Using the Koolance Exos-Al
Once you're up and running, there isn't really all that much to it. However, for those who would like some manual control over the Koolance, it is a simple matter of selecting how you'd like the temperature displayed, and what mode you'd like the fans to be run.
Pressing °C/°F will toggle the display between Celcius and Fahrenheit. The temperature displaed in the LED is the temperature taken directly off the thermal probe displayed earlier. I did find the temperature to be off by a substantial amount (between 11°C to 13°C) so I wouldn't solely rely on these readings if you're monitoring your temperatures.
By pressing the Mode button, you'll toggle between modes 1 - 3. At Mode 1, the fans will spin at 45%, and gradually reach 100% when the temperature hits 45°C. Mode 2 is also 45% at the start, begins to speed up at 35°C, reaching 100% of its speed when the temperature reaches 40°C. At Mode 3, the fans spin at 100%, regardless of temperature. At 53°C on the LED, the system, including the PC, will automatically shut down.
I found Mode 1 and 2 to be relatively quiet at 45%, but not silent. During some stress tests, the Koolance did make more noise as the temperature increased, but it was still not as noisy as our air cooler setup using a Delta 68cfm fan. Mode 3 was equivalent to the Delta, and the noise levels can be disruptive if you're sensitive to noisy PCs.
Test Setup - Athlon XP 2195MHz
Albatron KX600S Pro: Athlon XP TBred (10.5x209) @ 1.95v, 2 x 512MB Kingston HyperX PC4000 (2.5-3-3-6), AIW Radeon 9800 Pro, 120GB Western Digital SE 8MB Cache, Windows XP SP1, VIA Hyperion 4in1 drivers 4.51, ATI Catalyst 4.1.
Going up against the Koolance Exos-Al for our Ahlon XP tests will be the Swiftech MCW5000. The MCW5000 will be tested using the larger radiator (as in the MCW5000 review) paired with two 120mm 55 CFM fans, and the H20-8500 kit's pump. Arctic Silver 5 is the thermal compound used for both coolers.
To load up the system, we run Prime95 run for 20 minutes, with Folding @ Home running in the background. Ambient room temperature is maintained at ~23°C/74°F. We removed the chipset/GPU coolers to factor them out of the equation.
To closely match the fan speeds, the MCW5000's fans will be run at full speed, and 7v speed using this mod. Temperature readings were taken with (MBM) for both kits, but we'll also be displaying the Koolance's temperature probe numbers as well.
7v Fan (Swiftech) and Mode 1 (Koolance) - Idle
Given the Swiftech uses 3/8" ID hoses, and a much more powerful pump, I was quite surprised to see only a minor improvement against the Exos-Al. Since Koolance designed the Exos to use 1/4" ID tubing, they obviously optimized the system to maximize flow to compensate. Here we see the gap when using the temperature probe that we mentioned earlier. The potential problem I see is if you're relying on Mode 1 and Mode 2 to speed up the fans, it may take a while to get to the minimum temperatures to kick start them.
7v Fan (Swiftech) and Mode 2 (Koolance) - Load
In a surprising turn of events (at first glance), we see the Exos-Al take this one by 1°C. There are a couple reasons why this may be the case. For one thing, there are three fans on the Exos, versus two on the Swiftech kit. We also see that the temperature probe is reporting 35°C, which is the starting point for the fans to begin speeding up at Mode 2. I retested at Mode 1, and the temperature did drop by half a degree to 49.5°C, so that still leaves the additional fan on the Exos as the probable determining factor.
Full Speed (Swiftech) and Mode 3 (Koolance) - Load
Dead even between the two kits here, as both settle in at 48.5°C. Compared to the lower fan speeds, the Swiftech sees a larger improvement, whereas the Exos-Al only drops half a degree celcius. Both kits are very noisy at this speed, and given the Exos-Al's performance at Mode 2, I don't see any reason to move past that unless you're trying to push for the lowest temperature as you can.
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