Kingwin AquaStar AS3000 Liquid Cooling Kit

Manufacturer: Kingwin
Supplied by: Kingwin
Street Price: $135

By Dean Barker (8/16/2005)

Introduction

Water cooling kits are broken up into two categories as we have said before; ultra high cooling performance and quiet operation.  Kingwin has made inroads into the quiet operation category before with their Arctic Liquid Cooling System.  It is from this success that they build to release the Kingwin AS3000 AquaStar water cooling kit.  The Kingwin AquaStar shares many of the positive attributes of the Kingwin Arctic but goes one step further with making the base unit capable of external or internal use.  An appealing new look also adorns Kingwin’s latest water cooling kit and it is with no small amount of anticipation we have an opportunity to run one of these new units through its paces for you today.  Thanks go out to the folks at Kingwin for making this review possible.  Let’s get started.

Specifications

• Application: Intel LGA775, Intel socket 478, Intel P3, AMD K7 and AMD K8

• Central unit dimensions: 210 x 85 x 147mm

• Central unit cooling: (1) variable rate 80mm blue LED fan; (1) low speed static speed 80mm fan

• Construction: Aluminum central unit

• External or Internal mounting in two open 5.25” bays

• Hosing: 3/8" OD

• CPU block dimensions: 62 x 13mm

• GPU block dimensions: 42 x 16 x 42mm (Included hardware for most all VGA cards having holes in VGA PCB.)

What you get

Kingwin's AquaStar is an all in one kit as we already mentioned.  As you will see, Kingwin takes the 'all in one' thing very seriously.  In addition to the AS3000 central unit we found gear enough to get the AquaStar fitted into any current system.  CPU and GPU water blocks, two 15 pin specialty power cables (one for internal, one for external use), a pass through bracket, side covers (for external use), extra C clips and clip removal tool, a small container of concentrated antifreeze, five lengths of 3/8" OD hosing (27.5" x 2, 19" x 2 and 15.25" x 1), a well laid out manual, heat sensor, sound level sensor and CPU/GPU mounting hardware.

NEXT