Cooler Master introduces the Aquagate MAX Retro Mini cooling unit — delivers massive cooling capacity up to 2,500 watts
Cooler Master showed off a desktop coolant distribution unit at CES 2026. This unit is designed to deliver 900 to 2,500 watts of cooling performance, letting users maximize the power of high-performance desktop systems.
(Image credit: Future)
Cooler Master just introduced a coolant distribution unit, or CDU, with a massive capacity of 900 to 2,500 watts. The Tom’s Hardware team saw the rather compact unit at CES 2026. The company says it is designed for CPUs, GPUs, and ASICs, balancing the ease-of-use of AIOs and the maximum cooling performance you get from open-loop systems. Each unit measures around 10 x 10 x 19.6 inches (255 x 255 x 497 mm) or around 32 liters and weighs between 12 and 18 kg (between 26 and 40 pounds), so you’re not going to fit this inside the case of your gaming PC. Instead, it’s built for specialized desktop systems that need robust cooling, like those that feature multiple GPUs for AI applications.
Another thing that makes the Aquagate MAX an excellent solution is its modularity and scalability. You can get this CDU with either a 240mm, 280mm, or 360mm radiator, allowing you to increase its cooling capacity without drastically taking up more space. And if that is not enough, Cooler Master says that you can connect multiple units in both serial and parallel connections, allowing you to expand your cooling capacity as you add more units to your system.
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(Image credit: Future)
We don’t expect to see this cooling solution among the server racks you’d find in a data center (Cooler Master has the LTL In Rack CDU for that). Instead, this will probably be located at labs running high-end workstations or on AI and compute development systems where AI engineers are working on next-generation LLMs. Some overclockers might also find this a useful solution, although they might prefer liquid nitrogen cooling over this industrial-grade cooler. Aside from the Aquagate MAX and the LTL In Rack CDU, Cooler Master also showed off a Mini-Charge Tool designed to quickly refill cooling systems with coolant.
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(Image credit: Future)
For gamers and consumers, Cooler Master released the GPU Shield Adapter Cable, which detects abnormal currents and adjusts power output in real time for improved stability, the MWE Gold V4 power supply with built-in GPU Shield capability, and a variety of fans, air coolers, and AIOs. There are also several PC cases of varying sizes, including the Q300L V3, Qube 540 SP, MasterFrame 500 Mesh V2, and the limited-edition Cosmos Alpha Gold, which only has 199 available units and features a 24K pure gold-plated CM logo.
