Introduction

CPU's are getting faster, there's no doubt about that. All the extra speed generally also means extra heat. Lots of companies have released uprated coolers to help combat the heat generated by our little power houses. Serious overclockers will want to get the best, and the best is usually loud due to the faster CFM fans needed to keep the temperature down.

But is there an alternative? Watercooling. Watercooling has been around for quite a while, and just recently there has been an increase in the number of retailers catering to people in this are. The problem with watercooling is that it can be pretty expensive, and whilst the results are usually better than most can get with aircooling, there is always the risk that you will spring a leak and as we all know, water and electricity do not mix. Watercooling also offers silent cooling as another advantage.

One such company who is hoping to bring down the price and the risk of watercooling whilst maintaining the increased performance is Wet and Chilly Chips, and today we are going to be looking at their complete AMD kit, the Wet and Chilly Chips "AMD-XP" WATER-COOLING SYSTEM.

In the Kit

1x Radiator
1x YS-Tech 125CFM 120mm Fan
1x Reservoir with MaxiJet 1200 Pump in reservoir
1x AMD Waterblock
1x Water bottle (for filling the system)
Approx 1.5m of Silicon tubing
6x 7.8 OD to 8 OD adaptor tubes
Instructions

The kit contains everything you need to get started with the exception of distilled water and some form of water wetter or antifreeze solution. Their included adaptors give you the opportunity to use 7.8 OD or 8 OD tubing (OD = Outside Diameter). The 7.8 tubing is the same as is supplied and requires the adaptors but theres nothing stopping you from getting 8 OD tubing and using it without the adaptors.

First Looks

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The kit arrived in a rather large plain brown box, and inside that are smaller brown boxes containing the individual components. Each of these boxes is packed very well with a combination of polystyrene and bubble wrap to ensure that everything arrives in perfect condition. Looking at the parts you can instantly see the care and thought that has gone into the aesthetics of the kit with everything being either solid black, polished or anodized blue aluminium. It really does look very good indeed and begs to be shown off. Let's take a closer look at the main components.

The Radiator

The Radiator is black and very lightweight aluminium construction. The "fins" of the radiator cover an entire 120mmx120mm. You can see the polished aluminium fittings for the inlet and outlet on top of the rad but more on them later. The Rad I received was one already used but it still gave off an instant appearance of quality (quick note, the unit supplied here for review is black, but the one in the kits you buy are blue, apart from the colour they are identical).

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On each corner of the rad are the screw fittings to attach a fan or to attach the rad itself to a case. The threaded studs extend through each corner of the rad casing and out the other side, being longer on one side than the other. The fan used here was attached with wing nuts to the longest side studs and also included a grill, which with a fan of this size is great because it really could do some damage to a kitten or something (not that I tested that ……. honest :p). The fan in question here is a YS-Tech unit, pushing 125CFM a minute at 42.5 dB. The pipework in the radiator goes through a total of 7 u-bends before reaching an outlet which should give the water ample time to be cooled via the rad's fine fin structure and fan.

Reservoir

The top and bottom of the reservoir is made of solid anodized blue aluminium with the exterior made from Plexiglas in a cylindrical shape. On top of the reservoir are 4 outlets/inlets. The first is for the power lead for the pump, the second is the filler hole (complete with filler cap to help prevent evaporation) with the other 2 for the inlet and outlets pipes. The inlet pipe descends down into the reservoir from the push fit connector beside the pump, and the pumps outlet extends up and out of the reservoir into another push fit connector.