Cooler Master's new Hydra Cooler looks pret-tee sleek. And yes, that's right -- it's a combination of air cooling and water cooling. That's like puppies and kittens being friends, and we all know how that goes...
The Hydra comes with fittings for the standard 1/2" and 3/8" tubing. The nozzles themselves rotate a full 360 degrees, which is an awesome little feature for those of us who consider the aesthetics of our tubing setup.
This might sound a little strange, but the underside of the waterblock just doesn't... feel... like the typical copper blocks we're used to seeing. It's lighter, and I'd even go so far as to say it's flimsier. But that's something we'll determine through rigorous lab testing; looks aren't everything! You can kind of see them poking out, but the device itself uses three heat pipes to transfer warmth away from the base.
An artsy shot of the underside of the card. You still have to use thermal pads on each of the 8800's memory chips and mosfets, but at least you get pads with the Hydra. Sure beats smearing messy thermal paste everywhere!
I'm certainly curious to see whether that fan lights up or not, though it's nice to see that Cooler Master hasn't gone logo-crazy on the front of the cooler. Er. On the bottom of the cooler.
Comments are closed on this article
patryk22_1993
April 23, 2008 at 2:11am
Is coolermaster Glacier 600 (RL-VAA-FN11-GP) Compatible with Thermaltake BigWater 760i? Is Glacier 600 NICKEL or PLATING???
maxime29
September 27, 2007 at 8:31pm
Alienware also has the screws directly on the case like the above picture. For a case-only though, good that they finally did that. I'm iffy about the hard drive bays. I had the Antec LanBoy with that same type of hard drive cage holder, and my drives would not lock into place. They would always have to go in at an angle like the drive would slip out of its tray.
Overall though, I might consider getting one.
Talcum X
September 27, 2007 at 6:40am
Compaq has been supplying your drives screws in their cases for years. Look like a standard socket head, without the hex socket, it's used in their locking mechanism for drives. Tho, some other head type screws will work (somewhat), these aren't something you can pick up just anywhere and make it most secure. Ah, proprietaryism...gotta love it.
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