CoolIT Epic 180 info

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PnkPwrRngr

Gawd
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I read about this new cooler recently that comes in a Maingear shift system. It's an all in one with a 180cm radiator. I'm really interested in this cooler for my FT02 case. Anybody know if it will be available for retail, or only through purchasing a full system from Maingear.

link for the lazy :p


update: Official Maingear link
 
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At this point in time it would have very limited application. Thus, few are interested.
 
180 cm radiator is very limited. At best it would go with one of those Antec cases that like to use top 200mm fans, or another similar case that use large fans.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
I am but it's not going to happen.
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It just happened! :p

I spoke to the sales guys at both CoolIT and Maingear.

CoolIT told me that the 180mm unit is a Maingear exclusive and they can't sell it to anyone else.

So I contacted Maingear, and they said they had just had a meeting on the every subject of whether or not to sell the unit individually, and decided to do so.

Long story short, I got a working link to a page in their store for the Epic 180 Cooler and placed my order today. :)

I have been told (by their sales guy) that it comes with a bracket that works well for a Raven RV01 case. I have an RV03, so I'm hoping it will fit well, but if it doesn't I can always break out the metal shears and dremel.

I'm actually not even sure what it comes with yet, if it includes a fan, or if its the closed loop radiator/pump only, and what socket bracket it comes with. I guess I'll find out when it arrives.

It's a little pricey at $199, and comes in a large box (I've been told) which is why shipping is pricey too at $41, but short of building a high end custom water loop, this should be the best CPU cooling you can get.

I'll keep you guys informed :)
 
Wow, those jerks at Maingear didn't even respond to my email about the same subject...

$200 seems pretty steep, but I'm really interested in the benchmarks to see if the unit will be a worthy upgrade from my current setup.

Please keep us informed :)
 
Tsumi said:
180 cm radiator is very limited. At best it would go with one of those Antec cases that like to use top 200mm fans, or another similar case that use large fans.
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It would fit in any of the Silverstone FT01, FT02, RV01, RV02, RV03, TJ11 cases which are rather popular around here considering they are the top aircooling cases available.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
Thats crazy expensive, you could build a real water cooling setup with a Phobya Xtreme at that price with much better performance.
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Yeah, I was thinking about doing that, but I am much more comfortable with a sealed system just in case anything goes wrong, that and the 180 is a very good performer...
 
PnkPwrRngr said:
Wow, those jerks at Maingear didn't even respond to my email about the same subject...

$200 seems pretty steep, but I'm really interested in the benchmarks to see if the unit will be a worthy upgrade from my current setup.

Please keep us informed :)
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It was probably because they were considering their options at the time, trying to figure out if they could legally sell it after Corsairs deal with CoolIT, or and if they wanted to sell it separately, or just as part of their systems.

I'm thinking it should be a pretty impressive upgrade over any other sealed WC or air solution, especially if this chart is true:

coolingefficiency.jpg


Lower is better on this chart. The CoolIT ECO II 240 is the exact same unit (with different color schemes) as Corsairs new H100....

How to read this chart (as I understand it) The units are Degrees (Celsius)/Wattage.

So if you multiply the value on this chart by the actual wattage your CPU is giving off (different than TDP, which is more like an average) the number you get should be the Delta T over ambient.

The EPIC 180 absolutely owns everything else on this list. No idea how it compares to a high end custom WC kit, but its getting pretty close, I'd imagine...
 
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Zarathustra[H];1037514895 said:
Yeah, I was thinking about doing that, but I am much more comfortable with a sealed system just in case anything goes wrong, that and the 180 is a very good performer...
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I know what you mean but you would also have the option to throw a gpu or two on the loop with the custom loop.
 
Crap, I want to try this cooler but if I switch back to my Silverstone FT02 my heatpipe video card cooler will suffer.
 
How is this going to fit to Raven RV03? Looks impressive if that graph is legit.
 
The Epic 180 should definitely beat out the new 240 all-in-ones with the increase in radiator surface area. If the temps are comparable to a full WC setup, I'd be willing to pay $200 for one. This cooler attached to the already awesome AP180 fans in the FT02 seems like a killer combo.
 
PnkPwrRngr said:
Wow, those jerks at Maingear didn't even respond to my email about the same subject...

$200 seems pretty steep, but I'm really interested in the benchmarks to see if the unit will be a worthy upgrade from my current setup.

Please keep us informed :)
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Sorry about quoting my own post, but I actually got a real life phone call from Maingear to tell me about how they could sell me the Epic 180... I retract my jerk statement.
 
Guys I want to see pics once it arrives and installations pic. Thanks! neat stuff here
 
PnkPwrRngr said:
The Epic 180 should definitely beat out the new 240 all-in-ones with the increase in radiator surface area. If the temps are comparable to a full WC setup, I'd be willing to pay $200 for one. This cooler attached to the already awesome AP180 fans in the FT02 seems like a killer combo.
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Wouldn't you need to have the AP180 that you attach the radiator to blowing out of the case through the bottom? Is that possible to do while the other two blow into the case?
 
