Thermaltake Bigwater 760i Water Cooling Kit

Results

 

Conclusion

There are a number of all in one kits available today.  Thermaltake's Bigwater 760i hits a nice mark with it balance of performance, noise, ease of installation and price.  Performance was good but not stellar.  It did show a decided advantage over our Tt MaxOrb cooler which is no cooling slouch.  The 760i's performance was graphed with its fan speed on a very inaudible 'low'.  Turning the fan up to 'high' via the rheo gave us about a one degree better result however, the fan noise was so loud that is was unacceptable.  Hence we didn't graph that result above as no one would run the unit at that speed.  This ties into another issue with the Bigwater 760i.  Given the wildly different acoustics of the fan at low and high speed; it is crazy to mount the fan speed controller in a place where its not easily accessible.

These issues are easily mitigated by keeping the Bigwater 760i set to low where it rewards it's user with good quiet performance.  The quick connect hose ends also allow you to have this system grow with you by adding in memory, VGA or HDD water coolers later.  It is this expandability that really makes the Bigwater shine.  Pricing on the street now for the Bigwater 760i is around $150 which feels a tad high but in the right ballpark with all you get and can do with it.  A well balanced and high quality all in one kit here you should give full consideration to for your next upgrade.

Pros

• Good performance

• Easy installation

• Near universal application

• Clean lines

• Quick connect hose ends

• Plenty of hose

Cons

• Internal rheostat

• Cooling performance only a bit better than other air coolers

• Proper case ventilation a must

• Fan at full speed is WAY too noisy

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