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Monday, June 18, 2012

ThermalTake WATER2.0 Pro Review

Review: ThermalTake WATER2.0 Pro LCS
By Christopher “Synther” Wilson



Over the years, I’ve had the chance to try out a lot of different CPU cooling solutions and even come up with a few new ones on my own. I also remember when the idea of “water cooling” your PC was nothing but the fancy of science fiction authors and really bad sci-fi movies of the week. But it’s now becoming more and more common place in today’s PC world with components that generate more and more heat. While not common enough to be seen in an out-of-box computer that you’d pick up at your local Walmart, it is within the reach for anyone that wants to improve their system and is quite common with custom boutique systems.

Until about the last year, your choices for cooling your system were to either purchase a very good air driven cooler, purchase a new thermoelectric cooler (TEC), or to custom design your own liquid cooling loop. Air coolers have come a long way and a good one can just about give you the same temps as other cooling solutions. The biggest problem with air coolers is the ambient temperature of the room and most air coolers just can’t dissipate the heat as fast as you might like. Thermoelectric coolers are another option and are often offered in a hybrid solution of both a TEC and a fan/heatsink combo. TEC coolers can be extremely effective, but are also very much limited by the ambient temperature of the room. A TEC cooler operates on the idea of a heatsink with heat pipes that are filled with a liquid coolant. The coolant moves through the pipes, either on its own via heat convection or with a small pump, to the heatsink where the fan cools the liquid and it travels back to the CPU plate. The reason a TEC isn’t as effective as true liquid cooling, in my opinion, is because of the proximity of the heatsink/heat pipes to the CPU. They’re all connected and metal transfers heat, just as is the case of a standard air cooler. This means that the cooling fluid in the pipes is being sent to a heatsink that is already warm and therefore cannot get the cooling that would be required to make it truly effective. To make a TEC that would be extremely effective, we’d need extremely long heat pipes literally leading to a large heatsink and fan assembly that would sit on the outside of the computer’s case. Naturally, this isn’t an option for both aesthetic and installation reasons, since that would mean the customer would have to literally cut holes in their computer case to make it work. For me, that wouldn’t really be an issue, but for average Joe End User, that’s going to be a problem.

The last option was to make a custom liquid cooling loop. I’ve done this and I can tell you, it can really be a lot of work. However, the pay off can be huge since you can also include your video card in the liquid cooling loop. While the name of “water cooling” has stuck, nobody really uses water any more. The first liquid cooled system I had did use water, but required an additive to prevent corrosion and to help from turning your custom loop into a science project. Today, most people just use a coolant fluid, such as those offered by DangerDen, to fill their system. A liquid cooler works by having a radiator with a fan, exactly like you have in your car, that cools the fluid and moves it back to the plate on your CPU. Hot fluid from the CPU is pumped back to the radiator where it is cooled and the process starts over. This is an effective solution because the radiator is farther away from the CPU, is usually connected to venting leading directly to the outside of the case, and has better access to fresh air. This allows for rather radical heat dissipation and is much more effective than a TEC. Generally, a liquid cooling loop will use 120mm fans, or larger, on the radiator and these fans can move at lower speeds than on an air cooler or a TEC. The side benefit is a much quieter system overall. The downside of all this cool goodness is that you kind of have to know what you’re doing. You have to select tubing, pump, radiator, CPU block, and fittings and they all have to match. And they all have to be ordered completely separate. Then you have to measure and cut the tubing lengths to fit. Then, you have to either order a fill tube (my preference) or a reservoir that matches the tubing size. Then you have to fill the system and let the whole thing run over night to clear it of any air bubbles. It’s a rather large undertaking. And let’s not forget that you will likely have to get out your trusty Dremel Tool and “modify” your computer’s case to actually fit a lot of these parts. Oh, and you’ll have to periodically drain and refill your system and worry that all your fittings are good to prevent any leaks. Remember…leaking is bad and electronics do not like having cooling fluid dripping on them.

