by Vasily Melnik
10/14/2005 | 03:30 PM
Liquid-based cooling has become a real hot topic recently cooling systems of that type have ceased to be exotic. Far from that, they are now quite affordable products targeted at PC hardware enthusiasts.
<%BANNER[article]%>I guess many users can remember the time when a liquid-cooling system installed in a computer was viewed as a distinguishing feature that emphasized the status of the owner as of an advanced user. Such systems used to be assembled out of various odds and ends. The components had to be ordered separately while the use of car radiators, aquarium pumps and other things not specifically made for PCs called for serious and expensive redesign. This approach to building a water-cooling system is understandable and has a number of followers even today, but it doesn’t suit people who want to buy the whole system at once and install it on the same day.
Well, a high-quality and high-performance CPU water-cooling system still costs a round sum of money even today, just like it did before. The famous precursors of the new era of affordable water-based CPU cooling were the Aucma Cool River and the Poseidon kits. The former was a three-component and relatively compact system that could cool not only the CPU but also the chipset’s North Bridge and the graphics card. The Poseidon in its turn was the first affordable water-cooling kit, priced at below $100. So, these two systems opened a whole new market of such devices which is flourishing nowadays. The fact that low-end consumer systems cannot compete with products from the leaders like Asetek and Swiftech goes beyond doubt, but such systems are much, much cheaper! Moreover, the leaders still stick to their old ways. That is, they don’t offer you a finished product, but ask you to order separate components and you have to clearly realize what you exactly need to make a right choice. Besides that, you don’t get such bonuses as a universal fastening kit – since you buy the components separately, you won’t buy, for example, LGA775 fasteners “just in case”. The release of boxed kits from Asetek like the WaterChill Antarctica KT12A-L30 doesn’t change the overall situation since a single pump from such a kit may cost the same money as a whole entry-level liquid-cooling system. There’s no doubt about the highest quality and efficiency of Asetek’s products, but not all users are ready to shell out the price of a new office PC just for a cooler!
As for entry-level boxed liquid-cooling systems, the user gets a “ready-to-fly”, easy-to-deploy product, usually suitable for any modern computer platform.
Also beyond doubt, the general quality of entry-level liquid-cooling kits has greatly improved since the Aucma Cool River and the Poseidon. The pumps, water-blocks and radiators have become much more reliable and efficient. The manufacturers now pay much attention to the exterior of their products and to the supplied accessories. This market is changing, but even now entry-level water-cooling systems with their price and performance are positioned as a distinguishing feature of the owner. However, the supposed owner today is a person who doesn’t want to bother about sorting out the optimal configuration of the system, but wants to have a finished product right from the box.
For our today’s tests we took four liquid-cooling systems of different design but from the same price category, so they represent the current situation in this market sector quite vividly. Despite the design differences, these cooling systems perform almost identically under similar test conditions and you’ll see in the test section of the review why they do so. But right now let’s take a closer look at each system.
It’s easy to test a liquid-cooling system. Putting aside the problems of assembly and filling, you don’t need a real system case as a testbed. Since the heat is transferred to the outside anyway, you don’t have to deploy the cooling system in a system case to check its efficiency. As for the assembly procedure, there’s not much sense in verifying how the system deploys since this will largely depend on the type and the internal design of the particular system case.
So, I tested the efficiency of the reviewed liquid-cooling systems with a top-end configuration that included:
There were two test modes: Idle and Burn (with two copies of CPU Burn running). The temperature of the CPU was read with Motherboard Monitor version 5.3.7.0. The room temperature was 20°C at the time of the tests and remained constant throughout them. I used the same thermal paste with all the tested cooling systems.
The level of noise is evaluated subjectively and is specifically mentioned for each liquid-cooling system. If it was possible to adjust the fan speed, I tested the system at different fan speeds, depending on the system’s capabilities.
