The ADATA XPG Levante 360 AIO Cooler Review: Stuck in the Middle

ADATA is an established manufacturer of PC components and peripherals. The company was founded in Taiwan a little over 20 years ago. The growth of the company over the last decade, in particular, has been rather explosive, and by 2016 ADATA was already the second-largest memory-related products manufacturer in the world. With virtually no room to grow into the memory market anymore, ADATA began to diversify its product portfolio in multiple directions, ranging from PC cooling systems to electric powertrains.

One major expansion for ADATA has been to make further inroads into the PC gaming market, with the mother company founding a new brand, XPG (which stands for “Xtreme Performance Gear”). The XPG logo was initially only found on performance RAM modules, which ADATA had leagues of experience on. Nowadays, ADATA is greatly broadening the products bearing the XPG logo by releasing gaming peripherals, coolers, and even power supply units.

By retail standards, ADATA isn't wasting any time in the pace of their expansion efforts – the company has launched dozens of new products witht the aim of breaking into several market segments almost simultaneously over the past couple of years. A few weeks ago, we had a look at one of their latest diversification attempts in the form of the XPG Cybercore 1300W PSU, a notable high-end PC power supply unit. Today we are taking a look at their attempt to take a piece of the CPU cooler market with the XPG Levante 360, a sizable all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler.

Packaging & Bundle

ADATA supplied the Levante 360 in a sizable cardboard box featuring a striking red color. A picture of the cooler decorates the front of the box, albeit with all of the cables edited out. It is fairly sturdy and has custom internal cardboard inserts, providing excellent shipping protection.

The items bundled alongside the XPG Levante 360 are a fairly sparse collection, with ADATA keeping things to the essentials. Inside the box, we found the necessary socket mounting hardware, adapters for powering the fans, and a basic RGBW lighting controller for those whose motherboard/system does not have one on-board.

ADATA is supplying three Vento Pro DF1202512LFS4A 120 mm fans for the radiator of the Levante 360. The fans have semi-transparent blades and a black frame, obviously to enhance the RGB lighting effect. There is also an LED ring surrounding the interior of the frame. These Vento Pro fans have strange, double-layered blades, the likes of which we have not seen before – possibly designed this way in order to optimize the air pressure/flow characteristics of the fan for use on a radiator.

The ADATA XPG Levante 360 mm AIO Cooler

The XPG Levante 360 looks, and actually is, very similar to an Asetek reference design. ADATA makes no effort to hide it and actually advertises the fact that their cooler is based on such a proven platform. It is a typical AIO cooler, mainly consisting of a large radiator and the main block, with the main block accommodating the low-profile pump inside it. The only notable charge by ADATA’s engineers was the inclusion of RGBW lighting LEDs into the block.

The black radiator is a typical dual-pass cross-flow design, with tiny fins soldered on thin oblong tubes and space for three 120 mm fans. It is the classic radiator that is used by most AIO coolers, regardless of whether they are based on the Asetek reference design or not. It has been many years since it was first introduced but it still remains unbeaten in terms of performance and cost-effectiveness.

The block itself is very small and round, hinting that ADATA did not stray at all from the reference design. The XPG brand's logo can be seen at the top, illuminated by RGBW LEDs that are installed under it. The L-shaped hose connectors offer a little bit of adjustment.

Most of the main block is made out of plastic, with the obvious exception of the contact plate, which is made out of copper. Although it is not machined down to a mirror finish, the circular base is very smooth and comes with the thermal paste pre-applied. Although the company offers an optional TR4 socket adapter for the cooler, the circular base is not large enough to cover the die(s) of Threadripper processors. It would work but we advise against using it on an sTR4 processor.

The RGBW lighting on the fans of the Levante 360 is visually magnificent. It is difficult to capture the effect in pictures but the light is diffused excellently and the circular ring surrounding the blades creates a crisp lighting effect. The lighting is untethered from the fan’s engines, meaning that it will not be affected by the speed of the fans and even continue if the fans stop completely. The downside of this design is the number of cables, which can make cable management a bit of a challenge, especially with cases that have little to no room behind the right-side panel.