X-bit labs

Water World from Koolance: Exos-2 LX Liquid Cooling System and Koolance Water-Blocks Review (page 8)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 11/30/2007 | 11:02 AM ]

There are two caps on the face side of the top part of the water-block. They are meant for organizing liquid cooling of two GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra graphics cards in a SLI configuration.

You have to use special connecting bushings and adapters, purchased separately, for that. Fittings with an internal diameter of 6, 10 or 13mm are inserted into the openings on the other side.

It is simple to install the water-block on a graphics card. The step-by-step procedure is described and illustrated in the manual. First you should glue thermal pads to the spots of contact between the water-block and the graphics card (excepting the GPU):

Two types of thermal pads of different thickness and color are included into the kit. I used the thinnest pads for my tests. As the photo shows, the water-block has contact not only with the GPU but also with the graphics card’s memory chips, power circuit elements, and NVIO chip. In other words, no part of the GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra will be left uncooled. :)

The water-block is secured on the graphics card’s PCB with screws and plastic spacers. Three screws proved not enough and I had to use screws from the GeForce 8800 GTX’s stock cooler additionally.

Of course, the high-end graphics card with a cooler weighing almost 1 kilo looks alarming, so you may want to secure its top right corner additionally inside the system case.

That’s the graphics card with the installed water-block inside my system case:

The Koolance VID-282 comes at a recommended price of $93. Koolance also offers the VID-290 water-block for the AMD Radeon HD 2900 series at the same price.