Thermaltake’s Rocket flies down upon you in a big and colorful cardboard box:
Besides the picture of a massive, missile-like radiator, there’s a detailed description of the operational principles of the system on the box. Everything is quite comprehensive, so even completely inexperienced users shouldn’t have any questions left. Judging by the pictures, the Thermaltake engineers didn’t invent something completely new – the design of the system has a strong resemblance to Zalman’s Rezerator. Absolutely silent operation and high thermal inertia are the essential advantages of such cooling systems. Well, we’ll discuss the operational qualities below, but now let’s examine the contents of the box. First you take out a hank of pipe and an instruction. Then you extract a big “sandwich” which contains the system components proper:
It is securely wrapped around with scotch tape to prevent the components from falling on the floor and running away from you to somewhere under your bed. After you cut the tape and take off one part of the sandwich, you get a view of some very dangerously looking things:
A radiator that looks like a small missile and two capsules with a liquid of an acid lemon color – that’s enough for the security to get worried about you at the customs in an airport. As if to add more similarity to a portable missile, the radiator’s base splays out downwards so you can mistake it for the stabilizers of a missile’s tail. The decorative cap made of transparent Plexiglas also fits the overall “war missile” concept well: heat-aiming missiles from the Russian army “Strela” and “Igla” hand-portable antiaircraft missile kits are equipped with transparent cowls, too. :)
It’s all quite traditional otherwise:
The radiator is a hollow tube with low-profile ribbing. The coolant comes into the radiator through the pipe in its top:
The pipe allows the heated coolant into the top part of the radiator, providing a “fountain” effect (visible due to the transparent top part), and also plays the role of an indicator of the system’s operability.
The radiator is not designed perfectly, however. It lacks any internal structure whatsoever, and its external ribbing is too small.
Besides the radiator and the two capsules with the coolant, the kit includes some fasteners, an assembly manual, a pump (and two double-sided stickers to fasten it), a piece of pipe, and a water-block.
The pipes and the coolant will shine in ultraviolet light, if you’ve got an appropriate lamp in your system case.
The water-block represents a classic design that has long been tested by generations of PC enthusiasts as well as by the leading manufacturers: a massive copper sole, a “snaky” path for the coolant, and a transparent Plexiglas cap. Besides the guides for the fasteners, the manufacturer’s logotypes were also cast on the cap. The cap makes the system look prettier, but without adding much weight to it.
We should give proper credit to Thermaltake Company: the fittings of this system are undoubtedly excellent and allow easy and quick connection of the pipes. The water-block’s “tail” that you can see above is not a wire from a thermocouple as I thought at first, but from a blue LED that’s going to highlight the water-block’s cap (and also to occupy one of the mainboard’s valuable fan connectors). The sole of the water-block is not polished too well:
It hardly matters, though. It’s only on the Socket A platform that the finish quality of the water-block is important. Modern processors with heat-spreading caps don’t require an immaculate polish of the cooler’s sole.
You get some coolant to fill the system:
The text on the label informs you that this liquid doesn’t freeze and has improved heat-conductive properties. You are also warned against filling the system when the computer is turned on and are advised to use an expansion tank (not included into this kit) for that purpose. Well, it would be rather strange to buy an expansion tank when you already have such a huge rocket. As for heat conductivity, I really doubt this coolant is much better than ordinary distilled water. A number of experiments have been carried out, but no one has yet devised anything better and more available than it. A small paragraph on the label warns you against using this coolant to fill other liquid-cooling systems (I don’t know why – they all use the same plastic, copper and aluminum in the radiators, don’t they?). And the last warning is that you shouldn’t drink the coolant or give it to your children, even if you are very thirsty.
Considering the high manufacturing quality of the radiator and the water-block, I could only find one fault with this system – its pump:
Unlike its Zalman analog, this pump is external rather than integrated into the radiator. I’m inclined to view it as a drawback as it’s no good to have an additional component you have to find place for in the densely populated system case of your computer. And unlike with the Rezerator, I can’t recommend the Rocket as a cooling system for a barebone computer – you won’t have space to accommodate the pump. The pump is also inferior to the rest of the system’s components in quality. It is a simple plastic design with unassuming cast fittings, and not very good spring-loaded clamps. To equip the pump with normal fittings, the manufacturer had to use pipe pieces as adapters. This doesn’t make the whole arrangement any more appealing. The two plugged-up fittings in the top of the pump are intended for connecting an expansion tank. A metal fastening plate is located on the rear side of the pump:
This plate makes it easy to fasten the pump in the system case:
If you don’t have openings in your system case and you don’t want to drill them, you can use the enclosed sticky tape and fasten the pump on any stretch of flat and free surface inside the case.
