Loosening up a couple of screws allows access to the inside of the Tidewater.  Here we get a better view of the turbine type cooling fan and the copper radiator it blows air through. 

The reservoir and 12v pump can be seen below.  Both are quite compact.  Thermaltake's design team is obviously proud of this unit as you can see from the carefully fitted pieces here.  Pride really does show.

Installation

For installation we don't have anything too flashy for you.  The house SLI set up is a pair of Albatron GeForce 6600 GTs which should do nicely. 

The first step in installing the Tt Tidewater was to strip off the existing RAM sinks and GPU cooler.  Once this was done, we were able to stick on the aluminum Tt BGA RAM sinks and affix two screws with receiving nuts in their ends through the existing holes in the PCB of the card for the installation of the water block. 

These screws are locked into a retention bar stretching across the rear of the GPU area on the flip side of the VGA card.  A small cushion acts as a barrier to keep this metal bar off the PCB and components.

The two elliptical rings you see are what gives the Tt Tidewater its ability to be a universal mount (provided the PCB of your video card has holes around the GPU.)  These hoops are adjusted and locked in place with one of the screws so as to give a perfect reach so a second screw may be secured into the receiving nuts we already mounted.

BACK                    NEXT

Pg 1 - Introduction
Pg 2 - The Unit
Pg 3 - Inside and Installation
Pg 4 - Concerns and GPU Performance
Pg 5 - Memory performance and Conclusion