If you're hardcore about cooling your expensive PC, Bennett Ring has the kit for you.
While the Thermaltake Aquarius II is the poor man’s solution to water cooling, the Innovatek kit is the Lotto winner’s H2O kit of choice. The Innovatek is also for those who take their PC cooling ultra-seriously (maybe even a little too seriously), and demand the ultimate in construction quality. From the minute we first opened the box containing the Innovatek kit, we knew we were dealing with the finest in German engineering. Everything just reeked of class, as opposed to the Aquarius kit which suffered a little from a case of El-cheapoitis. From the Eheim pump, which according to Mr Mansill is a highly-regarded brand among aquarium owners, to the chunky water block, every component inspired confidence that we’d probably die before it did. However, you pay for this quality – the Innovatek at double the price of the Aquarius II.
Unlike the Aquarius II’s radiator, the one included within this kit is bit of a brick, so you’re going to need to do some serious case spring cleaning to squeeze it inside. A 120mm fan is included in the kit to mount onto the radiator, and it’s definitely noisier than the 80mm unit found in the Aquarius II kit. However, it’s by no means excruciatingly loud, coming in at around the same volume as a stock Intel cooler.
As stated earlier, this kit comes with a hefty pump. It’s an Eheim 1046 inline pump, which manages to squirt out approximately 300 litres per hour -- over three times the speed of the pump used in the Thermaltake kit. Unfortunately the benefit of this pump is negated somewhat by the fairly thin diameter of the included PVC piping, which is only 5/16in.
The Thermaltake kit also has thin piping, but this isn’t so much of a concern due to the fairly slow pump, but it’s a bit of a disappointment – why bother with such a beefy pump when it’s going to get bottlenecked by such thin tubing? Though, according to Innovatek, it’s best to slow down the flow rate of the water through the water block, as it allows the water to ‘soak’ up more heat as it passes through the block. If you disagree with their opinion, replacing the 5/16in piping with larger diameter piping shouldn’t be much of a problem, but you will need to purchase new connections to attach these pipes to each component. Something Innovatek would do well to copy from the Aquarius II kit is the use of springs within the piping, as the Innovatek piping is prone to folding – a very bad thing if you don’t happen to notice it, as this will stop all water circulating within the system. Plastic elbow joints are included for areas of the pipe that are prone to pinching, but it’s not as elegant a solution as Thermaltake’s.
The hose barbs within this kit are vastly superior to those used in the Aquarius II. Where the majority of the barbs within the Thermaltake are plastic, and thus prone to snapping under extreme conditions, the barbs within the Innovatek are all hardcore metal, so there is absolutely no chance they’ll break under strain. Which is a Very Good Thing™ when you’re dealing with water inside your electronics-packed PC.
The water block is likewise very hefty, with a large Copper slug forming the majority of the block. The surface of this has been polished so perfectly that it is almost mirror-like, and thanks to some protective covering used during shipping the surface didn’t suffer from any of the corrosion found on the Aquarius II. A brilliant clipping mechanism means that the water block is easy to mount perfectly, without any risk of wrecking your precious CPU.
Setting up and installing this kit is quite simple, although we feel the manual could do with more detailed instructions and images to guide total novices through the process. Testing conditions for this water-cooled kit were identical to those used for the Aquarius II kit. After being so impressed with the beautiful build quality of this kit, you can probably imagine how surprised we were to see this kit score identically to the Aquarius II, with a maximum temperature of 53 degrees Celsius. This is the same temperature that the Thermalright SLK-800 reached, albeit without brain rattling sound levels. So it’s not quite up there with the Vapochills of the world, but it does offer exceptional cooling at humane sound levels.
If you’re after an easy-to-use water cooling kit that you know will last for years to come, and don’t mind paying a premium for the privilege, the Innovatek kit comes highly recommended; unfortunately a couple of minor complaints and its high price hold it back from beating the remarkable Thermaltake kit.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012