The pump’s info sticker doesn’t have much info to tell:
Besides showing the manufacturer’s logo, the sticker just tells you that it’s a pump and that’s all. And there is also a scale that shows the level of the coolant. At the top of the pump, under a metal cap and a rubber plug, there’s a hole which is probably meant for adding coolant into the system.
The plug sits rather tight in its hole:
So, the metal cap even seems an unnecessary precaution measure.
The fasteners should be known to our readers from our review of Thermaltake’s coolers. There are two universal brackets with two inserts:
The only new thing in this kit is a Socket A bracket:
A rear-panel bracket for putting the pipes out is also included in this kit:
The “In” and “Out” words look rather funny. I wonder what happens if you put the pipes in the “wrong” order?
After we’ve examined the components, it’s time to try to assemble them. The procedure is as simple as cutting up the pipe and connecting the system components with the pieces. It’s highly improbable that you can do anything wrong here, but don’t confuse the In and Out fittings of the radiator! Unlike on the rear-panel bracket, the radiator’s markings really have a meaning.
With the system assembled I caught myself being very skeptical about the plug in the pump. I didn’t want to fill the system through so tiny an opening. So I just took off the cap of the Rocket…
…and poured the contents of both bottles into the radiator. Then I put the cap back on the missile and lifted the radiator above the pump’s level for the pump to get the liquid (one of the best ways to quickly damage a submersible pump is to make it work without any liquid).
It was easy to mount the water-block on the processor:
It is much easier to fasten the water-block than Thermaltake’s air coolers with these plates. Nothing hinders your access to the fastening screws and they can be turned about even without any tools.
And then I tested this Rocket. Considering the passive design and the high thermal capacity of the system I left it working for a while for the temperature to become constant. Generally speaking, testing passive water-cooling systems with a big amount of coolant takes quite a lot of time. It may take several hours for the temperature to stabilize on the same level, and this time also depends on such parameters as the ambient temperature and the CPU load. That’s why I left the Thermaltake Rocket unattended and returned in an hour to find a small lake around the testbed. The hard drive was definitely on the verge of becoming a small steamboat. The guilty party was quickly exposed – it was the pump, or rather its low-quality clamps the manufacturer fixed the plugs on the expansion tank outputs with:
The plugs were made of thin and stiff rubber and the plastic fittings were not well finished, so both expansion tank outputs gave a leak.
The traces of the leakage are obvious and the system lost some of the coolant. Serious problems could have occurred with the hardware in our testbed if I really left the system for three or four hours unattended. As for the solution, you should either replace the clamps right after the purchase or do as I did – I took a piece of the enclosed pipe and sealed these openings without any clamps. The pipe, unlike the black plugs, is rather soft and takes some effort to be put on. The fittings become absolutely waterproof with it. The system lost a little less than one quarter of the coolant in the accident:
This is going to affect a little the resulting efficiency of the system – we should keep this fact in mind when we will compare the results.
So, I removed the traces of the deluge and tested the system at last and this really took quite an amount of time. The system, however, can work in only one mode – there are no fans to adjust its performance with. It’s good news for a tester, considering that it takes almost a whole day to test only one operational mode. So, here are the results:
The numbers look average at first. An Idle temperature of 44°C is acceptable, but the Load temperature of 81°C looks too high, considering that the ambient temperature was 20°C during the test. On the other hand, the system lacked almost one fourth of the coolant and the processor worked for 4 hours under the maximum load to get that hot, so an average user is highly unlikely to get the same temperature at ordinary work. You can’t fry your CPU up with real-life applications, for example by playing Unreal Tournament 2004. Moreover, the temperature depends much on the position of the radiator. If there’s just a weak airflow around it, the temperature goes down by a good dozen degrees centigrade. So, the results are passable. The Thermaltake Rocket can successfully work in a home computer unless you use your CPU at the maximum load for several hours in a row.
It could be the end of this section of the review if another problem didn’t rise up. When I was uninstalling the system after the test I noticed a thick layer of white flaky residue. The origin of the sediment was a mystery – the enclosed coolant should have had some additives against such undesired things. Besides negatively affecting the pump’s service life, this sediment may reduce the radiator’s efficiency. There was a thick layer of it at the bottom of the radiator:
As well as on the radiator’s inner surfaces:
An extra link in the heat-transfer chain between the coolant and the radiator is unlikely to improve the cooling efficiency, I think.
