Zeplin
05-01-2010, 07:54 AM
In April of last year i treated myself to a Cool IT Domino Water cooler, a great idea for a water cooled cpu solution which comes factory sealed so no messing about with seals and water.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:GJcs26JdwfdW5M:http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/854/coolit_domino_box.jpg
It came nicely packaged, but they was some fiddly messing about changing the cpu plate to fit a i7 cpu and i had to strip the pc to fit the back plate.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6pTs5bWn__hNLM:http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php%3Fimage%3D16098
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ZvSrmSxIaqqKjM:http://media.bestofmicro.com/Domino-ALC-True-Spirit,R-J-208351-13.jpg
Once on the noise was quiet when under load, but i would call it noisy when your pc was busy and was loaded so much so a work m8 returned his straight away.
I will also add as you are removing the rear out take and the cpu fan to accommodate the water cooler this can cause overheat problems or high temps on the north bridge due to removing circulating air in that area.
Any ways i stuck it out with mine till the this last Saturday when being very noisy after downloading Dragon age over night and a days worth of play it started making a funny noise as if they lumps in the water or no water left in it.
By 9pm i decided they was something wrong and it was best to remove it, lucky or i could have been returning a cpu as well.
This meant stripping the computer so i could remove the back plate and fit a standard intel i7 cooler, pain in the ass when its a big rig like mine :(
On further inspection the the water cooler had been expelling the liquid out of the radiator and through the rear cooling fan, on a shake test they was not much coolant left.
The stock intel cooler has made around 80% diffrence on noise levels, im lucky as i bought it at work and is on its way back to Cool IT for a refund a bit hassle free as its a nightmare with shops, but the warning comes as we are now getting a few of these back broken after they received rave reviews everywhere, they is one on the shelf next to mine to return in which the radiator near enough exploded.
Over clocking wise its a waste, you can get the same performance from a air cooled cooler, and to say mine has spent little time over clocked it seems the average life span is 10 months lol, in the booklet it says 3 years before the coolant expires, but in future i will just stick with the stock intel fan.
You have been warned ;)
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:GJcs26JdwfdW5M:http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/854/coolit_domino_box.jpg
It came nicely packaged, but they was some fiddly messing about changing the cpu plate to fit a i7 cpu and i had to strip the pc to fit the back plate.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6pTs5bWn__hNLM:http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php%3Fimage%3D16098
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ZvSrmSxIaqqKjM:http://media.bestofmicro.com/Domino-ALC-True-Spirit,R-J-208351-13.jpg
Once on the noise was quiet when under load, but i would call it noisy when your pc was busy and was loaded so much so a work m8 returned his straight away.
I will also add as you are removing the rear out take and the cpu fan to accommodate the water cooler this can cause overheat problems or high temps on the north bridge due to removing circulating air in that area.
Any ways i stuck it out with mine till the this last Saturday when being very noisy after downloading Dragon age over night and a days worth of play it started making a funny noise as if they lumps in the water or no water left in it.
By 9pm i decided they was something wrong and it was best to remove it, lucky or i could have been returning a cpu as well.
This meant stripping the computer so i could remove the back plate and fit a standard intel i7 cooler, pain in the ass when its a big rig like mine :(
On further inspection the the water cooler had been expelling the liquid out of the radiator and through the rear cooling fan, on a shake test they was not much coolant left.
The stock intel cooler has made around 80% diffrence on noise levels, im lucky as i bought it at work and is on its way back to Cool IT for a refund a bit hassle free as its a nightmare with shops, but the warning comes as we are now getting a few of these back broken after they received rave reviews everywhere, they is one on the shelf next to mine to return in which the radiator near enough exploded.
Over clocking wise its a waste, you can get the same performance from a air cooled cooler, and to say mine has spent little time over clocked it seems the average life span is 10 months lol, in the booklet it says 3 years before the coolant expires, but in future i will just stick with the stock intel fan.
You have been warned ;)