Asetek WaterChill Antarctica Water Cooling Kit

Package Contents (cont):

The CPU blocks are where the WaterChill Antarctica kits really vary from the first generation WaterChill blocks. First, as you can see there are three push-on fittings, the center one is the water inlet, and the outer two are the water outlets (which join back together with a provided Y adapter). This first CPU block is the base Socket A / Socket 478 / Socket 754/939 design, with various holes drilled at the required mounting locations for each socket specifications. The base of the block has a protective sticker on it to protect the copper from oxidizing, be sure to remove it before mounting the CPU block!

Since not all Socket A boards follow the AMD recommend specifications for the Socket "Keep Out" area, Asetek offers a block with a smaller footprint, while still utilizing the four mounting holes around the socket. A person can order just the acrylic top if they already have a complete Antarctica block, and can mount the copper base to the new top.

Since all the Antarctica blocks utilize the same mounting holes for the copper base, this allows Asetek to provide upgrade paths for when new socket standards (like Intel's LGA775, dubbed Socket T) become available. Purchasing just the acrylic top is a lot cheaper than purchasing an entirely new CPU block. The Socket T design utilizes the four holes that are intended for regular air based heatsinks, so all Socket T boards should work just fine with this block.

Our kit also included a new optional hard drive cooler. Everyone knows how hot a hard drive can get, especially the 10K RPM drives, and keeping the drive cool can help extend the drive life. The design is such that the block mounted under the hard drive, utilizing the provided heat conduction pad (pictured with all the accessories) to fill the "gap" on the bottom side of the hard drive. The hard drive cooler also has a tiny hole drilled into the acrylic, which fits a small blue LED to give a cool glowing effect.

While all these parts may look overwhelming, taking the installation step-by-step proves very simple, and before you know it the system is completely setup and ready to use.