I don’t know for sure why the sediment developed, but there could only be one source of it – the enclosed coolant. So I advise you to watch over the system and if you see sediment, you should wash the system and refill it with the traditional mixture of distilled water and antifreeze.
Despite some flaws, the Rocket CL-W0011 kit from Thermaltake can be recommended for use. Its advantages outweigh its minor defects. The only serious drawback of this system is its externally positioned pump, while the rest of the problems like the sediment and the leaking fittings can be solved in a few minutes (you should just solve them before installing the system into the computer). One of the main advantages of the system is its price. The Rocket costs almost two times less than its closest market alternatives.
It’s simple with the noise factor – the pump is the single system component that can produce any sounds at all. But I have no complaints about it. The noise from the pump is barely audible and you won’t hear it if you put it into your system case.
Highs: Good cooling; simple assembly; silent operation; high-quality water-block; rather low price for a system of that category;
Lows: External pump; the expansion tank fittings of the pump are not properly sealed;
Conclusion: Excellent choice if you want an easy-to-assemble, reasonably priced, nice-looking and fully passive water-cooling system.
Average retail price - $140
The Big Water is another water-cooling system from Thermaltake in this review. Unlike the Rocket, it is a classic system without passive radiators or other innovations. The box is rather small and has a cut-out for us to see its contents.
This side window is mostly a decorative element since you can only see the fan of the radiator and part of the water-block with the pump. So, the potential buyer can’t examine the components thoroughly through this window. But I can just open it and take a close look at each component:
You’ve already seen the same pump, water-block and fasteners in the previous section, so I won’t repeat myself again. New in this system is the expansion tank:
Beyond doubt, it is a very useful thing, the most convenient way to fill the system and control the amount of liquid in it. The quality of manufacture is like that of the pump – the same material (plastic) and a similar design of the label. You can fasten the tank in any place inside the system case:
The fastening plate saves you the trouble of finding a suitable place. The configuration of the holes in the plate allows to secure the tank anywhere in the case with the help of screws or ordinary plastic braces.
Since this water-cooling system is equipped with a fan, it can’t do without the exclusive speed controller:
This is in fact a typical speed controller from Thermaltake which is to be fastened on the rear panel. A bracket for a 3.5” bay is not included so you can’t put the controller on the front panel of your system case. Of course, the user can manually drill a hole in a 3.5” faceplate, but it would be much better to have a Thermaltake bracket with a logotype, if only as a sign that there’s a water-cooling system installed in this computer!
The user’s manual isn’t as comprehensive as the Rocket one.
I couldn’t find anything particular interesting here. It is easy to assemble the system, so you may only want to read the manual out of pure curiosity rather than real necessary.
The radiator is one of the most important components of any liquid-cooling system as it largely determines the efficiency of the entire kit. I should confess Thermaltake managed to create a very good radiator:
It looks pretty on the outside: a typical Thermaltake fan, a black metal casing and a grill. The radiator seems to be supposed to reside inside the system case.
The fittings are designed in such a way that if you put the radiator on the outside of the rear panel, the attached pipes will protrude backwards too far. I don’t know why the engineers couldn’t shape the fittings in the form of the letter L and direct them downwards.
The radiator is noticeably shifted down in its casing:
This is not good since there’s no sense in blowing at pipes that have no ribbing. Again, I don’t know the reasons for the engineers to make such design solutions. Probably they did so for the Big Water to install properly into Thermaltake’s own system cases – the company can increase the sales of its water-cooling systems and system cases at the same time by optimizing the former for the latter.
Two different radiator designs are usually employed in consumer water-cooling kits. One of them is an accordion-shaped copper pipe with ribs put on:
This is actually a condenser rather than a radiator. Such condensers are usually employed in refrigerators where the operational temperatures are somewhat different. In computer systems it is, however, better to use radiators specifically designed for liquid-based cooling. I’ll talk on this point later on and will give you some examples.
One of the distinguishing features of the Big Water, and of the above-described Rocket, is that you can first mount the water-block on the CPU and then to connect the pipes:
Thanks to a clever design of the fittings, you should meet no troubles as you’re connecting the pipes. The installed system looks just like the above-described one since they only differ in the type of the radiator (if you don’t install the expansion tank which you can well do without). So, these systems may require a different position for the radiator in your system case, but it will depend on the type of your system case.