Within the last year and half or so, several companies have come up with a new solution: the closed loop liquid cooling system. This means that you can get most of the benefits of a liquid cooling system without all the work. You pull it out of the box, install it just like you would an air or TEC cooling system, and you’re ready to go. This has been made possible due to advances made in radiator design and micro pump technology. Three years ago, this idea was mostly a pipe dream but now it’s completely possible. One of the companies making just such a product is ThermalTake. ThermalTake has been making computer cases and cooling solutions for some time, so it’s not a huge surprise that they’d bring their expertise in the field to the table when it comes to designing an out-of-box liquid cooling system (LCS). In addition to cases and cooling solutions, ThermalTake has branched out into the computer peripherals market with a line of gaming keyboards, mice, headsets, and even a gaming glove that are all quite impressive.



For this review, I’ll be looking at and installing the WATER2.0 Pro LCS. The WATER2.0 Pro consists of a CPU block with a pump, tubing, and a 120mm radiator. The radiator has two 120mm PWM fans on it setup in a “push/pull” design. This means one fan pushes air into the radiator while the other fan exhausts the air out of the radiator. You usually do not see a big difference in temps going with a push/pull system. ThermalTake claims a 2c to 4c lower temp difference with this design. However, I know that most of us will only see a 1c to 2c lower temp difference due to the ambient temperature of the room the computer is in. Many of us would love to have a room that stays a constant 70f, but many of us just don’t have that luxury. The old joke is that the best cooling solution you can get is to go out and buy a window air conditioning unit.

Opening the Box



Alright, enough with the computer cooling history lesson, let’s open this baby up already! The packaging is nice without going over the top like so many other companies seem to be doing. This seemed just the right amount of protection for the product without going overboard. I recently purchased a mini thumbdrive that came in a box that was 10 times bigger than it was, shipped in yet another even larger box, and packed in about three tons of packing peanuts. Someone sane is working at ThermalTake and did not take these drastic measures to protect your investment. Thank you for that, my trash pickup guy will be happy.



The first thing you notice is what appears to be a small bible of an instruction manual. Do not be daunted by the size of the instructions! The setup instructions for your particular language is only a few pages long. Here again, ThermalTake was wise in providing a plethora of languages for the end user. This benefits them as a company, as well as benefits the customer. ThermalTake can ship this same product to just about anywhere in the world and people will likely be able to read it and you as a consumer can purchase it anywhere and not have to worry about not being able to read the instructions. Bravo and well done! On the flip side of this is that the majority of the instructions are done in a diagram form and are not very good at that. I literally had to play with the parts to understand how they went together because the instruction diagrams were bad enough that they didn’t explain it well. Bonus points for many languages, but you still fail for bad diagrams.

Overall the packaging is well done and everything is very easy to find. The one good part about the instructions is that all the parts are easily identifiable. Determining which side is which and having to find out that you can rotate the clips for a better fit on your own are the main problems with the instructions. If you’re doing a custom build from scratch, the only real tool you should ever need to install this is your trusty screw driver. If not for mounting the fans, the WATER2.0 Pro could almost be considered toolless. It is a very nice design overall.

Installation

Alright, it’s meat and potatoes time. I decided to install this to my primary gaming machine, Vindicator. Vindicator is running the following specs:

Manufacturer: Synther-Tek “Vindicator 4.0” Gaming System. (That would be me)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz (4 CPUs), overclocked @ 3.15GHz
Memory: 4096MB DDR2 RAM @877MHz underclocked from 1066MHz
Hard Drive: 3.2 TB Total Storage with 32GB SSD
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series 5770 2GB @900MHz
Monitor: iZ3D 22” Widescreen 3D Monitor
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio (onboard audio)
Speakers Headphones: Logitech G35 Headset, Logitech Z-5300E THX 5.1 Surround Sound System
Keyboard: Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard, Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard
Mouse: Logitech G500 Gaming Mouse
Mouse Surface: Func Industries MBA Archetype custom
Operation System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Motherboard: DFI LanParty Jr P45-T2RS
Computer Case: AeroCool AeroEngine II

