The Verdict
Splendid, that's what this kit is. Granted overall water-cooling is not a cheap cooling solution as you'll have to cough up 180 bucks for it but hey, the COOL kit is at a really competitive pricing level. Next to that this Corsair gear performs very well. The actual setup of the kit is relatively easy. It will however cost you no more then a couple of hours of time. Take it slow, do it relaxed and most of all make sure there are no leaks. It's a reasonably fool proof concept though. Once you have everything setup (use our article as a guide) you'll absolutely love this kit.
One slight remark to Corsair. They deliver the full manual in PDF format on a CD. People who buy this kit either need to build the new PC from scratch or have disassembled it already to be able to start with the H2O project immediately. A manual on a CD with this kind of kit does not make any sense. You can't read a PDF if you are in the midst of modifying your PC with new cooling. Next to that the quick guide is far from informative enough to use by an average consumer.
Now then, opting water-cooling seriously is a rewarding experience for basically three important factors:
Firstly: it's really efficient. If you choose the proper materials your CPU/GPU and mainbord chipset (Northbridge) can run at or slightly above room temperature. Especially CPU's these days are hot. Very, very hot. Bare in mind that although conventional air cooling works quite well the heat is disposed inside your PC case, which when not ventilated properly will have a negative effect on other components as well.
Secondly another very important factor is sound, more specifically silence. With this kit one or multiple components of your PC are water-cooled. Bare in mind that this form of watercooling is never 100% silent though. The radiator is actively cooled by two huge fans. But it most certainly is more silent then your average PC. I mean, the actually HD makes more noise.
The third point I want to mention is a higher and safer overclocking potential, your system must have the right components of course as usually you will raise the front side bus speed, which can adversely effect many of your PC's components. But watercooling at this level will have a big effect on your end-result. These results always vary on any system though.
Now then, the performance of the kit is beyond doubt marvelous, ~40 Degrees C maximum is what we had on a very stressed out Pentium 4 3.6 GHz Prescot processor. Once we started overclocking it the end result became 4.2 GHz, a really exciting achievement and at that speed with the CPU 100% utilized you will still be at 50-55 Degrees C. Using this kit on a much cooler AMD platform would without any doubt kicks ass Bruce Lee style also.
Corsair's COOL brings you admirable water cooling performance, quiet operation, reliability, and for it's money outstanding value. The kit in the stores will cost you roughly 180 USD. If you like to you can expand the kit with cooling blocks for Northbridges (mainboard chipset) and VGA blocks, so there definitely is a lot of flexibility there.
How did a memory maker make such fun water cooling components? Well it's obvious they had a good peek at Swifttech, either that or are in fact working with them.
None the less, this really is a lovely product and I honestly did not expect it to perform as well as it does, that impresses me a lot. Corsair's Cool can be found in our Price Comparison database for under 180.00 USD and that my Guru's means value.
If you are able to spot one of these kits then do not hesitate, we really can recommend this kit.
Product: COOL Watercooling
Manufacturer: Corsair
Information: website
Price: 180 USD
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