Thermaltake Launches Liquid Cooling Friendly Core V41 Case
Subject: Cases and Cooling | November 7, 2014 - 12:45 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: water cooling, thermaltake, mid-tower, liquid cooling, core v41, atx
Thermaltake added a new mid-tower case to its Core series this week that is well-suited to water cooling systems. The new Core V41 is the smallest chassis in the family which includes the full tower Core V71 and the Core V51 mid-tower. Thermaltake's new case is a slightly more compact version of the Core V51 that maintains the curved metal mesh design. The Core V51 supports full ATX motherboards, multiple graphics cards, tool-free storage, and a large acrylic window.
The Core V41 has a full mesh front panel with two externally-accessible 5.25" drive bays, two audio ports, and two USB 3.0 ports. The case has eight PCI expansion slots on the rear. It supports up to ATX motherboards, 170mm processor heatsinks, 275mm long graphics cards, and 180mm power supplies. Thermaltake includes a massive CPU cutout that should accommodate installation of just about any CPU backplate without needing to remove the motherboard. There are four large cable routing cutouts (sans grommets) around the motherboard tray as well as three water cooling grommets to allow external radiators and up to 1/2" diameter tubing.
Storage consists of two 5.25" drive bays, six 3.5" bays, and two stealth 2.5"/3.5" bays behind the motherboard tray. In a neat twist, all three tool-free bays are removable to allow for longer graphics cards and top-mounted liquid cooling radiators.
The case supports a wide range of cooling configurations with vents along the top, front, rear, and bottom of the case (the Core V41 has rather tall feet which should make a bottom-mounted fan actually useful). Thermaltake includes magnetic dust filters on the top and front of the case, and it has been designed with front-to-back intake/exhaust airflow in mind. Thermaltake bundles the case with a single 120mm front intake and one 120mm rear exhaust.
For air cooling, users can add two 120mm fans to the bottom and two 200mm fans to the top of the case. Alternatively, water cooling radiators can be set up as follows:
- 1 x 360mm radiator in the front
- 1 x 360mm radiator up top
- 1 x 120mm radiator (common for sealed loop CPU coolers) in place of the rear exhaust fan.
There are some minor compromises, but overall the Core V41 looks to be a decent case with some useful features for its price range. Thermaltake has not yet revealed pricing or availability, but it should hit below the $100 mark at retail. For reference, the Core V51 retails for just under $110 USD and you are getting slightly less case with the V41.
Also read:
- Thermaltake's Core V51 offers a lot of choice to the system builder
- Thermaltake Launches Full Tower Core V71 Case
AMD R9 390X Is Rumored Liquid Cooled
Subject: General Tech, Graphics Cards, Cases and Cooling | September 15, 2014 - 05:50 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: amd, R9, r9 390x, liquid cooler, liquid cooling, liquid cooling system, asetek
Less than a year after the launch of AMD's R9 290X, we are beginning to hear rumors of a follow-up. What is being called the R9 390X, because if it is called anything else, then that was a very short-lived branding scheme, might be liquid cooled. This would be the first single-processor, reference graphics card to have an integrated water cooler. That said, the public evidence is not as firm as I would normally like.
Image Credit: Baidu Forums
According to Tom's Hardware, Asetek is working on a liquid-cooled design for "an undisclosed OEM". The product is expected to ship during the first half of 2015 and the press release claims that it will "continue Asetek's success in the growing liquid cooling market". Technically, this could be a collaboration with an AIB partner, not necessarily a GPU developer. That said, the leaked photograph looks like a reference card.
We don't really know anything more than this. I would expect that it will be a refresh based on Hawaii, but that is pure speculation. I have no evidence to support that.
Personally, I would hope that a standalone air-cooled model would be available. While I have no experience with liquid cooling, it seems like a bit extra of a burden that not all purchasers of a top-of-the-line single GPU add-in board would want to bare. Specifically, placing the radiator if their case even supports it. That said, having a high-performing reference card will probably make the initial benchmarks look extra impressive, which could be a win in itself.
