beneficial during installation, when it will give better access to the mounting hardware.
Moving around to the sides we find the two cooling lines exiting from the bottom side of the pump housing. Each line is paired up with a swiveling fitting to make installation and fitment much easier than with fixed connections. These fittings are offset a bit due to the design of the internal pump, which offers a maximum speed of 2800 RPM.
The other sides of the pump housing are free from any real features of note. A single PWM cable exits from the pump housing to provide power and monitoring for the pump.
Taking a look at the base of the cooler, we find a large copper base with pre-applied thermal material. Valkyrie also includes a small syringe of thermal paste for future needs, but for the purposes of this review, we will be testing with the pre-applied material.
Universal mounting hardware for both AMD and Intel installations is already installed from the factory, which just requires you to make sure you have the appropriate motherboard brackets installed during installation.
As far as the included fans go, Valkyrie has provided three of their 120mm B12 ARGB fans that provide up to 4mm-H2O of static pressure at full speed, with 81.68 CFM of airflow at their full speed of 2,150 RPM. These fan specifications should translate into the ability to efficiently move air through the radiator’s 21 FPI density, though we have seen in other recent reviews that these specification numbers don’t always equate to higher or lower performance alone.
The rubber feet at each corner help isolate any vibrations that may come from the nine fan blades, which is always a welcome feature. The use of a Fluid Dynamic Bearing should help with efficiency and longevity. A maximum noise level of 30.5 dBA is reported by Valkyrie, and we will see just how that translates in our noise testing.
Valkyrie has already mounted these fans to the radiator from the factory, which is another welcome feature, and the fact that they also chain to each other without any external cabling will really help reduce cable clutter and installation headaches that can come from trying to wrangle the power and lighting cabling from each cable. These fans utilize a combo-connector system that combines the PWM and ARGB connections into a single unit, which reduces the typical cable clutter found on most fans.
