CoolIT Launches ECO ALC Watercooling System - Beats Corsair H50

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/3/31/coolit-hard-launches-eco-alc-watercooling-system.aspx

"Many improvements have been made to the ECO's pump, radiator and water block resulting in what CoolIT claims to be a factory-sealed, maintenance free, easy-to-install, whisper quiet, superb performance and great-value cooling solution."

http://www.coolitsystems.com/index.php/eco.html

"The ECO Advanced Liquid Cooling (A.L.C.) system is an elegantly engineered ultra low profile thermal solution positioned at an economical price point. ($74.99)

CoolIT’s engineers have focused on offering a superior proprietary cooling technology that delivers the ultimate performance in a compact design."

Need to see some numbers, here ya go...

CoolIT Systems ECO A.L.C. Review - http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3189/coolit_systems_eco_a_l_c_cpu_cooler/index.html

CoolIT ECO A.L.C. and Corsair H50 Comparison / Review - http://forum.desktopreview.com/showthread.php?p=2285790

wonder what they do different to make it better, its very similar


I know ill be getting the first system out with a 2x120mm , i dont care to do a custom loop again but the 1x120mm seems to be just cutting it

I was thinking about getting this. Too bad it came out so late.

Putz said:

wonder what they do different to make it better, its very similar

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I have no firsthand experience with either, but the ALC's CPU unit appears bigger, just based on the pics I've seen of both. Stronger pump, larger block?

TweakTown said:

From CoolIT the fan is placed on the radiator in the pull position and this placement is based on hours of internal testing of both the radiators efficiency with a lower CFM fan, but obviously it does better here than pushing or it would have been placed as such.

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That seems strange. Most people here recommend that the H50 be configured to pull in cooler outside air. The CPU heat removed by the H50 will end up in the case, just as it would with a regular heatsink, but the CPU will be getting cooler outside air and thus lower temps.

The DesktopReview test showed the ALC being 4-6°C cooler than the H50, so it seems to simply do a better job of cooling the CPU. If that's with the default configurations of the ALC using case air and the H50 using outside air, then that difference is even more impressive. In that case, flipping the ALC around to draw in cool outside air might drop your CPU temps even lower (but you'll want to make sure you're able to remove that heat from the case afterward). Even if the test is with the H50 using case air and flipping it around lowered its temps to match the ALC's, the ALC is doing it while removing that heat from the case immediately (and it seems like the ALC would get the same improvement from flipping it around).

Putz said:

wonder what they do different to make it better, its very similar

Click to expand...

maybe just less air in the loop?

Didn't the last CoolIT self contained watercooling system turn out to have disgusting corrosion and rusting inside of it when a user took it apart only after a month?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18121787 is a long thread but a good read. The review from Henry Butt seems to have been posted in a number of places, and a lot of people are getting different results. However, Barry from CoolIT seems to be indicating that a lot of those seem to have mounting issues. While that could affect the resulting temps, it might also point out that the mounting system on the ECO isn't as user-friendly as the H50's (though the reported features like thumb/driver mounting screws seem nice).

One person got theirs remounted properly and was much happier with it.
Post #1

I just got the eco and installed it yesterday. Honestly, I'm not impressed at all. First it took me over 2 hrs to get it to install properly without the foot/retainer constantly getting spun around. Then after that, my temps are much ~ 5 degrees higher at load that the Akasa Nero cooler I had on it before. I thought the problem with the retainer was fixed with the retail coolers. I'm not happy...at all

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Post #2

I take back everything I said about the eco. Got mine working and i'm VERY impressed with the temps. Posted my results here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18132323

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A few more reviews too.
http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8432&Itemid=40
No H50 in that test either, but it seems to hang pretty well with the air coolers listed.

http://techgage.com/article/coolit_eco_alc_liquid_cpu_cooler
Not extremely technical, but comes to the conclusion that it works pretty well.

http://www.techno-labs.com/1/16127/1/CoolIT_Eco_ALC.html
Sorry, I don't speak freaky-deaky Dutch, but it got the "thumbs up" award at the end with a 9/10 rating.

I'm guessing that this should be pretty comparable to the H50, the same way that the top air coolers are pretty comparable to each other. You might have a few degrees variation either way (CoolIT says the ECO should be consistently a few degrees cooler than the H50 though), but it'll probably be close enough with either one (especially considering that they aren't really designed to be "best of the best" coolers either).


P.S. They're working on a version with a 240 rad. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18129193

eh , I like the looks a bit better, but I would need to see both units tested with the same exact fan or at least a comment on the fan noise between the two. We all know you can slap a powerfull fan on a small rad and make it work very well. All I could find was that the H50 is a 50CFM fan and the ECO is 1800rpm which is uesless for comparison purposes. Still its a new option to go with and I personally dont care the the H50's "lumpish" look sitting on the cpu. (pretty rich from a guy with two rads 'flying" above the top of his case)

Yeah, nobody seems to have posted a good side-by-side comparison of the ECO and the H50. One guy in that huge thread had a great test of the two in stock configuration (i.e. the normal user simply buying it and installing it per the directions), except one of the "paddles" for adjusting the socket size on the ECO was turned to the side, meaning it wouldn't have made good contact with the CPU. He insisted that it was seated firmly against the CPU and got the same temps on each core even with it rotated 180°. However, the ECO was 4°C higher at idle and 9°C higher at load, which seems like a pretty big difference for two products that are so similar. One minor thing he missed due to testing them open-air is that the H50 pushes outside air in through the rad, while the ECO pulls case air out through it. Open-air, there's probably very little difference between the two, but in the CPU area of a regular case this could lead to quite a difference in CPU temps.

Somewhere in that thread they mentioned that the H50's fan was 1700RPM, so the ECO's 1800RPM fan might be just a hair better, which could be where CoolIT gets their "it should always be a little cooler than the H50" stance. Barry also said that they designed the fan themselves, to get the best mix of silence and performance.

I'm happy with the performance of my S1283V (TT's "test box" showed it only a few °C higher than the Megahalems), but its size is annoying in my case. To remove the top case fans, I need to remove the S1283, which can't be unmounted without removing its fan. The ECO or H50 would clean things up a lot. It might lower my temps a few degrees based on those test results, but my major motivation would be to replace that huge chunk of metal in the middle of my system with a radiator mounted on the case wall. I too prefer the appearance of the ECO over the H50.