Home-built
watercooling rigs are expensive to assemble from
individual parts, messy to fill and bleed, troublesome to maintain and
often a pain to install. The infinite varieties of tube
diameter, pump pressure, radiator size and waterblock design make testing watercooling systems so
convoluted that Frostytech steers well clear of this segment. There is no
way we can realistically cover the huge variation of ways you might choose
to implement watercooling parts, and put simply arbitrary test
data on a waterblock isn't
useful.
Self-contained watercooling systems on the other hand can be
an effective and highly efficient means of quietly cooling your PC system. The
simple premise being that watercooling allows the heat to be moved away from the
CPU to a centralized location, pumped through a heat exchanger with significant
surface area and expelled from the case with little noise. It's sort of like
using many individual window air conditioners in a house versus one
central A/C unit tucked away in the back yard.
In this review Frostytech is
testing IbuyPower's
IBP-Z001 self-contained liquid cooling system. The unit consists of a copper
waterblock with integrated pump, a short (230mm) length of 1/2" ID Norprene
tubing and a 105x105mm (effective) heat exchanger with 120mm PWM fan.
The IBP-Z001 system ships
pre-filed with an ethylene-glycol fluid, so right out of the box it's ready to
go. All the end user has to do is install the CPU block onto an AMD (socket
754/939/AM2) or Intel (socket 775) processor and mount the radiator to the rear
of the computer case. Most full size tower cases have mounting holes for
rear 120mm exhaust fans, many mid-tower cases do as well.
IbuyPower IBP-Z001 Watercooling System
|
 | |
 |
| HEATSINK SPECSHEET |
| Manufacturer: Ibuypower |
| Model
No.: IBP-Z001 |
| Materials: copper/glass
fiber plastic waterblock, norprene tubes, aluminum radiator |
| Fan Mfg: AVC
DA12025B12LP005 |
| Fan Spec: 800-2500RPM, 12V, 0.30A,
PWM |
| Fan Dim: 25x120x120mm |
| (waterblock) Heatsink & Fan Dim:
80x79x79mm |
| Weight: est. 900 grams |
|
Includes: Mounting brackets,
instructions |
Compatible with Sockets: 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+, 775 |
| Est. Pricing: $75USD
($75CDN) | |
The IBP-Z001's copper
waterblock has a pre-applied patch of thermal compound, and all necessary
mounting hardware is supplied. The package is still very much an OEM unit,
seeing that IbuyPower originally developed it for whitebox PC
systems. However, unlike a lot of the self-contained watercooling retail
products coming out of Asia, the IbuyPower IBP-Z001 is well constructed.
This product is clearly intended to be maintenance free for many years, and the
materials emphasize function over appearance.Update - this liquid cooling system is OEM'd by AVC, a large thermal solutions manufacturer with a strong reputation. The full specs on the AVC "Hercules" Aquacool series can be found here.
A 120mm
PWM fan moves air through the aluminum heat exchanger at a speed of 800-2500RPM, and is PWM
compliant. The waterblock is compatible with Intel socket 775 and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2 processors, and also uses
a PWM compliant pump. As of this writing Intel socket 1366 processors are
not supported. The retail price is in the region of $75CDN ($75USD) through Directron.
The 1/2" ID
Norprene tubing is black and opaque - you can't see the fluid flowing through.
Norprene is an engineered plastic that feels a bit like rubber or neoprene.
It has an operating temperature range from -51C to 135C and is UV light
resistant (unlike neoprene which will eventually crack in UV-saturated
environments).
The
material is chemically stable (it's used in food processing) kink resistant
and flexible. The tubing is connected to the metal barbs of the heat exchanger
and the glass fibre reinforced plastic body of the waterblock with permanent
stainless steel metal crimp clamps.
In other
words, the tube and tubing hardware has been selected for longevity, leak-proof
joints, low evaporation by reverse osmosis and generally speaking
function
over bling.
Installation Hardware
IbuyPower's IBP-Z001 self-contained watercooling system is compatible with Intel socket 775
and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+ processors. Special clips are attached to the
base of the waterblock which allow it to mesh through the board holes
with a rear support plate for each processor family. The rear support plate must be used, so this respect
the system will take a few minutes to set up.
On the plus side,
all screws are spring tensioned so there is no way
the copper CPU block/pump can be installed incorrectly. Pressure is evenly distributed
over the CPU's integrated heat spreader, and the waterblock held firmly
in position. Even on Frostytech's synthetic temperature test platforms, installation wasn't problematic at
all.
FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are outlined in detail here if you care to know what equipment is
used, and the parameters under which the tests are conducted. Now let's move
forward and take a closer look at this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics,
and of course its performance in the thermal tests!
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