Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used

ASUS X99-A II with Koolance CPU-390CI CPU water block in its default orientation

ASUS X99-A II with Koolance CPU-390CI CPU water block in its alternate orientation

To validate the performance of the water blocks under comparison, the 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:
  • Koolance CPU-390CI CPU water block
  • EK Supremacy MX CPU water block with Supremacy EVO copper top
  • Alphacool Eisblock XPX CPU water block
  • XSPC Raystorm Pro water block
Video Drivers NVIDIA 353.62
Power Supply Corsair HX750
Operating System Windows 10 Pro x64
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
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