Unlike the Rocket, the Big Water took little of liquid in:
Judging by the scale, there’s more than enough coolant left for a second refill.
The system at large leaves a very positive impression. Its high-quality components promise a high efficiency. I was wiser this time and put the pump into a deep dish beforehand, but this measure proved to be unnecessary – there were no leakages. Recalling my experience with the Rocket, I think the problem was not in the quality of the clamps, but rather in the pump’s case and its processing. Cast details are usually post-processed “with a file” after their manufacture to remove some minor defects. But as my practice suggests this is not a common rule among the manufacturers.
Here’s how the Big Water kit performed in my tests:
I wouldn’t say the results of this cooling system are impressive. They are rather comparable to those of today’s top-end air coolers. You’ll see the general picture of performance of consumer water-cooling systems in the summary diagrams at the end of the review, but as for the Big Water, it is more than sufficient for any existing processor, without any reservations. The fan-speed control should be set at the min position since the maximum speed of the fan doesn’t add much to the overall efficiency, as the diagram above shows. The radiator – or, rather, the condenser that plays the role of a radiator in this system – is quite indifferent to the speed of the fan. The only thing the Thermaltake engineers might think of improving upon is the design of the pump – it is the single weak link in the Big Water as well as in the Rocket. Both these systems from Thermaltake can be recommended not only to ordinary users but also to enthusiasts (who can improve their efficiency considerably by simply replacing the pump).
Talking about noise, there are in fact two modes with the Big Water – the maximum speed of 2500rpm and the minimum speed of 1250rpm (there’s no sense in choosing anything in-between because of a very small difference in efficiency even between these two extremes). In the min speed mode there is no noise (you can hear the rumble of the bearings only if you press your ear against the cooler). At the maximum speed, however, the noise is rather loud. It’s not very annoying, but you will hear it well if the rest of your system is silent. So I want to advise you once again to put the fan-speed control into the minimal speed position. You will lose a few degrees in efficiency, but will get an almost silent computer instead.
Highs: Good cooling; simple assembly; noiseless operation (at the min speed of the fan); high-quality water-block; nice-looking design; a very appealing price considering the quality of most of the system components;
Lows: Low-quality pump; a condenser instead of a radiator
Conclusion: All factors summed up, this is one of the best “ready-to-fly” water-cooling systems available today.
Average retail price - $91
We have already reviewed this product before, there was the whole article devoted to it called "Out of This World" Liquid-Cooling System: Gigabyte 3D Galaxy Review . Today we would like to repeat a few most important things about this system, however, you may as well want to check out our previous review, to make sure you didn't miss anything.
The 3D Galaxy is the company’s first and quite successful attempt to enter this market. The product is packaged well – the prettily decorated box has a big window to give you a good view of all the system components. This box will surely attract your eyes at a computer shop.
The box is informative, too. One glance is enough to realize what system it contains and what platforms this system is designed for. The external cardboard cover is just a pretty-looking wrapping:
Under the wrapping you find the box with the system. The system’s main components are in a plastic package:
Pipes, fasteners, the manual and other small things can be found at the bottom of the box:
There’s nothing particularly exciting in this kit. It consists of typical components if you don’t get deep into details.
We’ve already seen all that – a pump, a water-block, a radiator, and a bottle with coolant. A small additional fan is the only strange thing here (you’ll learn its purpose shortly).
The purpose of the rest of the components is clear. You get fasteners, a pipe, some clamps, a power cable for the pump, a manual, and fasteners for the system’s radiator.
Let’s start with the main components, particularly with the water-block:
The cute design with a copper foundation and a plastic cap looks similar to water-blocks from Thermaltake, but there are some differences, too. For example, the metal plate is used as a fastening element here. It also protects the plastic cap from damage. If you remove this plate, the internal structure of the water-block becomes apparent:
The Gigabyte engineers made use of one of the best possible designs which had earlier been a prerogative of Swiftech’s systems – a needled internal surface. Well, discussing and comparing different water-block designs is out of the scope of this review – it would require a special and long article. The systems presented here are ready-made and the user is unlikely to purchase one to redesign anything in it. It would be simpler just to choose another ready-made solution.
The only drawback of this water-block is that the fittings are plastic and constitute a single whole with the cap. Considering that the system comes with a rather thick pipe, this aroused my apprehensions a little: plastic isn’t a very robust material, so you should be most careful when assembling a 3D Galaxy.