Computex 2014: Corsair Announces Hydro Series HG10 GPU Liquid Cooling Bracket
Subject: Cases and Cooling | June 2, 2014 - 07:00 AM | Sebastian Peak
Tagged: liquid cooling, gpu cooler, gpu, corsair, computex 2014
Corsair has announced their entry into the GPU liquid cooling game with the Hydro Series HG10 GPU Liquid Cooling Bracket, designed to allow the use of any Corsair Hydro Series self-contained liquid CPU cooler with a compatible graphics card.
Corsair points out that their solution not only allows advanced cooling of the GPU core via their Hydro Series coolers, but the bracket also covers the power delivery and RAM on the board for dramatically reduced temperatures from all vital components (and much greater overclocking potential).
The initial model - the HG10 “A1 Edition” - will support reference AMD Radeon R9 290/290X cards, and a version with support for the NVIDIA GeForce 770/780/780 Ti/TITAN will arrive with the “N1 Edition” later this year.
The Corsair HG10 carries a 2-year warranty and will debut this month with a list price of $39.99.
Introduction: Budget Cooling Options and the Seidon 120V
The Seidon 120V is Cooler Master's newest 120mm all-in-one liquid CPU cooler, and its affordable price adds another option to anyone looking for an aftermarket cooler on a budget. But when we start comparing low-cost options it's valid to wonder just how much better a liquid cooler in this price range might perform over air. To find out we'll test the Seidon 120V against a popular budget air solution, and see how these aftermarket coolers compare against the stock solutions from AMD and Intel.
Image courtesy of Cooler Master
Cooling on a Budget
When you’re pricing out a new computer build these days it’s pretty easy to put together a solid group of components for $500 or so, and these will get you going on all the latest games at HD resolution. Sounds awesome! Of course, within that tight budget certain things are going to have to wait, and right up there on the list is probably some better cooling. It’s easy enough to change out a CPU cooler later, but if the stock cooler is doing the job within the thermal specs of the processor is it really needed? Clearly, AMD and Intel are not going to ship a cooler with their product that can’t keep it cool enough under stock workloads, but having better cooling can allow for overclocking as well as extend the life of not only the CPU, but the components around it on your motherboard. Aftermarket coolers are often able to cool more efficiently as well, producing less noise.
So...many...options...
The selection of aftermarket coolers available is, well, ridiculous. As easy as it is to get lost looking at, say, every virtually identical stick of DDR3 memory, scrolling through product pages for CPU cooling is on another level entirely. Liquid cooling systems are much easier to navigate, as there are not only fewer of them, but the pricing segmentation allows for easier selection if you’re on a budget. For instance, the Seidon 120V at around $50 was the least expensive AIO option on Amazon when this review was started (actually coming in at 47.99 shipped, though this has been fluctuating quite a bit lately). Finding a suitable budget air cooler was not so easy, and it needed to be at least comparable to the performance of a liquid cooler, while coming in at or below the $50 mark of the 120V. (This might take a while…)
On the air-cooling side of things narrowing the selection to $50 or less doesn’t help much, as there are still (roughly) 50 million to choose from in that price range. There are going to be so many different preferences and opinions on these, so an easier alternative would be to simply follow the consensus pick, e-tail style. This intensive research project involved visiting Amazon and typing “cpu cooler” into the search box. (OK, that was pretty easy!) The plan was to put whatever came up first under $50 in the cart. Turns out the most popular air-cooler is also under $50 (not surprising). This top result was also from Cooler Master, their Hyper 212 EVO which was selling for under $34 shipped. Done.
Continue reading our review of hte Cooler Master Seidon 120V Liquid Cooler!!
CES 2014: VisionTek Launches Liquid Cooled CryoVenom R9 290 Graphics Card
Subject: Graphics Cards | January 10, 2014 - 02:19 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: water cooling, VisionTek, r9 290, liquid cooling, CES 2014, CES, amd
VisionTek unveiled a new custom liquid cooled graphics card based on AMD's R9 290 GPU. The CryoVenom R9 290 900675 card uses a custom engineered full cover EK water block that allows VisionTek to wring the full potential out of AMD's Hawaii GPU by overclocking it 24% over stock clockspeeds while running much cooler than the fan cooled reference cards.
