Features and Kit Hardware
Features
Courtesy of Alphacool
- 1 x Alphacool NexXxoS XP3 Light – Intel/AMD
- 1 x Alphacool Repack – Single Laing D5 – Dual 5.25 Bay Station
- 1 x Alphacool VPP655 – Single Edition
- 1 x Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper
- 3 x Alphacool tubing AlphaTube HF 13/10 (3/8“ID) – clear
- 6 x Alphacool HF 13/10 Anschraubtülle G1/4 – Deep Black
- 3 x Alphacool NB-eLoop 1200rpm – Bionic Lüfter (120x120x25mm)
- 1 x Alphacool CKC Cape Kelvin Catcher Clear 1000ml
- 1 x ATX-bridging plug (24 Pin) – black
Included Hardware
NexXxos XP3 Light CPU Waterblock
The Alphacool XP3 Light CPU water block consists of an metal hold down bracket and the block itself, a dual layered plastic and copper construction. The hold down bracket sits on a shelf along the bottom edge of the block's plastic top. The hold down plate fits onto the block in a single orientation because of the block's rectangular shape.
The top of the block is a black molded plastic part with the block name and Alphacool corporate logo displayed on an overlay. The block's ports sit slightly above the surface of the overlay to ensure proper mating and sealing with port fittings. The inlet and outlet ports are clearly marked with the inlet port oriented in the center of the block and the outlet to its top. Both ports are internally threaded for G1/4" type fittings. A concern with the top plat is in the material used. The G1/4" threads can easily be stripped if the fittings are over-tightened, leading to leaks from a bad seal between the fitting and the block top.
The block's bottom plate is a machined copper plate, buffed smooth for an optimal mating surface with the CPU. The bottom plate is fixed to the top plate using four brass screws that are flush with the plate's surface to prevent mating issues with the CPU surface. Notice that the copper base plate is square, not matching the rectangular shape of the top piece. The one concern with this block is with the material to with the bottom plate's screws must secure to. The threaded holes in the plastic top plate can easily strip if the bottom plate screw's are over-tightened, leading to sealing issues between the upper and lower plates and possible coolant leaks.
Alphacool Repack Dual Bay Reservoir with VPP655 D5 Pump
The Repack Dual Bay reservoir is an acrylic-based, water-tight enclosure. The variant included with the kit has an integrated Alphacool VPP655 D5 pump that sits in the back right of the enclosure. The reservoir is meant to be mounted into as case's 5.25" device bays, taking up two of the device slots. It supports rear mounted 5mm LEDs to illuminate the enclosure and coolant.
The front of the reservoir features an aluminum overlay with a coolant measurement bar and the Alphacool corporate logo in the lower left corner. The overlay is held to the reservoir by four hex screws that thread directly into the body of the reservoir. IN the upper left corner is the reservoir's fill port. The fill port screws directly into the front of the reservoir, extending for draining and refill purposes. THe fill port contains a circular port in the side of the extension tube for reservoir filling and draining.
From the top of the reservoir, you can better see the anti-cyclon caps over the inlet and outlet ports. The anti-cyclon caps help to disrupt the coolant's surface tension properties and prevent accumulation of micro-bubbles in the reservoir. When viewed from the front or top, the inlet port is the back left port and the outlet, feeding the D5 pump, is on the back right. The threading for the fill port as well as the fill port extension tube can be see in the lower right of the picture as well.
From the side view of the reservoir, it becomes much easier to see how the pump mounts to the unit as well as the side mount holes for fixing it to the case device bay. The The D5 pump mounts directly to the back plate of the reservoir with the backplate mounting to the reservoir body using screws that thread directly into the body. In the side plate of the unit are four threaded holes for mounting the reservoir to the case, using the included M3 screws.
From the back view, you can clearly see how the VPP655 D5 pump mounts to the reservoir. It is held to the reservoir with a locking ring. Both the inlet and outlet ports are to the left of the pump (from the rear view) with a channel connecting the outgoing coolant from the pump to the upper outlet port. Both ports are internally threaded for G1/4" fittings.
The pump itself is powered via a 4-pin MOLEX power connector with a 3-pin fan connector included to enabled pump RPM monitoring via a motherboard fan header. The pump base contains a variable speed switch labeled 1 to 5 with 5 causing the pump to run at full speed. The speed dial can be turned using a small flat-head screwdriver. Be very careful when using the dial because it is fragile and will break if too much force is applied.
Alphacool NexXxox UT60 Full Copper Tri-Fan Radiator
The NexXxox UT60 Full Copper radiator bundled with the kit is a 360mm unit, capable of hosting up to six 120mm fans (three fans per side). The radiator itself is of an all copper design, including its internal coolant channels and external fins, to optimize heat transfer from the coolant and minimize galvanic corrosion factors inherent in mixed-metal loops. The unit is encased in an aluminum shell with embedded fan mounting holes. 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 NexXxox UT60 Full Copper radiator has a base fin count of 10fps, giving it very good air flow-through when using lower speed fans. This contrasts with the radiator's thickness, requiring more powerful fans or push/pull configured fans to get effect airflow through the body of the radiator. The radiator has a flat-black powder-coated finish, giving its surface some amount of ruggedness and scratch resistance.