There’s a protective sticker on the base of the water-block:
This is a called-for measure since the bottom is polished just perfectly and needs protection during transportation and installation:
The thickening of the sole where it touches the processor should positively affect the cooling efficiency. If the water-block had a thin base, it wouldn’t take heat off the CPU quickly enough.
The Gigabyte engineers were at their best when they worked on the pump:
It is a really clever idea to put an external pump and a large and capacious reservoir with a handy plug on a single large base which is going to keep the whole arrangement steady on the floor of the system case. Quite importantly, this all looks pretty, too. The pump also features a system of control over the level of the liquid which automatically turns the computer off in case of a leakage.
The 3D Galaxy kit includes a special low-speed MOSFET cooling fan . It is to be mounted on the water-block to cool the MOSFETs of the CPU power circuit and the chipset’s heatsink.
The engineers got it right: one of the biggest problems with any liquid-cooling system is that the CPU-related power elements and the chipset’s heatsink (if it doesn’t have its own fan on) cease to receive any air cooling. Most manufacturers – but not Gigabyte – left it to the user to solve this problem.
The system’s radiator has a blue metal casing that carries a logotype and an exhaust fan:
It looks nice, but the designers have overdone it a little:
I don’t know why they put in the wire grid – its functionality is fully copied by the opening in the radiator’s casing. People who are into improving everything may like this solution, though, since they can cut a normal opening and leave only the wire grill to reduce the noise from the fan.
Inside the casing you can find a classic sample of a true radiator, not condenser:
This design works better than a condenser even considering that the radiator is made of aluminum. The fittings under the rubber gags are the same as on the water-block, i.e. they are closed with clamps.
Although the radiator’s tanks are rather wide, the ribs are smaller:
It’s seems to a current trend that the manufacturers try to save on every scrap of metal.
An exhaust 120mm fan is blowing at the radiator.
The fan speed is regulated by means of a small controller:
The controller’s knob is supposed to be on the rear panel of the case. There is no faceplate to put it on the front panel. This rear-panel bracket also has holes for putting the pipes out to the radiator and also for the wires of the radiator’s fan. The pipes openings are blank, so you can’t first assemble and fill the system and then install it into the system case. Moreover, the pipes are rather thick and the openings in the bracket are oval-shaped. The pipes will be pinched a little and this is not good.
The pipes are fastened on the fittings with special clamps:
These steel clamps carry the manufacturer’s logo and are equipped with plastic pieces for your fingers:
I wouldn’t say these clamps help much. There’s no difference if a clamp is put on a fitting or not. I don’t think that such clamps should be used in water-cooling systems which are most sensitive to the quality of all connections. Moreover, the plastic pieces just fall off when you try to squeeze the clamp.
The pump is connected via a multifunctional cable:
Besides powering the pump up, the cable powers the protection circuit and is equipped with a special connector that is plugged into the Power Switch connector – if the level of the coolant is too low, the protection circuit turns the computer off.
You get a bottle of blue coolant with the system:
You won’t learn anything new here – just the basic recommendations as with the Thermaltake products.
The enclosed fasteners support only the most popular platforms, four in total. Two clips for Socket 478:
A frame for LGA775 to which the water-block is attached by means of the above-mentioned clips:
And a universal bracket for AMD’s latest platforms:
Only Socket 939 and 754 are supported. Gigabyte doesn’t think it necessary to include fasteners for the almost dead Socket A platform.
How will you install the radiator in system cases that don’t have an exhaust 120mm fan? Use a special bracket:
It is fastened with two screws to the top of the radiator:
And then you can hang the radiator on the rear panel of the case, attaching it to the bottom screws of the power supply:
This is a simple solution, yet no one had thought of it before. The radiator hangs in such a way that it doesn’t block the mainboard’s interface connectors and it receives the air stream from the exhaust fan on the rear panel, whatever its diameter may be. Well, if you’ve got a system case with a 120mm exhaust fan, you can fasten the radiator in the traditional way, too.
To install the system on a Socket LGA775 platform, you must first install a special frame:
Then you can fasten the water-block with the clips:
Don’t be afraid to use force. The clips are very stiff and do not snap shut easily.
