Thermaltake Pacific R360 D5 Water Cooling Kit Makes A Splash At CES

News
By Derek Forrest
published

Thermaltake debuted a new DIY water cooling kit called the R360 D5, which includes several key components for enthusiasts to create their own custom water loops. The new kit seems to be a decent starting point for a do-it-yourselfer with custom water loop aspirations.

The R360 D5 features a Pacific W1 CPU water block, a PR22-D5 reservoir/pump combo, a 360 x 120 mm radiator, three Riing 12 blue LED fans, two meters of 4T tubing, six Pacific 1/2" ID x 3/4" OD compression fittings and 1000 ccs of blue liquid coolant. This kit has everything you need to build a custom water loop, and it can be expanded with additional water blocks for GPUs, if you so choose.

The CPU block itself is advertised as being universally compatible with both AMD and Intel motherboards, and it uses a copper heat sink for maximum heat dissipation. However, the official spec sheet does not list Intel's LGA 2011-v3 or LGA 1151 as an officially supported socket, so you may want to be careful if you are applying the kit to a Z170 or an X99 build (we recently discussed the processor bending issue that some coolers/water blocks were seemingly causing).

The R360 D5 water cooling kit is available now at Thermaltake's official website for a price or $359.

Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Lutfij
    So is this rad made form aluminium or copper?

    edit:
    http://www.thermaltake.com/Liquid_Cooler/Liquid_Cooler_/Radiators/C_00002654/Pacific_R360_Radiator/design.htm

    I'm not touching that unit with a 10 foot pole either.
    Reply
  • RedJaron
    So copper CPU block but an aluminum radiator? Not a great combination.
    Reply
  • c4s2k3
    So copper CPU block but an aluminum radiator? Not a great combination.

    Excuse the noob question, but I know next to nothing about custom coolers.

    Why is that a bad combination?
    Reply
  • rubix_1011
    Galvanic corrosion - metals that are different enough in composition that they essentially act as an anode and cathode in the water loop which causes a reaction that causes the breakdown of each metal and corrosive buildup.

    Most good watercooling loops contain brass, copper, nickel and sometimes even silver. These typically are far less reactive with one another in a loop. Aluminum is further down the anodic index list, causing it to be less-compaitble (more potentially corrosive) than these other metals which are typically used. (see chart at the bottom of the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion)
    Reply
  • c4s2k3
    Thanks for the explanation!
    Reply
  • firefoxx04
    For the cost, the rad really should be copper even if we ignore the problems with mixing metals likes this.

    What a poor choice.
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    I don't really see the point of the extreme water cooling. You only hit slightly higher speeds than a vastly cheaper air cooler in a well ventilated case. Unless you are cooling a top end CPU you are better off getting a better CPU.
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    17283632 said:
    Excuse the noob question, but I know next to nothing about custom coolers.

    Why is that a bad combination?

    https://martinsliquidlab.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/corrosion-explored/
    As the ole saying goes, a picture is worth .....



    But the table at that link explains the science

    These have been around forever $255 ... + $35 for the coolant and tubing

    http://www.frozencpu.com/products/25897/ex-wat-342/XSPC_Raystorm_EX360_Extreme_Universal_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_w_DDC_Photon_and_Free_Dead-Water.html?tl=g59c683s2175

    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    17285036 said:
    I don't really see the point of the extreme water cooling. You only hit slightly higher speeds than a vastly cheaper air cooler in a well ventilated case. Unless you are cooling a top end CPU you are better off getting a better CPU.

    It's fun and pretty ;)

    @JackNaylor: Those are wretched!
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    17285036 said:
    I don't really see the point of the extreme water cooling. You only hit slightly higher speeds than a vastly cheaper air cooler in a well ventilated case. Unless you are cooling a top end CPU you are better off getting a better CPU.

    There was a day when water cooling brought significant performance gains ... that days is no more. As often as not, with high performance cooling systems, you hit the voltage wall before you hit the temperature wall.

    I did a build at the end of 2013 with twin Asus DCII 780s and 4770k (CPU, Asus MoBo and GFX watercooled)

    CPU temps are in 60s.... GFX cards drop below 40C.... card VRMs are in high 50s. Two months later did a MSI aie cooled SLI build.... got same OC on CPU w/ Phanteks PH-TC14-PE tho must be said his was waaaay lower voltage, he was certainly a winner in silicon lottery. His cards ran in the 70s and he beat my OC by a tiny bit on the cards.

    Biggest difference you ask ? You could sit at my desk with both CPU and GFX card stress tests running and you can't tell my system is on.... His, it's kinda loud (for my tastes anyway). Anyone who goes into an Intel / nVidia build looking for a significant performance boost from going under water, I advise to "expect to be disappointed". Especially with GFX cards, nVidia has locked down the allowable voltage increase so much these days that the cards are virtually indestructable. I have not seen a 9xx series build (in a reasonably sized case with adequate airflow) with a MSI Gaming, Gigabyte G1 or even Asus Strix get anywhere near their GPU throttling points. If anything is going to curtail performance on these cards, it's likely to be the VRM.

    My reasons for wc'ing are aesthetics and sound. Yes, I do draw some comfort knowing that if I get an unusually happy CPU I might get an extra 0.1 GHz or 2 but mostly I am looking for something to appreciate aesthetically and that doesn't make a sound.

    Reply