Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB V2 Review

Fractal Design have been a reputable player in the PC Case and hardware space for some time now. Case ranges such as the Fractal North and Meshify have previously released to much success, gaining them the reputation of being a premium yet innovative brand. But how do they fair when it comes to other product lines, say CPU Coolers? Well, that’s exactly what we’ll be figuring out in this article! Taking a look at their flagship CPU cooler design, the Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB V2, assessing all of the usual criteria, before providing our final thoughts and feedback.

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Specification

The Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB is an all-in-one liquid CPU cooler featuring a 360mm radiator. The radiator’s dimensions are 392 mm in length, 120 mm in height, and 27 mm in width, giving it a relatively slim profile and allowing it to fit in most mid-tower chassis with ease. The connecting tubes between the pump and the radiator are 400 mm long, allowing for solid clearance when installing.

The pump connects to the motherboard via a 3-pin DC connector and runs at a constant speed, while the fans connect via 4-pin PWM connectors for variable speed control. This cooler has three Aspect 12 RGB PWM fans, which can reach a maximum speed of up to 2000 RPM. They feature rifle bearings, known for reducing friction and noise while extending the lifespan of the fans.

The Lumen RGB offers an insanely broad socket compatibility that spans over a decade of platforms, up to the latest LGA 1851 and AM5. It is worth noting that support for both LGA 1700 and LGA 1851 is limited to those with the updated LGA 1700 bracket. On the specs page for this particular cooler however, Fractal have a message saying to contact them to request an updated bracket, should you be using an older model. Whilst they’re certainly not the only brand to have offered updated mounting hardware to support the latest crop of CPUs, it’s a welcome addition nonetheless

Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB Design

The Fractal Design Lumen S36 RGB is a striking all-in-one CPU cooler, featuring a matte pump cap with RGB passthrough that can be rotated in 90-degree increments to align the Fractal Design logotype. This rotational flexibility, combined with elbow fittings on the tubing, makes the installation process more streamlined and reduces tension on the cold plate housing. The lack of adjustability for the RGB port positioning does however negate some of the pump cap flexibility.

The six ARGB LEDs are controllable via motherboard software such as Aura Sync and Razer Chroma. Alternatively, you can use a fan hub to synchronise the RGB lighting across the pump, fans, and case.

Fractal includes pre-applied thermal paste on the copper cold plate for easier installation. The fans, however, don’t come pre-mounted, so you’ll need to screw them onto the radiator manually. These two setup choices feel slightly contradictory as one prioritises convenience, the other expects hands-on assembly but neither are particular deal breakers.

The radiator uses aluminium fins, and the tubing consists of low-permeability rubber with braided nylon sleeves for durability and flexibility. As mentioned above, they have a length of 400 mm, providing ample slack for installation flexibility. Things can get a little snug in smaller form-factor cases with the overall 360mm and tubing but this showcases a caveat of opting for a smaller case design rather than the cooler itself. Fractal do offer 240mm and 280mm versions of this cooler for those interested.

Installing the bracket for the pump is quite fiddly with the LGA 115X, 1200 and 1700 sockets and could pose a challenge for build newcomers. Our advice here is to take your time and use the included manual, it does a good job of taking you through the install step by step. For those with prior experience of installing CPU coolers, this mounting design isn’t too dissimilar from market norms and shouldn’t cause too many issues. Just be sure to seat it correctly and and ensure there is even contact between the cooler and CPU itself.

Cooler Performance

Every CPU cooler we review is thoroughly tested within builds and a series of synthetic benchmarks. This provides performance data for each cooler, showing how it copes with gaming and multi-core workloads. The Intel Core i7-14700K is known to run hot, with a maximum operating temperature of 100℃. This is why our benchmarking system has an Intel Core i7-14700K at its core, with four 140mm fans to maximise airflow. Each cooler is set to the default fan curve mode in the BIOS, or we use an equivalent fan curve with the cooler’s software to ensure fair testing. All the data we collect is gathered from benchmarks in Cinebench and CPU-Z, with HWMonitor running in the background to record temperature information.

Cinebench 4-Thread

The Lumen S36 stacked up fairly well against the competition during our Cinebench testing and though it sits towards the lower end of the graph here at 4-threads, the results aren’t cause for concern. Sitting at 64°C on average and with a max temperature of 72°C the Fractal Lumen is within touching distance of a fairly sizable amount of competitors, with just the odd degree or two separating it from its counterparts, some of which are considerably more expensive and more recent.

Interestingly, the difference between the average and maximum temperatures achieved by the Lumen S36 is of a consistently smaller size than the large majority of coolers in the bottom half of our graph. The Lumen S36 providing consistent, if not chart topping performance.

Cinebench 8-Thread

In what is arguable the weakest performance for the Fractal Lumen S36 the Lumen S36 again puts in a steady performance. Whilst it doesn’t set the table alight with strong performance, it does provide a more consistent and less erratic temperature. The Lumen S36 provides a smaller temperature differential versus that of the next five competitor options in our graph.

CPU-Z 8-Thread

In CPU-Z, again testing with 8-threads the Lumen S36 puts in another solid but not stellar performance. Again, however, the difference here between the Lumen S36 and the competition is minimal and the difference between a 72°C average versus 74°C is nominal. Whilst of course, lower temps are of course ideal, 74°C is a fine result and by all means nothing to worry about. The only potential concern is the max temperature is starting to teeter into more dangerous temperature territory, but there is still enough room here to ease any major cause for concern.

Conclusion