PC Koolance Info

[Guest]

Hi there!

Maybe the following email from PC Koolance regarding the review of one of their PC COoling Barebones is of any use?
==========================================================

Hello,

Koolance has received a number of inquiries as to the abrupt contradiction
between Tom's Hardware Guide (see link below), and other published reviews
on the web.

Tom's Hardware Review is perhaps the most well-known and respected hardware
site on the web. It is for this reason that Koolance became interested in a
review so early in its product cycle. The review unit sent to Tom's Hardware
was manufactured in early February, and at the time, only produced for North
American currents (110V/60Hz).

This presented problems as described in the article, although there were
additional issues:

1) The pump in the review unit is 110V/60Hz AC, wired directly to the power
supply. The generator was able to increase the power to 220V, but neglected
the difference in frequency (still operating at 50Hz). When European units
were produced, these pumps were replaced because the difference in power
frequency would yield a measurable decrease in pump performance.

2) The liquid power supply used in the review is specifically not
recommended for DDR memory, and Koolance has had some stability issues when
using DDR in this model. This is among the primary reasons the SPI power
supply has since been offered.

3) The first liquid-cooled units lacked fans in the power supplies, but
temperatures were not impressive. Liquid power supplies since have 5V
"low-flow" 80mm fans in them, which significantly decrease overall system
temperature.

4) The 3 main cooling fans behind the radiator block are blowing outward (in
the direction of the manufacturer label), not inward when the "accel" LED is
on. The article indicated these fans to be blowing in the opposite
direction. Exhaust fans are generally of more value to a computer's ambient
temperature than intake fans.

Koolance appreciates the input from readers of Tom's Hardware, and would
hope that these issues are considered while reading the article:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q3/010706/index.html

Thank you for your inquiry!
Sales

Koolance, Inc.
www.koolance.com

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christoph Frommen" <frommen@int.fzk.de>
> To: <tech@koolance.com>
> Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 4:35 AM
> Subject: PC-Koolance Barebone
>
>
> > Hi there!
> >
> > I just wanted to know if the flaws/issues that Thomas Pabst found in his
> > review about your Barebone Cooling Solution
> >
> > http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q3/010706/index.html
> >
> > have been addressed in the meantime. I am thinking of buying one of
these
> > units but I'm not happy with the outcome of his review (repeated system
> > crashes after 20 minutes due to insufficient cooling).
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Christoph Frommen
> >
>

 

[Guest]

I wonder when the new model of Koolance will be released.

I also wonder when the sequel to "A Home-Grown Water Cooler for 115 Dollars" will come out!?! - "This, however, is not the last word on cooling systems - in our next article, we will present a souped-up version of our water cooler that achieves considerably better results, for almost the exact same price."

 

[Maelstorme]

Hmmm...The problem I noticed, is that every device is daisy chained together, in-line. While this is very economical, and a judicious use of tubing...It's bad for cooling. Let's follow the life of the happy cool water molecule through this: Now, I cannot tell the direction of water flow, but I'll pick one direction, and you'll get the picture. As it leaves the cool heat sink in the base, the water molecule enters the Power Supply. Here it gets a little warmer as it absorbs some heat from the P/S. Next is a quick pass over the CPU, which is quite a bit hotter, and a good deal more heat is absorbed. By this time things are cooking, yet this same water, now has to travel across the video card as well. So much heat has been picked up by the prior components already, that it simply cannot pick up much more. Now, for the return trip to the sink, where it attpemts to drop all this heat off, yet there is poor circulation...

Well, you get the idea. It's really no surprise that the video card failed due to heat. Ideally, there should be several "T" junctions to split the water off immediately after exiting the heat sink, and each device gets it's own supply of unheated water. To stack the water like this through each device is a joke of thermodynamics. I agree that this could be fixed with not much revision. Sure more hoses would be more expensive, and not as tidy looking, but then a burned out video chipset is much more ugly in my opinion. Couple these suggested changes in water flow outside the sink, with some channels to force a flow of water through the "tank" inside the sink, instead of it being just a large holding area, and it could cool things a LOT better. Think of a car's radiator, which is also a heat exchanger, it has small tanks at the top an bottom, but the main action happens when the water is forced through the small channels which has the fan pulling air across it (they got the pull part right on the fans).

Thoughts?