Posts tagged with Watercooling
Water Cooling – Are you nuts?
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 12:27 PM
(11 votes, average: 4.27 out of 5)
Loading ...Does the CoolIT Domino make the grade?
When the guys from CoolIT approached me for a quote for their Domino press release, my immediate reaction was, “Let’s get it in the lab and send me a review unit to test”…
Here at AMD we have a full scientific test lab for thermal devices. We all know that a properly built PC is a careful dance of core temp, ambient temp, chassis temp – all at idle, mid and full load. We like to test for real-world conditions, especially for those lazy Sundays when the air-conditioning breaks and your PC whizzes away stuffed in a cabinet under a desk collecting large deposits of dust. It’s our business to make sure our products run under the most grueling and sometimes strange environments.
Our lab guys were impressed with the Domino coolers they received. It was once thought that cost effective water cooling was impossible. Unfortunately I cannot share any of the details from those tests as they are all still very cloak and dagger (considered as internal trade secrets), but to say the least, I was impressed that they – our thermal fellows – were impressed. Now before I would ever give a “nod” to any product, I have to use and experience it first.
My hands on time with the Domino consisted of building out a new system based on AMD “Dragon” platform technology:
- Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard
- ATI RadeonTM HD 4890 discrete graphics
- Corsair DDR3 Ram 8G
- AMD PhenomTM II X4 955 3.2GHz processor
- 3x Western Digital HDD Totaling 1 Terabyte
- Corsair HX1000W PSU
- Coolermaster Cosmos 1000
- CoolIT Domino A.L.C
Domino installed in my Dragon System
The setup was surprisingly easy; I fiddled with the brackets and little bolts until I got it right. It took just as long to install a Domino cooler as it did to fully install a PSU.
Once it was fully installed, I checked for leaks, cracks, breaks and/or other signs of water in my system prior to plugging it in and firing it up!
Water flowing through your PC is absolutely foreign to many and frankly most PC users. Why would anyone in their right mind want to have a water contraption in their PC, the answer is quite simple, superior cooling!
Water cooling has always been very expensive, labour intensive and a little dodgy at times. Horror stories of broken piping, reservoirs cracking and water leaking that swiftly destroys your entire PC have been whispered everywhere in the enthusiast community. A costly breakdown to say the least!
The old adage was “Cost effective water cooling is impossible”, well, until now.
The Domino made a tremendous difference in the hot air being expelled from the back of my chassis, it’s no longer “hot”, it’s simply a mild warm. This helps in a room full of PC’s and 2 giant monitors, trust me, personal comfort becomes paramount.
Domino's operations screen
When I did a play test, I used CoD WaW and saw the Domino report a temp of 99degrees, 2079 rpm fan speed and 3123rpm pump speed on medium.
I switched it to the high setting and saw a decrease in temp, but an increase in ambient noise. The Domino reported a temp of 94degrees, 2824rpm fan speed and 3105prm pump speed.
The increase in noise levelled off to something more than bearable, but regardless, I game with headphones so the increase in ambient noise doesn’t bother me. I really liked the “beep” feature, it audibly lets you know when something has been changed or goes wrong.
The Domino does not seem to be intended for a DIY’er who makes lots of changes to her/his PC on a regular basis. It seems better suited for the gamer or enthusiast who builds and uses their PC in that config for awhile. How often do you really upgrade your mobo and CPU anyway, every 6months? 9months? 12months?
As I am not a reviewer, nor do I claim to be, I almost completely rely on the reviewer community to recommend or not recommend a product, here is what they have to say:
Maximum PC gave it a 9/10 in its June issue.
Almost unanimously reviewed positively and recommended.
If you are a gamer looking to add “H2O” to your system, the Cool-IT Domino is a good option.
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.