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Thermaltake Big Water SE computer water cooling system

Friday, July 21st, 2006 | Cooling, Reviews | View Comments

Computer water cooling has become very popular computer components upgrade and the Thermaltake Big Water SE is aimed at those who would quickly like to get into the world of computer water cooling for their computer. Water cooling is not new to computers but has been the realm of those into extreme overclocking and those who modify their computers alot.

The Thermaltake Big Water SE computer water cooling system tackles that by offering an all-in-one beginners kit to get you started with your liquid cooling system. It comes with basically everything you could need for your system with nothing lacking for a basic install.

What you get with the system are…

• Waterblock, which cools the CPU
• Water pump
• DVD drive sized Coolant tank
• Radiator and fan (120mm fan)
• Coolant (enough for one install)
• Enough tubing to get around most systems

Although the computer water cooling system is more complicated to install than an air cooled solution, the well documented manual and well labelled parts make it that much easier. As long as you have a little time, it should be fine.

You will need to have space for a 120mm fan which is the size of the fan over the radiator, although there are alternatives if that isn’t available. Be prepared with something to cut your case if needs be.

The system itself does offer a slight amount of cooling over a standard well vented system. Other people who bought and installed the system reported differing levels of cooling, even up to 14 degrees celcius lower in some cases.

This is all well and good but the other good feature is low noise. With many fans cooling high powered systems the noise can become unbearable. With only a single 120mm fan in operation and the pumps and stuff only making a slight noise, a computer water cooling system will be able to take advantage of greater cooling and reduced temperatures at the same time.

For hardcore overclocking types, this is not for you. But for those looking for a good, reliable solution for a decent price the Thermaltake Big Water SE certainly fits the bill as a more than decent computer water cooling solution.

Antec Performance CPU cooler

Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 | Cooling, News | View Comments

Computer stuff just keeps needing more and more power, and with each new advance in technology, the requirements increase. Antec are well known for their other products like computer cases, so the Antec performance CPU cooler is an adventure into new territory.

In the review at bjorn3d it turns out that this cooler is not really much to write home about. Offering fairly good performance it simply doesn’t cut the grade for a so-called “performance” CPU cooler.

Although it might make some sense as a cool upgrade some someone with a stock cooler, it doesn’t offere much of an advantage to those who want to push their system very far and really tax their computer.

With installation being a little more difficult than necessary and with performance being enhanced only a little, it falls into the right price range at around $20.

Those who want a truly high performance cooler should look to the like of Zalman coolers, which offer some of the best cooling around

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Corsair Nautilus 500 Watercooling Kit

Monday, May 8th, 2006 | Cooling, News | View Comments

With the ever increasing temperatures in computers, and many users also wanting quieter computers, water cooling has become more and more popular to meet the cooling needs of the computer. Greater cooling can be provided to those that need things cooler and it keeps normal systems cool enough to eliminate nearly all of the noisy fans.

Bit-tech reports on the Nautilus 500 watercooling kit from Corsair. As water cooling has hit the mainstream, you no longer have to seek out the different parts to build a water cooling system by yourself. The big companies have seen the need and are starting to offer kits to allow easy installation of a complete water cooling system with the minimum of fuss.

The Corsair nautilus turns out to be exceptionally good at what it does. It provides plenty of tubing to get the fluid to where it needs to go. It also has decent looks for an external unit. Each of the connectors is a tool free connector and can be clipped on and off, they are also self-sealing, so that you don’t lose much fluid when taking them out.

It is easy to setup and easy to get going. I makes good sense for a beginner, who will have very few troubles putting this kit in their computer.

The results of testing are good too. Compared to other cooling solutions it does very well at keeping things very cool. When it maintained a temperature of 29 degrees celcius at idle and kept things under 40, even at high load. This is great performance, seeing as it does not cost that much.

A highly recommended product for both those who have done watercooling for a while and even for those that are just wanting to dip their feet.

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Cooling AMD Athlon Dual Core Processors

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 | Cooling, News | View Comments

With the advancement in processors, there has been a decrease in the power requirements for computer processors. Processors had started to get a little out of hand, with some of the Intel processors hitting majorly high heat levels due to high power consumption.

New dual-core processors have again pushed up the power requirements for processors as there are now two cores put inside a single chip.

Tomshardware have taken to task and explore some processors that are suitable for the new breed of AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core processors, in this case, the 4800+ version.

The standard cooler that comes with the retail box that AMD chips comes in is really the reference point to start from as there are many people who really don’t want to go to the trouble of changing or upgrading their cooler, at least for a while.

The alternatives presented are pretty tame in comparisson to many of the more intense coolers on the market that can weight a ton and keep things so cold that they can cool nearly anything they throw your way. The downside of these coolers is their large size and weight, as well as noise which play against them in a working environment where lower noise volumes are condusive to higher levels of concentration.

Of the six coolers that are pitted against the boxed cooler, most of them only offere the same or similar performance to it. At the end of the test, the Zalman Quiet Cooler comes out as the best of the test. Managing the coolest temperatures in the test, as well as the second quietest performance in the test, there is very little else to be said about it.

It is more expensive than the other models in the test, but if you are looking for the best, this is it. And besides, it should last a really long time, which helps to even out the initial outlay.

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Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler

Monday, March 6th, 2006 | Cooling, News | View Comments

The Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler was pitted against a Thermaltake K450 at bjorn3d recently. Cooling is a major consideration for people nowadays. With the heat of some processors rising to newer higher levels and game enthusiasts pushing the envelope, overclocking their processors, the need is certainly there.

This cooler has a massive size and was much bigger than the authors original Thermaltake. The problem can occur is you use very high memory. In testing the RAM had to be moved to the B slots to accomodate the massive cooler. For those with usual RAM that has perhaps just a heat spreader, things should be fine, just not with Corsair RAM with the LEDs on top.

Performance for the fan was excellent and was actually able to keep the CPU cool without its fan turned on for over 2 hours and that was under load. Bearing in mind that his computer had great fans providing airflow they certainly made a difference. However, by itself it will keep almost any configuration you have in mind cool.

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