AngelEye Bay-Res (rev. 2) Water Cooling Block Review - What You Get with the Bay-Res
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The Bay-Res came well packaged in a thoroughly taped up box, wrapped in bubble wrap, and plastic over the majority of the acrylic to prevent scratches. Inside, the clear roll of plastic on top of the unit contained the four screws needed to mount the Bay-Res in a 5.25" bay. I thought this was a nice touch. It prevents you from using screws that might be too long and when screwed in could damage the Bay-Res. In this picture you can also see the acrylic divider down the center of the chamber. This is one of the major changes to the Bay-Res in revision 2. This is design to smooth water flow by reducing the turbulence in the water.
As you can see in the previous picture, my Bay-Res arrived slightly damaged. It had a rather large chip in the acrylic. The missing piece was not in the box so I assume the damage did not happen in shipping. The damage did not comprise the integrity of the Bay-Res; I leak tested for a full day and not a drop came from the damaged area. I do not imagine AngelEye intentionally shipped this unit damaged, and if I wasn't anxious to install this bad boy, I'm sure they would have replaced it.
The Bay-Res is made from 1/4" clear or UV blue acrylic. It comes equipped with a fill hole covered with a black cap near the front right corner of the unit. This makes the unit particularly easy to fill and bleed. The particular version I got came with 1/2" 90 degree barbs. I learned something about water cooling when the Bay-Res arrived: 1/2" barbs go with 1/2" inner diameter (5/8" outer diameter) tubing not 1/2" out diameter. Not a big deal. I just needed to by some tubing adapters to reduce the tubing going into and out of the Bay-Res to 1/2" outer diameter tubing, since that is what the Swiftech H20-8500 I was planning to use this with has. While I'm on the subject, the Bay-Res is available with 1/2" or 3/8" 90 degree barbs or 1/2" straight barb. The barbs are attached with NPT threads so other barbs you may pick up can attach to the Bay-Res.
Here you can see the reinforced area on the side of the Bay-Res where the threads are for the mounting screws. Not pictured is another enhancement to the second revision of the Bay-Res, two 3mm LED holders in the rear of the unit. This is a great idea for the acrylic Bay-Res. Unfortunately, I could not get my camera to properly focus on two small holes in the acrylic in order to get a picture.
Next: Installing the Bay-Res >>
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