OC3D Review: Battle of the Water Cooling Kits

[JN]

Today (and for the past 2 weeks) i look at water cooling kits from Alphacool, Swiftech, Thermaltake and XSPC to find out just what water cooling kit is worth splashing out your hard earned cash on.

Review Here

 

[llwyd]

well done mate, time well spent! awesome review:worship:

(as you can tell by the time stamp im still in the middle of reading it)

 

[FarFarAway]

Nice review mate. I read it before posting

 

[JN]

lol, cheers guys.

 

[NickS]

Awesome review man, I really enjoyed it. Some of those kit's really kicked butt!

Nick

 

[Raven]

must say the thermaltake didnt manage well.

45celsius at load is higher than i get on air :/

 

[JN]

must say the thermaltake didnt manage well.

45celsius at load is higher than i get on air :/

Yeah it wasn't too great. I'm wondering if it was down to that kink in the radiator pipe that was causing greatly restricted flow..

 

[FragTek]

can't wait to read the review when I get home, looks great!

 

[Raven]

I'm wondering if it was down to that kink in the radiator pipe that was causing greatly restricted flow..

possibly, if you still have the radiators you could do a flow test and se how much time is needed for 1L water to flow through.

 

[PV5150]

An excellent and comprehensive review as usual XMS. How good is the finish on the NexXxos? :yumyum:

 

[JN]

Thx PV - and ye, that block was like a mirror.

 

[FragTek]

Finally got a chance to read throgh the whole review, looks good mate! There were some decent looking kits there. Seems the TT kit had some major faults though but I suppose that's to be expected from a TT water kit.

I definately think that the Swiftech kit has the most potential... Replace the tubing with some larger diamater stuff and you could see a great deal more performance mefinks.

Nice one mate.

 

[JN]

Agreed Frag. I've pretty much got the same kit as the swiftech one but with 1/2" tubing. My temps are about 1-2oc lower on average.

 

[Ham]

Another fantastic job XMS. Looking at those temps tho, its it all really worth it me wonders. My Evo keeps my 3500 @ 30idle ~37load. And thats not 90nm.

 

[JN]

Yeah, the only thing you need to take into consideration when comparing it tho is the vcore used and room temp. These were taken with 1.6v cvcore and room temp of 26oc.

 

[FarFarAway]

Ye twas a hot one last week

 

[JN]

Ye twas a hot one last week

For sure. At one point in the tests i was seriously considering tipping all of that deionised water over my head

 

[browney]

For Alphacool Complete Retail Universal Kit (All CPUS/Chipsets/VGA/Rad/12v Pump/Cables/Tubes/Coolant)

1.Doesn any one know if there are chipset problems with the DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-D

2.Any problems with the VGA and a ATi X1800XT?

 

[Futures Truth]

Nice review! Couldn't of come a better time. I'm researching water cooling, and it's a big help to me! Thanks! Awesome reviews, I read it all before posting =]

 

[FarFarAway]

For Alphacool Complete Retail Universal Kit (All CPUS/Chipsets/VGA/Rad/12v Pump/Cables/Tubes/Coolant)

1.Doesn any one know if there are chipset problems with the DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-D

2.Any problems with the VGA and a ATi X1800XT?

Unsure of exactly what you mean mate

The kit we reviewed did not have either of those components in it.