Introduction and Technical Specifications
We take a detailed look at XSPC’s newest water cooling kit for both AMD and Intel-based systems, the Raystorm 750 EX240 Watercooling Kit…
Introduction
XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240 Watercooling Kit
Courtesy of XSPC
XSPC has a well known presence in the enthusiast water cooling community with a track record for high performance and affordable water cooling products. Recently, XSPC released new version of their DIY cooling kits, integrating their EX series radiators into the kit. They were kind enough to provide us with a sample of their Raystorm 750 EX240 Watercooling Kit with an included EX240 radiator. We tested this cooler in conjunction with other all-in-one and air coolers to see how well the XSPC kit stacks up. With a retail price at $149.99, this kit offers an affordable alternative to the all-in-one coolers.
X2O 750 Dual Bayres/Pump V4 reservoir
Courtesy of XSPC
EX240 Dual Radiator
Courtesy of XSPC
Raystorm CPU Waterblock
Courtesy of XSPC
XSPC incorporated many of their mid-range to high-end parts into the XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240 Watercooling Kit, making it an exceptional value for the price. XSPC includes the following parts in the kit: the Raystorm CPU Watercooler, the EX240 Dual Radiator, the X2O 750 Dual Bayres/Pump V4 reservoir, two meters of 7/16" inner diameter / 5/8" outer diameter clear tubing, 1/2" black chrome barbs, 1650 RPM 120mm fans, both Intel and AMD bracket/mounting kits, LEDs for both the reservoir and CPU block, and all the hardware necessary to put it all together. The X2O 750 Dual Bayres/Pump unit is a dual 5.25" slot reservoir with an integrated X2O 750 pump, capable of pushing 750 lph (liters per hour) or approximately 3 gpm (gallons per minute) to a height of up to 1.8 meters. Both the Raystorm CPU Waterblock and the EX240 Dual Radiator are copper-based for the best amount of heat extraction and dissipation possible.
Raystorm Waterblock AMD kit
Courtesy of XSPC
Raystorm Waterblock Intel kit
Courtesy of XSPC
Included with the kit are mounting kits for both AMD and Intel CPUs. Both kits share the same style screw poles, washers, and springs, with the big difference in the upper mounting plate that sits on top of the Raystorm block and the under-board hold-down plate. Both top plates are clear acrylic with an aluminum overlay and LED holes on each of the four sides of the plate.
Technical Specifications (taken from the XSPC website)
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Raystorm CPU Waterblock |
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Specifications |
Designed for Multi Core CPU’s High Performance Copper Base 56x56x3mm CNC Cut Acetal Top G1/4" Threads 4x 3mm LED Holes Compatible with Most Compression Fittings Supports Sockets 1150, 1156, 1155, 1366 and 2011 |
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X2O 750 Dual Bayres/Pump V4 |
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Pump Performance |
750 lph (liters per hour) |
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Head Delivery |
1.8m |
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Dimensions |
149 mm x 86.5 mm x 103 mm (WxDxH) |
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Maximum water temperature |
50ºC |
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Voltage |
12V (4pin Molex) |
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Capacity |
650 ml |
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Misc |
Low Noise, Low Vibration (42dB Max) Tough Nylon Reservoir Brushed Aluminum Faceplate Brass Screw Threads G1/4" Threads Individually Pressure Tested 1x 5mm LED Hole |
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EX240 Radiator |
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Materials |
Copper and Brass Core Black Matt Paint Finish RoHS Compliant |
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Dimensions |
121 mm x 35.5 mm x 275mm (WxDxH) |
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Ports |
G1/4" |
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Fans |
2 x 120mm (4x with push/pull) |
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Weight |
507g |
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Screws |
6-32 UNC |
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Tubing |
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Inner Diameter |
7/16" (11.1mm) |
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Outer Diameter |
5/8" (16mm) |
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Wall Thickness |
3/32" (2.4mm) |
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Max Temperature |
60ºC |
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Min Temperature |
-32ºC |
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Misc |
Designed for use with 1/2" barbs and 7/16" compression fittings Stain Resistant |
I love these bundled kits
I love these bundled kits from XSPC, but I’ve had terrible experience with these specific pumps. I had one die after about a year, the replacement was DOA and the replacement replacement makes inordinate amounts of humming noise when it first starts, but then quiets down.
All of their other products have been wonderful though! Waterblock, radiators, fittings, etc. I wouldn’t ever buy another pump from them (although the bay design is very handy!)
Seems better to just get a
Seems better to just get a H100i if all you need to do is cool the CPU. cheaper and more convenient.
