| Asetek WaterChill Power Water Cooling Kit - Page 6 of 6 |
Testing (continued):
With all of the paramaters established for testing, lets get down to the results. First, we have the default speed results, comparing the stock coolers to the Asetek WaterChill components, at both idle and load conditions:
The chart above shows quite a bit of data, but the information is pretty clear. From left to right we have the CPU, GPU, and chipset results of the respective coolers labeled beneath each group. What is very clear is that significant improvements in cooling were achieved with the WaterChill kit! Of most interest to me is the drop of over 8 degrees on the CPU while at load, but across the board we see consistent improvements between 5-9 degrees Celsius. Definitely a nice boost.
Now that the default speed temperatures have been brought down a little, lets see if there is any room for overclocking this system... The CPU has a default speed of 2.0 GHz, and the video card has a default speed of 325 MHz. With the WaterChill system in place, I finally had the confidence to up the speeds a little to see how high we could go. Unfortunately, that wasn't too high on the CPU... Although the issues were definitely not thermally related, blue screens appeared as I only made it up over 2.15 GHz, so my overclocking ceiling on the CPU was set at 2.13 GHz for the balance of testing (a 6.5% increase). The GPU responded a bit more kindly to overclocking, and a high of 375 MHz was established for testing (a 15.4% increase).
The chart above shows that the added heat created by overclocking the Athlon 64 really didn't do much to stress the WaterChill system. Temperatures rose by nominal values across the board, from mere fractions of a degree to a couple degrees maximum. Very nice! The overclocking may not have been extreme, but the performance of the WaterChill components tells me that it would be up for it!
Conclusion:
Overall, the Asetek WaterChill Power Kit earns praise from me for the impressive cooling performance achieved at a very low noise level. The components are all heavy duty and install cleanly thanks in part to the excellent design, and in part thanks to the thorough documentation.
My only issues with the kit are related to the installation, which will obviously be unique to every user. As I said earlier in the review, anyone considering a water cooling kit should be aware that these things are not "one size fits all" and some ingenuity is going to be necessary. That said, it did seem to require a bit more work than I anticipated to get everything into what I thought was a good sized case. Spending some time trying to locate a good place for the pump and radiator are to be expected, and perhaps I just spent too much time trying to optimize the layout. But, having to modify the mounting tabs for the chipset and GPU water blocks is an issue that could be addressed by simply revisiting the design.
The WaterChill Power Kit in this configuration carries a price tag in the $275-$300 (US) range. Definitely a big chunk of change, but not out of line when compared to comparable high end kits that include as much as this one does. Those interested can find these kits available online from US based outlets such as Jab-tech and Frozen CPU.
Final Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars):  
Pros:
• Great cooling performance
• Heavy duty components
• Well documented
• Ready for some serious overclocking
•
Cons:
• Installation was more involved than on other kits
• Interference between chipset and GPU water blocks and neighboring capacitors
• Not an easy fit for even large cases
Special thanks to Asetek for providing the WaterChill Power Kit to BigBruin.Com for review!
Please drop by the BigBruin.Com forum and feel free to discuss this review!
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