Asetek WaterChill KT12
Pump
The pump is a Hydor L20 model, a 700litre/hour model that initially comes with outlets for ½" tubing. Asetek replace them with the push-fit outlets for 3/8" tubing and it's the part of the kit that provides the L20 designation for the product model. 700 litres an hour, according to Asetek, is just fine, even for the three block KT12. They've recently released a 'POWER' kit using the Hydor L30, for those who need a bit less slow and a bit more flow. Here's a picture.
The pump has little sucker feet for attaching to your case, and you also get instructions and hardware for drilling out your case to mount it a little more securely, using 4 holes on a mounting plate that the pump sits on. The pump is controlled by a nifty controller box that automatically turns itself on with your PC. You connect your power cable from the wall socket into a pass-through connector that connects to a spare PCI I/O shield spot on your case, that then hooks up to a power connector on the pump controller to power the WaterChill hardware. The controller has a 3 pin fan header for the fan on the radiator, along with a 7V/12V jumper so you have some sort of fan speed control, even if it is binary. The pass-through power cord adaptor then connects to your PSU.
Here's some controller porn (~57.3KB).
Reservoir
There's not much to say about the reservoir. It's Plexiglass, has push-fit connectors like the rest of the kit and a nice rubber sealed lid, with a screw for gentle pressure release (since the reservoir is where the air collects). That's about it, bar the Asetek sticker. Here's a picture.
Radiator
I'll be brief with the radiator too. It's a 120mm square Black Ice Pro which according to the Asetek website is a 2-pass design, created specifically for PC water cooling applications, removing up to 440W of heat. As you'd expect given the rest of the kit, it's been modified to take Asetek's preferred push-fit connectors to match everything else. No bad thing. The fan supplied is a Sunon KDE1212PMS3-6A. Apparently it moves 83cfm @ 2300rpm when given 12V, with 34dBA as its rated noise output. It's not 34dBA at 12V, no matter what way I point my ears at it. Quite loud, I'd estimate at least > 40dBA from the 2 foot distance I tested it at.Click for a picture of the Black Ice Pro (~74KB).
Everything else
A quick ramble about everything else before we move on to installation. I mentioned the tubing on the previous page, it's time to mention it properly here. You get 3 metres bent into a roll, and herein lies a problem. To make use of the push-fit connectors that the WaterChill uses, you must use stiff tubing, not the softer stuff you might be used to elsewhere. It's supremely inflexible in the shipping state, unwilling to bend itself straight without kinking it quite severely. The inflexible nature of the tubing made it a nightmare to use during testing, more on that soon.The rest of the kit is excellent, you get everything you might possibly need. From a special piece of wire to test fire your PSU while filling the system up, to multiple 2ml sachets of Asetek thermal paste, with screws, bolts and various other bits and pieces in between. I'll comment on them properly in upcoming pages, but suffice to say its well presented and everything is present and correct. Here's a quick picture.
What's it like to setup?
