Overclockers Hideout Blizzard Kit
For years on end people have wanted to water cool and chill their PCS to negative temperatures. Why you may ask yourself, well a lot of the People in the world do this thing called overclocking; yep we push kit to the max! Water-cooling has been a need and a want for many, for a Long time. People want to push their computers to silly speeds with the lowest temperature; this tends to mean they are more stable. But People have been worried about doing this for the pure reason WATER + ELECTRICITY = DANGER. Well not major danger but if a tank of water Leaked on the inside of your PC you would know about it ;(. Whatever people say liquid CPU cooling is the way of the world. Fans and Heat sinks can only be effective to a certain extent.We have seen the attempts for these kits all over the net for example the Senfu kit, these guys flooded all Hardware sites with there kit but The trouble is a few sites out there decided to say it was good, when actually it sucked. We refused to review it. There are also companies Such as asetek who have made the vapochill and now the second-generation vapochill which is rocking the market. The trouble is what’s the Point, the price is madness. Before we review anything we will run it for great lengths before letting it even think about reviews. We run Water-cooling kits for 24 hours, if it is dry then it passes, lets say MR Senfu didn’t.
Some people want to experiment with the kits, make mods and changes to them, some people simply want to hook it up and run. Finally it has Come to the end, no longer will a little heat sink be able to cool the 1Ghz TBird at 1.5ghz, or the P3 at 1.4Ghz, water-cooling is needed. Many companies have come and gone in this world, one of the successes of this have been Overclockers Hideout. Overclockers Hideout has Managed to grab this industry and help end users with the experimental world of water-cooling, their latest revision of which is they’re new "Blizzard CPU Intercooler".
What do you get for your mulla ?
Within the kit you get: -
1 * 12"x5" radiator with 120mm Sunon cooling fans
1 * Sealed container with a preinstalled 145gph pump
1 * Socket A water block,
1 * Cold Plate,
1 * 6 feet of 3/8 lines,
1 * 70w 40mm Peltier,
1 * CPU clamp,
1 * 2 sizes of foam,
1 * Thermal paste and
1 * Copper Spacer for P3, and 1 for TBird
There are several different ranges, which you can have within this kit; this includes different Pumps (Dual Pumps, or European Pumps, LCD Display for temperatures). Also what is cool is you can talk to Outlaw, the main chappie at Oc Hideout for help via ICQ that is what I call Service! (Does he smile too? ;))
1 * 12"x5" radiator with 120mm Sunon cooling fans, this unit is brilliant, it fits inside mosts cases and also is made very professionally. It blows any other one away on the market. The 2 120MM fans are loud but at the end of the day this is overclocking we are talking about and You want your system to work.
Sealed Container (Reservoir). FINALLY! No more needs for buckets of water to be in the room, having a sealed unit seriously rocks, it makes Life so much easier for us to use. There is no risk at all of spilling water. Also this unit you can just leave in your case and MOVE the Case without worrying about it spilling water everywhere, which would be an issue if you had the plastic bowl idea which other less superior Kits use. Also you can use this at LANs without having to find a water source!
Water Block. Now what can I say, after looking at a Senfu compared to this I wouldn’t even use the Senfu for water cooling my video card. This Unit is seriously heavy duty, they are cheap lumps of metal, and they are made and are top notch. I remember a while back on a message board bad Words being said about this, but I cant say this is true. I love these blocks, they are big and heavy duty, also OCH tests all the blocks. It Also has 2 large white inlets / outlets which don’t hold in the heat. The biggest advantage is that when you are making one you don’t really Want to rip out the thread which has been machined, the plastic isn’t strong enough to do this - But I didn’t take apart my block for the pure Reason it was sealed up and why fiddle with it?
Seen an Alpha, well imagine a water block that shiny, yes this block shined up just like the bottom, they ROCK I can’t even think about Knocking them. (Sorry: P)
Moving on from the Water block, you get the active cooling solution, a Peltier (80w) and a cold plate, not a lot to say here but the Peltier Was potted and wasn’t going to leak;] to attach the System together it comes with lots of long, and thick tubing, unlike the Senfu, which came With thin and poor quality tubing.
This kit being complete like it is, it came with special grips for the tubing, and also with all the little extras you want and need, foam, Thermal paste etc.
The next thing which I loved about this kit was the lovely, sorry nicely made Clamp, it is similar to the Swiftech mounting units, where it Pushes the unit away from the Socket. This unit even had insulated ends on it to avoid damaging the motherboard.
When I had to set-up this kit I couldn't wait I grabbed all the bits, and set it up, it comes with a little instruction manual but to be Honest it was straight forward, but it is nice to see that they care about what you do.
