Hyte THICC Q60 Review: top-tier AIO cooling with a twist
Did Hyte really call their all-in-one liquid cooler THICC and then come up with an absurd backronym to match: Technology Harnessing Innovative Chonk for Cooling? Yes. (Seriously, that’s what it stands for. Have a look on the website if you don’t believe us.) Is it one of the best coolers out there, whether you’re looking to overclock or not? Absolutely.
Shipping as a single connected unit, it’s compatible with pretty much every CPU around, including some older ones: Intel Socket LGA 1851, 1700, 1200, 115X, 2011, 2066, and AMD Socket AM5, AM4, TR4 all are supported, though the 2011, 2066 and TR4 need optional extra brackets.
It’s made up of a large 120 x 288 x 52 mm radiator, equipped with two fans, connected via liquid-filled pipes to a cold plate and a 5″ 720 x 1280 IPS display, which sits above the CPU. You will need a fairly spacious case to fit it in, such as Hyte’s own X50 case (which we can highly recommend).
The two pipes are bound together with a velcro cover, which you remove after installation, and the fact it’s already all wired together makes installation relatively painless. I say relatively, because I did hit a couple of snags. Firstly, I had to change the spacers on the backplate to fit my CPU, and removing them was a tad tricky. Secondly, moving the main pipes around was also a bit of a pain, and required I reposition the screen a few times.
But once installed, the Hyte Thicc Q60 is an absolute dream to use. Its functions are controlled by the Hyte Nexus software which gives you ultimate control over the device. The catch is this software is Windows only, so if you install the Q60 on a Linux machine you’ll have the fans running at max speed non-stop.
For the most part, the Thicc Q60 is whisper quiet at desktop, more so than my previous X50 setup, with its regular CPU fan and four Hyte-approved fans. It was only when I took to gaming that the fans spun up but, even then, it was intermittent. Prior to fitting the Q60, I ran a couple of stress test apps, and hit a max of 65°C. With the Q60, I never went higher than 42°C.
Granted, you can expect higher temperatures if you’re actually overclocking your CPU, but the Q60 really sucks the heat out of your CPU. How did I know I was hitting these temperatures? Because the built-in screen allows you to display your CPU’s temperature, as well as virtually every other aspect of your system.
I used Core Temp 1.19.5 just in case the Q60 was telling me porkies, but it was on the money every time. You’re even able to check the temperature of the fluid entering and exiting the main radiator (which I had mounted on the side of my case).
If you don’t give a hoot about what’s going inside your PC’s guts (or don’t have a transparent side to your case) the Q60 might prove less appealing. But there’s still so much you can do with this little screen, to showing currently-playing album art to displaying the weather while Resident Evil 2’s Mr X beats the living daylights out of Leon Kennedy.
I’m not kidding, either: you can have virtually any image or video as a screen background. The snag is that, when it came to placing PNGs on the screen, it seemed to crop the right part of the image off. I had to compensate by adding more blank space on the right. It’s a minor but slightly frustrating issue.
Aside from the screen, you can also mess around with the pattern of the RGB lights (mounted behind the screen) and the radiator’s H logo project. You do have the option to turn them off, but where’s the fun in that? Hyte Nexus also gives you total control over when the radiator’s fans kick in, setting your own fan curve.
There’s only one other minor problem I ran into, which is that sometimes the screen loses the temperature. It happens maybe once every few hours or so. I’ve been in contact with Hyte over this, and it appears to be down to the Q60 losing the internal USB connection. Since I’ve also occasionally had my PC drop the connection with USB ports, long before I installed the Q60, so I’m inclined to think it’s down to an existing issue.
The Hyte THICC Q60 is a superb, all-singing, all-dancing, all-in-one cooler. It offers top-tier, customisable cooling, coupled with an impressive collection of bells and whistles. It’s not cheap; it’ll set you back in the region of £199/$249, whether you buy it from the Hyte store or elsewhere. But if you’re serious about your PC setup, especially if you want to squeeze every last drop of power out of your CPU, the Hyte THICC Q60 is well worth the investment.
