A no-frills, GREAT budget 280mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler - ID COOLING FROSTFLOW X 280 Review

Before we dive into the review, check out this gallery of unboxing and installation images.
ID COOLING FROSTFLOW X 280

Rating
★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

 Pros
  • Price
    • Paid $49.99 (pre-tax)
  • Performance
    • 280mm Radiator vs a 240mm radiator = More surface area and larger fans that can run at lower RPMs to achieve the same level of cooling performance
    • Works well being setup as a front intake push configuration
    • It keeps my i7-11700K temperatures in check even under extreme synthetic load (230-250w sustained at 4.5GHz all core) with temps staying between 90-93c.
    • Under a more reasonable load (125-150w), temps hover around the mid 50's!
    • Under idle, temps hover around 30C or below.
  • Fans
    • The included 140mm fans come with a highly compact and convenient daisy chaining connector to reduce the amount of wires to route
    • Fans move A LOT of air. Especially at higher RPMs
    • The fans do their job without being obnoxiously loud as well. The loudest noise they make is from pushing air through the radiator when at higher RPMs.
  • No Frills
    • Installation was quick and easy
    • Only 2 connectors / cables for the whole unit (one for the pump, and one for the daisy chained fans)
    • Neutral design on the pump for both the lighting and logo (white LED ring with backlit pentagonal logo)
    • No additional software needed to operate the unit
Cons
  • Pump
    • Pump does have a noticeable hum to it at 100% speed, but reducing the speed to 75-80% makes it virtually inaudible over the rest of the system fans
    • Wish the tubing connecting the pump and radiator was a little bit longer for easier routing
  • Fans
    • Wish the fan motors were quieter. Don't get me wrong, they are quiet, but they do make a noticeable sound. The best way I can describe the sound they make is it's akin to a "very quiet fish tank air pump". So overall, the sound isn't that disrupting to me because I am able to keep them at a constant PWM% of 35% (~750RPM) while maintaining great temperatures on my i7-11700 during most usage scenarios.
  • Lighting / LEDs
    • Very minor, but you can't turn off the LEDs on the pump even if you wanted to because their activation and brightness is directly controlled by the voltage being supplied to the pump.

 Other Thoughts
TL;DR
For the price point and the performance this cooler offers, I am beyond satisfied with my purchase and definitely recommend this cooler for anyone looking to get a no-frills, high performance, 280mm AIO without having to break the bank.

Full Review
I recently upgraded the CPU in my PC that I built back in 2021 from an i5-11600K to an i7-11700K. As part of the upgrade, I wanted to replace the CPU cooler I was using (be quiet! Dark Rock 4) because I had planned to transition the i5 and the previous CPU cooler into a Media Center PC build.
Paying $49.99 (pre-tax) for a 280mm AIO feels like a steal because even the cheapest 120mm AIOs are sold at around $35 in price. So to only pay $14.99 more (pre-tax) to get OVER DOUBLE the amount of surface area is more than worth it!

I have this cooler mounted as a front intake using a push configuration on my be quiet! Pure Base 500DX case. I ensured to mount the radiator inlet / outlet tubes oriented at the bottom to aid in preventing air bubbles from frequently entering the pump. I had originally wanted to mount it at the top of my case as an exhaust using a push config but I was unable to due to some clearance issues with the dual 8-pin CPU power cables going into my motherboard.

Due to the physical size of the GPU I am using and the relatively compact nature of the case I am using, I had to route the tubes over the top of my GPU because the tubes are relatively short and it was the only way I could ensure the inlet and outlet remained at the lowest point of the loop. But, aside from a minor aesthetic difference, it was no big deal because I was able to get everything (tightly) squeezed in without any clearance issues.

Overall, installation was easy although the installation guide was pretty minimal on instructions provided. I did not use the included thermal paste as I have another paste I prefer to use (Zalman ZM-STG2) so I cannot comment on that. I really like that they have a "daisy chaining" connection for the included fans so only having to connect and route 2 total wires was very nice.
As mentioned in my Pros, I am running this on an i7-11700K. I have the pump set to run at 75% until the CPU temp reaches a sustained 90C where it then increases to 90% and then up to 100% if temps were to reach a sustained 95C. I have the fans configured to run at 35% PWM until CPU temperatures reach a sustained 90C where they increase to 70% PWM and then up to 100% PWM if temps were to reach a sustained 100C.

Under normal gaming and usage loads, the pump never increases its speed past the 75% mark and the fans never increase their speed past the 35% mark which means that everything remains cool and quiet! This is one of the benefits of running a larger radiator with larger fans is that you are able to run everything at lower speeds to reduce noise levels while still maintaining low temperatures (see the Pros for more details on the CPU temps).

To conclude, for the price point and the performance this cooler offers, I am beyond satisfied with my purchase and definitely recommend this cooler for anyone looking to get a no-frills, high performance, 280mm AIO without having to break the bank or pay for things like RGB, USB connection or other non-essential features.
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