Conclusions

Zalman continues to refine the art of silent cooling.  The Reserator 2 is an outstanding fanless cooling solution capable of handling the latest CPUs and video cards.  The Reserator 2 exhibits excellent build quality and looks great.  It comes with both a CPU and VGA waterblock along with everything else needed for easy installation.  Yes, there are other water cooling systems on the market that deliver higher performance cooling but none that are passive, fanless, and silent like the Reserator 2.

 

While not really a complaint, I will offer a warning: care must be taken to purge all of the air out of the system and establish consistent flow.  This proved to be more difficult than with other water cooling systems I have used, but once accomplished the Reserator 2 performs extremely well.  (I have been using it reliably for over a month now without any issues.)  The User’s Guide is very well written — do yourself a favor and read it, then follow the directions. 

 

The Zalman Reserator 2 is available with an MSRP of $349.95 USD and is currently on sale at SharkaComputers.com for only $309.95 or from Newegg.com for $319.99.

 

Zalman Reserator 2 Fanless Water Cooling System Review - Cases and Cooling 61

 

Strengths:

  • Virtually silent cooling solution
  • Excellent build quality
  • Very easy to install
  • CPU and VGA waterblocks included
  • Very good thermal performance (especially for a passive system)
  • Integrated flow control
  • Clean styling with a high-tech look

Weaknesses:

  • Can be difficult to establish initial flow during setup
  • No automatic shutdown feature for the PC

For outstanding passive cooling, silent operation, and easy installation, the Zalman Reserator 2 earns the PCPerspective Gold Award. 

 

Zalman Reserator 2 Fanless Water Cooling System Review - Cases and Cooling 62

 

Zalman Reserator 2 Fanless Water Cooling System

 

I would like to thank our friends at Zalman-USA for sending us the Reserator 2 to review — thanks!  The full line of Zalman products is available from SharkaComputers.com or you can use our price checking engine to find the best price on all Zalman products or anything else you may want to buy! 

 

And if you have any questions or comments about the article, or would like to see what others have to say about the Zalman Reserator 2, just click into this thread in our forums to join in the discussion!

 

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