Hands Across Four Water Cooling Systems

Overall Impression, Continued

Two different types of hoses are included to connect the water blocks to the Exos-AL. A transparent hose connects the graphics card with the chipset or hard drive cooler inside the case. The Exos is connected via a fabric-reinforced hose.

Hoses connect and disconnect easily in a flash

The hoses attach to the Exos' housing using special connectors. The included slot interface cover with control panel and two holes for routing the hoses attaches to a PCI slot. The board's output has a 9-pin Sub-D plug. The jack is female to avoid confusion with the PC's COM ports. This connection provides power to the Exos as well as CPU temperature information. The motherboard's power source is shared with the panel via a Y-adapter. Koolance failed, however, to integrate the temperature probe into the heat sink, making precise gauging impossible and placement of the probe extremely difficult with Pentium 4 systems.

Two case fans can also be connected to the panel for control by the Exos. Tacho signals from these fans are not evaluated, however. The case fans are operated at the same voltages as the radiator fans and selected using the mode switch.

The CPU cooler is made out of copper and has a 21-karat gold-plated surface, polished to a mirror finish. The great heat conductivity of copper and gold provide for effective heat transfer. Its transparent housing also gives it an attractive look as well. The hoses screw onto the cooler with retention rings.

The Koolance cooler's surface is smooth as a mirror

Interestingly, Koolance permits other hose diameters for the CPU cooler (10mm and 13mm), so the water block can also be employed together with other water cooling components.