Micro Stealth Custom Water Cooling Kit - Results and Conclusion page 3
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Manufacturers: | Aquastealth |
| Product: | Aquastlealth Micro Stealth Custom |
Price: | USD$159.99 |
Availability: | NOW |
Reviewed By: | Jim "Justi" Miller |
Review Date: | December 2002 |
Micro Stealth Custom Water Cooling Kit (cont...)
RESULTS:
TEST SYSTEM:
* Athlon 1600XP @ 1.625Ghz
* Epox 8K7A
* 512MB PC2100 Kingmax Ram
* Aopen Ti4200 128MB Video Card
* Other insignificant components.
Now that we've tested, assembled, and installed our Micro Stealth water cooling kit, it's time to see if it was worth it. We know that water cooling is supposed be be quieter, and certainly cooler, but is it? We are about to find out. The "air cooled' results you see below were with a GlobalWIN WBK38 heat sink, and a high speed 120mm intake fan mounted in the location that now houses the radiators. The ambient room temperature during testing was + or - .3deg F of 74.1deg F. To get our "load" temperatures prime 95 was set to run torture test, while at the same time running a 30min loop of 3dMark2001 (to get the video card heat rolling thru the box.)
CPU TEMPERATURE RESULTS:
As you can see, the water cooling REALLY made a difference in performance. The other area to note is noise. As you read above, we were running a WBK38 with the jet engine like Delta 7000RPM fan, and a high speed 120mm fan. Both of these fans were LOUD! They were replaced with middle of the road LED 80mm fans which to put it mildly, are butt loads quieter. So, we not only got far superior performance, we quieted our case by way more than half.
CONCLUSION:
Obviously we've had more than our share of problems with this system. I can honestly say that had I out of the blue ordered this system and gone thru the same mess, I would NOT be a happy camper. From the inaccurate directions, the non-tapped screw holes on the radiator, to the lack of response from my latest round of questions to the provider, I was not left with a warm and fuzzy about this vendor, or to a certain extent, about this product. I can say that when we experienced a leaky radiator they were very quick to get us a replacement. I notified them and 4 days later a replacement radiator was at my doorstep.
What this review did show without question, is that even the simplest of water cooling setups can yield stellar results when compared to conventional cooling. It comes at a risk and a price though. The risk is obvious, mixing water with your PC components is always enough to tighten everyone's sphincter at least a little, and the cost? USD$159.99 is no cheap thing. That steep cost loses it's ugliness a bit when you consider that a good air cooler now a days is in the range of USD$70 and the water obviously far out performs air cooling of pretty much any kind. What is even more attractive is that there are certainly cheaper solutions out there, especially if you want to build one yourself.
As far as the company goes? I have a hard time with that. The rapid response to the bad radiator certainly made me feel good about them. BUT, the horrible directions with the request to "leave them out of the review", the lack of answers about the water pump, the small things like not pre-tapping the holes on the radiator, it all adds up quickly. They could certainly be the number one place on the web for all I know, but I have a hard time feeling comfortable sending you guys over there based on our experience.
PRO'S
- Great Performance.
- Compact Design.
- VERY Quiet.
CON'S
- Inaccurate Directions.
- Radiator Not Pre-tapped for screws.
- Rough finish on water block.
- A bit pricey.
- Questionable customer support.
- Only two screws per fan included.
- No nylon nuts to secure mounting bolts to the motherboard.
That is certainly not a short list of negatives, and they are all true, but I have to say, once we got everything in place we were more than happy with the overall performance. I guess in the end I am not able to recommend you purchase this kit, but at the same time based on the performance, I couldn't blame you if ya did. This company has potential to be certain, but I feel they have some things to work out before we can give them an honest "OCA Recommended" award.
Thanks for checking out our look at the Micro Stealth cooling system kit, and you of course can head over to their site to get more information, or feel free to drop me an email. You can always head into our forums to sound off, or just head back to the front page of OCAddiction and check out our other GooSH!™
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