Then only thing, which I had to do, was remove the plug from the end of the pump and replace with a 3 Pin UK one. It took me 5 minutes to set-up The container, radiator and water block, just plug in some tubing to connect them (this point I put in some food colouring in the water). Just connect your hoses in a circle (peer to peer) from the central water Container to Radiator to Water Block and then back to the main Water container. The tubing comes as one length; all you need to do is cut it to size. After doing this you need to attack your motherboard, Cut a small square of foam and put this under the CPU, then grab the shim, put this on top. After doing this you need to put a Peltier on top Of this (The Peltier from Overclockers hideout come pre potted which meant that you could simply use them without worrying about sealing Them). Then you need to get the copper cold plate and put this on top, and finally put the water-cooling block on top, the only issue here is That you might want someone to help hold it in place, this avoids the chances of letting it fall over ;/. In between each connection you Need to put some thermal paste, which is included, between each layer, don't forget this needs to be a thin layer? After doing this clip on The main CPU clamps and then tightens gently.
PETLIERS can produce WATER, therefore be very careful, also they make heat on one side, yes HEAT just make sure you test it and put the cold Side on the CPU side please... Also make sure that you don’t run any silly stuff like RAIN or CPU Cooling software, as you want the CPU to Make some heat or you will find out what ICE is, yes it May sound "Cool" to chill your CPU this low but it isn't! You can cause some serious Problems aka lots of water in the PC. One good thing is that Overclockers Hideout sends lots of foam for insulation but stupidity doesn't Help! When some people had the swiftnet coolers they decided to use silicon but with people appearing to upgrade every 10 minutes now this May not be a good idea. I would suggest running the system as a water-cooling system until you are prepared to risk it. Be careful your mother isn’t home when you get this system; it is sent out in a brown box she might confuse it for it being dodgy videos Hehehe ;) It has all the bits to build, but the fans are mounted on the main radiator, if they come off just use some hot glue to reattach them.
When you come to have to mount the Water block you will notice the mounting unit, it is very useful and small, it is simply a block of Aluminium with 2 metal strips coming out of each side going to each side of the CPU. And a large "Screw" unit on top, this unit clamps all The kit to the CPU in place without movement, much better than the little "Senfu" clips. (Also Overclockers hideout want you to use a Peltier They want you to get the MAX from your kit!) I mounted this unit on a Soltek Motherboard with a Duron 800 CPU, unlocked and ready to clock!
Testing.
I put this on Hexus Rig Temperature of the CPU through the entire events, using VIA monitor. I tested it using Si-Softsandra and also 3DMark 2000.
Living in the UK it is bloody cold and also rains a lot, and the room temperature during testing was only 16° C. The water temperature was Only a little more, at 20° C. For the CPU temps it was over an average of 1 hour of 3DMark and 1 full set of Si-Soft, always the CPU was running @ 100% usage!
From looking at the results you can see that this was doing some serious amounts of cooling, the same CPU fitted with a Hedgehog cooler and a Delta fan was still 22 Degrees more and it wouldn't even run at 1100 Mhz (110 * 10) It is good to be able to show you the advantages of Water-cooling! I could run this system at 12.5 * 105 Mhz =1312, that is seriously rocking speed. This was at ONLY 12° C
This unit is the best I have ever even had the chance of looking at, yes there are vapochill and also there are Kryotechs, but also there is Blizzard kits, they blow away all other solutions at their prices and some at an even higher price. Lets just say I wouldn't sleep in the same House as a Senfu unit after using this.
Summary
- Good Support
- Good Copper Block, it is plain and simple, no fancy stuff or silly stickers anywhere!
- An Excellent Mounting System
This unit is complete and ready to be used by end users and also pros, I have to say this is exceptional value for money, all these parts work together very well. Overclockers Hideout has accomplished this system with hard work. They also support you very well! I also like the Idea of the Peltier, yes a 20$ component being ready to rock and role!
This system is easy to install and set-up, the pump is silent and anyone can use it. This system is easy to maintain and use. It is developed To be used as Install and run kit, or an install, modify and then use kit. You don't need to worry about this kit but you can mod it if you Want. This kit doesn't need to be checked before you turn on your system each day, but a weekly check is always recommended. This system is very efficient; there are other issues aboard though! You need to be aware of these; they include water leaking which won’t tend To occur with this kit, but also ICE building up on the CPU, and of course condensation, this stuff can be serious system killers. If you Forget to turn the pump on this could cause the system to over heat and go pop, so PLEASE don't forget to do this! You can use this system With both Peltier and without. (Best to use it without if you dont know what your doing ;)
Overclockers hideout store is one, which I have to say I would like to review all the items from it, is quality and the service is mint! When I Was told one of these kits was coming to me I was nothing less than excited. When it arrived I was ill but I still opened it up and had a Look. It gives you a complete system. But also the chance to modify it and adapt to your needs, for example you could add Chipset coolers, or Even graphics card coolers. How can someone give these poor marks?
Well out of the box this system gets 10 out of 10! Everything is there, including instructions which some people wont need but most will ;) Overall this system gets 10 out of 10, it has amazing features and is compact to use. The only difference I would have asked for would be a Mount for the Radiator but I didn't need this ;-) I laid it flat on the top of my case ;)
This Gets the Editors choice for Water-cooling solutions!
So buy one @
Above you can see a picture of the updated kit, with the new coloured water block, and the tubs of copper paste included. Also look at the new water tank!
