As we mentioned in our introduction, Antec aren’t particularly well known for their CPU coolers, so some leeway can be allowed for that, while they try to nudge their way into this incredibly competitive marketplace. Having said that, some leeway doesn’t go far enough to give this cooler a pass.
Firstly, the installation; it almost felt as though Antec have never installed this cooler themselves. The provided washers are incorrectly sized, the thumb screws with cross-head are almost exclusively thumb screws, the plastic cracked on both sides when ensuring the bracket was tight, there was far too many cables to make routing simple and the choice to use the same 4-pin header for the fan motor and RGB connections is beyond stupid. Once it’s installed, it’s done, so there’s that going for it, but we see no reason why several of these aspects can’t be fixed or have been overlooked in the first place.
The RGB lighting isn’t good, frankly. The fans give off a decent glow, but are limited to only 256 colours instead of the typical 16,700,000 that we’re used to with RGB. The pump, which you’d expect to have quite an RGB presence, is illuminated by a single, puny RGB LED that’s barely bright enough to light up the Antec logo, never mind the entire lid.
Performance is a large redeeming factor of the Mercury 240 RGB – we saw some decent figures both in acoustics and thermals. The rubber jacket around the pump certainly helps to damp any high-pitched whine from the pump while the 120mm fans push a reasonable amount of air and remain reasonably quiet doing so.
The price is all that remains, and at £79 in the UK, it’s just about priced well enough that we can overlook the awkward installation and poor RGB lighting for the sheer performance of the device. If you want a cheap AIO, this will perform well.
Terrible RGB lighting and strange design choices regarding the installation procedure detract from the appeal, but the performance is up there with coolers costing £20-£30 more.
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Firstly, the installation; it almost felt as though Antec have never installed this cooler themselves. The provided washers are incorrectly sized, the thumb screws with cross-head are almost exclusively thumb screws, the plastic cracked on both sides when ensuring the bracket was tight, there was far too many cables to make routing simple and the choice to use the same 4-pin header for the fan motor and RGB connections is beyond stupid. Once it’s installed, it’s done, so there’s that going for it, but we see no reason why several of these aspects can’t be fixed or have been overlooked in the first place.
The RGB lighting isn’t good, frankly. The fans give off a decent glow, but are limited to only 256 colours instead of the typical 16,700,000 that we’re used to with RGB. The pump, which you’d expect to have quite an RGB presence, is illuminated by a single, puny RGB LED that’s barely bright enough to light up the Antec logo, never mind the entire lid.
Performance is a large redeeming factor of the Mercury 240 RGB – we saw some decent figures both in acoustics and thermals. The rubber jacket around the pump certainly helps to damp any high-pitched whine from the pump while the 120mm fans push a reasonable amount of air and remain reasonably quiet doing so.
The price is all that remains, and at £79 in the UK, it’s just about priced well enough that we can overlook the awkward installation and poor RGB lighting for the sheer performance of the device. If you want a cheap AIO, this will perform well.
Terrible RGB lighting and strange design choices regarding the installation procedure detract from the appeal, but the performance is up there with coolers costing £20-£30 more.
Pros
+ Good performance
+ Reasonably quiet
+ Price
Cons
- Awful installation procedure
- Massively underwhelming RGB lighting
- No mixed colour RGB mode, single colours only
- Same header for RGB and fan connections
- Incorrect washers supplied
- Difficult to install fans due to cable placement
- Pump cracked on both sides to install bracket
+ Good performance
+ Reasonably quiet
+ Price
Cons
- Awful installation procedure
- Massively underwhelming RGB lighting
- No mixed colour RGB mode, single colours only
- Same header for RGB and fan connections
- Incorrect washers supplied
- Difficult to install fans due to cable placement
- Pump cracked on both sides to install bracket
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