I’m sure there are some out there saying, “Wow…n00b! You’re not even running a Core i5!” To these posers I can only say that 1.) My Q9550 is capable of doing just about the same things you do on a Core i5 or i7, not because it is capable but because I know how to do it and you likely do not. And 2.) running a system a couple of generations old does not make me any less filled with joy when I headshot you and pwn your sorry butt. Of course, then you’ll claim I’m running an aimbot because you n00bs always have an excuse as to why you suck. Ok, that’ll be enough of my explaining and ranting.



Vindicator’s current CPU cooling solution is an old ULTRA ChillTEC cooler. This is a hybrid TEC cooler much like I explained earlier. This particular ChillTEC is about 5 years old and is getting a wee bit tired in its old age. I never did a review specifically on the ChillTEC, but I can tell you that it has gotten some pretty unjust comments and reviews on a multitude of forums. At the time that it came out, TECs were new on the scene as far as being affordable to the average user. It never gave the lowest temps, but it did do its job very effectively at dissipating heat quickly. Which is precisely what a TEC should be good at and is designed to do. It gave me enough of an overhead to battle through my DFI motherboard and get a 3.15GHz overclock, as well. So, it’s been a fairly good cooler. The downside of it is that because it does not keep the lowest temps on the average, instead focusing on dissipating extra heat, it was sometimes a pain in the rear when the summer time came around. My room frequently can reach temps of 95f to 100f in the middle of July and August and therefore the ChillTEC simply had a hard time keeping up. On the flip side of that coin; there are few coolers anywhere that can keep up with those kinds of ambient temps.

As you can tell, my computer needs to be blown out. I know this. Let it go already.



The other problem with the ChillTEC, and really with any large air or hybrid cooler, is the sheer size of the beast. The ULTRA ChillTEC really looked like it need a gear shifter with a nitrous trigger on it ala Mad Max. Thankfully, the placement of the intake fan also drew air over the RAM, which was a side benefit of this cooling solution. Because of this, I’ve decided to also install the Kingston HyperX RAM cooler, which conveniently matches my Kingston HyperX RAM, along with the ThermalTake WATER2.0 Pro. I don’t know how much of a benefit I would see from this, if any, but the blue lights in the fans will make me happy.

The WATER2.0 Pro will install to Intel LGA2011, LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA1155, and LGA775. On the AMD side, it will install to FM1, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, and AM2. This puppy has got it covered for installs. I removed the LGA775 motherboard backplate and was pleased to see that ThermalTake included non-conductive double sided tape to help secure it in place. This is rare, actually! Usually the backplate has some flimsy sheet separating it from the motherboard or, in some cases, just sits flush to the board. The spongy double sided tape gives you some cushion to protect the board and secures the backplate in position for the many gymnastic maneuvers you’re likely to be doing installing parts. Well done!



The backplate lined up perfectly for LGA775 on my motherboard and was insanely easy to set up. The next part was putting the retention plate on the CPU plate/pump. This definitely caused a furrowing of the brow, since I tried doing it exactly as the instruction diagrams showed and got absolutely nowhere. After some fiddling, I was able to get the retention plate affixed properly, but really no thanks to the instructions. The question then came to mind: If the motherboard backing plate fit so well, why is it that the retention plate does not fit the LGA775 screw mounts equally as well? The screws seem to be just a millimeter off. Turning the clips for the screw mounts helped a little, but not much. The result was that the screws almost seem to go in at an angle. This is not uncommon, and I’ve run into this before on much cheaper cooling solutions, but I would have expected better from ThermalTake. It may sound like nitpicking, but I know ThermalTake to make reputable products. Perhaps this is an issue with there being so many different motherboard manufacturers and standards, but this really could use some better Q&A. In ThermalTake’s defense, I’ve run into this same issue with stock Intel and AMD coolers, too. That’s really not an excuse, since those are both reputable companies too.

