Just a couple of days after releasing the Torrent Case, Fractal Design offered us their Lumen Water Cooler. And today, we’re writing our Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler review to discuss everything important about the cooler.
The Lumen S28 Cooler is an AIO series that comes with radiators in different sizes: 240, 280, and 360mm. It’s designed to be compatible with the most common Intel and AMD sockets, and it offers top-notch cooling performance too.
If you want to get a closer look at the product, continue reading our Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler review.
This is where we’ll discuss everything about its design, features, functions, and more. So, you’ll get an idea whether the Lumen S28 Cooler performs excellently or not.
Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler Packaging
Our unit that arrived for this Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler review came in a sturdy-looking and thick cardboard container. The front of the box displays an image of the cooler, Fractal Design’s branding, and the unit’s name. You’ll see a note on the box’s lower corner that states “Designed in Sweden”.
On the rear and base, you’ll also see a couple of technical features and details about the cooler.
All the items inside the box are well-packed, padded, and bundled securely. That means, you won’t have to worry about damages while in transit.
Once you open the box, you’ll find the radiator/block and two Aspect 14 PWM fans. Also, you’ll find mounting kits for both AMD and Intel platforms, radiator mounting screws, plus an installation guide for reference.
Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler Review – Design and Functionality
Let’s continue our Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler review and discuss its design and functionalities.
The company opted for a nice matte black finish throughout the radiator block and radiator. It gives the AIO a professional and classy appearance, then, it has a sleek look.
Looking at the block’s design, it sports a simple yet appealing theme. It comes with a plastic cap that has an anodised finish which looks good.
You can reposition its cap based on your preference.
Here, there are nylon tubings that connect the block to the radiator. Here, it’s a must to point out that this cooler’s pump can be found within the radiator itself.
This cooler block is highly compact, round, extremely flat, and measures 43mm high. Its bracket and pump lid sport a nice black colour. Then, there’s a tiny Fractal Design logo on the lid that stands out.
Additionally, this lid can also be detached then routed in 90-degree increments. This is to guarantee that the logo is always aligned perfectly.
Speaking of the hoses, these are made using rubber and are sheathed in a nice glossy-black nylon material. Additionally, these are also sufficiently long at 40cm. Then for its base, it’s made of quality copper.
On the bottom portion of the block, you can see the copper baseplate, as well as the pre-applied thermal paste. Its circumference won’t likely cater to bigger CPUs that fall under the HEDT category.
To note, the Lumen S28 Cooler is pre-installed with the Intel bracket. So if you’re building an AMD-based PC, you can simply replace it with the included AMD bracket.
Its radiator is also matte black except for the Fractal Design on both sides which are glossy black. But the most distinct feature of the cooler is its pump’s feed-through cable.
Fractal Design sets this from the radiator block to the radiator. This is done so it can be linked together with the fan cables while concealing it better.
The radiator is also made of aluminium, and as we mentioned, the pump is built into it. Not only that, but it’s DC with a ceramic bearing, and it can hit around 4,000 RPM. A cable feeds from the pump and combines with the pump header located on the motherboard.
Making use of elbow fittings along the block end makes it easier and more convenient to mount the radiator.
PWM Fans
The two fans present on the cooler are the company’s Aspect 14 PWM. These feature sleek-looking black frames and black fins. There aren’t any anti-vibration pads placed on the corners, plus, the fan cables are flat.
When looking at the power connectors, these can be plugged together to have better and more convenient cable management.
Key Features of the Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler
This time, our Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler review will showcase all the key features of the cooler. It’s to give you an idea what elements make this click among users.
Removable Cap
The block of the Lumen S28 has a removable cap that you can turn at 90-degree intervals. With that, you can reposition the cap depending on the cooler’s mounting orientation.
Other than this, it comes with low permeability rubber tubes + braided nylon sleeves.
Subtle to Stunning Aesthetics that Everyone Loves
The duality in the Lumen S28 Cooler’s design offers a cool, stealthy, premium, and sleek look. You can easily include it to your build since it’ll look great with whatever theme you’re going for.
Powerful PWM Fans
Fractal Design integrated their Lumen S28 Cooler with the Aspect fans. These provide you with stator struts for decreased turbulence and Trip-Wire technology for increased blade efficiency. Plus, it features built-in chaining support for simpler cable management.
No Need for Thermal Paste
Fractal Design pre-applied the thermal paste to ensure a straightforward yet proper installation. So, you no longer have to purchase and apply thermal paste when installing the Lumen S28.
Easy Routing with the Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler
This cooler features articulating elbow fittings to easily route the tubes. It also lessens tension on the cold plate housing.
High Flexibility
The Lumen S28 is shipped with mounts for both Intel and AMD platforms’ common sockets.
Specifications
This part of our Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler review focuses on the different specifications of the product. For starters, the Lumen S28 Cooler is compatible with the following Intel and AMD sockets.
For Intel, it works with 1200, 1151, 1150, 1155, 1156, 2011, 1366, and 2066 sockets. Then for AMD, it’s good with the AM4, AM2, AM3, sTRX4, and sTR4 sockets.
