I’ve often fantasised about having a small monitor in my case, though I don’t know why. It doesn’t seem like a practical idea, but it sure as hell looks cool, and the “Rule of Cool” trumps everything. Clearly, ASUS Republic of Gamers feels the same, and they must have read my mind because they sent us the ASUS ROG RYUJIN III 360 ARGB Extreme AIO Liquid cooling system to play around with, and I think I’m in love!

The biggest stand-out feature is the 3.5” full-colour LCD display mounted to the water block, and really, how could it not be? It can display all kinds of cool things, such as performance details for CPU temperatures and frequencies, fan speeds or water flow, some pre-made animation from the ROG Gallery, or even your custom GIFs. It’s received plenty of upgrades compared to the ROG RYUJIN II, including having the capacity doubled to 32MB and supporting up to 2000 frames, and it will display it all at 60FPS in 24-bit colour.

You may be a little disappointed by the resolution, however, given it supports up to 480p, but I feel like this adds some extra charm, particularly if you’re running animations from old-school games and anime. It is almost like having an arcade system strapped to your CPU. Whatever you decide to display, it’s done through the ASUS Armoury Crate app, and once it’s installed, you’ll find a tab specific to the ROG RYUJIN III 360 ARGB Extreme AIO that lets you control everything. You’ll get a one-year subscription to AIDA 64 that can feed system data in real-time to aid in performance monitoring. 

Some initial concerns are that placing a screen directly onto the CPU water block could cause heating issues; even LCD screens generate heat, and ASUS Republic of Gamers have this covered. The screen is mounted onto a vented frame covering the bulk of the water block, allowing an embedded fan to draw air in and blow it down around the CPU, helping to reduce the temperature of the Motherboard’s VRM. This tiny little fan can spin at up to 5100RPM, moving air up to 21.08 cubic feet per minute, and ASUS ROG was able to see a difference of up to 35 Celsius during their testing – quite an impressive variance considering the fan size.

The copper cold plate is now 32% larger than previous versions, offering a broader surface area for transferring heat between the CPU and the water block. While it does come with some pre-applied thermal paste, we received a tube of ASUS ROG Performance Thermal Paste in the packaging. Based on what I found on the website, I’m not entirely sure that this is the norm, but it was located in a section of the box that was very clearly made to contain it.

Coolant is pumped from the water block through 400mm sleeved rubber tubes to the aluminium radiator by an 8th Gen Asetek Pump, powered by a 3-phase motor capable of spinning at up to 3600 RPM. Once there, three 120mm fans blow air through the radiator to disperse the heat. This is where the second stand-out feature drew my attention.

While initially not looking like anything particularly impressive, the ringed fans have a very intuitive design when it comes to connecting them. Six small copper pegs stick out from one side, while a corresponding six copper sockets sit on the other, and they securely connect from one fan to another through magnetic attraction.

One connection delivers power and RGB control through the whole circuit using the supplied cable that combines fan PWM and Aura Sync functions. It makes for a very clean building experience, though it can be a little finicky when trying to align the connections properly, but once done, it’s nice and secure.

Aside from the ability to daisy-chain the fans together and needing only one connection to power them, the fans supplied with the ASUS ROG RYUJIN III 360 ARGB Extreme AIO use an outer ring to hold nine blades in place to deliver smooth airflow and limit vibrations for reduced noise. Spinning at up to 2800RPM, they can move up to 89.73CFM while only producing 36dB(A) of sound. They also support both PWM and DC control modes and can output power and ARGB signal through a second all-in-one cable.

The ASUS ROG RYUJIN III 360 ARGB Extreme AIO comes with everything you need to mount it to your case and brackets to cover both AMD AM4/AM5 and Intel LGA 1851, 1700, 1200, and 115x Processors. While you may have to spend a little bit of time ensuring that the fans are correctly connected, the whole system is incredibly easy to set up; the screen connects to a USB header on the Motherboard, so it really is a case of plug-and-play.

Installing a screen into your PC case might be daunting initially, but the ASUS ROG RYUJIN III 360 ARGB Extreme AIO redefines the Rule of Cool and makes it easy. Not only is it an impressive all-in-one cooling system, but having a screen inside your build offers unlimited opportunities to make your build your own.

Written by: Mathew Lindner