The Cougar Helor 240-360 CPU Liquid Cooler Review: A Top Tier Start In CPU Cooling

Conclusion

The Helor coolers lie at the top segment of the AIO market, pitting them against the best offerings of the competition. Cougar made a very bold move in attempting to confront the best products from established and experienced AIO cooler designers and manufacturers, and it clearly was a valiant effort.

Overall, the performance of the Helor 240 and 360 coolers is very good. Both coolers offer excellent thermal performance in relation to their size and in comparison with what the competition has to offer. The 240 mm version of the Helor seems to be outperforming nearly all of the AIO kits using equally sized radiators; it's only surpassed by coolers that are significantly louder. Which is an important distinction, because the Helor 240 is going for a balanced approach, offering great thermal performance at relatively low noise levels.

Meanwhile, where the Helor 360 stands is a little fuzzy – the cooler does perform better than the 240 mm version both thermally and acoustically (when evaluating the thermal performance at the same sound pressure level as its smaller counterpart), however the performance gain from its larger size is quite limited, and it cannot really compete against custom liquid cooling kits. On the other hand, the two coolers are very close together in price, so I suspect consumers are going to gravitate towards the 360 mm version anyhow – assuming that they have a case that can fit the huge cooler.

Performance aside, Cougar placed a lot of effort into making the Helor AIO coolers aesthetically pleasing (if not arguably superior). Their application of RGB lighting is exemplary, with almost perfect light delivery and diffusion, vibrant colors, and excellent spectrum stability. Instead of relying on software alone, Cougar made their controller compatible with the RGB lighting controllers of several prominent motherboard manufacturers, yet also provides manual control via a physical remote control for users that prefer direct control over any form of software.

Cougar may not be a very experienced player in the cooling market but they definitely did very well with the Helor. The coolers offer great overall performance, are look great for windowed cases, and are competitively priced – the Helor 240 currently retails for around $130, while the larger Helor 360 can be found for $150. Although the segment of the market they are targeted to is relatively small, we find them to be worthy competitors and wouldn't be surprised if they eventually seize a significant portion of the market for large closed loop coolers.