NZXT Kraken X53 vs Vetroo V5

72 degrees is not the best in class, but not by a long shot, but it's already something. But what about that badly performing fan? Well, we have two p...

Normally I don't order pre-built, but in this time of Covid, semiconductor shortages, crypto-miners, and (insert a LOT of vulgar adjectives) scalpers, it cost barely more to order this computer than to purchase a standalone RTX 3060 Ti by itself. The new Dell came with the a crappy, dinky little stock fan, not the big tower cooler pictured in their manual. With the inadequate stock fan, I loaded up Horizon Zero Dawn, and instantly got 100+ fps.

In case you do have an issue, contact NZXT support and they'll provide a usb hub that works as a workaround until they can roll out Krakens with the permanent fix built in or whatever. One more thing to be aware of is that unlike what the manual says there are only 2 viable installation directions if you are planning on the screen facing right side up. It's true that there is a way to rotate the image through the NZXT CAM software but if it isn't installed in one of the aforementioned orientations then unfortunately it wont be able to rotate it to the correct orientation which seems like an odd limitation but it is what it is. Okay so the performance of this cpu cooler is good, but I was honestly expecting just a bit more cooling efficiency from this latest pump design but it misses the mark by a non-insignificant amount

Now it might seem counterintuitive that removing a chunk of the heatsink would make it more efficient and this is done for efficiency not for any fitm...