Installation Issues

While the installation itself was problem free, there are a few notes we feel our readers should know. As stated earlier, there may be clearance issues with some motherboards and the universal mounting plate. We've mentioned that our ASUS P5AD2 handled the LGA775 mounting plate just fine, but we did get a bit of a scare with the nylon washer.

The washers came in contact with two capacitors on the edge of the motherboard. In fact, we had to slightly adjust one capacitor to allow the washer to rest on the motherboard. Since the PolarFLO TT will require the mounting holes, regardless of the mounting plate, be sure you have about 3/8" of clearance for the washer.

Test Setup - Pentium 4 560

ASUS P5AD2 Premium: Pentium 4 560, 2 x 512MB Corsair TWINX DDR2, ASUS Extreme X600XT, 120GB SATA Seagate, Cooler Master Cavalier 1.

Going up against the PolarFLO TT for our Pentium 4 tests will be the stock Intel heatsink. As some of you may have observed while online shopping, there isn't a whole lot of choices for LGA775 cooling. We're still waiting for more LGA775 kits for water cooling, but as of now, we only have PolarFLO's solution. The water blocks were tested using a Hydor L20 pump, 120mm radiator, and the Cavalier's 120mm fan running at full speed. Arctic Silver 5 is the thermal compound used for all the coolers.

Prime95 was run for six hours, with Folding @ Home running in the background everyday for seven days to allow the thermal paste to even out. During the actual tests, we ran Prime95 run for 15 minutes, with Folding @ Home running in the background. Readings were taken every minute until the test period ended. Ambient room temperature was maintained at 23°C/74°F.

The Pentium 4 560 tests were done at clock speeds of 18x200: 3.6GHz, and 18x220: 3.96GHz.

Temperature in °C - Load @ 3.6GHz

	Max Temperature in °C
PolarFLO TT	47.5
Intel Stock	58.5

At stock speeds, the Pentium 4 560 (which is a Prescott based CPU) runs very hot. The stock cooler is adequate, but note the 11°C difference between air and water cooling.

Temperature in °C - Load @ 3.96GHz

	Max Temperature in °C
PolarFLO TT	49.5
Intel Stock	61

Pretty much the same results overclocked, but one thing you'll notice is that the temperature is more level with the PolarFLO, while the Intel cooler spikes quickly until about the 10 minute mark.

Final Words

PolarFLO put together a very nice water block with the TT Series. It's no surprise it dominated against stock air cooling, but given the TT's design, it should fare quite well against other LGA775 water blocks when they arrive in retail. The block is versatile, and you can use it for almost all AMD and Intel CPUs currently on the market. The only CPU the block will not work with is the Athlon XP, which is a shame as that CPU still has a large install base.

Build quality is exceptional. The colour options are a nice touch for those of you who like to be different, although with only four choices, not that different. The rotating top is a great idea so that a user can adjust the TT's orientation to minimize or eliminate hose kinks. The TT is also somewhat future-proof, in that you can swap the copper base with newer ones (for better performance). This of course will depend on how long PolarFLO intends to keep the basic design of the TT, but it does look like the block's design should be viable for at least the next 12 months.

On the topic of swapping the base, it was our inability to do so that limited our testing today. I'd like to consider myself a fairly strong guy, but short of tossing the TT off the top of a tall building, the base was just not going to come off the top of the block. Steve @ [H]ardOCP suggested a plumber's wrench, which I will certainly try out, and hopefully we'll have more numbers to present to you soon. Keep in mind that this may not be a huge issue for some of you, as PolarFLO will send a block with the appropriate mounting plate you specify.

Another potential problem, which has been reported in other reviews online, is that the universal mounting bracket may cause issues with installation on some motherboards. Until we get a chance to try this ourselves, we can't really comment further, but the LGA775 mounting plate fits just fine on the ASUS P5AD2. Unfortunently, this is the only Alderwood board we currently have, but we'll keep an eye on incoming LGA775 motherboards as they arrive for TT compatibility.

As we've stated at the beginning of the review, building an efficient water cooling system will take some planning and research. For LGA775 processors, your current options are a bit slim, but we certainly would have no problems putting the PolarFLO TT on your short list.

Pros: Great performance, excellent quality, future-proof. Both mounting plates cover the majority of available CPUs.

Cons: Extremely difficult to disassemble. May not fit all motherboards.

Bottom Line: Despite some of the problems we've had with the TT, the block still puts out some nice numbers. Just do a bit of research to make sure it will be compatible your motherboard.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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