iBUYPOWER AW4 360 review: Solid cooling at a reasonable price

iBUYPOWER is venturing into the CPU cooling game! The company created the HYTE sub-brand, which launched a few successful PC cases and accessories, but also some cooling products. This iBUYPOWER AW4 360 doesn't appear to overlap as this CPU cooler is aimed at a more reasonable price point with less flashy features, such as the massive digital screen on the HYTE THICC Q60. The AW4 360 from iBUYPOWER is a back-to-basics cooling solution with three 120mm fans, a reliable pump, some RGB lighting on the water block, and a clean black or white design.

The company is going up against some stiff competition too. Being late to the party, there's the exceptional Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 to contend with, not to mention the best AIOs from NZXT, be quiet!, Asus, among other brands. Thankfully, the iBUYPOWER AW4 360 performs well under load, even with the most recent AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The 360mm radiator can handle higher heat loads and the three fans are great at forcing as much cool air through the fin stack as possible. For less than $100, it's another good value option for system builds and I'm all for it!

About this review: iBUYPOWER supplied XDA with a sample of the iBUYPOWER AW4 360 for this review but had no input to its contents.

Price, specs, and availability

The iBUYPOWER AW4 360 costs $100 and is the unit we're reviewing today. The AIO kit is also available in a 240mm configuration, ideal for more compact PC cases. Color options are black and white for both versions of this cooler, so you should be able to match it with a PC build theme. iBUYPOWER bundles two or three sleeve-bearing branded fans with each cooler and though I couldn't check their specifications on the company's website, they appeared to have some premium features, including the bearing and notched fan blades.

What I like

Stealthy AIO design

The iBUYPOWER AW4 360 is your typical 360mm liquid cooling kit for AMD and Intel CPUs. Our review unit came in black, which looks stealthy with minimal RGB lighting. If you're looking for an RGB-equipped AIO cooler, this may not be the one for you, even though the 3D effect lighting on the water block looks neat. Inside the packaging are the AIO loop, three black fans, necessary brackets and mounting hardware, and a fan splitter. Because this AIO is on the more affordable end of the pricing scale, the fans are not automatically installed, nor do they support daisy chaining.

Like any 360 AIO liquid cooler, installing the iBUYPOWER AW4 360 does require a large enough case that supports a 360mm radiator. Installing the AIO is a straightforward process, one that seems to always be easier with AMD systems. Thermal paste is pre-applied, which is handy for quick installations, but I prefer having a tube at hand in case the process goes awry and you need to reseat the CPU block. The pump unit is driven through an available pump header on the motherboard, contrary to other AIOs that require USB and SATA power connections.

Solid cooling performance

To adequately test this cooler, we're using our two resident CPU cooler test setups with an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Intel Core i5-12600K. They're not the most powerful CPUs around but set to 125W and 150W respectively, we should be able to gather some comparable data against iBUYPOWER's competition.

If you're familiar with AIO liquid coolers and ones with 360mm radiators and three 120mm fans, our findings shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The iBUYPOWER AW4 360 performs well under high loads with our two test systems. Our Intel testing went smoothly and the results were as expected and in line with other coolers. Interestingly, when we switched everything to the AMD test bench, temperatures were around 5C higher than competitive 360mm AIOs.

Temperatures are still within safe operating ranges and you likely won't see these readings unless hitting the processor hard.

Room for some improvements

Removing the cooler

I didn't find anything of concern with iBUYPOWER's first attempt at making a CPU cooler, aside from the Intel standoffs connecting to the rear bracket being tough to remove. It can be awkward due to the location of nearby capacitors. This AIO liquid kit is an excellent choice for mid to high-performance systems and I expect we'll see it in many iBUYPOWER prebuilt PCs. It performs well enough to keep up with the competition, though there are better choices available, namely my all-time favorite Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360. One area I'd like to see improved is the fans.

When spinning at 2,000 RPM, which we do to perform some of our cooling tests, I measured a whopping 46 dBA (one meter away). Granted, you won't need to run them that hard to keep your CPU cool, but it's worth noting if you plan some overclocking, which will put more demand on this AIO. This isn't a deal breaker, especially when the AIO is running inside a gaming PC with a loud GPU and case fans, but it was certainly more noticeable on an open test bench.

Should you buy the iBUYPOWER AW4 360?

You should buy the iBUYPOWER AW4 360 if:

• You require liquid cooling with a 360mm radiator.
• You plan to do some overclocking with AMD or Intel CPUs.
• You don't care for flashy RGB lighting on every part of the cooler.

You shouldn't buy the iBUYPOWER AW4 360 if:

• You require the quietest AIO CPU cooler.
• You want an AIO cooler with plenty of RGB lighting.

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