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A
hardware tech site for the rest of us.
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Thermaltake
BigWater Water Cooling Kit We have been preaching 120mm fans around here for years. Its good to see that folks on the manufacturing end are seeing the value of the high CFM that don't have the high dBA levels seen with many 60 and 80mm fans. The BigWater comes with a variable speed 120mm blower. The fan is controlled manually via a familiar Tt slot mounted rheostat. Having a range of 36.6 to 93.7 CFM you have quite a bit of range. The corresponding volume and fan speeds are 1300 RPM / 17 dBA to the high end of 2400 RPM / 21 dBA. The base of the radiator has two fittings to accept 5/16" OD line. The screw cap you see by the fitting in the foreground screws down after the line is installed to keep things snug and leak free. Part of the power cable is sleeved which is a bit confusing; why not sleeve the entire length?
The radiator is cited by Thermaltake as being aluminum. The weight feels about right for aluminum in spite of our being a little mislead by the copper color of the radiator tube ends. A high fin count ensures good heat exchange. The radiator can be mounted internally or externally if you like. If you look closely at the top of the unit you will see a slot about 1 3/4 inches in length. This piece allows you to mount the radiator externally to cases with 80mm rear exhaust vents in addition to the 120mm exhaust vents the kit is designed for.
Reservoir The included reservoir is actually designed to ease the filling of the system. It can however, be easily mounted for use as a permanent reservoir if you so choose. It has a capacity of just under six ounces. Filling is as easy as unscrewing the silver ball cap and pouring water in.
Water Pump The pump looks quite similar to the type Thermaltake used on its Aquarius II water cooling kits just much larger. The BigWater pump pushes 30% more water than the Aquarius II pump; moving 31.7 gph (120 lph) up from 23.8 gph (90 lph). Powered off a three pin connector cable, you have a good 17 inches of line to reach an appropriate adapter or mainboard header. Something I didn't fully appreciate until we powered the system up was the water inlet and outlet lines you see here. Notice how they are themselves on a small section of tubing. This allowed us to bend our lines around with a bit more ease and a bit less fear of crimping the tubes. The tubing connectors have the same screw down caps that secure line once installed.
Water Block The water block in the BigWater kit is a beautiful thing. A copper base with a see through acrylic top give the unit a very high tech look. Add in some UV reactive coolant and you will have something pretty damn hip. The in and outlet connectors, like all the other BigWater connectors have the 5/16 receiving nipples with screw down caps. As we look more closely at the block you can see the serpentine path the coolant will take with the system filled. In my opinion, this type of water "path" is superior to the more open cavity type, as the surface area of water to water block contact is maximized for a much more efficient heat exchange. The small wire you see coming off the side of the block is for a blue LED in one corner of the acrylic cover.
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All pages Copyright © 2000 - 2008
by R. Dean Barker.
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