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Thermaltake Big Water 12cm Liquid Cooling System - Page 3 of 3
Posted: November 12, 2004
Author: dadx2mj
Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Source: Thermaltake
Purchase: Shop
Comment or Question: Post Here

Performance:

An easy installation is all good, but if the product does not perform well it really means nothing, Now let’s take a look at how the Big Water Kit performs. First, let’s look at the system specifications.

Test System Specifications:

• Epox 8RDA+ motherboard
• 2500+Barton core processor @ 2250MHZ
• Alpha 8045 with 5200rpm Delta 80x80x38
• Power Color 9600 Pro 256MB video card
• 1gig HyperX PC2700 (2x512) DDR memory
• 40gig Maxtor 7200rpm, ATA133 hard drive
• 10gig Maxtor 7200rpm, ATA100 hard drive
• 16X Lite On DVD
• 8X NEC DVD Burner
• Pinnacle PCTV Tuner Card
• USB 2.0 Control Card

Now let’s get down to what is really important, how well the Big Water kit actually cools the CPU. These temps were taken with an Enermax front panel temp probe with an ambient room temperature of 78 F and with the CPU under 100% load for a few hours. The fans on both the Alpha and the Big Water were running at full speed, which equates to the Delta fan on the Alpha cooler running at 5300 rpm and very loud, and the Big Water fan running at 2300 rpm and very quiet.


It is obvious that the Big Water Cooling Kit offers a very substantial improvement over what is considered to be decent air cooling in the Alpha 8045 and Delta fan combination. Maybe the biggest benefit about the Big Water Kit is what it is missing, and that would be NOISE! When compared to the system with the big Delta fan on it, this system is now almost silent. In the evening, when the ambient room temperature drops some, I am able to turn the big 120 mm fan down to 1700 rpm and still maintain temperatures well under 40c. At 1700 PRM the Thermaltake fan is nearly silent. This temperature reading was taken with an ambient room temperature of 72F and with CPU under a full load

Click Image For Larger View Click Image For Larger View

Conclusion

Thermaltake has really hit the mark with this kit. It has everything you need to easily make the switch from air to liquid cooling for your CPU. Although your case may need some modification to mount the radiator, Thermaltake has made it as easy as possible with several mounting options. The biggest thing of all is that the Big Water Cooling Kit keeps your CPU cool, and does so very quietly.

As you've probably noticed, this kit only provides cooling for your CPU. Your video card and motherboard chipset are not cooled by the kit, and there are no options from Thermaltake to do so. Many other water cooling kits ship complete with a solution for CPU, GPU, and chipset, or at least offer an upgrade to include all three. The Thermaltake setup is at a slight disadvantage here, as creating a completely water cooled system means mixing and matching components from other manufacturers.

The price is quite reasonable when compared to similar kits, starting just under $150 (US) at places such as Xoxide, ZipZoomFly, Frozen CPU, and Newegg.

Final Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars):


Pros:

• Reasonable price
• Great performance
• Quiet operation
• Everything necessary is included
• Easy installation

Cons:

• LED on water block did not work
• CPU cooler only, nothing available for video card or motherboard chipset
• Case may need some modification

Special thanks to Thermaltake for supplying the Big Water CPU Cooling Kit to BigBruin.Com for review!

Please drop by the BigBruin.Com forum and feel free to discuss this review.

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