Conclusion
Performance
When paired with the stock speed Haswell-E processor, the Alphacool NexXxos Cool Answer 360 D5/UT water cooling kit performs on par with other tested kits. The NexXxos kit's performance begins to suffer under overclocked conditions. The kit could not keep the system stable until an additional three fans were added to the radiator using the Eisblock XPX CPU block only. The system would not stabilize at all with the NexXxos XP3 Light CPU block.
Pricing
As of April 26, the Alphacool NexXxos Cool Answer 360 D5/UT water cooling kit was available at Amazon.com for $352.95 with Prime shipping, at Newegg.com for $313.94, and at PerformancePCs.com for $314.95.
Alphacool NexXxos Cool Answer 360 D5/UT Water Cooling Kit
Courtesy of Alphacool
Conclusion
The Alphacool NexXxos Cool Answer 360 D5/UT kit is a nice looking kit. Its clear and black aesthetic is sure to blend well in most builds. Further, the build quality of the included components is superb with everything easily fitting together perfectly. The Achilles Heel with this kit seems to be the performance of the components included with the kit itself. In its default state, we could not get our Haswell-E based test system to stabilize at known stable overclocked speeds. Kit performance improved by replacing the stock CPU water block with the Eisblock XPX CPU block and increasing airflow through the radiator by adding three additional fans to the radiator. However, the kit's stock block, the NexXxos XP3 Light CPU block, would not keep the system stable even with the additional fans on the radiator.
The XP3 Light CPU block's performance with the kit was puzzling, especially given its decent performance under stock and overclocked conditions when paired with the XSPC Photon kit. There are several differences between the two kits including tube diameter (ID / OD), pump outbound flow path, and fan speed while both kits share similar thicker 60mm radiators. The Alphacool NexXxos Cool Answer 360 D5/UT kit uses slower fans (1200RPM vs 1650RPM) and thinner tubing (3/8" ID vs 7/16" ID). Additionally, the outbound flow path for the Alphacool kit goes through a hard 90 degree bend on its path through the reservoir channels to the outlet port, compared with the straight-through to the outlet on the XSPC reservoir. This complex outlet path on the Alphacool reservoir can act to erode the coolant flow-rate. The differences between the two kits seemed to collude to create coolant flow and heat dissipation issues for the Alphacool kit. The lower flowrate as a result of the pumps outboard coolant path causes coolant to flow more slowly through the CPU block, decreasing the block's heat dissipation potential. At the same time, the lower flow rate increases the heat dissipation potential of the radiator, since the coolant spends more time flowing through the radiator. The thickness of the radiator works against the coolant's flow rate, causing a decrease in the rate of coolant exiting the radiator. The thickness of the radiator becomes a challenge for air flow through the radiator's cooling fins, requiring fans with a greater static pressure to effectively push air though the radiator to optimally disperse the coolant's heat. Unfortunately, the three fans included with the kit are not up to the task, leading to an increase in coolant temperature over time, and requiring the six fan configuration to provide enough air flow and static pressure to effectively cool the coolant. Alphacool attempts to mitigate the flow rate issues using smaller diameter tubing, but its does little to compensate for the other issues with the kit. The Alphacool kit would perform much better with a stronger pump and either stronger fans or more fans.
Strengths
- Quality of user manual
- Performance under stock conditions
- Kit aesthetics
- Sleek flat black and black chromed appearance
- Build and machining quality of included components
- Easy to use CPU mounting mechanism
Weaknesses
- No enough coolant included to fill loop
- System instability with included block using overclocked CPU
- Complex outboard flow path between pump outlet and reservoir outlet port
- Inclusion of low noise fans in kit
- Need of six fans to stabilize system performance under overclocked conditions
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…