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Final Install
Now that we tested the watercooling components
for leaks, we are ready to install the system components.
**click to enlarge**
The CPU water block is quite easy to install.
With the included bracket and tension screw, it is easily installed on the P4
mounting bracket as shown above.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
The Koolance GPU-180 includes all the proper
mounting hardware to suit all motherboard chipsets. Our Soyo Dragon 2
Platinum has the two latches rather than mounting holes. Installing the
water block on this type of setup was also quite simple but I prefer the
mounting holes for a more secure fit.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
The PSU fit quite snug into place and ends up
touching the plastic air duct around the radiator itself. As we had
mentioned earlier, the 3.5" drive cages are removable which made the
installation of the hard drives quite simple.
**click to enlarge**
The Koolance PC2-650 includes some drive rails
for the 5.25" drives. These work very well and allow you to swap drives
quite easily.
**click to enlarge**
A final shot of the drives installed. You
can see the notches on each side that will give you access to the drive rail
clips to easily pull out the drives.
Performance
First, the test system specs...
|
Test System |
| Motherboard: |
Soyo Dragon 2 Platinum |
| CPU: |
Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz |
| Memory: |
Corsair XMS4000Pro DC (1GB) |
| Video Card: |
ATI Radeon 9600 SE |
| Hard Drive: |
Western Digital Raptor SATA (36GB) |
To measure cooling performance, we will record
temps both at stock speed and max O/C. We will measure temps both at
idle and under load. I will include both the Koolance temp probe reading
as well as the recorded temperature via the motherboard diode. To load
the system, we ran 10 cycles of Sisoftware's Sandra 2004 Burn In Wizard at
Normal Setting.
Some very impressive numbers. You can see
there is a significant difference between the Koolance temp probe and the
motherboard readings. This is because the temp probe would mainly record
the actual water block's temperature as opposed to the CPU. Under 40șC
under load is pretty damn impressive.
There were very minimal changes in temperature
when running our P4 2.8C at 3.4GHz. Again, the results were quite
impressive to say the least. With high performance air-cooling on the
same system, I would easily reach 50șC under load.
My main focus here was to capture CPU
temperatures, however, I did keep track of the case temp as well which
actually stayed at a steady 32șC. This was quite a surprise considering
I did not install any fans in the case whatsoever. Must be the roomier
interior that plays a major role here as well.
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