Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used
ASUS X99-A with Alphacool Eisblock XPX CPU water block in its stock orientation
ASUS X99-A with Alphacool Eisblock XPX CPU water block in its alternate orientation
To validate the performance of the water blocks under comparison, the all water blocks were tested with the CPU running at stock and at a known stable overclocking speed using an X99-based motherboard so that comparative results could be provided for Haswell-E based systems. The benchmark tests used should give you a good understanding of the tested water block capabilities so that you, the reader, can make a more informed purchasing decision.
| Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel X99-based system Intel Core i7-5960X Stock – 3.0GHz, 30 x 100MHz Base Clock Max Overclock – 4.50GHz, 45 x 100MHz Base Clock |
| Motherboard | ASUS X99-A II |
| Memory | Intel X99-based system Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules Stock – 2133MHz, 15-17-17-35-2T Overclocked – 2666MHz, 15-17-17-35-2T |
| Hard Drive | Intel 730 240GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD |
| Sound Card | On-board sound |
| Video Card | NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB |
| DYI Water Loop | XSPC Photon 170 Tube Reservoir with D5 pump XSPC RX480 V3 Radiator Water blocks tested:
|
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 376.33 |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX750 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro x64 Anniversary Release (build 1607) |
| Thermal Paste | MG Chemicals 860-60G Silicone Heat Transfer Compound |
| Coolant | Distilled Water with PK-Nuke |
The 64-bit Windows 10 based test bench used for Intel X99 LGA2011-v3 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-5960X CPU, 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. Using the selected components gives us the ability to demonstrate the cooling system's capabilities rather than that of the system components.
Benchmark Tests used for evaluation:
- AIDA64 Extreme Edition v5.30.4000
- EVGA OC Scanner X v3.6.1.2
“As of March 29, the XSPC
“As of March 29, the XSPC Raystorm Pro water block was available…”
Your ‘Pricing’ section is labeling the wrong block.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks for pointing that out. Prices and links were correct. This has been fixed…
Accessories page says XSPC at
Accessories page says XSPC at the top instead of Alphacool.
Thanks, fixed. No other
Thanks, fixed. No other references found, promise…
Ugly even more so with the
Ugly even more so with the LED logo
Glad to see my Raystorm Pro
Glad to see my Raystorm Pro block is still rocking it with the newest competition.
Alpahcool runs some ads on
Alpahcool runs some ads on YouTube that I find to be very annoying. While they make some good products, their advertisement methodology has just about knocked them out of the running for me.
Anyhoo, nice review as always Morry. 🙂