X-bit labs

Water-Cooling Systems Roundup: 16 Systems Reviewed! (page 25)

Category: Coolers

by Kirill "ALT-F13" Balalin

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

Now it’s time to assemble the system. It’s not very difficult. First, you choose the appropriate fastener and use it to secure the water-block on the CPU. Then, attach the pipes to the water-block and the back-panel bracket. And finally you should connect the external unit with the bracket. That’s all. You now only have to fill the system up and get it running. Filling is done easily, the rather too narrow opening being the only inconvenience. It was starting the system up that we had some problems with. The fact is we couldn’t get rid of the air bubbles and pump the system through with water. We looked up the solution in the user manual which proved to be not only pretty-looking but also quite useful:

The problem being resolved, the system started up successfully as was immediately reported by the water-flow indicator.

This is a snapshot of the Bianca installed on our testbed:

Under a mild external lighting the system looks very cute with its highlighting of the reservoir, fan and rheobus.

The system proved to be noisy at work even at the minimum rotation speed of the fan. The performance is low. Our reference cooler is more efficient and is both quieter and higher-performing.

Summary: The manufacturer’s promises didn’t come true. The Bianca is in fact noisy and low-performing. Of course, it’s difficult to provide good cooling with a system with such a compact case, but if the developers had equipped it with a quieter fan and a better radiator, it would make a good choice for barebone systems for which a massive air cooler is usually too big. So, we can’t regard the TWC-A05 system from Titan as a good buy notwithstanding its very moderate price of $100.