It is possible to flip the AP180 to blow out of the bottom while the other two blow in. I'll be interested to see how this effects the cooling in the rest of the case.
 
I really want one of these but I don't know about switching from my HAF 932 back to a FT02, especially since my video card cooler uses heatpipes. I will also wait for the new Asetek and see which one comes out on top.
 
Riddleofsteel said:
I really want one of these but I don't know about switching from my HAF 932 back to a FT02, especially since my video card cooler uses heatpipes. I will also wait for the new Asetek and see which one comes out on top.
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I'm using a heatpipe based cooling GPU in my FT02, and have had no overheating issues with it even while overclocking. I think it depends on which direction your cooling fins are oriented. Mine are oriented long-ways across the card which works with the air flow of the case. I've seen other heatpipe cooled GPU/s that have their fins oriented short-ways along the card which I could imagine would perform very poorly with the cooling style of the FT02 or other similar silverstone cases.
 
I think something like this would be perfect for the silverstone cases. They just need to make one for videocards and it would be perfect.
 
PnkPwrRngr said:
It is possible to flip the AP180 to blow out of the bottom while the other two blow in. I'll be interested to see how this effects the cooling in the rest of the case.
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Wouldnt you want outside-of-the-case air to hit the rad? Isnt that part of the reason why the 180mm size would be perfect in a silverstone case? Why would you want to cool the rad with case air?
 
8du8 said:
Wouldnt you want outside-of-the-case air to hit the rad? Isnt that part of the reason why the 180mm size would be perfect in a silverstone case? Why would you want to cool the rad with case air?
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It depends on your priorities:

If you want to prioritize a CPU overclock, then blowing air from the outside of the case onto the radiator will produce lower CPU temps and presumably better overclocks.

If you want to prioritize GPU overclocks, I think you'd want to expel the air out of the case through the radiator, as this way there will be less CPU heat inside the case, but the CPU will be hotter.

Blowing air out the bottom of the Silverstone Raven cases would completely defeat the purpose of their 90 degree rotated design, so I am not even considering that.

I am - instead - going for a mixed (hopefully) best of both worlds approach.

I plan on ducting the air in the case, but putting some kind of barrier down the middle. Air sucked in by the front 180mm AP fan will go through the 180mm radiator, and stay in the front half of the case thanks to the ducting. This air will be expelled out the top exhaust fan.

Air from the rear 180mm AP fan will blow air in onto the two ASUS EAH6970 Direc CUII video cards. This compartment will be kept cool from CPU heat, by my home made barrier essentially ducting the two compartments separately.

This is not my case, but it shows where I plan on putting the barrier, straight down the middle between the two AP fans and all the way up.

25_800x600.jpg


This photo also illustrates a little challenge with the RV03 though, as the front AP fan is recessed in order to blow some air behind the mobo tray to cool any potentially installed hard drives mach there (I only have an SSD back here, so its not really a concern for me.

This means that there is no space for a radiator and second 180mm fan for push pull on top of the front AP fan as planned.

I have two solutions I am thinking about in order to solve this, and will decide after figuring out whichever I think will be the easiest.

1.) Moving the front AP fan so that it is even with with the rear AP fan, and making custom mounting holes for it there. This will result in less airflow behind the motherboard tray, but since I don't have any hard drives there, this may not be an issue anyway.

2.) Cutting back the motherboard tray using a dremel to allow the radiator and fan to fit. I don't need the full length of the mobo tray anyway, as my motherboard is a standard ATX size.

I am still undecided on which approach to take. I will probably do whatevver seems the easiest when I wind up getting the EPIC 180 and I can see how everything fits (or doesn't) in person.

I also have not yet decided on how to produce my front-rear divider, and how to make it as air tight as possible. I'd be open to suggestions here.

I am an engineer by profession, but I was never particularly good at fabrication or atistry, so my mods are more going to be functional hacks than anything thats pretty to look at (which is why I wish Silverstone made a windowless cover for the case :p )

My confirmation from Maingear says the EPIC 180mm has an estimated ship date of 07/25 (no idea why the wait) but I will keep you buys posted.
 
Yeah, I guess it depends on the kind of cooler your graphics card(s) has. My 560 Twin Frozr never goes over 65c in my FT02 and thats with the fans on low all the time. Also its OC'd to 950mhz.

I am looking at getting a closed loop cooler for my CPU partially because I am looking to add more ram and would like to match my vengeance ram with more vengeance ram. Right now my cooler is blocking the first slot.

Plan to add a second card next year though so not sure how much my temps will change with another in there. Right now though I dont think I'd have any issues with air coming in to cool the rad.

Dividing the interior of the case like that does seem like it could work very well though.
 
