X-bit labs

Water-Cooling Systems Roundup: 16 Systems Reviewed! (page 11)

Category: Coolers

by Kirill "ALT-F13" Balalin

[ 03/30/2006 | 08:48 AM ]

The water-block is combined with the pump. This helped make the system smaller and get rid of an extra couple of tubes. The declared performance of the pump is 160 liters per hour. The system coming filled-up already, there is a smaller risk of your making any assembly or fill-up related mistakes. Users who don’t like to mess with their PC hardware will surely appreciate this.

The water-block’s bottom has a round projection and four fastening holes. The bottom is well processed with fine milling, but there’s no polish on it.

The installation procedure is easy. You should take the fastener for your particular platform and attach it to the water-block’s bottom with four screws. This solution looks reliable and convenient: the fastening plate is firmly fixed on the water-block and doesn’t fidget as you are mounting the whole arrangement on the CPU socket.

It took us just a few minutes to install the system on our testbed and get it running.

The Aquagate mini kit comes filled and preassembled, so we didn’t have to pump it through. It was operable right away.

The system performance is good enough, but it proved to be loud at work, regrettably. You can reduce the fan speed using the included controller, but the rumble of the pump cannot be so easily stopped. It’s sad, but this simple and compact system can hardly be called a good buy; you will hardly want to spend your money for a rather noisy cooler. It is also going to be difficult to use this system in compact PC cases due to the limited length of the connecting pipes.

Summary: The Aquagate mini R120 system is very simple to install and to use but the noise from its pump somewhat spoils the overall impression. Still, it seems to have no real competitors in the below-$100 price category – the price of the Aquagate mini is only $95.