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bundymania
Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2007
- Messages
- 646
Hi Guys,
This review is about the newest product by Tecnofront: a benchtable called Hardwaredock.
The Italian company www.tecnofront.com is already well known among watercooling enthusiasts for creating reservoirs and shrouds for quite some time.
Packaging / scope of delivery / assembly / use
The Hardwaredock reached my place undamaged in a very well padded box in form of a kit with English, illustrated instructions. Those parts made out of acrylic glass were packed individually and are therefore well-protected against scratches or any other sort of damage. The reservoirs on the first two pictures aren't included, they're just for illustration.
The assembly is easy to deal with, even for unexercised amateurs, took me about 45 minutes.
The Hardwaredock is made of three levels. A tripe 120-radiator at the intended mount and a pump fit well in the lower level - of course you could also mount other parts there. For the mounting of the pump Tecnofront provides three different sockets, but the bottom plate itself already comes with several mounting holes for several kinds of pumps. Assembly of the Hardwaredock requires a screw driver and an Allen key, both of which aren't delivered with the benchtable.
The three load-bearing bottom plates got a material thickness of 5mm each, so they're rigid enough to take up all the components. The mounts for radiator- and fans could be a bit thicker than their 3mm, though.
The middle level is made for the PSU and the drives, both hard drives and optical drives. These are placed in the corresponding elements, also made out of acrylic glass. For decoupling of the components, Tecnofront included strips of foam rubber you can cut accordingly. As the HDDs, PSU and optical drives aren't screwed or connected to the bottom plate at all, the user himself can choose where to position what. This also helps switching the cooler on the top level if necessary.
The third and top plate is made for carrying the motherboard and, if needed, fans and reservoir. Mounting a pump on the side is also possible; mounts for an optional maximum of two 8cm-fans are also included. This helps providing airflow to the mosfets or other components, especially when overclocking. 12cm-fans would have been preferable, the only reason for 8cm-fans are probably size issues. When assembling for this test, I mounted the reservoir on the side. This worked well and the reservoir was held in place nicely, as the mount is made out of 6mm thick acrylic glass.
Both the fact that all bottom plates have holes for the cables and the fact that the bottom plate of the top level has a large cut-out for accessing the back of the CPU for switching the cooler have proven to be very useful.
An additional 8cm-fan can be used to cool the hard drives. The bottom plate of the top level also has four holes for watercooling, so you can use the provided barbed fittings (both for 3/8"- and 1/2"-tubes) to directly connect the cooling without going the long way around.
Video card and other components are fixated by screws to another part of acrylic glass used in this case. This part itself is connected by two Allen screws on the edges.
One thing I didn't like, though, is the fact that pushbuttons for Reset and Power have to be bought separately.
Conclusion
The Tecnofront Hardwaredock features a lot of useful characteristics paired with an elegant design. Apart from a few little details it works really well and the current retail price of about 130 EUR is ok
Thanks go out to the companies Tecnofront, Ybris-Cooling, XSPC, EK Waterblocks, Alphacool, a-c-shop.de, Blacknoise and TFC The Feser Company.
This review is about the newest product by Tecnofront: a benchtable called Hardwaredock.
The Italian company www.tecnofront.com is already well known among watercooling enthusiasts for creating reservoirs and shrouds for quite some time.
Packaging / scope of delivery / assembly / use
The Hardwaredock reached my place undamaged in a very well padded box in form of a kit with English, illustrated instructions. Those parts made out of acrylic glass were packed individually and are therefore well-protected against scratches or any other sort of damage. The reservoirs on the first two pictures aren't included, they're just for illustration.
The assembly is easy to deal with, even for unexercised amateurs, took me about 45 minutes.
The Hardwaredock is made of three levels. A tripe 120-radiator at the intended mount and a pump fit well in the lower level - of course you could also mount other parts there. For the mounting of the pump Tecnofront provides three different sockets, but the bottom plate itself already comes with several mounting holes for several kinds of pumps. Assembly of the Hardwaredock requires a screw driver and an Allen key, both of which aren't delivered with the benchtable.
The three load-bearing bottom plates got a material thickness of 5mm each, so they're rigid enough to take up all the components. The mounts for radiator- and fans could be a bit thicker than their 3mm, though.
The middle level is made for the PSU and the drives, both hard drives and optical drives. These are placed in the corresponding elements, also made out of acrylic glass. For decoupling of the components, Tecnofront included strips of foam rubber you can cut accordingly. As the HDDs, PSU and optical drives aren't screwed or connected to the bottom plate at all, the user himself can choose where to position what. This also helps switching the cooler on the top level if necessary.
The third and top plate is made for carrying the motherboard and, if needed, fans and reservoir. Mounting a pump on the side is also possible; mounts for an optional maximum of two 8cm-fans are also included. This helps providing airflow to the mosfets or other components, especially when overclocking. 12cm-fans would have been preferable, the only reason for 8cm-fans are probably size issues. When assembling for this test, I mounted the reservoir on the side. This worked well and the reservoir was held in place nicely, as the mount is made out of 6mm thick acrylic glass.
Both the fact that all bottom plates have holes for the cables and the fact that the bottom plate of the top level has a large cut-out for accessing the back of the CPU for switching the cooler have proven to be very useful.
An additional 8cm-fan can be used to cool the hard drives. The bottom plate of the top level also has four holes for watercooling, so you can use the provided barbed fittings (both for 3/8"- and 1/2"-tubes) to directly connect the cooling without going the long way around.
Video card and other components are fixated by screws to another part of acrylic glass used in this case. This part itself is connected by two Allen screws on the edges.
One thing I didn't like, though, is the fact that pushbuttons for Reset and Power have to be bought separately.
Conclusion
The Tecnofront Hardwaredock features a lot of useful characteristics paired with an elegant design. Apart from a few little details it works really well and the current retail price of about 130 EUR is ok
Thanks go out to the companies Tecnofront, Ybris-Cooling, XSPC, EK Waterblocks, Alphacool, a-c-shop.de, Blacknoise and TFC The Feser Company.
