Asetek WaterChill Power Kit

Posted 07/01/2005 at 8:29am | by

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The next best thing to phase change

Asetek is best known for its killer Vapochill phase-change cooling rigs, which make your CPU colder than a well-digger’s ass. Phase change can be messy and dangerous, however, so Asetek also has a line of less-exotic water-cooling solutions, dubbed WaterChill.

WaterChill gear is available either in preconfigured kits or a la carte, so you can custom-configure a setup to suit your rig. For this review we requested the Power Kit, Asetek’s top-of-the-line model. It includes a universal water block for the CPU—the block fits every Athlon XP, Athlon 64, and Pentium 4—a chipset block, and a VGA cooler. Asetek also includes a pump with an integrated reservoir, several feet of half-inch tubing, and anti-algae fluid to mix with distilled water (not included). The kit’s massive 15x5-inch radiator uses three 120mm fans stacked end-to-end to cool the water. Because the radiator is a water-cooling system’s sole means of transferring heat out of the case, its size usually determines a kit’s performance, and true enough, we achieved amazing results with the Power Kit.

Once fired up and pumping away, the Power Kit delivered the lowest idle temp we’ve ever seen in a water-cooled system—a chilly 34 degrees Celsius, 10 degrees lower than the stock Intel heatsink/fan was capable of. With a 100 percent load on the CPU, the core temperature rose only one degree above the CPU’s idle temperature using the stock air-cooling setup. That’s mighty impressive.
The Power Kit really blew us away in the overclocking department—it allowed us to ratchet our 3.6GHz P4 Prescott all the way to 4.25GHz! At that speed, the machine was rock-solid, running benchmarks and other tests without problems.

We did encounter some problems installing the kit, however. Mounting the VGA cooling block is downright dangerous. The flip-chip design of modern GPUs leaves the core exposed, and it can be easily crushed by even a tiny bit of excess pressure. We killed not one, but two GeForce 6600 GT videocards by over-tightening this VGA water block. While this is partially our fault, we’ve had much better luck with aftermarket GPU coolers that use a straightening bar mounted on the underside of the card. These bars help equalize the pressure on either side of the core, and when used with lock washers, will prevent you from crushing your core.

Another issue we had with the Power Kit was finding a spot for the gargantuan radiator. We assembled the kit in a Silverstone Nimiz full-tower case, thinking the radiator would fit along the bottom of the case below the PCI cards, but we were wrong. It didn’t fit, and we couldn’t find anywhere inside the case to mount it, so we just leaned it up against a wall outside of the case. Either the dual- or single-120mm radiator assembly would have easily fit inside a full-tower.

In the final tally, the Power Kit’s CPU water block and radiator delivered second-to-none performance. Its push-on fittings are easy to use, and the excellent instructions held our hands through the entire process. Without the hardware-destroying VGA cooler, Asetek’s kit would easily receive a Kick Ass award. Even with the water-block trouble, the WaterChill Power Kit rates high.
—Josh Norem

+ CHILLED WATER: Excellent CPU cooling, relatively quiet,, and easy installation.

- BROKEN WATER: Pricey, and VGA water block is tricky to install.

Month Reviewed: July 2005
Verdict: 9
URL: www.asetek.com