The radiator is 60mm thick, more than double that of a standard 120mm fan. Alphacool's corporate logo is stamped in blue along the lower right side of the unit. As discussed above, the radiator's thickness may inhibit its performance using lower speed fans, requiring high speed fans and/or fans in a push/pull configuration for effect heat dissipation from the radiator's fins.
The NexXXos UT60 radiator houses a total of seven G1/4" internally threaded ports. There are three inlet ports and three outlet ports in the top of the radiator, along the front, top, and back of the upper collection chambers. Further, there is a drain port in the along the bottom of the lower collection chamber. The ports are sealed with plastic caps for shipping. For normal use, Alphacool includes six G1/4" metal port caps for sealing the unused radiator ports.
Talk about not understanding
Talk about not understanding your market. A 2×5.25″ bay reservoir is a little bit passe these days no?
It would seem so, most new
It would seem so, most new enthusiast cases don’t even have 5.25 bays anymore.
maury, would you please
maury, would you please consider doing a review of a unit using quick connect couplings?
they would be the only thing that might, depending on your review, get me back to water cooling, which i gave up five years ago because of the hassle and the noise ironically
i have been using noctua’s since, but really am curious whether it would be relatively easy and hassle free with the quick connects?
i suspect there is a flow problem with them, but maybe some company has sorted out that issue
I use quick connects on my
I use quick connects on my test benched when doing the stand alone block reviews and have found that they do not impact performance. It really depends on which quick connects you use and what fittings / tubing you connect to them. I’ve had really good luck with the Alphacool HF quick connects and the Koolance quick connects as well. They do get pricey though…
maybe you can do a video of
maybe you can do a video of building a water cooling loop with quick connects for novices?
Perhaps passe a bit. However
Perhaps passe a bit. However keep in mind that kit with old blocks and old bay res are very old by now. It belong to the old Alphacool before they basically sack everybody and hired new people with new ideas.
I would agree that old XP3 block is very high restriction block and it can’t compete with top of the line performers like EK Supremacy, BP Summit or WC Heatkiller. But I find absolutely astounding that 1200 rpm e-loops can’t deal with heat on 60mm 9FPI (!)rad. That does not compute. I’m using exclusively Alphacool rads U and X-flows and on one PC I’m running Scythe 500 rpm fans in push only on 60mm 480 with single AC D5 and I have no issues whatsoever. e-Loops are superb fans even at sub 800rpm they are perfect for low FPI rads. I don’t know what’s wrong with the setup but it simply isn’t possible for 1200 rpm bionic fans to fail at removing heat from 9 FPI rad.
Heck I’m using e-Loops in push @750rpms on 16FPI X-Flows and they are perfect in every way. Either pump is crap or its crap. 😀
I think the performance issue
I think the performance issue seen in testing was more with the low flow of the pump in combination with the thickness of the radiator, made for a "perfect storm" of sorts…
Strange, that looks like the
Strange, that looks like the standard D5 VPP655 pump. Did you get a broken pump or something? Looking at your picture of the back of the res and the D5, it sure looks like their standard VPP655, a 1500 l/h pump. It should go to like 4800 rpm at the highest setting.
Datasheet for the D5 VPP655: https://www.alphacool.com/AtsdDataSheet/getDataSheet/articleId/10620
Product page:
https://www.alphacool.com/shop/sets-und-systems/alphacool-nexxxos/16245/alphacool-nexxxos-cool-answer-360-d5/ut-set
Edit: Looks like when I link directly to their English site, it changes to their German one in an incognito window. Needs to set a cookie or something by clicking the UK flag upper right corner.
The odd thing is that their
The odd thing is that their page lists two different max flow rates, depending on which page you look at. The Description page shows a flow of 350 l/h, while the tech spec page lists it at 1400 l/h. In any case, something was severely impacting the performance of the kit.
Found on this page on alphacool site:
https://www.alphacool.com/shop/pumps/alphacool-pumps/10620/alphacool-vpp655-single-edition
The 350 figure must be a typo
The 350 figure must be a typo in the description, they have miss-spelled words too here and there. Also mixing English/German in a chaotic manner? Sheesh, when will they fix their site… Anyway, the “Technische Details” tab say 1500, same in the datasheet.
This datasheet has both the VPP655 and the VPP644:
http://www.aquatuning.de/download/Alphacool-Laing-VPP655%20-%20TPP644-Datasheet.pdf
This one seems to be for the PWM controlled version:
http://www.aquatuning.de/download/Alphacool-Laing-VPP655%20-PWM-Datasheet.pdf
I don’t doubt that, performance was surely sub-par. That 90 degree bend at the back of the res that you mentioned on the podcast probably doesn’t help. And that XP3 block looks like a highly restrictive design, probably needs the pump at max rpm. Might work better with one of those high pressure DDCs like Swiftech MCP35X or MCP50X. I have a MCP35X and it can power through pretty much everything. Drawback is the DDC whine at high RPM, I’d take a D5 over that any day. All DDC pumps I’ve used have had that high pitched whine when over ~3000 RPM. A D5 is heaven in comparison, even at max RPM I can’t hear it outside the case.
Thanks for doing some custom loop stuff reviews, I appreciate it 🙂
Thanks for the additional
Thanks for the additional information Pholostan. I've updated some information in the review to better elaborate on the kit's performance mysteries as well as updating the pump flow rate numbers…