Once the mixture is ready, fill up the Hydrocool. Turn the power on, and then fill up the reservoir again (as the tubing will now be filled and the reservoir will "lose" that water.)

You can see the nice green colour the additive gives the water. Once you've filled it up, you're done.

Test Setup

Though the pictures we used involved a Pentium 4, we've had some motherboard issues, as well as a broken P4 (as reported earlier). Therefore, testing will be done with an AMD setup.

Athlon XP2500+ (stock: 166x11=1826 Mhz, OC: 193x13=2512 Mhz), DFI LanParty KT400A, 512 Mb Corsair PC3200, Maxtor ATA 100 IDE hard drive, Generic 350 Watt PSU.

I couldn't try for the 199x12.5 clock since the LanParty does not allow for a 12.5x multiplier - so I used a 192 FSB x 13 to get my XP2500+ running at 2500+ Mhz. The comparison unit will be a Swiftech H20-8500, which we've reviewed here. Given time constraints, we weren't able to provide Swiftech's Idle speeds, but we all know it's the full load temps you care about. ;)

Temperature in °C

And for our non-metric friends...

Temperature in °F

We can clearly see that the hydrocool is not the winner for the top end in overclocking. Yet, notice how at the lower end of cooling (stock load temps) the hydrocool manages to get a 4°C lead on the Swiftech.

The above temperatures were taken directly off the CPU diode. The Hydrocool also reports the water temperature as well. If you're curious...

Stock Idle: 34 C (24C reported)/ Stock Load: 37 (25 C reported)

Stock Idle with Turbo: 33 C (24 C reported)/ Stock Load with Turbo: 37 C (24.5 C reported)

(O/C: 2512.82 Mhz): O/C Idle: 44 C (25.5 C Reported)/Load: 50 C (26 C Reported)

O/C Idle with Turbo: 43 C (Wavering between 24.5 and 25 C Reported)

O/C Load with Turbo: 49 C (25.5 C Reported)

Final Words

I believe that for the average user that wants to reap the benefits from water cooling, this is pretty much the perfect kit. No cutting, drilling, sanding, or modification to your case is necessary. If the PC needs to be moved the quick release buttons and two-way gates stop the water from coming out of the hoses or the Hydrocool. Plug the hoses back in with the rest of your components and you're golden. You don't even have to worry about bleeding out air, as it will all go into the reservoir, and stay there. A little shaking might be in order, but that's about it. Considering all of this, and the performance that the Hydrocool exhibited.

However, the "sticky waterblock syndrome" will have to be addressed with Corsair as it was not fun to lose my P4 right after I got it. I also experienced an infrequent hissing during operation of the Hydrocool. The source of the hissing puzzles me as neither fan speed nor water speed seem to be the source of the hissing.

Pros: Easy enough for the novice, good enough for the pro.

Cons: Might not be good enough for the extremists, had a tough time removing the 90° connectors, thermal paste issue.

Bottom Line: The hydrocool is a great product overall, and while it might not be the best performer out there, it's ease of use and portability surely make up for that.