With good sealed systems, I will only use a custom setup if I need to watercool multiple items and want to do a setup using multiple radiators (eg cooling the CPU, VRM, chipset, and GPU)
I wish they could make a compound radiator, eg a single 120mm radiator divided into 2 sections (essentially 2 separate radiators that are in a housing that can fit in a 120mm mount) this way I can do a neat setup of a 240mm radiator for the CPU, and 1 half of a single 120mm radiator for the VRM and the other half for the chipset, and finally another 120-140mm radiator for the GPU, and a good pump
One problem you run into with
One problem you run into with compound radiators is cooling ability. In the case of serially-stacked radiators, you get only about 1.5x the performance compared to a single radiator because of pressure drop – serialization doesn't work as well with radiators as it does with water blocks. With parallel radiators, you either need double the fans or fans with higher static pressure so that air can effectively pass through both radiators. In both cases, you are using air that has been heated up passing through the first radiator to get to the second.
If you have two indendent chambers sitting side by side, you would effectively half your cooling performance in either loop because you have half the amount of space for the water to flow through as well as half the amount of surface area for heat transfer from water to air.
The reason I would like a
The reason I would like a split radiator, is to cool lower heat components e.g., the chipset and the VRM’s.
Mainly trying to make use of 3 top 120-140mm exhaust fans, as well as a rear 120-140mm exhaust fan, with no stacking of radiators, to cool the CPU, and GPU.
Will a powerful pump be able to handle a setup like that?
Should be without issue. In
Should be without issue. In my main system, I have a Swiftech MCP-35X DDC pump running the following with good flow maintained:
XSPC RX360 radiator
Magicool 140 radiator
Koolance CPU-360 CPU water block
XSPC Razor GTX 680 full cover water block
Well, i can not recomment bay
Well, i can not recomment bay res’ at all. It’s alyways a pain in the … to fill them. and my xspc res is just bended from the pressure of my D5. If you want a save costum watercooled system stay with aqua computer, EK and bitspower fittings. I just had way too much trouble with ofer brands.
Well they could. entrga do
Well they could. entrga do here in Brazil … certainly buy one
I’m looking at graph on
I’m looking at graph on Koolance.com stating that at a temperature delta of 15°C their 2x120mm 18-FPI aluminum radiator dissipates anywhere between 400 and 1000 Watts ( depending on the fans and coolant flow rate).
The delta they’re referring to is the one between temperatures of the coolant entering the radiator and ambient air not the CPU and ambient air.
Considering that their radiator should perform roughly similarly to the one being reviewed and considering how high the deltas were for the reviewed processors ( neither of which consume anywhere near 400 Watts ) does that mean that the temperature of the coolant in no point in the loop rises to 5-10°C above that of ambient air ?
The radiator in question : http://koolance.com/radiator-2-fan-120mm-18-fpi-aluminum
The graph is under the ‘specification’ tab.
The koolance graphs measure
The koolance graphs measure coolant temperature only over time which can be used for theoretical radiator performance. It tells you how well the radiator will cool the coolant flowing through the loop, which equates to how effective the coolant can absorb heat (the cooler the coolant, the more heat it can potentially absorb from the waterblocks). However, this does not tell you how the entire system will perform.
The graphs in the review attempt to show you what type of performance you will get with the system against CPUs in various situations – a stock Ivy Bridge, an overclocked Ivy Bridge, and a stock Haswell. The delta is a measure of the actual temp – ambient temp, to give you an idea of what the temperatures would based on your rooms ambient temperature (you simply take the reported numbers in the graphs and add it to you ambient). Its more of an absolute working system temperature for the kit than the numbers that koolance reports.
Make sense?
I don’t see any strengths in
I don’t see any strengths in this xspc wc setup compared to the thermalrights silverarrow except for sound levels.
but does lower snd lvls for xspc equal a plus if the cons are possible:
1. leakage & dmg to components.
2. cost of pump going bad vs fans.
3. $150 xspc vs. $90 thermalright arrow
4. arrow few deg cooler
i’d only give it gold award if it was fools gold
you can use non conductive
you can use non conductive liquid still shit
Any chance of you guys doing
Any chance of you guys doing a review with the Arrow coupled with a fan you consider to be noiseless (or at least near the noise of the xspc) so we can see how good it compares to the others with less noise? It seems like you guys should throw in a reasonable air solution (fan I mean) to show how much difference there is between it and the one that drives you out of the room 🙂 Maybe I missed it if you’ve already done that. But it would be nice to see the great heatsink with a less noisy version in every review. One fan tested for the crazy people or people with headphones and the other less noisy version for the rest of us.
If you only lose a few degrees doing this water seems pointless for most (I own a koolance, so it’s not that I hate water, just curious how noise free fans work with the best heatsinks). I always see reviews with the worst fan, which I’d never buy 🙂 I’d buy the monster heatsink to avoid the need for a noisy fan but get decent results (maybe that’s just me).