Features and Kit Hardware
Features
Courtesy of XSPC
- RayStorm CPU Waterblock
- X2O 750 Bayres/Pump (Black) V4
- EX240 Dual Radiator
- G1/4" to 1/2" Barb (Black Chrome) x6
- Plastic Hose Clip x 6
- XSPC 1650rpm 120mm Fan x2
- 120mm Fan Grill (Black) x2
- Intel and AMD RayStorm Brackets
- Socket 1366 and 1150/1155/1156 Backplates
- Socket AM2 and AM3 mounting kit
- 80mm to 120mm Radiator brackets
- 3mm Twin Blue LED with 4Pin Molex
- 5mm Blue LED with 4Pin Molex
- 2 Meters of Clear 7/16" Hose
- 24pin ATX Bridge Tool
- K2 Thermal Paste
Included Hardware
Raystorm CPU Waterblock
The XSPC Raystorm CPU water block is a multi-layered block consisting of an aluminum and acrylic mounting bracket and the acrylic and copper block assembly. The Intel top plate shown has a black-colored brushed aluminum faceplate, giving the block a sleek appearance as well as protecting the acrylic layer from scratches and damage from the mounting components. The aluminum layer further aids in dispersing light from LEDs the can be placed in 4 sides the acrylic layer for an edge-lit effect. The acrylic bracket accepts 3mm LEDs for lighting. The inlet and outlet ports are embedded in the block's acrylic cover. Note that the inlet port is the port on the right side of the block marked with the word "in".
The Raystorm's bottom is a cleanly machined copper plate, polished to a fine finish. There was no evidence of machining marks in the surface of the review sample, making for a better mating surface with the CPU. The copper block is secured to the acrylic top via the four steel hex crews in the corners of the base plate. The screws fit perfectly into embedded surface indentions so they do not hamper the block to CPU surface mating.
The kit also comes with an AMD mounting bracket, similar in design to the Intel bracket, consisting of an acrylic body with an black brushed-aluminum faceplate. The AMD bracket also has four 3mm LED holes on the sides of the bracket.
X2O 750 Bayres/Pump V4 Reservoir
The included X2O 750 Bayres/Pump V4 reservoir is a Nylon-based unit with the ability to mount inside your case in two of its 5.25" drive bays. The front of the unit is protected by a black brushed-aluminum faceplate emblazoned with the XSPC logo. The faceplate is held in place with four hex screws in each corner of the front panel. The front panel also contains a window so that you can easily monitor system coolant levels. The coolant is illuminated via the LED mounted to the back of the unit for easy level determination and to add some additional style points to your build.
The back of the reservoir contains multiple inlet ports, an outlet port, an LED mount, and a pass-though power cord for the unit's X2O 750 pump. The pump power cord ends in a MOLEX connector that can be connected to a 4-pin MOLEX power cable from the system PSU. The primary inlet port is labeled "in" while the secondary port is located just under the LED mount with a black chrome plug installed by default. The outlet port is a direct feed from the pump outlet and is labeled "out". The LED mount accepts a single 5mm LED.
The unit's top is held in place by 11 flat head hex screws, making for a water-tight assembly. The top panel also contains an water-tight acrylic plug for easy filling and coolant top-off. The plug is also flush to the top panel's surface.
Both sides of the reservoir contain four brass screw holes for fixing the unit in-place in the case's 5.25" drive bay. The screw assemblies are imbedded in a raised portion of the side panel so that the inner tub of the reservoir remains flat, minimizing turbulence effects and coolant bubbling.
EX240 Dual Radiator
The EX240 Dual Radiator is a 240mm unit with dual G1/4" inlet and outlet ports and capable of hosting up to four 120mm fans, two per side. The radiator is a copper unit with a brass plenum to minimize any galvanic corrosion factors coming in to play. The unit is encased in an aluminum shell with imbedded fan mounting holes and stamped with the XSPC logo in its side. The fan mounting plate floats over the top and bottom of the radiator fins and channels to prevent accidental channel puncturing from the fan screws. The EX240 radiator boasts an impressive 18 fps (fins per inch) count, giving it good cooling potential. However, a high fps count requires stronger fans with more static pressure to push adequate air volume through the unit for cooling the coolant. The radiator has a flat-black powder-coated finish, giving it some amount of ruggedness and scratch resistance.
EX240 Radiator Schematic
Courtesy of XSPC
The radiator is a bit wider than a 25mm fan, coming in at just over 35mm thick. Including the inlet/outlet chamber and bottom water chamber, the unit is 275mm long and 121mm wide.
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).