Compared with the model we tested six months ago, the exterior Chip-Con barebone makes a good impression. It consists of a bottom section, which contains the compressor, and an upper section, which is basically a normal PC case. The system can be ordered from Chip-Con in silver or black with an inspection window in the upper section that is part of the standard specification. You can install LEDs to jazz up the appearance of the case and, no doubt, impress your friends at LAN parties.

The Chip-Con Prometeia Mach 2 was packed with care.

The cooling system, with its ample weight of 27 kg (19 kg of which is owed to the compressor unit and 8 kg to the PC case, giving a total of 28.9 kg) is the best value package available at the moment in this sector of the market. After all, taming a CPU with 200 W heat dissipation is no small feat. In our labs, we have measured heat dissipation values of approximately 135 W with the Intel Pentium 4. Now featuring fully automatic microprocessor control, the system is of a high standard throughout.

Manual and software on the top.

Operations such as initial cooling, pressure compensation and start-up all go ahead without any intervention on the part of the user. An illuminated dot matrix LC display provides information on various aspects of the cooler's status. This feature was not available on the old Prometeia system, which was equipped solely with an LED temperature indicator. Also new are the built-in case fans that circulate air through the case. There are four in total, at the front, rear and top. These ensure that even systems fitted with multiple hard disks are adequately cooled from below.