With the water-block mounted on the CPU, I began to deploy the water-cooling system. As I had expected, the main installation-related problem was the thickness of the pipes:
I don’t want to sound rude, but the enclosed pipe looks more like a spray hose rather than a pipe from a water-cooling system. The manufacturer’s desire to make the pipe thicker is understandable. The bigger the diameter of the pipe is, the less resistance the liquid finds on its way. The efficiency of the pump and, accordingly, of the whole system grows up. But the pipes are so thick here that it’s hard to install them in the system case – the pipes don’t bend easily. Here’s a snapshot of the assembled system to illustrate my point:
The bend of the pipes shown on the photographs is in fact the best you can normally bend them. You may have troubles if you curve them more. As I had expected, the lack of the clamps didn’t poise any problems. The pipes stretch out well and fit down on the fittings quite tightly, so there’s no need for additional pressure.
One thing I have gripes about is the amount of the enclosed coolant. There’s barely enough of it to fill the system with long pipes.
This is not good at all. The expansion tank isn’t fully filled, and there’s no coolant left for further topping-up. The last touch in the assembly process is the installation of the water-block fan:
The system performs well, for its class.
The 3D Galaxy is considerably better than the Big Water in the Burn mode, but only at the maximum fan speed. As soon as I reduced the speed of the fan, it produced almost the same results as the earlier-described system. I think the radiator is a weak link in the chain. The pump and the water-blocks are cleverly designed, but the system definitely deserves a better and bigger heat exchanger. The installation problem poised by the thickness of the pipes is already well-known – a 3D Aurora system case specifically designed for the 3D Galaxy is going to come to market in nearest future, so if you like this liquid-cooling system, you can get a system case in which it is sure to deploy normally.
The noise from the 3D Galaxy is only heard when the fan is rotating at its maximum speed. When the speed is reduced to the minimum, there remains just a barely audible hum that you won’t hear if you put the radiator into the case.
It’s easy to make the final verdict on this system. If you can normally deploy it in your system case and are ready to spend a little more money than systems of this class usually cost, then go and get it. Otherwise, you may want to search for installation-friendlier and cheaper alternatives.
Highs : Excellent cooling; quiet operation at the min fan speed; good water-block; nice design; high-quality and high-performance pump
Lows : Thick pipes; rather high price
Conclusion : The positive impression from this water-cooling system is somewhat spoiled by the installation difficulties and price.
Average retail price - $110
A water-cooling system from Cooler Master’s Aquagate series is the last to be tested in this session. The kit comes in a small and demurely designed box:
It is simple on the inside, too:
The box contains the following:
The system comes already assembled and filled; the pump is combined with the water-block. People who like to assemble water-cooling kits with their own hands will be deprived of that pleasure – everything is already done for them. The only procedure the user must do is to put the pump/waterblock on the processor and mount the radiator with the fan.
In fact, the only thing that was not preassembled at the factory is the exclusive fan with speed control:
You have to install it manually along with its chromium grill.
The white box contains fasteners, various small things and a manual:
It also contains two connectors to attach the pump and the fan to ordinary Molex outputs of your power supply.
This may come in handy if the connectors on the mainboard are all already occupied. A special kit consisting of a bracket and a knob is intended to put the fan speed control on the rear panel.
The fasteners are designed similarly, but none of the popular platforms is forgotten. You get fasteners for all existing platforms from AMD:
The plate for K8/K9 platforms is on top; the Socket A plate is at the bottom. There are more fasteners for Intel’s platforms. These are plates for the Xeon and Socket 478:
A plate for Socket LGA775 and a universal back-plate for all the above-described platforms, excepting the Xeon.
The radiator has a design and size similar to the radiator of Gigabyte’s 3D Galaxy.
The configuration of the fittings and the way the water flows through the radiator are different from Gigabyte’s radiator, but these are not very important factors. The design of the pump, on the contrary, is quite strange:
The tiny pump is combined with the CPU water-block. The sole is polished very well:
It’s a good fact, considering that the kit comes with fasteners for the Socket A platform.