The cooler has a tube that measures 400mm long. Then, the material used for it is low-permeability rubber with braided nylon sleeves.
For the block dimensions, its height is 43mm while its measurements with fittings is 79 x 67mm. Then, the block diameter (primary block body) measures 67mm.
The Lumen S28 Cooler’s radiator measures 312 x 140 x 27mm and its housing and radiator-fin is made from aluminium. Then, its noise level is pretty low at around 10 to 35 dBA.
Pump and Fan Specifications
The cooler’s pump connector is a 3-pin type and it has a rotational speed of 4,000 ± 10% RPM. It sports a ceramic bearing and its full speed acoustical noise is at 22 dBA.
Maximum pressure is 17.6 kPa while input voltage is at 12V DC. Then, its input current without the fans is 0.34 A while MTTF is 50,000 hours.
As mentioned, the Lumen S28 comes with two Aspect 14 PWM fans that measure 140mm. This fan model features rifle bearings and PWM control.
Its rotational speed can go from 500 to 1,700 RPM. Then, its acoustic noise is between 10 and 35.5 dBA.
The fan’s maximum airflow ranges from 20 to 78 CFM. For its total static pressure, it’s 0.3 to 2.05mm H2O.
The Aspect 14 PWM’s maximum input current is 0.24A and has an input of 12V. Its mean time to failure or MTTF is 90,000 hours.
Hands-on with the Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler
Test System
For our main test system, we are utilising the following hardware setup:
- Intel 12700k CPU
- Gigabyte RTX 3070 Master GPU
- ASUS Z690-F Gaming WiFi Motherboard
- Fractal Design ION+ 2 Platinum PSU
- Fractal Design Torrent Compact Case
- Crucial 32GB DDR5 RAM (2x 16GB)
- TeamGroup T-Force Carder Z44L 1TB NVMe SSD
Here, we’ll discuss how well, or not, the cooler performed. And, this is where you’ll see if it’s just as efficient as other products from Fractal Design.
When we were to install the Lumen S28 Cooler, the first thing we did was attach two cooling fans to its radiator. For this kind of cooler, the usual course of action would be a push configuration. So, we decided to install the fans using this type of setup.
To be specific, we had the airflow directed towards the radiator. Then like usual, we had to tighten a few long screws into all four corners of each fan.
For us, there’s one big and challenging part of installing a huge liquid cooler inside a case. It’s the second part of the installation process, and it’s attempting to fix the fan + radiator combo to the case’s roof.
If you’re using a case that can accommodate 240mm and 280mm coolers, don’t worry. All you need to do is move the fan/radiator combo to your preferred spot. Then, connect the provided screws to fix this in place.
A backplate just needs to be set on the rear portion of the motherboard and long screws go through it. This part is a bit challenging since the screws have to be kept in place. This is while the block is set and bolts are being attached.
Then, the last step would be to set the block over the screws/CPU before attaching spring-loaded bolts. It’s best to do this in a diagonal pattern to apply more pressure.
The block also sports a detachable cover. Fractal Design created it this way so it can be properly oriented to have their logo positioned upright.
Overall, the whole process of installing the Lumen S28 Cooler was straightforward. And, doing so with the mounting system was easy. We consider it as one of the easier and more comfortable kits available on the market for quick installation and use.
Though we find that the kit has too many screws on it. And after unboxing, it can be a bit overwhelming to see all of that. But despite all those, it’s a great cooler and is definitely easy to install.
To see the Lumen S28’s efficiency, we tested it with our PC set on default and overclocked settings. For default settings, our CPU’s temperature was only 28-degrees Celsius on idle mode. Under load, its highest temperature was only 48-degrees Celsius which was great.
Given these results, the Lumen S28 definitely delivered excellent thermal performance and we were happy about it.
In terms of acoustics, this cooler had low noise while on default settings. It wasn’t completely silent, but the sounds it produced were still acceptable. When we overclocked our processor, the fans became more audible but not loud enough, so we still have no complaints.
Overall, we were satisfied with the Lumen S28’s performance. It efficiently maintained low temperatures for our processor despite being overclocked, and its noise levels were low as well. With that, it’s easy to recommend this cooler for anyone looking for superior cooling performance.
Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler Review Summary
The Lumen S28 is another amazing CPU cooler from Fractal Design. It has a stylish design, is easy to install, and most importantly, it delivers efficient cooling with low noise. Plus, it has a 5-year warranty and you get all of these for an affordable price.
What makes the Lumen S28 a great product is its simplicity. It’s not over-engineered and only has the necessary features to provide excellent cooling, which is this product’s top priority. This cooler that we tested for our Fractal Design Lumen S28 Cooler review will definitely work seamlessly with any processor.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly cooler that performs efficiently, we highly recommend the Lumen S28 from Fractal Design. It’s one of the most affordable AIOs on the market today and it doesn’t compromise performance.
Want to upgrade your build with this cooler from Fractal Design? Check out the company product page for the Lumen S28 here.