After inventing some new curse words and completely resisting the urge to get my Dremel Tool out and MAKE IT FIT, I was able to get the pump/plate affixed to the motherboard. My primary concern with this was that the plate would not make secure contact with the CPU. If you’ve ever had one of the four screws go loose on your heatsink, you know you’re not getting any cooling. Your system will overheat, blue screen, and just be funky. It has to be tight or you might as well throw it away for all the good it will do you. Luckily, it seems that this wasn’t the case…or at least I have not run into it being an issue yet (I’ve been running the WATER2.0 Pro for over 24 hours and it seems to be fine).

It should be noted that literally within 24 hours of seeing this review, ThermalTake contacted me about the retention plate issue. They were able to reproduce the issue and are sending me an updated retention plate as I write this. In a day and age where customer service generally means blaming the problem on somebody else, I found this to be incredibly refreshing. I didn’t expect them to send me a new retention plate, but that is exactly how seriously ThermalTake believes in taking care of people. I was assured that future users of LGA775 will be taken care of and should have no problems with this. With their quick action, I can definitely say that I believe ThermalTake completely when they tell me this.




Similar to the backplate, install of the radiator was insanely simple. All you have to really keep in mind is two things: 1.) Which direction is which when it comes to intake/exhaust of a fan (I wish manufactures would just label them better so I can stop reminding myself…I know it’s simple, but just spend the $.0002 and print it already) and 2.) where you want to put the radiator. The default design is really setup to exhaust air from the system. This means that it is taking the air already in the system and moves it out of the case. This is how I setup Vindicator. However, it is my opinion that this unit would be more effective if you set it to intake fresh air from the outside, then have an exhaust fan. Case limitations and the length of tubing for the WATER2.0 Pro will prevent this on most systems, but I could definitely see that this would be a much better setup overall.

With the radiator/fans installed to my case, I went ahead and setup the HyperX RAM cooler. As a side review on the HyperX, I kind of expected it to fit a bit more securely. Again, this could be a case of different motherboard manufacturers and so many different setups, but it just doesn’t seem as “tight” as it should be. But it’s functional and I have no real complaints, I just don’t like stuff to have the ability to “wiggle around” in my case. Especially since I go to so many LAN events each year.

Up and Running. What are the temps?!!!111!



After completely disassembling, mucking about, and rebuilding my computer, I was pleasantly surprised to see that she fired up and booted into Windows on the first try with no major malfunctions. Go me! My initial impressions of the WATER2.0 Pro were very nice. The 120mm PWM fans are directly controlled by my motherboard’s temp settings and speed up or slow down exactly as they’re supposed to. This thing is quiet! Naturally, on initial boot up, the system runs literally every fan in your computer at max until the BIOS takes over and adjusts things. But once you’re in Windows, the WATER2.0 Pro is nearly silent. I think the only hum I hear now is from the two fans on the HyperX cooler and they’re pretty quiet too. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep at night in a room this quiet. Oh…and I was right…the blue fans DO make me happy.



After some fiddling and getting the case turned around to where I really want it, as well as dealing with some USB issues, I was ready to start putting Vindicator through its paces. With the ULTRA ChillTEC, my idle temp would normally be around 53c on one of the four cores, with the other three being close at around 48c to 51c. This time of year, May, I don’t expect much less. If you’re thinking that those temps are high, you’re right. They are high. Under load (gaming) I would see temps hit as high as 65c or 70c. Those are dangerous limits to be hitting, considering that the TJ Max (absolute threshold) for the Q9550 is 100c. I can say that I’ve never had a problem, but it’s quite obvious as to why I could not get past 3.15GHz on this motherboard/CPU/RAM combo.

