This is my second giant review that will give you an overview of my new Koolance PC2 water cooled system


I'm lazy again so I reborrowed Craig’s format and used it as my
template for my review(s). The following is a review of my Koolance PC2, priced at $370.24.

(Notes: All underlined text are hyperlinks to websites...If you
are having problems reading certain colors against the background, scroll
to the bottom left hand side of this screen and select the "NOTEBOOKFORUMS"
template...A very special ULTRA MEGA thanks to the crew at PCTorque for
hosting these forums!!)


System Specs:
Case - Koolance PC2 500W (matches my WRX)
Motherboard – Asus A7N8X-X
CPU - AMD Athlon 3200+
RAM - 1.5 GB RAM and I'm throwing in an extra 512MB so 2.0 GB Total.
1x CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145505
2x 512MB Crucial (i believe)
Video Card – ATI Radeon X800 PRO 256MB DDR - stock
Hard Drive(1) 40 GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM System Drive
Hard Drive(2)200GB WD 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(3)200GB WD 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(4)200GB Maxtor 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Hard Drive(5)320GB Maxtor 7200 RPM Storage Drive
Optical Drive - NEC® ND-3500 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Recorder

Two HP L1925 19inch LCD monitors included:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-3174_7-21244851.html


Ordering Process:

I purchased all the Koolance parts off the Koolance website which was very easy to use and you can clearly see under each product if your hardware is compatible with their systems. Great job.

Shipping and Packaging:

None of the items I received were damaged in the shipping process and all
of them worked properly. They only complaint I have is from UPS because they left my package out in the rain when they dropped it off!!! They put a plastic bag over it but the bottom was still wet when it was brought in.

Install:

The following is a review for the Koolance PC2-901BW case, CPU-200G CPU cooler and GPU-180-L06 GPU cooler. Why did I feel the need to water cool my system?

Well my current system runs at a mid to high 40 degree Celsius range with four hard drives crammed in my case and not much room for ventilation. Recently I made a purchase at Staples.com for two more 160 GB hard drives. A friend had e-mailed me about the deal they were having where you type in a certain zip code and magicly the hard drives were $90 total. So after I bought the hard drives I bought the Koolance system because I needed room for 6 hard drives, DVD-RW and all the other junk I got. Well the next day I went to check the status of my Staples order and found out they do not ship to address that are different than the billing address so my order was automatically canceled. So instead of canceling my Koolance order, I said to hell with it.

Let me start off by saying this case is MASSIVE. I could fit 11 hard drives in the case if I wanted to and water cool 4 of them! The following is a review of the installation of the GPU and CPU water coolers.


The case comes built with a power control board, heat exchanger (or radiator) cooling module, reservoir and pumps. The only pieces I needed to purchase separately was the two coolers.

The case adversities tool-less technology and they were right. The two hand screws on the side window were the first of many to come. The side window came out win eeeeeeease.

Since the case has the necessary hoses already attached, all I needed to connect was the internal hose from the radiator to the CPU cooler, then connect a house from the CPU cooler to the GPU cooler and then from the GPU to the reservoir. I didn’t feel like installing the hard drive cooling kit because it was 1am and I wanted to go to sleep.

This is a shot of the Koolance system after the side window comes out. Look at all that space!!! for the record, the case dimmensions are: 8" x 26.25" x 18.75" (20.3cm x 66.67cm x 47.6cm)

I pulled out my motherboard and all my components from my existing computer and removed the fan and heatsink form the CPU. The thermometers attached to the cooling module was also already installed so all I had to do was slip the thermometer under the cpu cooler and apply a strip of metal tape.

I threw down an extra layer of thermal compound and while balancing the motherboard on the side of the case while I gently placed the CPU cooler on top of the CPU. I couldn’t believe how easy the next step was. Instead of the old fashion way of pressing down on the CPU to get the hooks under the bracket to get the heatsink on, Koolance designed the CPU cooler so all you need to do is turn a knob and it will tighten the bracket against the CPU cooler.

You must make sure that knob you are turning is placed in the correct “tension hole”. There are three holes designed for different CPUs and if you place the knob in the wrong hole your CPU will not get the proper cooling it needs. The next step was to attach the hoses and place special clamps on them which can be tightened with pliers and you are off to the next step.

Next comes the GPU which was a little more tricky. On the back of my X800 is a bar that holds down the fans. Getting them was the hardest thing ive ever done. The screws were so small and tight that I couldn’t generate enough torque to loosen them.

I took a 15 minute break to watch Family Guy and went back at it and they eventually came off.


Same idea with the CPU, thermal compound, an extra padded layer for the GPU cooler, slap it down, brackets over it, bing bam boom and youre done.

