Asetek Antarctica WaterChill Review

[CJE-P]

Use this forum thread to discuss SysOpt's review of the Asetek Antarctica WaterChill CPU Power Kit KT03A-L30.

[Vampiel]

Not bad!

[Crashman]

Yes, I might have been able to get a slightly higher clock out of a board with more vCore stability, but you'll notice the core temperature is rising much faster than the speed, indicating the CPU is about to hit a wall.

If I get a Prescott (runs hot and overclocks at lower voltages), I'll put it on my Soyo board and give you an update!

[tetch]

Is it just me or does $259 sound like a lot of money for what is effectively:-
A fish tank pump
Some tube

[tetch]

an oil cooler off a small motorbike
a fan
a couple of blocks
some brackets

This sounds like the sort of kit you could put together yourself for less than half the money.

Or am I just tight?

Tetch

[Crashman]

You're just tight! The water block is very expensive by itself. But considering the mounting kit, I can see why people would pay over $40 for the water block, rather than spend hours in the machine shop!

Then there's the pump, this is a very large, high quality pump. I'm going to guess here that it would cost you at least $60.

OK, so that's $100 to get you started, then you need the line (Hmm, maybe $8), a radiator (Around $60), a high quality 120mm fan (around $15). You could easily get yourself to $200, and the parts wouldn't be custom fit. And then there's the custom machined aluminum reservior.

I've seen this kit go for $220 at an online vender. You could probably put one together for 1/2 of that if you used a cheap automotive heater core, lower quality pump, etc. But some people prefer to pay for quality, the parts go together nicely, so to them it's worth the money.

Remember that a water cooling system does nothing more than move the heat to a large radiator. Your stock heatsink is a radiator. If you feel like making a 120mm heatsink with equal surface area and going without water, do it...but then try fitting it to the system! That explains why people would pay money for water, while having the parts fit together well and look nice explains why they would pay extra for a custom made kit.

[tetch]

Well I AM tight.

Just for an experiment I will try and put together a homemade water cooling system.
Luckily for me, my mate Matt is a custom motorbike parts engineer who, I'm sure, can make said block.

And if it all goes pear shaped and ruins my PC, well, that's good justification to the wife for an upgrade

If it works, I'll post it up to show off.
If it goes horribly wrong I'll post it up as a warning to others!!