8du8 said:
Yeah, I guess it depends on the kind of cooler your graphics card(s) has. My 560 Twin Frozr never goes over 65c in my FT02 and thats with the fans on low all the time. Also its OC'd to 950mhz.

I am looking at getting a closed loop cooler for my CPU partially because I am looking to add more ram and would like to match my vengeance ram with more vengeance ram. Right now my cooler is blocking the first slot.

Plan to add a second card next year though so not sure how much my temps will change with another in there. Right now though I dont think I'd have any issues with air coming in to cool the rad.

Dividing the interior of the case like that does seem like it could work very well though.
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Yeah, the ASUS EAH6970 Direct CU II has a pretty beefy cooler as well, so I'm not THAT concerned about heat, but I also don't want temperatures be what holds me back from better OC results.

Amazingly enough, at idle it will actually spin down to 0% fan and it will be completely silent. I haven't done much overclocking yet, but at stock clocks, the most I have loaded the fans (in furmark) was 28%, and at that fan speed the GPU temp was 71C max.

My issue with the EAH6970 is that ASUS's overclocking utility blows compared to MSI's Afterburner, but Afterburner doesn't recognize the PWM's ASUS used, so I can't use it to tweak voltage, and I am instead stuck at stock voltage.

Anyway, I really came over here to chime in with an update.

Despite the 7/25 MainGear estimated my cooler would ship on in their email, it actually shipped today (or at least the shipping label was created today) so I may get it sooner than expected. :)

My guess is they are having some teething problems with the first pre-packaged product they are selling, as most of their stuff is likely in their system as having a build time associated with it, hence the long time estimate.

You guys can bet that as soon as I get my hands on this thing, I am going to start modding my case to fit it, and I'll keep you guys posted on how it performs. :)
 
That sounds like a crap load of work just to use a good new cooler. I hope the FT02 doesn't require nearly as much fiddling. I mean, what other good cases with well-placed 180mm fans are there?
 
Riddleofsteel said:
That sounds like a crap load of work just to use a good new cooler. I hope the FT02 doesn't require nearly as much fiddling. I mean, what other good cases with well-placed 180mm fans are there?
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It shouldn't be too bad. I think if I had the RV01 or RV02 instead of the RV03 no modding would be required. I may even be able to put the cooler on the back fan without modding, but I don't want to do that, as the CPU heat would be dumped right onto my video cards.

180mm case fans don't seem to have gotten widespread adoption.

There are the Silverstone cases (RV and FT), but there are a whole bunch of cases with 250mm fan mounts, and this radiator ought to work with them as well, as long as you are a little creative with the mounting.

I'm not too worried about it. Removing a little extra sheet sheet metal is a very simple mod to do. Similar in scope to the 4 custom mounting holes I drilled in the drive bay when I mounted the H50 up front...
 
I guess I'm not bold enough to risk 200 bucks plus shipping on such a gamble. Hopefully someone else will try it with an FT02 and let the world know.
 
Riddleofsteel said:
I guess I'm not bold enough to risk 200 bucks plus shipping on such a gamble. Hopefully someone else will try it with an FT02 and let the world know.
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I just took a look at some pictures of the FT02 (and I wish I'd seen this case sooner... I probably would have bought it instead of the RV03, it is nice!)

I would be really surprised if this cooler didn't fit nicely on top of the rearmost 180mm fan. You could even fashion a custom duct to make sure all the heat exhausts through the rear vent. (actually never mind, I guess that's where the PSU goes, but you should still be able to duct the air out the top like I plan on doing with my RV03.

Damn I'm kind of jealous now. That looks like a really nice case. Not that the RV03 is bad or anything.

Did it come with their Air Penetrator fans, or does it use the old style 180mm fans?
 
Mine came with the AP fans, and yeah I dont think it would be difficult at all attach the Epic 180 on the rear fan. It might not be a perfect fit, but there is enough room width wise in the case that it would fit with plenty of room.
 
Zarathustra[H];1037525529 said:
I just took a look at some pictures of the FT02 (and I wish I'd seen this case sooner... I probably would have bought it instead of the RV03, it is nice!)

I would be really surprised if this cooler didn't fit nicely on top of the rearmost 180mm fan. You could even fashion a custom duct to make sure all the heat exhausts through the rear vent. (actually never mind, I guess that's where the PSU goes, but you should still be able to duct the air out the top like I plan on doing with my RV03.

Damn I'm kind of jealous now. That looks like a really nice case. Not that the RV03 is bad or anything.

Did it come with their Air Penetrator fans, or does it use the old style 180mm fans?
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Well, my FT02 came with the old fans, but I put in three AP-181s at my own expense before they came standard. How can the Epic 180 exhaust through the rearmost fan? I thought you weren't going to do that yourself. I know I can flip the fan over, but would'nt that create an air deadzone? Thanks very much.
 
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