Conclusions

After owning and testing their products from some time now, it is clear that their latest product caters to a completely different crowd.  Not only is it designed to primarily targeted enthusiasts on a budget, but most importantly, it is an excellent attempt at finally converting many reluctant PC users to finally venture into water-cooling.  Yes, it can be easy!  This product is designed around this ideology.  Like the rest of their CPU coolers, they are all self-contained and maintenance-free.    

Design

The very first design feature that will be apparent is the overall weight of this cooler.  It is incredibly light and it's hard to imagine there's even coolant in there!  I also like the built-in LCD display.  There's plenty of info, including the actual pump speed which is quite nice to keep track of.  There's also a mode button, allowing you to easily switch between three different cooling options.  Finally, while some may consider it a negative, the jump straight to a 120mm fan was a very smart choice.  Some of their older coolers sported 90mm fans but did ship with adapters, providing a higher level of system compatibility.  The larger fan is obviously better.

Despite how many improvements have been made, it is not perfect though.  First off, you must remove the side panel to get to that mode button!  While not exactly convenient, at least it is much easier than some of their earlier products.  Second, I'm not quite fond of those rubber fan mounts.  I personally find they don't secure the cooler in place as good' old fan screws.  Also, removing it once you have mounted it with them on can be quite a challenge and some actually just come off completely.  Fortunately though, this is a minor issue, as you can actually still mount it with fan screws if you'd like.

Performance

What's important to once again note is that unlike their other high-end options, the Domino A.L.C, despite its fancy name, is a standard self-contained CPU water cooler.  It does not feature their unique and brilliant implementation of TEC's to actually chill the water.  Just like all in this class, this means that its performance is highly dependant on ambient temperature.

This doesn't all mean it doesn't perform well though.  For such a remarkably compact and lightweight unit, it cools pretty damn well and was even capable of outperforming the bulky, heavy Koolance Aquian featured here for comparison.  However, if there was one major issue I had with it, it's definitely the fan noise.  When running in "Full Mode", the fan is just too loud for my taste.  It does move plenty of air, which is required, but I guess I'm used to their Freezone, which actually has a smaller 90mm fan that runs significantly quieter in comparison.  The good thing is that you do indeed have options here and if the fan noise is too much for you, you can set it to the other two available modes, both of which are quite acceptable in regards to overall fan noise.

Final Thoughts

Coming from someone who has had the luxury to evaluate their higher-end products, one of which still has a place in my main rig, it's very hard to judge this product based on this alone.  However, there's reason to look beyond this and appreciate the company as a whole for actually taking the effort to provide a much more affordable product that will impress when compared to similar products in its class.  That's exactly what the Domino A.L.C. offers you.  However, its design goes much further than just affordability.  It's also a product that basically tells you that it's really OK and safe to venture into water-cooling.  Their coolers are built around quality and there's really nothing to dislike, despite which option you take.  The Domino A.L.C earns our recommendation.

More information on the new CoolIT Domino can be found on their Official Website.

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