With boot up, I immediately checked my temps with CoreTemp. I was not really that impressed initially. Yes, they are lower than they were with the ChillTEC, but not drastically so. Idle temps right after boot were sitting at 50c on one core with around 48c on the other three. The real difference was that they were steady on those other three cores. After letting the system run for about an hour, I saw the temps lower a bit and I’m now seeing an average of about 47c which is much more of what I expected. I would venture to say that even a closed LCS needs to work out its air bubbles to work effectively.

The first test I put Vindicator through was running FutureMark 11. For those that don’t know, FutureMark 11 is a DirectX 11 benchmarking program. Generally, running through this would tax my system to the point where I would see temps of 65c on my old ULTRA ChillTEC. With the WATER2.0 Pro installed, I did not see temps go above 55c during any of the tests, clear to completion. This includes the combined CPU and GPU Physics test. Most impressive.

My next test was to run Firefall beta. Firefall is a new shooter MMO that is actually using the old Intel graphics engine that they S canned after deciding they just couldn’t compete with Unreal. Red5, the makers of Firefall, kept the engine and decided to develop it on their own because…what are they supposed to do? They have a game that’s half done and being developed…can’t stop the show because Intel can’t figure out what it is exactly that they do right…so they kept it. This engine seems to overtax systems in shadows, low light environments, and would generally run my ChillTEC at 70c straight across the board on all four cores. Under the WATER2.0 Pro, I again did not see temps go above 55c on one core and other cores stayed around 54c or lower.

Third test was running Mass Effect 2. I would have run it on Mass Effect 3, but I haven’t finished the second one yet, so give me a break. I have settings maxed out as high as they can go. On the old ChillTEC temps would hit 65c to 70c. On the WATER2.0 Pro, I again only see temps maxing at about 53c to 55c.

Bad instructions be damned, ThermalTake has my attention for a good product. It is functioning exactly as it is supposed to.

Overclocking Potential



After about six hours of running, and seeing that my temps were actually lower (and really believing it), I got curious. Will WATER2.0 Pro allow me to increase my overclock? The answer is a definite yes. Before I tell you much, I should explain that I have a love/hate relationship with my DFI Lan Party Jr P45-T2RS motherboard. I love that it has a lot of overclocking options. I hate that about 90% of those options were complete beta tests and I was a lab rat as a consumer. As with just about any DFI motherboard, it is very specific about what hardware it will decide to work well with, user choice be damned. I personally like Kingston HyperX. This motherboard clearly does not. It also does not like any RAM made by Crucial, whom I also like. That is just one example, but this motherboard appears to have an almost artificial intelligence running in the BIOS when it comes to working with some parts. Therefore, overclocking becomes a simple battle of wills. I truly miss the ease of overclocking on my old EVGA motherboard and I may be investigating them as a future replacement when I upgrade.

All of that aside, I was able to overclock further using the WATER2.0 Pro! With the lower temps, I was able to reach a 3.28GHz overclock above the stock 2.83GHz. My RAM is now at 927MHz, perhaps due to the HyperX cooler, perhaps not. Not terribly impressive, but I’m pretty happy with it and that I was able to reach that limit is certainly thanks to the ThermalTake WATER2.0 Pro.

In Conclusion

Is the ThermalTake WATER2.0 Pro worth it? I’m giving it a resounding yes. Being on the bleeding edge can be a hard thing but ThermalTake seems to take it in stride. And they’re doing it at least as well, or better, than the competition. Keep in mind the few fail spots I noted and you should be doing fine with your own installation. Oh, wait, you’re still on the fence? I don’t see why. This out-of-box LCS does exactly what it claims to do. And evidently it does just a bit more, since I was able to increase my overclock. Am I pleased with the WATER2.0 Pro? You bet! And I plan to recommend it to any future client builds that I do. Bang for your buck, you can’t beat liquid cooling. ThermalTake just made that bang go a little bit further.

Synther signing out.

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