Final Shots

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A final shot of the first test system.  Now, there is very little room to work with here and I found myself having difficulty simply connecting fans to 3-pin motherboard connectors or connecting the motherboard power/reset cables.  Once you have have all blocks installed, the extra tubing does get in the way and makes it just that more difficult to get everything connected properly.  Overall, there just isn't ample room to work with and you'll find yourself spending extra time to get all your gear properly connected. 

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Like their previous PC3 series cases, the display is practically the same except for the lighted reservoir water level tank located on the 5.25" drive bay.  Blue LEDs light up the temperature, buttons and fill tank level.  Red LED indicates the temp probe being monitored and unlike their previous model, you have the option of having it automatically cycle through each.

Cooling Performance

This time around, two separate test systems were used.  Let's first take a detailed look at the specs for each...

Before I give you a look at overall performance, let me briefly explain why I took the extra time to install using two different platforms and why these particular components were chosen.  Test System 1 above is actually the same used in previous Koolance case reviews.  This was a good way of noting any significant improvements in cooling performance.  Test System 2 was used in testing the excellent high performance CoolIT Freezone.  For those unfamiliar with this product, I highly suggest to take a look at the review.  In short, this is watercooling kit that uses TECs to actually chill the water and CPU block.  There is no need for a radiator and cooling is controlled via a potentiometer on the circuit board.  Its performance is exceptional and despite what negative comments most have made, those who actually end up buying this product are more than pleased with its performance and do prefer it over standard watercooling.  It is simply unmatched, unless you have the hard earned cash and guts to jump into the world of phase change cooling. 

Temperatures were 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.  However, note that the temps from the temperature probes are still quite unreliable and I would use your motherboard sensors as a more credible source.  Temps were also recorded both idle and under load. For loading the system, I used Sisoftware's Sandara 2005 Pro SR3.  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 Video Card temps.
 

Note:  All temperature readings were recorded with the system running at its maximum cooling potential.  This means that I had all radiator fans running at full speed (Level 10 on the display).  At this setting, the system is quite noisy and is why Koolance does emphasize on this and considers their new chassis to be more of a server based solution where noise levels are not a concern.

Test System 1 Temps

Temps both Idle and under load were not bad, but I expected a little better, especially when compared to their previous models.

Test System 2 Temps

With the newer AMD64 test bed, we see much higher temperatures and while the GPU temp from the probe reported 35ºC, I knew it was much higher than this. Unfortunately, although this particular Asus card is an XT model, it has no built-in temp diode and monitoring its true temperature was just not possible.  However, based on touch, I can easily tell it was well within the 40's.  In fact, I felt much more comfortable with the large original heatpipe cooler this card features. 

Overclocking

So, how good was overclocking with this new Koolance case?  Let's have a look at the results from both systems...

Overclocking was pretty good, but I wasn't able to take both systems as far as I did with the CoolIT Freezone.  On the older P4 system, I was able to achieve a stable 3430MHz from my trusty old 2.8GHz processor.  While I was able to take it up to 3.5GHz, it just wasn't as stable.  As far the AMD64 system goes, I was hoping to take the 3700+ up to an impressive 3GHz like I did with the Freezone kit.  Unfortunately, the highest stable overclock was 2850MHz.  Based on these results, it makes absolutely no sense to upgrade to this new chassis if you are already running an older Koolance system such as the PC3 series.  There just isn't a significant difference in cooling performance.  However, if this will be your first water-cooled system, you'll be very pleased with the results over standard air cooling.

Next: Conclusions