The ADATA XPG Levante 360 AIO Cooler Review: Stuck in the Middle
by E. Fylladitakis on April 4, 2022 8:00 AM ESTConclusion
ADATA has been taking huge diversification steps in recent years. Some of them appear very well calculated, while a few may be overestimating the product's market potential. From our point of view, the XPG Levante series, which is the first and only AIO cooler series that the company currently offers, is running the risk of ending up the latter.
The XPG Levante 360 bases its effectiveness and competitiveness on the proven reliability and dependability of Asetek's cooling platform. It is factual that these designs have been proven time and time again to be extremely reliable and good all-around performers. And the XPG Levante 360 is no exception to that rule, as it is an immaculately made product, free of imperfections. ADATA’s engineers apparently chose, and rightfully so, not to meddle with a proven design. As a result, the only major difference between the XPG Levante 360 and Asetek’s reference design is the advanced Vento Pro fans.
But because the market already has plenty of Asetek-derived AIO coolers, ADATA still needed to do something to set the cooler apart in the eyes of consumers. And since the Vento Pro fans are the only major performance differentiator between this AIO cooler and countless Asetek clones, ADATA's marketing department is relying on the fans to be that X factor – and arguably stumbling over themselves in the process.
Case in point: ADATA is using a rather poorly designed graph to promote the capabilities of the fans; one that is likely to do more harm than good for the company. The graph groups CFM and dB(A) – linear and logarithmic figures respectively – on the same axis in order to speciously suggest extraordinary airflow performance. The Vento Pro fans are by all means excellent fans, but contrary to ADATA's statistician-unapproved marketing, they're not that good.
Cooling performance aside, arguably the primary selling point of the XPG Levante 360 is its addressable RGB lighting. The company’s engineers did a great job there as well, as the visual effect of the RGBW LEDs on the fan’s blades and rims is outstanding. While the lighting of the company’s logo on the main block itself is not as impressive, it is good as well. If your motherboard does not support addressable RGB lighting, ADATA includes a basic controller that will get the job done, albeit it would force the user to open the case in order to change any settings.
Overall, the XPG Levante 360 is a well-made, large AIO cooler with addressable RGB lighting. It performs very well overall, with a good performance-to-noise ratio and a well-implemented lighting system. But, for better or worse, the same can be said about several other coolers on the market. The end result is that the XPG Levante isn't able to do enough to set itself apart from the competition – it's a commodity product in the truest sense: it's more than fit for purpose, but it's as unremarkable as a dozen other 360 RGB coolers also on the market.
As a result, we have no problem recommending the XPG Levante 360 – its performance and feature set make it a very good and reliable cooler – we just can't recommend it over the other coolers on the market. And as ADATA isn't looking to undercut the market here on pricing – selling the cooler at around $180 – the XPG Levante 360 cooler ultimately finds itself stuck in the middle of a market full of similarly excellent coolers.
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Oxford Guy - Monday, April 4, 2022 - link
PC enthusiasts are living in a strange fantasyland where CPUs need so much space and money devoted to efficient cooling but GPUs do not.theunshackled - Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - link
With power requirements rising on the next generation of RTX GPUs, either we look for our own adequate thermal solutions or let the manufacturers handle it themselves. The thing is though...I highly doubt that the 3rd party GPU vendors will sell cards without pre-built cooling, unlike the best 12th gen/Zen unlocked CPUs.That extra premium we pay ASUS/GIGABYTE/MSI/etc. to cool the GPUs are often good enough. I I agree that the reference fans/thermals, however, are often paltry.
meacupla - Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - link
That is such a dumb statement that totally ignores the fact that GPUs don't have a standardized mounting design where you can attach a standardized water block built that will fit.No, instead, we get a standard mounting hole around the GPU, but completely different plate designs that cool RAM and VRM for almost every single card out there, making cross compatibility a nightmare. This is why we get these asinine $400 GPU blocks that only fit one card, and why most AIO watercooler manufacturers stay the hell away from a GPU AIO cooler.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - link
‘That is such a dumb statement’If you’re referring to my post you’re way off because hacking on a water cooling system is hardly relevant to most enthusiasts. Water cooling loops are complex, expensive, and a hack.
I was obviously speaking to standards, standard equipment. If GPU makers had switched to the Fury X design of integrated water that would be a different matter. They have not. Only a few cards ship like that and they’re ridiculously overpriced. The existence of even the 3090 Ti in air-cooled form should be enough evidence for anyone to prove my argument.
The market is bizarrely warped into heavy space and cooling-to-noise ratio for CPUs and giving GPUs using vastly more power short shrift.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - link
And, by referencing Fury X I was not implying that only a 120mm radiator integrated with a GPU is necessarily adequate. Here, once again, we have a triple-fan radiator for a CPU. Where are the triple-fan water-cooled radiators integrated into GPUs?Nomgle - Wednesday, April 6, 2022 - link
They're on the market - https://www.sapphiretech.com/en/consumer/toxic-rad... as an example.Oxford Guy - Monday, April 11, 2022 - link
No doubt at an extremely premium price + an overclock that helps to negate the benefit.There is a big difference between that an something considered much closer to standard equipment.
Moonub - Saturday, April 23, 2022 - link
I’m with you Oxford Guy. We need GPUs to start offering a standard option for extra cooling - basically give us a mount of a GPU AIO cooler, right ? It would be great. I guess for the card manufacturers, they are selling the cooler as part of their value add and don’t benefit from opening up the GPU as a platform for other cooling products. This is probably what holds this back.shabby - Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - link
Pepperidge farm remembers when intel used to include coolers with their cpus... but only to hit the base clock 😂Khanan - Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - link
You can mod your GPU, never saw waterblocks? And that’s just an example.