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Thermaltake Tribe
Water Cooling Kit As we look closer at the Tribe's assembly, we see that it's composed of a black grilled aluminum that should allow plenty of air flow through, all while keeping out the dust. It's a nice sleek black color with handles for easy transport. The front of the assembly has its controls centered down the face. Starting from the top is the adjustable fan speed controller, an expansion slot for another adjustable fan speed controller (which is not included) and the 12v adapter plug. Directly below that are the input and output connectors for the hoses. These connectors are for 3/8" OD hosing. The grilling is held on by thumb screws. The handles must be removed as well as all the silver corner pieces to access the interior of the unit. The top can be popped off afterwards to expose the inside of the Thermaltake Tribe's assembly. Reservoir The reservoir is on the inside of the enclosure. It's mounted near the back, across from the Water Pump opposite the radiator and fan. This should help keep it cool and away from the heat given off by the radiator and fan. Water Pump The water pump in the Tribe is a small, 12v pump. It takes up very little space in the enclosure, and produces little to no noise under power. The tubing connectors have the same screw down caps that secure line once installed. Radiator The radiator is slightly larger than the 120mm fan directly in front of it. The fins are of thin aluminum construction, and the coolant flows through copper piping that's surrounded by these fins. This should provide a more than ample convection area to keep the coolant down to a reasonable temperature. Water Block The Tribe uses the same water block as Thermaltake's Bigwater kit. It is a solid copper base with a clear acrylic top. Because of this, you can see the winding path that the coolant will follow over the top of the copper base. This maximizes the contact the coolant gets with the base of the block to increase cooling. On the top of the acrylic top piece are two hose connectors, where the hoses are secured with screw on caps. This also looks really cool -- the UV Reactive coolant should look awesome with my black light on. The wire coming from the side of the acrylic is connected to a blue LED. This should go well with any other lighting in a case. Notice the base of the block, you'll also see that it's pretty well polished. Very nice work on the factory lap job.
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All pages Copyright © 2000 - 2008
by R. Dean Barker.
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