
Over
the past few years, as the speed and heat from CPU's have increased,
more aggressive cooling solutions have been brought to market
to cope. What was once a passive cooler can nowadays be a large
lump of copper with a large fan and of course large noise to go
with it.
In
the last year or so their has been a marked move towards a more
quiet cooling solution, usually accomplished with varying designs
and quieter and larger fans on a heatsink. Of course the other
and more extreme solution is watercooling. Thing is though, watercooling
was at one time considered extreme cooling but again, time moves
on and it's not uncommon to see watercooling now, with various
all in one kits aimed at the complete novice through to the performance
enthusiast. Today we have a new kit from Topspeed
aimed at the novice. The kit is designed for ease of install and
includes everything bar the water.
| Features |
Easy
Installation; High OC performance; Low Operating Noise; Long
Operating life; Double leakage protection; No Electrolyses
Corrosion; Synchronized with PC; Complete cooling solution
|
 |
| Specifications |
P/N
Topspeed - 3.X Compatibility For Intel P4,AMD K7
Surface Material ABS
Dimension D100*W92*H245 mm
Net Weight 2.2 kg
Color Silver
System Power consumption ~11 W
System Power Input separate power cord
Cooling Power For 150W thermal design power
Cooling System 8025Fan
Fan Dimension:80x80x25 mm
Heat sink Dimension: 161x85x45 mm
Fan Speed:2000
Noise:<30 dBA at 2000 RPM
|
| CPU
Waterblock |
Material:copper
Dimension:60x60x30mm
weight:350g
|
TubeMaterial:
silicon
Length:1500 mm
|
| Power
cable Length:1800 mm |
The
box for the Topspeed -3.X is packaged rather well, although some
extra flashy graphics on the exterior wouldn't hurt. Inside the
kit is packaged very neatly, with the main unit and 3 blocks on
display as the first thing you see.
Taking
it all out, underneath you can find all the extras including
a box of mounting goodies. Topcooling even include a squeezy
bottle (empty) to fill the system with. In the extras box we
have some thermal paste (Stars) various nut, bolt and springs,
some foam shims (just in case, can be used on the Northbridge),
an AMD 3 lug mounting clip, 2 P4 Mounting clips and a PCI plate
pass through for the piping. There are 2 extra 8mm OD pipes
included along with the already attached main piping from the
unit. These 2 extra's are already precut to size and are to
be used between the CPU block, Northbridge block and Graphics
block. I would have liked to have seen these as 1 piece of piping
of about half again in size, just to make sure this kit will
cater for everyone; but for ease of use having them precut means
everything is done for you. You can't see it in the pictures
too well, but the piping is tinted, some red, some blue to indicate
hot and cold piping.
The
Main Unit
The
main unit houses the Radiator and pump assembly, is finished
in silver plastic and hides everything internally. The radiator
is small, of about the 80mm size and is designed to back onto
the PSU fan's output. Yes you read that right, it draws
air from the PSU through the radiator and exhausts out the back
and below (more later).
On
top is the filling cap, which simply unscrews allowing you to
fill up with the supplied bottle, although you will need to
go buy some distilled water. Also on top are 2 LED's, one to
indicate power and the other to indicate if the system is running,
red and yellow respectively. Below we can see the input and
output water pipes, the plug cable and the 3 pin fan header
wire to turn the system on and off with your PC.
Inside
and to the rear, we have a low speed blue fan, used to draw
air from the unit. The radiator itself doubles up as the reservoir
from what I can tell, as the water inlet is directly above the
radiator, and indeed putting the water in you can see the radiator
internals.
The
Blocks
Each
of the blocks follows the same design pattern of a copper base,
spiral internals and 2 barbs.
The
CPU Block features a highly polished copper bottom and ABS plastic
top. Mounting can be achieved in different ways depending on
your system providing a universal fitting for today's systems.
AMD mounting can use the mounting holes (if you motherboard
accommodates this) around the ZIF socket or a 3 lug mounting
clip. The P4 system can also be mounted using the motherboard
holes or 2 clips are provided to produce pressure with the existing
mounting bracket on P4 motherboards. The barbs on the blocks
feature screw down nuts to hold the 8mm OD piping in place and
so complete the watercooling system.
The
Northbridge block, like the CPU block has a mirror polished
bottom and plastic top, along with the same screw down barbs.
Mounting is provided for both AMD and P4 motherboards, with
2 spring loaded bolts for AMD and 2 tensioned clips to use the
4 hook eye's found on P4 motherboards. I personally had
to remove the tensioning clips on the 2 AMD boards I have used
this system with as they interfered with mounting but once they
were removed everything bolted down fine.
The
Graphics block is exactly the same as the Northbridge block
without the tension clips. Again we have the polished bottom
and again it mounts with 2 spring loaded bolts. All the blocks
are protected on the bottom by a blue plastic sticker to ensure
the bottom is unmarked before use, so they should arrive to
you in perfect condition.
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