As a refresher, the AMD R9 290 GPU at the heart of the new graphics card is based on AMD's latest Hawaii architecture and features 2,560 shaders, 160 texture units, and 64 ROPs. The GPU interfaces with 4GB of GDDR5 memory on a 512-bit bus. The reference R9 290 GPUs have a GPU clockspeed of 947 MHz and memory clockspeed of 1250 MHz (note the clockspeed problems of reference cards due to the coolers used).
The VisionTek card ditches a fan HSF in favor of a full cover waterblock that cools the GPU, memory, and VRMs. It has a nickel-plated copper base with an acrylic top. Water is channeled through a micro-fin array designed to cool the card without putting strain on low pressure pumps. A black anodized aluminum backplate adds support and passive (additional) VRM cooling to the graphics card. The CryoVenom maintains the two DL-DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort video output connections of reference cards, however.
Going with a liquid cooler has allowed VisionTek to ratchet up the clockspeeds to an impressive 1,175 MHz for the GPU and 1,450 MHz for the memory. That is a respectable 24% and 16% increase over stock, respectively and is estimated to offer up to 38% better overall performance at those overclocked speeds. Perhaps even more impressive than the overclocks themselves is that VisionTek claims to be able to keep the card just under 52-degrees C under load which is a significant improvement over stock!
According to VisionTek, each Cryovenom R9 290 graphics card is custom build and put through a variety of burn in tests to ensure that it can operate at the rated overclocks and is free of water leaks when attached to a loop.
The liquid cooled cards have an MSRP of $550 and will be available shortly (the cards are currently out of stock on the VisionTek site). Here's hoping that VisionTek is able to keep the cards at MSRP, because even at a $150 premium over the MSRP of reference cards it would still be a good deal at a time when reference cards are being sold at prices well over MSRP.
PC Perspective's CES 2014 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
PowerColor at CES 2014: Bigger is Better!
Subject: Graphics Cards | January 8, 2014 - 08:25 PM | Josh Walrath
Tagged: triple fans, R9 290X, r9 290, powercolor, liquid cooling, cooling, CES 2014, amd
The nice folks at PowerColor were foolish enough to invite us into their suite full of video cards. Unhappily, we were unable to abscond with a few items that we will list here. PowerColor has a smaller US presence than other manufacturers, but they are not afraid to experiment with unique cooling solutions for their cards.
A sharp looking card that is remarkably heavy.
Cooling is provided by EKWB.
In their suite they were showing off two new products based on the AMD R9 290X chips. The first was actually released back in December, 2013. This is the liquid cooling version of the AMD R9 290X. This little number comes in at a hefty $799. When we think about this price, it really is not that out of line. It features a very high end liquid cooling block that is extremely heavy and well built. The PCB looks like it mimics the reference design, but the cooling is certainly the unique aspect of this card. Again, this card is extremely heavy and well built.
Three fans are too much!
The display outputs are the same as the reference design, which is not a bad thing.
The second card is probably much more interesting to most users. This is a new cooling solution from PowerColor that attaches to the AMD R9 290X. The PCS+ cooler features three fans and is over two slots wide (we can joke about it being 2.5 slots wide, but I doubt anyone can use that extra half slot that is left over). PCS+ stands for Professional Cooling Systems. The board again looks like it is based on the reference PCB, but the cooler is really where the magic lies. This particular product should be able to compete with the other 3rd party coolers that we have seen applied to this particular chip from AMD. As such, it should be able to not only keep the clockspeed at a steady state throughout testing/gaming, but it should also allow a measure of overclocking to be applied.
The back is protected/supported by a large and stiff plate. Cooling holes help maximize performance.
This card will be offered at $679 US and will be available on January 15. The amount of units shipped will likely be fairly small, so keep a good eye out. AMD is ultimately in charge of providing partners with chips to integrate into their respective products, and so far I think those numbers have been a little bit more limited than hoped. It also doesn’t help that the market price has been inflated by all the coin miners that have been purchasing up the latest GCN based AMD cards for the past several months.
