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I've done a few do-it-yourself water cooling solutions over the years, but on a whim wandering around fry's I just couldn't help but to give this thing a whirl for 90$. Thats an assload cheaper than any other watercooling setup i've put together....expectations were not all that high.
Going in my Lian-Li PC-B25F.
Specs: 2600k sandybridge @ 4.5ghz with 1.37vcore. Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 v1.3 uefi bios. All 4 ram slots populated.
Old Setup
Previously cooled by a Scythe scmg 3000r, 2 year old install, single pusher fan with some artic ceramic.
Case has 2 120mm front mounted intake fans, 1 rear 120mm exhaust fan, 2 140mm top mount exhaust. Also run a Zalman fb123 with another 140m fan blowing over the video card.
Ambient temps average 75f (bout 25c).
Idle voltage and temps, about 1.0vcore. usually around 29-33c while idle.
Max heat prime95 loads would get around 75~79c at1.37core.
Gaming temps with my 780ti would see around 65c max after an hour or so.
With the H90 installed I moved the fb123 to blow directly on top of the proccesor area. Trying to give my poor mosfets a little air.
Didn't even try the TIM that came pre-applied to the waterblock. Went directly to the good-ole artic ceramic. Settled on a top mount install, had to move it to the forward most fan spot to clear my leet 4 pin power connector on this gigabyte. Slid radiator in first and bolted fan through the top into the radiator with the supplied bolts. Just barely long enough.
Originally tried corsairs install as per the instructions, with the fan sucking in air from the outside and blowing it in the case. I did not like this setup. Changed to an exhaust configuration and it dropped my case temps a few degrees as well as the processor.
Results
Idle temp now hovers 1-2c above ambient. Max temp prime95 runs peg around 63c~68c.
Gaming temps down 10c~8c as well.
Things I like
This setup is noticeably quieter than my aircooler config.
Temps are lower
5 year warrenty is nifty.
No silly LED lights or dumbass software to worry about. Pump plugs into a 3 pin connection, fan connects to 4pin CPUfan header for easy motherboard control.
Wide variety of socket applications...can see myself rigging this to a video card at somepoint.
Very nice and compact.
Things I didn't like:
Trying to wrestle the radiator and waterblock as one piece into the case is a bit of a pain. The plastic fittings on the radiator seem a bit fragile.
Backplate, while effective, feels cheap.
Waterblock footprint a bit large. Required me to change up the heatsinks I have on my mosfets.
Machining process on the waterblock is so-so. I've certainly seen better.
Woulda been nice to be able to remove the hoses before install so I could have put the radiator on the outside of the case. Certainly still doable I guess with a little effort.
Overall, i'm actually pretty pleased with the cooler. Part of me feels ghetto for buying an all in one solution....but for the price its pretty hard to beat.
Going in my Lian-Li PC-B25F.
Specs: 2600k sandybridge @ 4.5ghz with 1.37vcore. Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 v1.3 uefi bios. All 4 ram slots populated.
Old Setup
Previously cooled by a Scythe scmg 3000r, 2 year old install, single pusher fan with some artic ceramic.
Case has 2 120mm front mounted intake fans, 1 rear 120mm exhaust fan, 2 140mm top mount exhaust. Also run a Zalman fb123 with another 140m fan blowing over the video card.
Ambient temps average 75f (bout 25c).
Idle voltage and temps, about 1.0vcore. usually around 29-33c while idle.
Max heat prime95 loads would get around 75~79c at1.37core.
Gaming temps with my 780ti would see around 65c max after an hour or so.
With the H90 installed I moved the fb123 to blow directly on top of the proccesor area. Trying to give my poor mosfets a little air.
Didn't even try the TIM that came pre-applied to the waterblock. Went directly to the good-ole artic ceramic. Settled on a top mount install, had to move it to the forward most fan spot to clear my leet 4 pin power connector on this gigabyte. Slid radiator in first and bolted fan through the top into the radiator with the supplied bolts. Just barely long enough.
Originally tried corsairs install as per the instructions, with the fan sucking in air from the outside and blowing it in the case. I did not like this setup. Changed to an exhaust configuration and it dropped my case temps a few degrees as well as the processor.
Results
Idle temp now hovers 1-2c above ambient. Max temp prime95 runs peg around 63c~68c.
Gaming temps down 10c~8c as well.
Things I like
This setup is noticeably quieter than my aircooler config.
Temps are lower
5 year warrenty is nifty.
No silly LED lights or dumbass software to worry about. Pump plugs into a 3 pin connection, fan connects to 4pin CPUfan header for easy motherboard control.
Wide variety of socket applications...can see myself rigging this to a video card at somepoint.
Very nice and compact.
Things I didn't like:
Trying to wrestle the radiator and waterblock as one piece into the case is a bit of a pain. The plastic fittings on the radiator seem a bit fragile.
Backplate, while effective, feels cheap.
Waterblock footprint a bit large. Required me to change up the heatsinks I have on my mosfets.
Machining process on the waterblock is so-so. I've certainly seen better.
Woulda been nice to be able to remove the hoses before install so I could have put the radiator on the outside of the case. Certainly still doable I guess with a little effort.
Overall, i'm actually pretty pleased with the cooler. Part of me feels ghetto for buying an all in one solution....but for the price its pretty hard to beat.
