Koolance Exos 2 Water-Cooling Kit

Posted 07/07/2005 at 2:41pm | by

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The Koolance Exos 2 is an external water-cooling kit made for people with some serious cash on hand and a distinct aversion to the typical hassles of configuring a water-cooling circuit. Yes, it’s pricey, but so, so worth it, thanks to its easy installation, outstanding performance, and snazzy features.

Because it’s an external unit, there’s no need to figure out where to put the pump, reservoir, and radiator, it’s all crammed into a sleek aluminum enclosure that sits on top of your PC.

Two 3/8-inch tubes hang off the back of the unit, snaking down into your PC via a pass-through plate that screws into an empty PCI slot. The input/output tubes connect to water blocks for a CPU, chipset, videocard, and even a hard drive. The kit’s $350 retail price includes just the external unit, however, so you have to purchase whatever water blocks you need separately.

The unit itself contains a blue LED-lit reservoir and dual redundant water pumps that work in tandem, with one pushing the water out and the other sucking it in. The dual pumps are also a safety feature; in case one fails, the other one operates long enough to allow a system shut-down. On top of the unit are two 120mm fans blowing down on an aluminum radiator of the same size. Fan speed is controlled with the easy-to-use LCD control panel located on the front of the unit.

The kit includes three temperature probes, one of which is used for the CPU water block, while the other two can be placed wherever you like. Once taped in place, you can set the fans to “auto” mode, and they will increase or decrease their speed according to the temps reported by the probe on the CPU block. You can also customize temperature alarms for each probe, so when the specified temperature is reached, all fans zoom to full-speed or the system shuts down completely. It all works perfectly too; the only problem is that the CPU probe is taped to the side of the water block, below where the block contacts the CPU heat spreader, so it’s wildly inaccurate. Alternatively, you can control the fan speed manually by pressing the up or down arrows on the LCD display. All in all, the fan control setup is slick and easy to use.

Installation is also a snap. Unlike every other water-cooling kit we’ve ever tested, the Exos 2 comes with—be still our beating hearts—a color manual. All current CPUs are supported, although Athlon 64 and LGA775 procs require special adapters (sold separately). The all-copper water block sits on top of the CPU and a screw-down retention plate holds it in place. During testing, the reported temperatures were superb, and with the fans set to run at speeds 1 through 5 the system was totally silent. From 6 to 8 the fan noise is more obvious, and it gets a bit loud when set to 10, which is never necessary.

Its overclocking performance was also stellar. The Exos 2 let us ratchet up our P4 3.6GHz to 4.25GHz, which is the same staggering clock speed we reached on this test bed with last month’s Asetek WaterChill kit. On our Athlon FX-55 system, however, the Asus A.I. overclocking utility gave us all kind of problems, both with the stock cooler and the Exos unit. Its instability and wonkiness prompted us to scrap all plans for FX overclocking, unfortunately.

Overclocking snafus aside, the Exos 2 is the best kit we’ve tested recently. It’s a shame it’s so expensive, but the cost isn’t surprising given the product’s performance, features, and overall ass-kickingness.
—Josh Norem

+ WATER COOLED: Easy install, excellent cooling, and advanced features.

- AIR COOLED: Pricey, and CPU temp probe reports misleading numbers.

Month Reviewed: August 2005
Verdict: 9
kickass=yes
URL: www.koolance.com