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How We Test: Watercooling Components
One of the challenges with testing individual liquid-cooling components lies not with the component itself, but with maintaining consistency with remaining pieces comprising the cooling loop. For this, we’ve chosen common, dependable loop hardware that is designed to limit any specific weakness and provide us with a consistent platform on which to isolate testing components.
Watercooling Hardware
| Pump | Swiftech MCP50X |
| Reservoir | Swiftech MCP35X/MCP50X rev.2B Acrylic |
| Fittings | Bitspower Matte Black ½”ID x ¾” OD Compression (x6) |
| Radiator | XSPC EX360 |
| Fans | Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000 RPM 120mm (x3) |
| Tubing | ½” inner diameter, ¾” outer diameter; clear |
| Coolant | Distilled water, no additives, coolants, or dyes |
Our liquid-cooling testbed loop combines excellent flow rates, high-volume fans, and a great-performing radiator to focus all results on those produced by the water-block samples themselves.
Testing Hardware
| Power Supply | Seasonic SS-760KM 760W, 80 Plus Gold |
| Thermal Probe, Fan Controller, Logger | CrystalFontz CFA-633 w/ Dallas One Wire DS18B20 sensors (x2) |
| Software | Prime96 v27.9, AVX FFT length 8K, each test is a two-hour continuous run |
Our testing hardware closely mimics our standard Intel CPU cooler test system, with the only differences being the AMD Threadripper 1900X (instead of the Intel Core i7-5930K) and the MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard (rather than the MSI X99S XPower AC). While this does not allow for apples-to-apples comparisons with Intel tests, most of the environment variables are otherwise eliminated.
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