Asetek WaterChill: CPU, Chipset, and VGA Water Cooling Kit

Company: Asetek
Product: WaterChill CPU/VGA/Chipset Kit
Street Price: $269 USD
Date Reviewed: October 20, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey Chao

Asetek WaterChill Kit and Installation:

The WaterChill is a fully loaded kit. Users will be delighted to know that they will not need anything outside of the kit to get their water system up and running. Some kits from other manufacturers do not come with tubing, a fan for the radiator, thermal compound, etc. Asetek has thought of everything to make the process of putting the system together much easier. As we will show later, even the novice water-cooling enthusiast will be able to assemble the system trouble free.

The entire kit uses 1/2 inch OD tubing, which connects to the corresponding components using quick connects. Quick connects are very easy to insert and remove from the radiator, blocks, pump, and reservoir. Since all of the fittings are the same, there is no need for reducers and water flow is consistent throughout the loop. Some other kits use much smaller tubing, which greatly influences the cooling capacity. Basically, the more flow, the better cooling performance a system has. Another issue with various kits can be the fittings for the different components. Usually it is the radiator and pump that throws a loop off. The blocks will all be the same size but then the line has to be reduced or enlarged to fit the pump. This can be a pain to figure out and affects the flow rate and pressure inside the loop.

The radiator pictured above is nothing more than a Black Ice Pro from Hardware Labs. This radiator has been modified with the quick connects and supports a 120mm fan. Attaching the Sunon 120mm fan to the radiator requires nothing more than screwing in four screws. The fan uses a 3-pin connector and will connect to the Control Unit. Placement of the radiator is an important issue to take into consideration, since it will directly affect the temperatures of the water. Most people like to use the radiator and fan as an intake so that it gets cool air coming into the case instead of the hot, stale air already in the case. For our testing, we use an "open" test bed, meaning that there is no case.

The base of the CPU cooler is made out of copper and the top is clear acrylic bearing the WaterChill logo. There are a number of holes in the top due to the versatility of the block. It is compatible with socket 478, socket A, and the latest socket 754 processors from AMD. Asetek has verified that hte waterblock is 100% compatible with all motherboards including ones that do not follow AMD's "Keep Out Area" standards. In our review, we use an Intel 3.2C processor on our ABIT IC7 MAX3.

After removing the original mounting bracket, four guide rods must be screwed into the board. This will require having the motherboard removed from the case. After the guides are installed, place the CPU in the socket with thermal compound on top and mount the waterblock on the CPU. The right amount of pressure is applied to the CPU by the use of four springs that are placed on the rods and held down with four more finger screws.

The chipset cooler also has a copper base and acrylic top. It is designed for mounting on VIA and AMD chipsets. Again, there is a great deal of versatility with the clever design of the mounting mechanism.

Installing the chipset cooler was an interesting affair. The design of the WaterChill chipset block does not allow for conventional mounting to P4 chipsets. Instead, zip-ties have to be used to hold the block in place. Asetek has even put these instructions in the manual with pictures. This part of the installation is self-explanatory but we would like to note to be careful and not crack the chip. It can be difficult to get the block to sit perfectly on the North Bridge, but anyone can do it. After the zip-ties are in place, the excess is cut off.