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Introduction
launched
on the 20th March 2003, the original Hydrocool from
Corsair was massive hit. This is what Corsair said
about their new baby at the time:
"The
HydroCool200 uses patented cooling technologies from
Delphi Thermal Systems, the world's largest manufacturer
of liquid-based cooling systems. Corsair, using Delphi's
unsurpassed expertise in thermal physics, has engineered
a feature-packed product that sets new standards in
water cooling integration and performance."
The
Hydrocool200EX
We
were lucky enough to get a look at the original Hydrocool
an, because much of it is still relevant to the new,
improved EX I'll reuse some of the details.
The
shipping box has the Hydrocool200 unit safely packaged,
with a second box containing all the extra's which
are all in bubble wrap, a very safe package which
includes:-
- The
Cool block with 2 lengths of 5ft tubing pre-attached
to each barb on the
Cool Block and pre-mounted temperature probe.
- Retention
brackets for both AMD Socket A and Intel Socket
478.
- 300ml
bottle of water additive + fill funnel.
- Interface
slot card
- 15
pin D-sub control cable
- thermal
grease
- molex
extension cable
- 2xquick
connect right angled self sealing connectors
- 4xquick
grip clamps
- 2xOetiker
clamps(spares)
- 2
pole power control cable with fly lead
- quick
start and full manual (electronic)
All
in all everything you could need for you installation,
and enough coolant to provide for a second filling
should you ever need too.
What
can it do?
I'll
give a quick rundown of how the unit works first.
The CPU Cool block is attached to the CPU; the tubes
from this are passed through a provided controller
card with two rubber grommet edged holes. This requires
only a free expansion slot as it doesn't utilise an
actual PCI slot. The tubing is then attached to the
quick fit, non leak fittings that are plugged into
the rear of the Hydrocool200 unit. You then fill the
main unit's reservoir to just below the top. You will
also need to attach the wires from the block to the
controller card for temperature measuring, and run
the wire from the controller card to the motherboard's
power switch header so that the Hydrocool activates
as soon as you power your system up.
All
this is of course explained in admirable detail in
the installation manual, alas this is of the electronic
variety meaning you can't refer to it while you're
assembling things unless you remembered to print the
entire thing out! Come on Corsair, the Hydrocool isn't
a budget product, we need a paper manual for this
kind of job!
The
next step is to turn the computer on which will start
the pumping of water around the system, and this is
where I have a real problem with Corsair's way of
doing things. Considering it's so easy to activate
your power supply with a paper clip, short length
of wire or even a plug made specially for the purpose
such as the one Global WIN supply, it seems fairly
ludicrous to me that Corsair suggest you plug everything
in and actually switch on your PC BEFORE you've
confirmed the coolant is flowing and BEFORE
all the air has been purged from your system.
Here's
a quick summary of the main functions:
- Three
alarms, one for water level, and two programmable
ones that you can set at levels you feel comfortable
with, those are for temp alarm and shutdown temp
- A
thermal probe embedded into the Cool block, that
reads the temps of the block itself, Corsair advise
that CPU temperature will often be around 15C higher
than this Cool block temperature.
- Dual
speed running fan, 66% at below 38.5C, 100% above
40C, if the temps rise above 40C the fan will automatically
kick in at 100% and won't go back to 66% until the
temps drop below 38.5C. Turbo light on the front
will light up if in turbo mode
- Manual
Turbo mode, for those times when you either want
to feel extra safe, or need that extra temperature
drop when trying to drag out that final few MHz
from your core, just pressing the button on the
front will switch it between turbo and whisper mode.
- Flow
rate detector
One
thing we weren't able to do with the original Hydrocool,
thanks to a screw with a stripped thread, was take
a nosey around inside. This time there were no such
problems so let's break out the screwdriver!
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