The installation procedure is quite simple. You choose the necessary fastening plate and screw it to the bottom of the pump:
Then you insert more screws and everything is ready for installation:
Take note that the screws are left-threaded. You shouldn’t exert yourself habitually trying to turn them to the right. The whole arrangement is fastened on the reverse side of the mainboard with nuts which are fastened with the help of a special gadget that you can turn with your screwdriver:
It is very convenient:
The nut doesn’t fall in and you can fasten it with any screwdriver, ordinary or cross-head. Unfortunately, Intel doesn’t seem to think that users may want to install a water-cooling kit, so their mainboard has some jutting elements on the reverse side of the PCB:
These elements don’t permit to put a back-plate on the reverse side of the mainboard, but it’s not a big problem. The pump/waterblock is not too heavy, so you can do without a back-plate:
The mainboard doesn’t bend much – no more than under an ordinary, box cooler. The pump is small and mounts easily on any mainboard:
The system looks rather plain when installed:
The Aquagate is evidently supposed to be put inside the system case – there’s no opportunity to install the radiator somewhere outside. This limits its compatibility with system cases greatly as there are not so many cases that would allow installing a 120mm radiator on the inside of the rear panel. Despite the unusual design, the system proved to be quite efficient in practice:
There’s not much to comment upon. The performance of this water-cooling kit is at least on the same level with the other tested systems. The only difference is the medium fan speed. It is 1500rpm against 1250-1300 with the other systems. I decided to test at 1500rpm because there was no noise at that speed, while with the other participating kits the fan was already audible at 1300rpm. At 900rpm any noise is inaudible altogether. The maximum speed shouldn’t be used as it leads to a very small decrease of the temperature at the expense of a noticeable increase in noise.
So, this water-cooling kit seems to have no drawbacks whatsoever. It comes preassembled; it is easy to install; it consists of a minimum of components and doesn’t require any servicing almost. There’s only one downside – you have to find a system case this kit will fit into. Well, if you are not against doing some manual work, you can cut out a 120mm hole in the side panel of your ordinary system case opposite to the CPU socket and put the radiator on the top panel. This approach solves two problems at once: the radiator is properly placed and the mainboard gets an additional source of cool air. On the other hand, if you compare the system from Cooler Master with the other tested kits, it would look rather humble, despite its costing almost the same money as Gigabyte’s 3D Galaxy. Moreover, it is not the best option for a system case with a side window – it doesn’t look very impressive, I should confess. So, this system is purely utilitarian and I think its price should be lower than it is.
Highs : Good cooling; good fastening; Xeon fasteners; quiet operation at a rather high speed of the fan, compact design
Lows : Doesn’t suit for all system cases; maintenance-free design; unassuming appearance
Conclusion : A good water-cooling system for people who care about efficiency alone. Yet its price is rather too high.
Average retail price - $115
The results of this test session are overall satisfactory, yet I am left somewhat displeased. Why? Just take a look at the summary diagram:
Yes, I added the results of an air cooler to those of the four water-cooling kits. And yes, it is the top-end model from Thermaltake, but its air cooling is no worse than the water-based cooling of the tested systems! Any reasonable person would ask if water-cooling kits are really necessary if they produce the same results as an air cooler. Why would you want to buy one and bother about such things as its deployment in the system case, overheat of the CPU power elements, etc., if you can just take an ordinary and simple-to-use air cooler? Well, people who install water-cooling kits in their computers are seldom reasonable pragmatics. Moreover, in some situations it is just impossible to use such a monster cooler as the Big Typhoon (for example, in barebones and other cramped system cases). A liquid-cooling system also looks much more impressive than any air cooler and this is a heavy argument for many users in favor of the purchase. Yet anyway, the Big Typhoon has the best price/performance ratio among the solutions presented on the diagram above. The Aquagate seems to be the worst among them – with its exterior it is just an ordinary, utilitarian thing, but its price is too high for the functionality alone. The Gigabyte system can’t become a leader because it costs $25 more than the Big Water and poises some installation problems due to the excessive thickness of the pipes. The passive solution from Thermaltake called Rocket is a separate story. Not all people would like to put such a missile on their desk – you’d need the rest of your room decorated in the same style. On the other hand, you can just put it somewhere on the floor and enjoy the silence – the design of the system and the length of the pipes allow choosing the position of the radiator quite freely.
So, if you want to buy an entry-level “ready-to-fly” water-cooling system for less than $100, you can do so. But it’s up to you to decide if it’s really worth the trouble. There are so many things to be considered that I can’t give you general advice as to when water cooling is going to be better than air cooling for your particular computer. So, we, at X-bit labs, restrict ourselves to keeping up with the situation in this market sector and informing you on all things of importance that are going to happen there.
