Testing
Water Replacement
To test the benefits of it as a water replacement, I assembled the same WaterChill Antarctica KT03A-L30 kit that I reviewed recently on the same test hardware, and ran the same numbers as I did previously, just with the system filled with InertX instead of distilled water. Using my crazy skillz with a digital thermometer, ambient temperature in the room was just two degrees higher than in the original test at a lukewarm 20°C. Bear that in mind when considering the results.
Temperature Testing
The InertX performs just like water in terms of the temperatures obtained during testing. Temperatures get as hot as with water, but it did take a little longer for the temperature to drop back to the idle level, although that can be attributed to the higher ambient temperature to some degree.
No real advantage over water was measured in terms of temperature.
Spill Testing
This part of testing filled me with dread, despite knowing that things would be fine. Maybe the mental image of pouring a water-like substance onto a mainboard didn't sit well with me. First, while the system was running, I dribbled a little on and around the VT8327 southbridge ASIC on the ASUS SK8V mainboard. It evaporates quite quickly and seems to leave a slight sheen on whatever it comes into contact with, after evaporation. Needless to say, the system was fine and carried on running with nary a problem.Finally, using the remaining InertX in the bottle, I poured it all out onto the mainboard, a little under the graphics card heatsink (a 6800 GT no less) and a little under the CPU's socket, just to make sure that if something WAS going to die, I'd kill as much as possible. In truth, the testing was never going to go badly; The chemical properties of the PFC made sure of that. After a short while it evaporates, leaving a slight sheen for a couple of minutes, before that disappears.