There is no denying that this is a large cooler. Hopefully cooling performance will match or exced that of products Ryan has already reviewed.
We also expect to see the R9 290 version of this card around the same timeframe. This is supposed to be released around the same time as the bigger, more expensive R9 290X. There should be more PowerColor content at PCPer over the next few months, so please stay tuned!
PC Perspective's CES 2014 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Move over mineral oil, Iceotope has Novec
Subject: General Tech | March 1, 2013 - 02:57 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Novec, mineral oil, liquid cooling, Iceotope, 3M
The demonstration video for Novec from Iceotope features a full submerged and functioning iPhone, as well as a less expensive phone, neither of which suffered at all from being dunked in the non-conductive liquid; you should probably wipe them off before using them though. This project from Leeds University claims an 80-97% improvement in cooling efficiency over air cooling though they do not compare it to mineral oil or other exotic cooling solutions. Head over to The Register for a look at the demonstration video.
"We've seen quite a few innovative engineers who have tried to bring down data centre cooling costs, including this mad crowd who dunked theirs in a deep fryer... Now boffins at Leeds University and British start-up Icetope have invented a super cooling liquid that could create a new generation of "wet servers". They say it could cut the cooling costs of the world's server farms by 97 per cent."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- USB 3.0 problems for Intel's Haswell @ Hardware.info
- Soluble support structure can be used with any extruder-based 3D printer @ Hack a Day
- Blackberry updates Blackberry 10 OS @ The Inquirer
- Dremel 8200 12V MAX Lithium Ion Cordless Rotary Tool Review @ ModSynergy
- Philips Hue: Automated Home Lighting Gets Colorful @ AnandTech
- Moscow's speed cameras 'knackered' by MYSTERY malware @ The Register
- INVICTA 12845 Specialty Black Dial Watch Review @ NikKTec
Introduction and Technical Specifications
Introduction
Hydro Series™ H110 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Courtesy of Corsair
Hydro Series™ H90 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Courtesy of Corsair
Corsair has upped their presence in the cooling field with the new 140mm fan-based additions to the Hydro Series™ CPU water cooler lineup. Corsair was kind enough to provide us with samples of their H90 and H110 series cooling units, both using 140mm fans. We put these coolers up against their H80i 120mm fan-based unit as well as our custom-built Swiftech Apogee HD cooling system to see how well these new Corsair units performed. Starting at a base price of $99.99 for the Corsair H90 cooler, you can't go wrong with either unit.
Hydro Series™ H110 Extreme Performance CPU Cooler without fans
Courtesy of Corsair
Hydro Series™ H90 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler without fans
Courtesy of Corsair
Corsair worked with Asetek to design their new 140mm-based line of coolers with the H90 and H110 introduced to enhance their current line of coolers. Both coolers are built using aluminum radiators capable of holding 140mm fans and copper cold plates. The rubber coated tubing used is low permeability 1/4 inch based tubing with multiple layers used to prevent liquid evaporation and to provide maximum tubing flexibility. Unlike their Corsair Link™ based coolers, the Corsair H90 and H110 units do not have integrated LEDs nor the Corsair Link™ based monitoring system.
ASUS Releases the Limited Edition ROG ARES II Dual 7970 and it's a Monster
Subject: Graphics Cards | January 7, 2013 - 03:07 PM | Chris Barbere
Tagged: ROG ARES II, liquid cooling, dual gpu, ces 2013, CES, asus, 7970
ASUS has just announced it's Limited Edition ROG ARES II Graphics card, and boy is it a doozy!
Dual AMD Radeon 7970 GPU's clocked at 1100 MHz are paired with 6 GB of DDR5 running at a speedy 1650 MHz memory clock. This monster needs 3 8 Pin power connectors from the minimum recommended 850 watt power supply that can push at least 42 Amps on the 12V rail.
The ARES II will come with a 'hybrid cooling setup' that includes a custom cooler using both liquid and air cooling. A closed-cycle liquid system with dual 120 mm fans and a radiator block cool the GPU while an 80mm 'dust-proof' fan gives additional cooling for the memory, power and other critical components. ASUS is claiming that the cooling setup will keep everything stable even under full load and can achieve 13% more performance while running 30C cooler temperatures when compared to a reference GTX 690.
