Thermaltake
Kandalf LCS Case (VD4000)
What You Get
In addition to the case, you get everything you
need for the liquid cooling solution. The Water Pump, Reservoir, enough
3/8" hose (not pictured), as well as two large (500cc) bottles of UV Reactive
coolant. You also get the waterblock, mounting brackets for the Intel 478,
LGA775, and AMD K8 CPU's. Also included are enough screws to build a 747.
As you can see, the Water Pump and reservoir are
combined into a single unit. This actually makes mounting it in the bottom
of the Kandalf a breeze -- the screw holes are positioned as such that you can
mount it pretty much anywhere you want or need to.
The Water Block is the standard Thermaltake
Copper block with an acrylic top. There's a built in blue LED which adds
some flavor. There's a winding path that the water follows over the block
which should provide for excellent heat dissipation. Taking a closer look
at the base, you can see that the finish is quite nice, very smooth, and
contains no visible blemishes.
Let's install all these goodies and see how they
work.
Installation
First off, removing everything from my old
case didn't prove to be a problem at all. I had to remove the mounting
bracket for my previous cooler, the Thermaltake Blue Orb II. I installed
the back-plate onto the back of the motherboard as instructed through the
manual, allowing the screws to come through to the front of the motherboard.
These secured tightly without any problems.
The motherboard was then placed inside the
case and secured down using the correct screws. This was no problem at all
because of the vast amounts of space to work inside the Kandalf. There is
no removable mainboard tray, but I can't even really consider that a down-side
since the work room is so spacious.
After getting the board back in, the CPU was
cleaned using isopropyl alcohol, as was the waterblock from the Thermaltake
Kandalf. A thin layer of Arctic Silver was applied to the CPU, and the
water block was placed on the processor. The top H-Clamp was secured to
the top of the Water Block using the provided thumb screws. There were no
issues at all with the installation.
There was enough 3/8" hosing provided, but
not much more. If you plan on future expansion for Memory or VGA Liquid
Cooling, I'd suggest getting some extra tubing just in case. The two
bottles of coolant should be more than enough, however. And the 12v 500L/m
pump can take it.
Now that we've got everything installed and
working properly, let's give this bad boy a run for it's money.
BACK
NEXT
Pg 1 - Introduction
Pg 2 - Exterior
Pg 3 - Interior
Pg 4 - Installation and Performance
Pg 5 - Conclusion
