|
|||||||
 |
The WaterChill V3.0 arrived all the way from Denmark in a cardboard shipping box with the following features:
As with most water-cooling systems, there is quite a lot of equipment involved, so let's take a look at the parts that come with this kit. First and foremost in the minds of most people who are thinking of using water-cooling, are the water blocks. Here are a few shots of main item, the CPU block.  The CPU block comes with the universal top plate already assembled. This should allow you to use the CPU block for any Socket 478 or AMD 64 application, and some Socket 462 applications depending on your motherboards configuration around the CPU socket. Remember, you will only be able to use the WaterChill if your motherboard has the prerequisite four mounting holes around the socket.   All of the water blocks came with a plastic protective covering to help prevent corrosion and to keep out debris. Once the plastic is removed, you can see the very nicely machined base of the block. While there were some extremely small machine marks on the base, they were very light and no ridges were seen or felt. Although not a perfect mirror finish, all of the blocks are close enough to mirror so that lapping would be a waste of time in my opinion.  Here are the VGA and North Bridge water blocks. All three blocks use the same heavy-duty plastic push and lock quick-connectors to ensure that the tubing stays in place.     Next up is the Hydor Seltz L30 II water pump. Rated at 320 GPH (gallons per hour) and coming in at 4¾"(L) x 3"(W) x 5"(H), this is not a small pump. In fact, it's main design and purpose in life is as a pond pump. Asetek has replaced the regular inlet and outlet fittings with the push and lock connectors. I'm quite certain this was done for two reasons. One would be for ease of use; and the other to help prevent leaks from a poorly installed tube.   The pump power is connected through the Control Unit with the SmartStart and NoiseControl features. With SmartStart, the pump immediately turns on when you hit the system power. This ensures that system is being cooled at all times. The NoiseControl feature lets you adjust the fan speed by setting a jumper on the control unit to either 7v or 12v. The Control unit also has a fan header for the included 120mm fan, a four-pin "floppy disk" type connector and LED jumper pins if you wish to attach one as a visual reference that the unit is working.  The Hermaphrodite power connector provides part of the power source for the Control Unit. This item is attached to the system power supply and then the regular power cord is plugged into it. The wire coming off of the side of the Hermaphrodite connector has a PCI slot shield so that if you have the pump mounted inside the case, it can be connected to the one power source easily.  The radiator is the excellent Black Ice Pro, which, like the pump, has been modified with the push and lock quick connects.  The supplied fan is a 120mm x 38mm Sunon. This is one big fan as you can see in the comparison picture with a standard 80mm x 25mm fan. Here is where I had my first issue with this system. There was no fan guard included. Considering the size of this fan and the fact that it will somehow be located on the outside of the case, it would seem to me that a fan guard would be a mandatory piece of equipment. I am at a loss to explain why one isn't.     We finish off the main parts with the Water Reservoir. Again fitted with the push and lock connectors, the main part of the reservoir is clear Plexiglas so that you can easily see the water level. The top of the reservoir has a push-in plastic and rubber-sealed cap with a thumbscrew to hold it in place.  Finally, here are the accessories that come with the WaterChill kit. First up is the bag of mounting hardware. It comes with the required screws, zip ties, springs, washers, thermal paste and Anti-Algae fluid.  Next is the mounting bracket to attach the reservoir to the pump.  Here is the 6' of TubClair water tubing. This is fairly flexible tubing, with an outside diameter of ½" and an inside diameter of 3/8", you need to make sure that you have plenty of tubing going from connector to connector to avoid kinking.  With the wide variety of AMD based motherboards on the market, Asetek found that it was necessary to include a second CPU water block top plate to fit on those boards that have capacitors close to the CPU socket. They have also included an Allen wrench to remove and re-attach the screws from the block top plate. However, there are two things that they did not include which I'll talk about in the installation part of this review.  Lastly, there is the 42-page instruction manual. This is a very detailed manual with concise instruction, but I found that some of the diagrams were very faded in my copy and they are hard to see. Also, I found that there is zero information regarding the alternate top plate and how to remove the old one and replace it with the new one. Considering that this is a rather intricate build, I was very surprised to see this detail missing. 
|
|
|||||
