The competitor Corsair Hydro H80i offers both better cooling performance and lower temperatures than Kraken X40, which should sting extra given that Corsair unit is slightly cheaper. Unfortunately NZXT drop more points on a shaky and incomplete software portion, an area where the Corsairs counterpart Link2 feels far more polished and flexible.
Our high expectations of Kraken X40 was not met. The model is far too expensive for how it performs and in the current situation with an overly shaky software. However, we see potential in the fourth-generation Asetek water cooler, where it with more polished software and the right pricing can be a platform to be reckoned with in the future.