Detailed Specifications include:
|
Model name |
ARES2-6GD5 |
|
Graphics engine |
2 x AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GHz Edition |
|
System bus |
PCI Express 3.0 x 16 |
|
Video memory |
6GB GDDR5 |
|
Boost clock |
1100MHz (base clock: 1050MHz) |
|
Memory clock |
6600MHz (1650MHz GDDR5) |
|
Memory interface |
768-bit (2 x 384-bit) |
|
Maximum DVI resolution |
2560 x 1600 |
|
Maximum VGA resolution |
2048 x 1536 |
|
Microsoft Direct3D version |
DirectX® 11 |
|
I/O |
1 x single link DVI / 1 x dual link DVI / 1 x HDMI via adapter/ 4 x native DisplayPort |
|
Bundled accessories |
3 x 8-pin power cable / 1 x DVI to HDMI adapter / 1 x extended CrossFireX™ bridge |
|
Minimum recommended power supply |
850W (42A on the 12V rail) |
|
Power connectors |
3 x 8-pin |
|
Dimensions |
Card: 11.8” x 5.5” x 1.8” Fan block: 4.6” x 5.8” x 1.9” Fan: 4.7” x 4.7” x 1” Liquid cooling tube length: 13.4” |
Ryan was able to snap a few pics of the card at the ASUS booth and we can't wait to get our hands on it, but with pricing and availability yet to be announced, this may be a card out of reach of most of us.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Asetek Demonstrates Liquid Cooling For Laptop And All-In-One PCs
Subject: Mobile | March 20, 2012 - 03:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: SFF, liquid cooling, gaming laptop, asetek, alienware
The rise of mATX boards designed for high powered gaming machines, laptops with serious mobile GPU power and All-In-One Systems have increased the problem of heat generation in small systems. A SFF system used to be a moderately powerful system good for use as a workstation or HTPC but now it could well be a multi-GPU gaming beast and the same goes for laptops.
In an effort to stop baking laps and shortening the life of components in SFF systems Asetek has been working on liquid cooling systems for these types of systems. You can see an example of a watercooling Alienware laptop on the YouTube video they produced and be sure to check out the links on this page if you are looking for more information.
Asetek Inc., the world leading supplier of liquid cooling for the computer industry announced today a new and groundbreaking slim form factor liquid cooling technology for extreme performance and workstation grade laptops and All-In-One PCs. Slim form factor liquid cooling enables laptop and AIO PC manufacturers to deliver mobility and sleek industrial designs without sacrificing performance.
“We see a growing need for higher performance personal computers, driven by ever more powerful modeling software for engineering, scientific and financial work, and for content creation and gaming,” said André S. Eriksen, Founder and CEO of Asetek. ”We also see high performance hardware expanding to more portable, sleeker devices like the highly successful M-series of notebooks from Alienware.”
“For laptops and AIOs to deliver workstation and gaming PC performance, these machines must be able to take full advantage of desktop grade performance hardware. We have identified this need and designed our cooling solution to target these thinner machines,” continued Eriksen.
The fundamental challenge in cooling desktop replacement laptops and All-In-One PCs is the lack of space for a proper thermal solution. Consequently, previous attempts at liquid cooling laptops have offered no performance improvement over traditional heat-pipe based heat sinks.
“Asetek successfully cracked the code of improving acoustic and thermal performance in a notebook without increasing the form factor,” said Ole Madsen, VP of Engineering. “Our patent protected technology allows better utilization of the thermal modules used to cool the CPU and GPUs. That, along with our optimized coldplate technology enables the use of much more powerful hardware than air cooling could ever allow”.
Asetek is showcasing its new technology in an Alienware M18x notebook with the CPU overclocked from 3.5GHz to 4.4Ghz and the GPUs overclocked from 680Mhz to 800Mhz. In addition, the M18x achieved a 23% improvement in Futuremark’s 3D Mark Vantage benchmark while reducing the noise output of the stock air-cooled laptop. A video demonstration can be found at Asetek.com.