Now that all the hard stuff is done all you need to do is make sure you connect all the hoses to their respective homes. You should have a hose running from your radiator to the CPU cooler, to the GPU cooler, to any HD coolers (if you have them) to your reservoir.

Before putting all your components back in your PC you need to test your cooling system to make sure it works. (by components I mean HDs, ROMS, PCI, etc, you will need to have your motherboard screwed down for this next step.) Take the power supply ATX motherboard cable and use the “jumper wire” that comes with the system to short pins 4 and 6 together. This will allow you to turn on your power supply unit and test the Koolance system. Turn the system upside down and you will find a screw. If you remove the screw it will give you access to fill the reservoir. Use the Koolance coolant pack to fill your system. Watch the reservoir as you pour the coolant into your system and when it reaches the FILL line stop and turn on your power supply. The pumps will turn on and pump all the air out of the tubing. Tilt the system to make sure you get most of the air bubbles out of the tubing. Replace the tap screw. Also make sure you leave a little bit of space left between the top of the reservoir and the fill line when you stand your system back upright.

The case has built in cages for hard drives, floppy drives as well as drive rails for CDROMS and external devices. I put in my hard drives, DVD-RW and floppy.

Next I sealed it up and turned it on. And right now i am currently typing on my 27 degree Celsius water cooled machine. Glad you could make it through.




In Conclusion:

I cannot believe how easy it was to install everything. When I first looked at how many parts I had, I felt it was going to take me all night and I would have to probably pull an all-nighter. But it was simple, commonsense practice that made it easy and fun. I can absolutely see myself buying another machine from Koolance. I also plan on overclocking my X800 and CPU to see the temperature increase as well as change in benchmarks. Check back soon for those results.


-Duke one big a@@ mother fu*ker … (as Roided would say)


check out Duke's SENTIA review here


check out Duke's Aurora review here


Newly Added Parts 7/21/05:

550 Watt Modular PSU

It looks good, cept you should prolly slap on some ramsinks, if you plan on overclocking the vidcard too. The tubing at the top looks alittle kinked were it's tied off and u have alot of extra tubing. The extra tubing is adding to the heat of your water, because the koolance systems are a Lo-Flow design, you want to have the least amount of tubing.

Other than that awesome job bro....

yeh youre right Q

i noticed the extra tubing after i had everything in place and my PC turned on...

I plan on fixing that soon when my new PSU gets here...

you think that will bump it back down to mid to low 20s?

and the tubing at the top isnt kinked it just looks that way from the ties and the angle...

What are you going by? The led is always off by about 10 degrees C from the actual cpu temp. Mine is just cooling the cpu and it's running @ 17 degrees C.


I hope you used Arctic silver 5 for your thermal compound. If you did you should see a good 2-8 degree C drop after 50-200 hrs of use. I always use a burn program to heat it up faster and higher than with normal use and then turn it off for the night.

Keep me posted on things though. I hope you leak tested your system for 6 hrs before you turned it on.

dont you worry, i tested it...

27 C says the LED

nice Duke, and GB said exactly what i was going to say about the ram sincs and the kink ...looking good bro

Great job Duke! Sweet rig too.

W0W! Man that's awesome duke!

Nice work Bro!

Sweetness. I was thinking about picking up that case awhile back. I have a thing for BIG cases. If you ever get tired of that front bezel, check this out:

http://directron.com/matrixmx.html

I added a 550 watt Blue, UV modular power supply unit and another 320 GB WD hard drive... I know have virtually a TB of space. I'll post some more pics later tonight.

-Duke

amazing man, nice setup!

added new parts pics

And I thought Trey was obsessed...

Just kidding! Amazingly worked, but maybe you could[insert_technical_ nerdy_criticism_here]. So maybe if you did that thingy with the ramsink (is that what ppl call SDRAM?) or whatever the heck it is, it would rock (not that it doesn't already!)

But I don't understand why you would take all that time and spend all that money! HOW many Alienwares were there? 2? 3?

I play CS:S on a (please, don't laugh):
Microcity PC (I've never heard of it either)
AMD Athlon XP 2500+, ~1.8 GHz
256MB Phys. RAM,
I created a 1792MB (initial), 1792MB (maximum) pagefile yesterday
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

I KNOW YOU'RE LAUGHING! I KNOW IT! I CAN ALMOST HEAR YOU! IT'S NOT MY FAULT! I'M NOT GETTING A COMPUTER TIL LIKE APRIL!

Obsessed with what?

I guess I built it just for the sake of building it. Yes I wasted money on this thing. I'll sell it to ya.

Duke, if you have a volt meter I'd suggest you take readings on the PSU 12v, 5v, & 3.3v lines under idle & load.