Final Install & Mods

In order to test the maximum cooling performance of the Koolance PC3-720, I will be installing all four 80mm fans, courtesy of PCPowerZone.  The tool-free fan mount brackets are excellent.  Not only are the fans supported by the two side brackets, but there are also some notches where the fan screws would normally go.  This secures the fans quite well and eliminate any vibration when in operation. 

**click to enlarge**

I definitely recommend some blue LED fans for the front intake.  The lighting effect is quite nice and compliments the display module quite well.

The only mod I really did on this particular case was to change the power and hard drive LEDs.  Why Koolance opted once again to include green/amber LEDs is completely unknown and truly not necessary considering the overall price tag of this particular case.  Fortunately, like the PC2-650, the LEDs are both socketed.  All you'll need is a pair of pliers to carefully work them out.  I once again installed a blue LED for power and red for hard drive activity.  This certainly compliments the red/blue temperature module quite well.  For those who would like to change them, they are both 3mm in size.

Some final shots with all PC and watercooling components installed and operational. With a setup like this, there is plenty of wiring and tubing to hide so I took quite a bit of time to get everything setup nicely.  Tubing was cut down to the bare minimum while still avoiding any creases that may restrict water flow.  Final accessories, compliments of PCPowerZone, were added to spice up its overall look and blend in well with its blue/red theme.  Yes, those are XPERT modules in there.  That review is coming up shortly here at ExtremeMHz. 

Finally, some shots of its most impressive looking feature, the LED temperature display and reservoir.  The reservoir is also lighted with blue LEDs and looks quite spectacular.  Koolance highly recommends you do not overfill the system.  The water level should be about a 1/2 inch from the top.  The temperature of all three sensors can be displayed in either ºC or ºF.  Also, you have much more options as to how to control the airflow of the two top mounted 120mm fans.  You can set it to auto or adjust fan speed between 1 and 10.  When setting fan speed to 10, it is quite a bit noisier, however, it really isn't as bad as the noise from the PC2-650 under "accel" mode.  Setting it to auto or manually setting the fan speed as high as 6, will still keep the system very quiet and the best option for those who want to keep noise levels to a minimum while still providing a high level of performance.

Overclocking & Cooling Performance

Let's first take a look at the test system specs...

Many who will be using a high end water-cooled chassis such as this, would probably be overclocking.  With this said, I used the same excellent motherboard and CPU as with the PC2-650 to see if this new setup can take our system to a higher level in terms of overclocking.  Now, unlike a majority of sites, I like to provide you with only the highest stable overclock.  The system actually posted and booted windows at much higher FSB settings but it wasn't considered stable in my terms.  Extensive stress testing is done using both benchmarking software as well as intense video editing work to see if the system holds up.  With that said, let's take a look at the results!

I first went ahead and installed a 3.2GHz processor, but for the sake of testing maximum overclock and comparing results with the prior Koolance PC2-650, I put in the excellent 2.8GHz Northwood C class processor.  The 3.2GHz processor has a locked multiplier of 16, making it much harder to achieve higher FSB, which ultimately affects memory performance.   Quite possibly, the best setup I've found for those over-clockers, like myself, who simply refuse to jump into PCI-E, is a quality 875P motherboard along with a C class Northwood core 2.8GHz processor.  In fact, these processors are becoming more and more difficult to find these days.  The results here are impressive.  I was able to take the system to a slightly higher level, bringing a 2.8GHz processor up to a very stable 3.5GHz.  This gain is probably due to the excellent new V10 cooler and two 120mm fans for radiator cooling.  Very nice.

I would also like to add that the Corsair "XL" memory modules are honestly the best modules I've had the pleasure of using.  I've personally been using them in my main rig for quite some time now as they offer overclockers the best of both worlds.  They allow for high overclocking while still maintaining much lower timings.  No other modules I've used can do this.  If you are curious about the performance of these XPERT modules, stay tuned for a thorough review here at ExtremeMHz!

Temperatures will all be recorded both at stock speed and at maximum overclock.  Where applicable, I will provide temps both from diode motherboard sensors as well as from the Koolance LED display.  Temps will also be recorded both idle and under load.  For loading the system, I will use Sisoftware's Sandara 2005 Pro.  Now, I would have really liked to see 4 temp probes with this case in order to record temperatures of all components within.  Therefore, I decided to use the three probes to measure CPU, Case, and Hard Drive temps.

**Idle Temps**

**Load Temps**

Very impressive numbers here.  I personally tend to trust the motherboard sensors more than the probes, but provided both for your own comparison.  However, these probes seemed to offer more reliable readings than the ones found on the PC2-650.  All temps remained well under 40ºC, even under load. 

**Idle Temps**

**Load Temps**

Pushing the system from 200FSB to 250FSB didn't seem to significantly affect temperatures.  It still provided very good results and all temps once again remained well under 40ºC.

I would also like to stress just how effective the new Hydra-Pak hard drive cooler really is.  The best drive to test this cooler with is a hot running drive like the Raptor.  I personally have been running the 74GB Raptor without any cooler, and the drive would actually be hot to the touch after 30min of operation.  With the Hydra-Pack, it runs very cool; not even warm to the touch.  It seems to work quite well and I highly do recommend it if you run one of these setups.

Needless to say, I think these results speak for themselves.  When installed properly, a system like this can give you quite an edge over standard air cooling and will certainly satisfy those hardcore overclockers. 

Next: Conclusions